When To Switch From Veg To Flower? | Homegrown Cannabis Co. (2024)

FAQs

When should I switch to flowering stage in cannabis? ›

Growers can switch to the flowering stage as soon as the clone has established a solid root system. In optimal conditions, plants should be kept in their vegetative stage for approximately 60 days. This time period should give the plant the opportunity to maximise yield and acclimatise to growing conditions.

Switching from Veg to Bloom

Plants begin budding when they get at least 12 hours of 'uninterrupted' darkness each night (12/12). This must continue until harvest. Even if darkness is interrupted briefly, flowering will be hindered. In fact plants may revert back to veg unless 12 hour nights are maintained.

The flowering stage in Cannabis plants usually goes from 8 to 11 weeks, depending on the strain. It's usually divided into weeks or three stages. The flowering period for Indica strains is typically around 8 weeks, but it may take up to 10 weeks. Sativa strains may take up to 10-12 weeks.

Cleansing cannabis of old nutrients is a good way to reset soil while a plant is transitioning into a new stage of growth. Think of this as a preventative flush. It's not required, but by the time a plant reaches the flowering stage, it has sucked all the nutrients from the soil and could benefit from a fresh start.

The longer you keep your plants in the vegetative stage, the bigger your plant will be, resulting in bigger yields from plants that were vegetated longer.

In week 5 of flowering, you can observe the buds all over your plant becoming thicker. You may also spot new buds growing in new places such as along the main cola. With buds abounding, your cannabis plants will get fatter every day. This is a surefire sign you are in full flowering mode.

Always have both switches ON (VEG and BLOOM) once you plants are in the Blooming stage. It will cost more in electricity but your final harvest will reward you!

Flowering stage

Even though it can receive a certain amount of water from the soil at this stage, this is not enough for proper plant development, especially in regions without frequent rains. At this time, it is recommended to water the bushes at least once every 3-4 days.

It is recommended that you wait until your plants have at least four nodes before topping them, and most growers recommend topping the plant above the sixth node. Nodes are the part of a plant that connects new stem offshoots with older growth, which can form a branch, a leaf, or in the case of cannabis plants, a bud.

Photoperiod cannabis plants kept in the vegetative stage will continue to grow. So if you veg them for too long and don't control it, they will grow very large and unwieldy. Some strains of cannabis like to grow tall and spindly—for instance, landrace sativas.

What does pre flower look like? ›

The female pre-flower will look like a fuzzy female flower, but with only two white or pink fuzzy pistils growing from the node of the plant. It is best to wait to induce flowering to your plants before the pre-flowers appear and this will help eliminate the male plants from your crop before flowering.

While the plant is young, it doesn't require a lot of water and flushing is one of the most common techniques for watering cannabis seedlings. Younger plants also need less frequent watering. However, as the plant grows and reaches the vegetative or blooming phases, it will need more and more water.

At the flowering stage, the plant experiences rapid growth, and any significant pruning at this stage will lead to plant shock. Although defoliation is still effective, it should only be done in the first period of flowering. Trimming is one of the most popular and easiest ways to boost harvest.

Ideally, we recommend defoliating your plants once during veg and once during flower. If you're an inexperienced grower, only defoliate once during veg. If you are more experienced, you may want to try defoliating multiple times (given your grow schedule allows enough time for plants to recover after each defoliation).

When the flushing process has reached the fan leaves, they will begin to yellow and turn lighter as they send the stored nutrients to the flowers. The flowers will fatten up during these last few weeks while flushing; this can be up to 25 percent of the final weight.

Pot size will have an effect on the final yield. Put simply, a bigger pot means a bigger potential harvest.

Most cultivators vegetate their plants for 4–8 weeks. After this time, a switch to 12 hours of light per day is required to initiate flowering. In contrast, autoflowering plants flower on their own. Provide them with 18–24 hours of light per day throughout veg and flowering, and watch the magic happen.

A good potting mix that is well-fortified with organic materials and perhaps even some mineral fertilizer will require less feeding than a medium that is more inert such as rockwool. For a standard potting mix, fertilizing once or twice a week should be sufficient.

Most growers tend to view optimum cannabis ripeness as the point where the trichomes are mainly cloudy. Pistils may be mostly red/orange at this stage and the buds may have a general feeling of 'ripeness' to the experienced eye.

Week 5: Buds Grow More and More

This is a good sign that the plant is in full flowering mode. The odor will be very strong at this point.

