swollen nodes

i was wondering what this meant, if i should expect to see preflowers soon? i noticed this about 3 days ago. ive had the lights on for 16/8. i was jw.

Thanks guys

Swollen nodes? Did you get kicked in the nodes? Ouch! Sorry to hear that.

Seriously though, how long have you been vegging for? When your talking pre-flowers, its just a time game. There really is no way to know what is what till the pistils come out or the ball clusters start to become obvious.

Sometimes males will be much more vigorous than the females within a given strain, but ya still never know till the pistils come out.

well i did lift it up high enough to accidentally put it in my ceiling fan lol. but that was a while ago, no harm done at the time. its been on 16/8 for 40 days now, when do you think i should start flowering? also i thought that it will show sex about 6 to 8 weeks?
thanks

If you've already gone 40 days, I'd flower it now. But that depends on just how much room you have to grow. They'll double---sometimes triple in height during flower. So keep that in mind.

2 more questions... can I LST during flowering? also, does the plant require the same amount of water when flowering, or does it use less or more?

Yes you can carefully LST for the best yields. And usually the plant drinks much more :). Remember less nutes with nitrogen in!

back to the swollen nodes though, im just curious as to what the plant is doing at this time (why do the nodes swell?)
Thanks

Got any pics to post? It makes all this so much easier with a visual.

uhh i have to use my roomate's camera, ill see if i can post up tomorrow, but i did see this pic in the FAQ's

Text

(the pic on the left and on the top)

thats what she (hopefully) looks like at the moment at the nodes.

Definitely get a couple of pics and be sure to post the most focused ones since we're looking for very small details here.