When to start blooming - help please

I am looking for some advice help on what I should do next and when should I start bloom stage.

I have 3 - 12" Plants that are doing well again after a few starts and stops along the way. I have been growing these since Aug 11th indoors, so i am into the 13th week or so. I have heard that for indoor plants about 12" of growth it is good to start the bloom stage. Is this true? when should I start, how do i know if they are ready or not. This is my first grow and it is a bagseed grow, just looking to get any kind of bloom to see how good we do.

I plan to remove the cfl lights you see in the pics tomorrow and put HPS lights in. I have two 150watt HPS lights purchased from a link on this site. I think it is enough but we shall see i guess. I am thinking of putting these in for a week or so with the same 18hr day so that I can watch them and make sure there is not too much heat. After a week I was thinking of going into Bloom and reducing the day to 12hr.

What does everyone think? All advice appreciated.

you can stick them in 12/12 when ever you want. ive done them 12/12 from seed to finish and ive vegged for a month to finish and both ways worked just fine, of course 12/12 from seed was a hell of alot smaller. the bigger they are the larger your yeild will be. just remember if you veg em too long they will over grow your space. also remember you should have a gallon of soil to a foot of growth. once you flower certain plants will double in height and certain plants will triple in height. make sure you watch your vertical space. peace.

yes youcan start anytime you would like now, your plants look a little streched and a little unhealthy

Well, you wrote "what do we think" . . . your plants should be a lot bushier and haven't been getting near enough light. At 13 weeks, most folks are harvesting.
I would, at the very least, tie those lanky pricks down and hope for some decent growth before going 12/12. You simply take the stem and bend it over towards a side as far as you can safely do so, then secure it to the planter. I use duct tape.
Then get your light(s) as close as possible w/o severely burning the leaves.

Just looking at them, I'm guessing you'll be lucky if they aren't male.
Here's a pic of a 3 week old plant that's doing well.

yeah LST would be the way to go. 13 weeks is a very long time. personally mine are usually done with veg and flowering in 12 weeks. but i have heard of some people veging for 3 months but they are usually very large by that time. certain plants have a very long flowering period some are up to 14 weeks for a 100% sativa. you might be in need of more light when vegging. after the 3rd week you can give them a little nitrogen to help with veg growth. peace.

Thanks to everyone for the great advice.

Couple of comments. Yeah light has been an issue in the past which is why it has taken them so long to get to where they are, yes it has been a while. We also had a couple of periods of time where we were not quite right on the water/nute mixture as well as having them in small pots. Overall, there was some very slow periods of growth. In addition, I am sure you can see the leaves at the bottom of the plant not looking so good, this is left over from when conditions were not so great. As it is now, these three have jumped up and started growing very well and the new growth looks good. Lastly, I think they are female. I see little pistal hairs on all three plants where the branch meets the stem.

I might go right into Bud Stage this weekend. I do like the bushy idea tho might think about that one.

Thanks a bush! lol

are you sure they are pistils and not stipules

So hey all. I started the bud process as planned and we are just starting our second week. They look really good to me. Yeah might be a little spinny but the bud is looking good and they smell awesome!

Hoping to find out how long they need to be in this stage and what I am looking for to indicated it is time to stop.

Any thoughts?

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wow dude 13weeks is a long time to veg

Yeah, it was a long Veg Cycle but this was due to some slow growth periods and some bad watering on our part. This is not an issue is it? I figure it the plant is still growing and it healthy, who cares how long it took to get here.

I am trying to Budd now and they are looking amazing.

I would like to know how to identify when they are done? Or is there a timeframe to go by? I have heard 4-6 weeks.

Scope the trics and harvest when there 60/40 amber works for me.This plant was vegged for3 weeks and inthis pic is 25 days flower so 46 total hope this helps you.It all depends on space and lights

It does help thanks a bunch. good looking plant there. I will look for the 60/40 amber that could be a good tip.

my hairs are super white, right now. possible that they are white widow? and if they are does anyone know if white widow gets amber hairs? It is a possiblity because we do smoke the good stuff and widow has been around when we were collecting seeds.

macd420 said:

It does help thanks a bunch. good looking plant there. I will look for the 60/40 amber that could be a good tip.

my hairs are super white, right now. possible that they are white widow? and if they are does anyone know if white widow gets amber hairs? It is a possiblity because we do smoke the good stuff and widow has been around when we were collecting seeds.

Click to expand...

well white widow hairs still go amber xD

btw whoeva told u 4-6weeks flowering thats a very short time to flower maybe he only grows lowryder

but the average plant is 4weeks veg 8weeks flowering

lowryder is 9weeks from seed to harvest

and thai is like 12weeks in flower and a fair bit in veg so it does also depend on what your growing xD

thanks G13, not sure where I heard it really. I have read so many different sites my head is spinning. Yeah i understand that every plant can be different and given this is a bag grow no idea what we are working with. I am going to keep them there as long as they need and will stop the buding when i get the amber hairs as discussed 60/40....we shall see...they are still looking amazing right now. Sure was hoping for earlier but we shall see i guess. Thanks