Did I induce early flowering?

[evilgunny]

Hey, I had a question. About a week ago, I was sick as a dog, and in the middle of the night pulled the plug on my grow so I could get some sleep. The fan and light leakage was bothering the hell out of me (yes I am going to fix the light leak before flower). Thing is, I slept for 13 hours. :/. It seems that my girls have really slowed their growth down, and I am seeing many white pistils on them. Does this mean they've started flowering? If so, how long does it take to get them back to veg, and is there any technique to get them back faster. Thanks in advance.

[ninfan77]

Sounds like they did start a lil bit, but usually pistils take more than a few hours.. i think those light leaks are what's causing it.

Only way to get them back is to go to a 18/6 or 24/0 light schedule. and fix those light leaks !

[stinkyattic]

Light leaks actually slow the onset of flower. You may have induced them to start throwing pistils with the extended night, but now you know they are sexually mature anyway. Do you feel you are ready to flower them (are they half the size or slightly less that you can finish them at basically)? If so, you might as well deal with the light leak and put your lights on a timer.

[evilgunny]

Well, the thing is I've had them running 24 hours a day, so the light leak wasn't an issue at the time. when I unplugged my grow, I closed the door so no light should have gotten to them during the lights out. As for being half or less the size they can be, I'd say they are. I was told by my local grow shop guy to grow them as big as I want them, then use Bushmaster. But what I want is to veg them to half the size my space allows, then flower?

[stinkyattic]

Oooh your grow shop guy is full of shit.
First, Bushmaster is an expensive product that of COURSE he wants to sell!
Second, not all strains really respond to Bushmaster so he should not assume that yours will.
Third, unless he asked you what your lighting and space was like, he should not have been giving you that type of advice at all, because if you had been growing under any type of flourescent fixture, you are actually limited in how tall the plants can get before light penetration can't reach a lot of the plant.

So. To answer your question, tell us about your space. How tall is it? What kind of light are you using? Is the light right up against the ceiling, or can you move it up and down? How far is it from the plants now, and how far from the ceiling?

Since you say they are about half the size at which you hope to finish them, this WOULD be a good time to flower, as long as you have not pinched the tops in the last 2 weeks.

If you want to keep them vegging instead, assuming that they are indeed starting to flower, giving a month (sometimes more) of constant light is the only way to assure that they have properly re-vegged. Not seeing the whole picture makes this hard to tell though... re-veg can take from 3 weeks to 3 MONTHS depending on strain and how far into flowering your plant got. I'm still not even sure you are seeing true flowering, but preflowers, but either way this is all stuff to think about.

[evilgunny]

Heh, my grow shop guy sold me all my equipment, and sold me on the AN line (SensiGrow, Connoisseur, Bud Blood, Big Bud, B52, Overdrive, Voodoo Juice, and Carbo Load). It was spend 200 dollars on AN nutes and get Voodoo Juice free, and he just gave me some of his Carbo. He also knows the strain well, as he provided me with 30 or so Widow clones ;]. He also knows my basic setup.

I'll start by filling out your cool little troubleshooting form :]

Indoor

Soil/Soiless

Fox Farms Happy Frog and Ez-Coco

3 gallon grow bags, housed in a 4x4 Botanicare grow tray

Added perlite, at a rate of about 9:1 Fox Farms Happy Frog:Perlite

As for the age, I'm not exactly sure, heh. I'd have to say I got the clones at the start of February, and they were about 3-4 inches tall.

Have been watering using tap water. First water was straight tap water, ph of 7. Since I have switched to distilled/tap that has been sitting open for a few days. To each gallon I add two teaspoons of SensiGrow A and B, 1 teaspoon of Hygrozyme, and more recently (in the soil at least, the coco hasn't needed watering since I got it) one ounce Voodoo Juice and 1.2 grams of Carbo Load.

I'm using a 600 watt HPS light in a Super Sun 2 hood, with a Lumatek digital ballast. It has the tempered glass. I had it about 12 inches away from them, but the leaves were curling up so now it's about 18 inches off. I couldn't find a stud in the ceiling, so I screwed two 2x4s from one shelf to the other and hung it from that (this is in a closet).

The temperature is running about 80-85 degrees, and relative humidity is at a stead 20 percent. Both aren't optimal, but it's all I can get.

For ventilation I have an Ecosystem 6 inch inline fan sucking air off the light and out of my Panda barrier, with a passive intake. It's created a bit of a vacuum in my room. Before I had it opposite, passive exhaust with the fan sucking air in.

I have 16 girls, the only problems I've seen with them thus far is the top leaves on about 50 percent of them have been curling up. I might bring one out and take a pic using my cam (poor quality however). The stalks aren't getting as thick as I thought they would, either.

The pistils I see are in pretty much every place a stem branches off of the main stalk. They're fine white hairs.

Hope this helps you help me, thanks for your time :thumbsup:

[evilgunny]

Oh, and while I have an experienced grower's attention, I was wondering if there was a cheap way to raise my humidity, other than buying a humidifier. My grow has pretty much tapped all of my cash, I'm a poor college student :[. Also, I have a 177 cfm Vortex blower and Can Filter 33. I was wondering if I want the vortex blowing air into the filter, or pulling air through the filter and out the blower. Thanks!

[stinkyattic]

Try to set up your blower to PULL air at all times.
For a cheap humidifier, a paint bucket with a fish tank heater in it works like a charm. The hotter the water compared to ambient, the faster it will evaporate and raise your RH.

[evilgunny]

Sorry, I just want to make sure I'm clear on this (my apartment is already stinky, and I think it's going to get a whole lot worse :/). I want it to pull air through the filter and out the blower, or pull air through the blower and out the filter. And the bucket/heater idea sounds awesome, and cheap. Thanks alot :thumbsup:

[stinkyattic]

You can place the filter on either side of the blower, but the blower should be as close to the exhaust end of any ducting as possible.
Placing the filter just AFTER the blower will actually make it quieter... a good call in an apartment!

[evilgunny]

Thanks for the help. My grow guy was kinda full of shit :/. Or he thought I would overgrow them and just need bushmaster, I sure wish he had given me the info you had before they were...big. I was going for a sog system, 16 plants in 16 square feet, but I let them veg too long. Now they're all bushing together, and I'm gonna have to toss 7 of them. Ahhh well, I probably won't lose out on too much. A week into flower, and there are bud sites/bud puffs EVERYWHERE. It's going to be hard to chop those 7 down :[ (especially after feeding them all those damn expensive nutes) :/

[Hennessy1414]

Thanks for the help. My grow guy was kinda full of shit :/. Or he thought I would overgrow them and just need bushmaster, I sure wish he had given me the info you had before they were...big. I was going for a sog system, 16 plants in 16 square feet, but I let them veg too long. Now they're all bushing together, and I'm gonna have to toss 7 of them. Ahhh well, I probably won't lose out on too much. A week into flower, and there are bud sites/bud puffs EVERYWHERE. It's going to be hard to chop those 7 down :[ (especially after feeding them all those damn expensive nutes) :/

u learn a shit-ton from ur first grow eah :rastasmoke: