Stealth Hydro w/ White Widow - Reflower?

Hey guys, this is my first post. I've been sitting here reading non stop for about 4 hours. I have one question that I'm hoping someone can answer definitively .

I have the stealth hydro bubbler, I started my first grow with 6 plants, 4 of died halfway through veg. The other two, which I started from seed the last week in January are about 4 feet tall and absolutely beautiful.(pics coming soon) Im about 2 weeks into flowering and the buds on the white widow are coming along nicely. My question related to what I'm going to do after the harvest:

I've read that some people have had luck picking the buds and letting the plants go back into veg..then back flowering again? Is this possible?/likely?/ideal? If so, what are the lighting/nute settings? (back to grow nutes?, 12/12? 18/6?)

I also wanted to explore growing from cuttings next time, but since these have already flowered, I'm SOL, right?

You can indeed re-flower after returning the plants to veg mode.

However, a plant which has been in flower will take about 3 weeks of 18+ hour/day light to fully switch back to veg mode and about 3 weeks of 12/12 to fully switch back to flower. The plant will not be nearly as vigorous in either phase as it was the first time around, but it can be done.

Due to a pump failure in my mother plant system some years back, I once had to retrieve plants which had been in flower for about 2 weeks and re-veg them to save a particular strain. I didn't try to flower the cuttings I took directly from the re-vegged plants- I put those copies in to veg and took cuts from them later on when they had grown a bit in full veg mode.

Re-vegging and re-flowering is possible, but it takes a LONG time. If you can avoid doing it, great. You don't want to make a habit of it because of all the time wasted, but you can rescue plants in certain situations.

Sorry about your dead plants... but something in your conditions was not quite right for that to happen. I'd first suspect overwet conditions.

Also, when re-vegging, be prepared for some weird growth habits while the plant is changing modes. Plants being returned to veg from flower will grow some very odd, single-bladed leaves on long stems while in-between phases. No worries, things will get back to normal in time.

Prune back a plant being re-vegged every 2 weeks and it will re-grow new material suiting the light-cycle you're giving it.

Thanks for the info...thats mainly what I was concerned with...if it was worth the effort or not...guess now I get to pick out some new seeds

Happy to help.

As said, you can rescue the strain by revegging if there's no other (convenient) way to save the strain. However, if it's easier to get new seeds, get those new seeds and establish a good female mother plant. Starting over from seed is time consuming all by itself, as you have to wait to for the plant to show sex (and wait for the seeds to arrive, a stressful thing all by itself). This is why we all grow from cuttings!

I've been growing Sweet Tooth #4 from Spice of Life seeds for about 5+ years, from the same batch of 10 seeds. I can't praise this strain highly enough for the indoor grower. Nothing I've tried produces the weight and quality of ST4- and it is very resistant to pests and disease. Super easy to clone. Not the least expensive strain you can get, but a terrific investment.

I don't even know if ST4 is still available, but if you can get it, it's a very safe bet. I think I got them from Gypsy Nirvana, but I don't recall specifically.

One thing I don't think I made clear enough is that once a plant has been revegged for a while and has shifted fully back into veg mode, you will eventually get similar vigor to what you saw before you flowered it. It just takes a loooooonnng time.

You will probably have to veg the plant which you rescued from flower for about 3 weeks then take at least one generation of cuttings and veg those up before you can start doing cuttings which you intend to flower.

All is not lost, just some time.