Poll: When do you start day 1 flower? 12/12 or first pistil?

Johnnyorganic said:

In other words, I start my flowering day count from the day I see female parts.

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*not picking on you johnny, you just worded it best for my counter point*

some people will see these female parts days before someone else sees them(how many "can you tell the sex" threads have we seen that are plain as day). i myself have seen pistils, pointed them out to whomever, and had them say they see nothing and vice versa.

the chemical processes that trigger flowering begin with the very first 12 hour dark period and continue with each following 12 hour dark period. so its my belief that flowering starts with the flip of the switch.

but i also believe that the plant will tell you when its done.

and the debate rages on

how about the threads that say ive been flowering for six mo. now and still dont see any sign of sex

robert 14617 said:

how about the threads that say ive been flowering for six mo. now and still dont see any sign of sex

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i think we all know those guys dont know what theyre doing. they must have light leaks, or inadequet lighting, or marigold seeds...

i dont know about that one, sounds extreme to me.

robert 14617 said:

how about the threads that say ive been flowering for six mo. now and still dont see any sign of sex

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what about this you just posted? *once again not picking, just a friendly debate*

robert 14617 said:

sounds like preflowers keep on schedule you will be fine

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wouldnt this be the first signs of sex, even though its before the 12/12 flip?

im intrigued by this because my 8 wk strains always go 9 or so but with my nute regimen i get pistils 3 days after i flip the lights. so really there is only a difference of a few days with me either way you look at it.

SlikWiLL13 said:

*not picking on you johnny, you just worded it best for my counter point*

some people will see these female parts days before someone else sees them(how many "can you tell the sex" threads have we seen that are plain as day). i myself have seen pistils, pointed them out to whomever, and had them say they see nothing and vice versa.

the chemical processes that trigger flowering begin with the very first 12 hour dark period and continue with each following 12 hour dark period. so its my belief that flowering starts with the flip of the switch.

but i also believe that the plant will tell you when its done.

and the debate rages on

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I don't feel picked on whatsoever.

The quote you selected was unambiguous.

I start my flowering day count from the day I see female parts.

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I made my point quite clear. Although, as you say, the chemical processes do begin once the light cycle is altered, there are no observable flowers. Hence I choose to benchmark my flowering period starting when I see evidence of the flowering stage.

When others determine what is and what is not a female flower is largely irrelevant to me. A cornucopia of grow guides exist online and in the three dimensional world to assist anyone confused over exactly which characteristics indicate the sex of a cannabis plant.

Perhaps a novice grower unfamiliar with cannabis growth phases would benefit using the 'flip of the switch' as a reference, but a seasoned grower knows a flower when he sees one. My experience has shown that the flowering period recommendations for strains more closely correspond to my preferred method of determining the start of the flowering stage.

If the plant is capable of telling you when it is done, it is fully capable of telling you when it is in flower.

What you choose to use as a benchmark for the start of the flower stage of growth is fine with me. As I wrote previously, both sides have interesting points.

Best of luck to you.

pre flowers would be the exception i call flowering when sex shows itself in the rest of the plants

thanks for the friendly replies johnnyO and robert. interesting points.

i say from the day u start to see pistils cause it normally takes a couple weeks to see the sex

this was a great thread and i have learned alot from it. and i am probably too late to add but noone addressed what if the pistils are there for 10 days BEFORE 12/12? i am in the 7th week of 12/12 but pistilw were there 10 days before 12/12, how old is it?

I start counting my flowering from seeing the first female signs. I do this for the same reason I set my alarm clock 15 minutes earlier than real time. I try to fool myself.

Waiting for a plant to finish flowering takes alot of patience and I try to fool myself into thinking its shorter than it really is. I set my alarm early so I can hit snoozed one more time. I understand it is a personality flaw but it helps me get thru the day.

when you switch to 12/12, I say thins because that's when the plant figures to start flowering.

Reeny said:

I start counting my flowering from seeing the first female signs. I do this for the same reason I set my alarm clock 15 minutes earlier than real time. I try to fool myself.

Waiting for a plant to finish flowering takes alot of patience and I try to fool myself into thinking its shorter than it really is. I set my alarm early so I can hit snoozed one more time. I understand it is a personality flaw but it helps me get thru the day.

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Amen to that. I think everyone gets anxious in this hobby and I don't think it's really terrible to lie to yourself in such a case.

As far as flowering times go I start from the switch to 12/12 but I use bud blood for faster flower set and have had female pre-flowers on most of the plants I've put into flower and flowering visibly sets in in a few days. The discrepancy is negligable. If it were to take a week or twoI would probably consider the first pistil as the flowering onset. To me it just seems to be personal preference coupled with how you choose to grow. There probably is no truly right answer.

coll said:

I'm voting first pistul, since the first two or so weeks of 12/12 is aggressive vegitative growth.

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Not always. I thought so too once, but I've got Sweet God and Hash Plant strains that, after vegging clones 2-4 weeks under 24 hrs light, they show pistils after ONE DAY of 12/12! Like at every node. They still stretch and veg some but the pistils multiply every day.

I'm used to waiting a week or two, but I just happened to see some pistils after 2 days on the first Sweet God clone I flipped, so the next one I put under 12/12 I checked it as soon as the light turned back on, and lo and behold theres the pistils. Supposedly the Sweet God is a 55-60 day strain, and the Hash Plant 45-50 day. I havent confirmed this myself yet though, i was wondering the same thing about when Day 1 really is, or more importantly what the seed companies count it as....