What week do buds get the fattest? ›

The last three weeks is when your buds can actually gain the most weight – that is if you feed them Overdrive^®. After your peak bloom phase, your plants enter their late bloom phase (the precise timing and length of which depends on the strain of cannabis you're growing).

You can feed your plants 1-2 times every week, gradually increasing the nutrients, but at the same time pay attention to your plants' reactions after each feeding.

By the mid-vegetative phase (roughly 6 weeks after germinating), you'll want to aggressively increase your plants' nutrients to help them develop strong, healthy foliage. Most growers are still using their nitrogen heavy veg fertilizer in this stage.

The advantages to using a single, full-spectrum LED grow light for both vegetative and flowering lifecycles include: Plants don't experience shock when changing spectrums. When plants grow leaves, they optimize the leaves for the light they are currently receiving.

Generally, you want to water every 2 or 3 days during Flower and you want to water enough that 10-20% of water comes out from the pot as runoff. You can check your soil moisture by sticking a finger in the pot: if the soil is dry a couple inches down, then it is time to water again.

For soil growers, plants can be fed once every second or third watering. If plants are fed with every watering then nutrient buildup and lockup becomes a problem causing stunted growth, “crows foot” (curling downwards of the leaves), leaf burn, deficiency symptoms, burnt and damaged root system and decreased yields.

Watering Plants At Night Isn't Needed: Although the idea has been around for years, most plants don't need extra care by watering them at night. There are a few exceptions, but 99% of your plants, indoors and out should only be watered during the day.

The bigger the leaf area, the bigger your buds will be. Nitrogen is the nutrient needed most for this green growth. When plants reach their mature size and begin flowering, they need more phosphorus, the nutrient most essential for budding.

Once a seedling develops 7 sets of pointed leaves, it enters vegetative growth. After being relocated to a larger pot, the growth of a cannabis plant soars. It's stem become thicker and grows taller, it produces more leaves, nodes, and branches, and its root system becomes more established to prepare for flowering.

To answer your question—yes, you can cut the mature buds from the top of the plant and clear the branches and leaves to allow better light penetration to the lower portion of the plant. And the lower buds will continue to grow and ripen and can be harvested a week or two later.

How many times can you top a cannabis plant in veg? ›

Most growers top their plants early in the vegetative stage when plants are still relatively small. It's typical to top plants 1-3 times throughout the veg cycle. Again, topping can be stressful, so observe you plants for about 2-weeks between toppings to ensure they are healthy enough for further trimming.

To prevent harsh tastes and unsavoury chemicals making their way into your stash, you can simply stop feeding any nutrients in the last 1.5–2 weeks of flowering. If you are growing hydroponically, you shouldn't stop feeding until the last five days as they will be growing in water only.

If you over-dry your cannabis, it'll be more likely to go moldy, so it's important to monitor the drying process closely. If your buds are too dry, they'll be more likely to crumble when you try to break them up for smoking, so it's important to take them out of the drying chamber before they become too dry.

Pistils appear early on in the flowering stage. The first pistillate flowers to appear are often called “preflowers” because they don't resemble the large buds that develop later down the line. However, the first of these structures to appear are in fact full pistillate flowers.

Nutrient Deficiencies

If there is not enough nitrogen, the upper leaves may begin to absorb nitrogen from the lower leaves. As a result, the leaves lose the nitrogen they need and begin to turn yellow and fade. To prevent this, the plant should be given sufficient nutrients, including nitrogen.

Week One. Week one is the transition stage between pre-flowering and full flowering when your plant switches from growing tall to producing buds. During this transition, some strains will double in height from what they were a week earlier. Because of this rapid growth, week one is commonly known as “the stretch”.

We recommend watering every 2-3 days, but test your soil as usual to see if your plant even needs water. There is a simple way to remember when to water cannabis: When—If the soil is dry an inch deep, you can water. If the plants are drooping, you can water.

Should We Feed Cannabis Every Time We Water? Consider factors such as growth stage and soil type before deciding when to feed your plant. Most cannabis plants don't need fertilizer every watering. In fact, it can even harm them!

Nutrients or plain water: For coco and Rockwool, use nutrients at each watering. For soils with high capacity to retain nutrients (high CEC), it may be beneficial to use nutrients at just each alternate watering. This will help minimize salt build-up and the need for frequent flushing.

You can remove fan leaves during flowering in much the same way you do during veg. Prune away large leaves that are overshadowing bud sites, as well as dead or dying fan leaves. One thing to keep in mind is that you should prune in intervals, giving at least a couple weeks between each session.

