Is Pre-flowering comming to soon?

My plant is in the pre-flowering stage, but I want my plant to grow bigger before it flowers.

Can I keep the lights at 18/6, let it grow for 30 more days then switch to 12/12? Or do I have to let it flower now?

Keep growing it.

How old are they?

I've seen preflowers at 2 weeks, it's normal. Just use them to sex the plant. I always get my males out by week 4 veg., if for no other reason than they take up precious light space.

If you have the light and space to provide then keep vegging them. just remember that they still explode with growth during flowering stage.


Luv to grow I dont understand. What do you mean you always take your males out at week 4 veg? I heard this before but Ive never seen sexual chars until classic flowering period!!!! your saying that male plants can sometimes form their chars during veg?

naw... it's a trik they play on the plant...
u swicth the lighting period down to 12/12 sort out the males and then return to regualr lighting schedule..

it wont actually flower untill you switch to 12/12 unless it is an auto-flowering type. you(some people) can get a good enough idea if the preflowers are male or female. not me though unless it is really obvious, ive tried and sometimes get it wrong after they start flowering so i dont trust my own observations about it. some people do switch then switch back again, but it is possible to tell without doing that.

Hmm that makes sense I didnt think of this. what a good idea to trick them and then revert. but you guys havent had much trouble with stressing into hermi's. Not that I have had this trouble yet but i alwasy read about it.

I guess this also answered my question of a good way to choose a mother plant for cloning....hmmmm

I've never experienced an instance of switching from 18/6 to 12/12, and then back to 18/6 producing any hermaphrodites. When I used to do it, though, I would revert back into a constant light (24/0) for about a week, then drop it back to 18/6 for as long as I felt was necessary. Not once did this ever produce a hermie for me, but that's not to say that it can't happen...so use your best judgment.

But, if you're really concerned with using this method to determine sex in your plants, then you can always just take a mature cutting from each plant, place it under a 12/12 regimen away from the rest of your vegging plants, and find out that way. You can actually root the female clones and veg them for a while, and flower them when the rest of the plants are ready...giving you some extra buds in the end.

Hi all. There's no trick to sexing your plants by week 4 veg from seed. Have never gone to 12/12 with any strain not knowing sex. All you need is a magnifying glass ( i use an eyelupe 7X), and the ability to differentiate male/female preflowers, it's easy. Many times there's only one or two preflowers early on, but, they are there. I start to look after first xplant, stryro cup to medium container. Generally above or at the 6th node, look for a projection behind the brachts,(may be called something else?), there are 4 (brachts?) at every node, look between the (bracht?) and the new bud growth, for a projection that you will have to learn to identify. I look for a rounded or crab claw projection always with a slight seperation between stem and preflower(like a mini-stem), to identify male. Males are usually first to show sex. The female is a pear shaped pointed projection (watch closely as some males are pointy but show seperation and crabclaw) with no apparent seperation from stem. We all know the female preflower next to the stem with the 2 hairs protruding that change from white to whatever as it matures. Just look closely at that with the eyelupe and you can't miss it on a 3wk old seedling preflower, minus the white hairs. Also, i do use dark time in veg mostly 19/5, so don't know if sex shows under 24/0. Good Luck!

hey luvtogrow i have a plant that has shoots growing from the spots ur talking about that doesnt look like the male or female parts,no balls and no white hair,all other plants have shown, I havent seen this b4 do u know what it might b