Need input. First Grow. Yield

My friend found a single seed and gave it to me just to see what i could do with it. So i planted it expecting nothing and now it is around 10 inches tall. No idea how old it is, (thinking around 8-10 weeks). Once it didnt die after the first few weeks i started taking more care of it and researching a bunch of stuff. Right now its in a 2' by 2' area with 5000-6500 lumens on it from 3 CFL bulbs. Im not expecting much yield because this is just something im doing for fun. Its in a 3 gallon pot with 18/6 lighting cycle. I was wondering when to switch to 12/12 for flowering and how to tell if its male or female. I have since acquired 9 more seeds and hope to do another more serious grow soon. this was just a test run i guess. What should i expect from this plant in these conditions? Not expecting much but still excited!
Thanks, Sanctus Vita.

weird thing in the middle...? confused

Is it looking healthy so far?

.....1/2 ounce

When should it be ready for 12/12 shift?

looks like it had very little light for the first part of its life, might veg it 1-2 weeks to make up for that.

then flower.

yeah, like i said, i did not expect it to live. haha. do you have any idea what that thing is on Picture 2? should i be worried?

you can begin to flower it whenever you like. looks healthy enough to make so far.

Since it is a fun project, I would experiment with topping and pinching the plant to modify its structure and increase yield. In these conditions, you might get 1/2oz.

how do you suggest doing this? never really looked into it.

looks like its very healthy and has good structure, slice it off where you see the two branches comin out of the side fan leaves.itl take a few days to recover, but it will explode with growth afterwards! i havent tried pinching YET, this is only my second grow and first topping my plants,but i tripled my yeild already! ill def need to start pinching in my next grow..im fighting height issues right now.i say flower!

that sounds too scary. dont wanna kill her on accident after all this. maybe in a later grow i will. just praying it'll turn out to be a female for now.

I would reccomend LSTing it , you can increase your yield. Get a few good 2700k cfls for flower and you should a decent yield.

Seeing the size of the fan leaves and the way the protrude from the stem, it is likely this is a sative strain and will grow tall and skinny, at about 3 feet if you top it you will still get a good bit of bud and plenty of fan leaves to attempt cloning with. Cloning is pretty straight forward(cut a good looking leaf off and put it in a cup with water). Pinching, snipping, whatever you want to call it, all you do is remove the very tip 1/2 inch of the plant. This part of the plant is called the apical meristem, its where new stem growth comes from and cutting stops all new vertical growth, meaning youll have a nice fat lady that will have you singing when she flowers.