Should I cut off big fan leaves? ›

Should you remove fan leaves? Yes, removing or pruning some fan leaves is a necessary step when cultivating cannabis healthy plants. When fan leaves become too large or abundant, they block the light and airflow to parts of the plant that can hinder trichome and cannabinoid production.

Usually, growers trim the fan leaves weeks before harvest, which is a period that leads to senescence, a phase in the plant cycle when the larger leaves start fading away. It is safe to start removing these dying leaves and continue until harvest.

Most growers vegetate their indoor plants for 4-8 weeks, depending on the desired plant size. Cannabis plants are usually able to start flowering from the 4th week of the vegetative stage. Probably as a result those plants will be smaller in size.

Lollipopping is a simple technique, but you should still exercise caution. You'll want to lollipop your plants just before they begin flowering. We also recommend pruning—removing unnecessary branches—as well, although you should proceed slowly, and with a plan. Start with sharp, clean shears to prune your plants.

During the earlier stages of plant growth, the fan leaves should only be removed if they yellow or dry out. However, once the plant begins to flower, you can trim off some of the fan leaves. However, don't remove more than half of the fan leaves, because they are still needed by the plant.

A bud hardener is an additive you can use at the end of the flower cycle to tighten up your flowers and pack on weight. They are typically used in the final 3 weeks or so of the grow cycle and contain a mix of macronutrients, micronutrients, minerals, essential oils, etc.

These airy flowers are often the result of suboptimal growing conditions, a lack of light, or nutrient deficiency. Fluffy buds don't only look less appetising, but you'll need to use more of your harvest every time you roll a blunt or hit a bowl.

Potassium makes the plant hardier and stronger, better able to withstand hardship or disease. All of these are vital for growing large marijuana buds, but you have to use them wisely. Sulfur is another nutrient that, like potassium, helps the plant absorb other nutrients and water.

Towards the end of the vegetative phase, it's a good idea to start lowering your nitrogen levels and preparing your plants for the switch to their bloom booster. Flowering cannabis plants need less nitrogen and more potassium to promote the growth of big, resinous flowers.

The early signs of flowering begin to appear in the second week of 12/12 lighting. Development of the reproductive organs can be seen 8 to 12 days in. During this time, the plant will also be going through its stretching phase. As the stretching slows down, the flower development will begin to accelerate and mature.

What are the first signs of flowering? ›

To help plants get into the flowering stage, the amount of light hours must be reduced to less than 12. In these light hours the plant creates sugars through photosynthesis. During the dark hours, these sugars are used to create buds. The appearance of buds is one of the clearest signs of flowering.

Best Practices

Feeding: This period (weeks 5 and 6) is considered peak flowering time for most cannabis strains. Make sure to keep a very close eye on your plants and look out for any signs of nutrient deficiencies or overfeeding.

Always have both switches ON (VEG and BLOOM) once you plants are in the Blooming stage. It will cost more in electricity but your final harvest will reward you!

The nutrient requirements will change dramatically when the plants enter the flowering stage, and this may be a little hard for new growers. You can feed your plants 1-2 times every week, gradually increasing the nutrients, but at the same time pay attention to your plants' reactions after each feeding.

A: You use the veg light along with the bloom lights while flowering for maximum results. Never use just bloom.

While technically you can start harvesting as soon as your plant produces flowers, the cannabinoid levels remain very low until the buds are mature. Avoid premature harvesting as much as possible, but if you really need to, it isn't the end of the world.

During week 2, the first white pistils will grow on the female cannabis plants. These fine, wispy white hairs develop at the locations where the big fan leaves meet the main stem. These white hairs are what later become the buds of the plant, called colas.

Week 7: The calyxes in the seven-week varieties swell to near bursting as THC is produced in the glands. At the end of the week they will be ready. The trichomes stand more erect and the caps swell with newly produced resin. At the end of the week the flowers reach the peak zone.

You can remove fan leaves during flowering in much the same way you do during veg. Prune away large leaves that are overshadowing bud sites, as well as dead or dying fan leaves. One thing to keep in mind is that you should prune in intervals, giving at least a couple weeks between each session.

Overwatering during flowering

During the bloom period, some leaves might fall off the plant, and you'll need to prevent them from remaining inside the pot, as if they mix with soil and moisture, they could rot and give way to harmful fungi, which can contaminate the roots and attack the plant's metabolism.

What does week 3 of flowering cannabis look like? ›

Week 3. Your cannabis plants have still not entirely stopped growing and will now be about 50% bigger than what they were just three weeks earlier. Although still stretching a bit, the stretch will now gradually slow down and soon come to a complete halt.