Plants won't flower!

OK, so heres the deal. I have 2 plants (bagseed) I vegged for about 6 weeks, then put into 12/12 on Oct 1st. So its been 18 days and they haven't flowered at all. I had some light leaks at first, but the closet is 99% lightproof for the last 10 days or so. I have them in 3 gal pots with 6x26w cfl and 2x42w cfl on them for a total of 240 watts of CFL.

So I'm wondering if it is normal for plants to take this long to go into flower, or is something else going on?

Thanks in advance for any help/answers.

When a plant is entering the flowering phase and is interrupted with light leaks, it will revert back to vegetative growth. Switching back to the flowering phase will take up two two weeks. Feed half does of flowering ferts every now and then, and no more light leaks! Good luck!

candlelight ok?

NO light is EVER OK in your dark period.
Period.

Thanks for the info, I thought that was the case, but got some conflicting info from the FAQ here Text

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How dark does the dark cycle need to be?
� � Consider that Cannabis can flower outdoors under the light of the full moon, so if your grow room is that dark, you should be OK. Having said that, it's best to make it as dark as possible. Plug all light leaks and be liberal with the black plastic.

Be sure to let your eyes adjust to the darkened room for at least two minutes before you try and identify how "truly dark" it is. If you can hold your hand out at arm's length and see your fingers, it is probably too bright. Light leaks are common triggers for hermaphroditism.

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I believe you guys because that is what I had read other places, but the conflicting info in the FAQ confused me. So light leaks won't only stress your plant, they can prevent it from going into flower all together?

Also, what kind of N-P-K ratio should I look for in a flowering fert? Thanks again.

I have had great success with a closet that is about 97% light proof, so I'm going to have to disagree that it has to be 100%. Also different varieties may act differently (duh). I agree with the others that say your light leaks could have turned your plants back to the veg stage, but perhaps that's not what's happening. Maybe your plants will start budding tomorrow or the next day. Some varieties take awhile. If you need to do some work in your grow room at night, it won't hurt at all to have the lights on for 2 or 3 hours, just don't do it all the time. You can have 2 or 3 days of the wrong schedule without it reverting either way. Of course it is best to try and avoid this; 3 days just might be too much as well. If it does go back to veg at this point, it may be another month or so until you start seeing signs of buds. Also while it is doing all this reverting back and forth, they may appear to be dormant. Don't worry that will change if you just keep taking care of them.

since your using CFL's make sure they are the right light spectrum as well. You are going to need soft white for flowering. :thumbsup:

trynagethigh is kind of right about the kind of cfl needed for flowering. Though it's mostly in the correct color range, many people are saying what we want is warm white, or better yet very warm white.

Ultimately we want to look for a more specific color than what people are calling all manner of white. This is subjective and can lead to hibernating plants if you're not careful.

The numbers we are looking for are the Kelvin temperature scale, for measuring color of light, and you should not buy any bulb without checking this first. It's usually on the package. The color of light we want corresponds to peak chlorophyll activity of plants, therefore the most efficient colors for veg and bloom lights are 5500 or 6000 (not between) for vegetative growth, preferably 5500, and 2200 or 2700 (not between) for blooming, preferably 2200. The soft white are usually somewhere above 3000, which are not too good for our purposes. Whether youâ??re buying CFL or HID make sure you look for those numbers.

it shouldnt take a month two show flowers, you should deffinately see signs in the first week or two at the latest.

Opie youre right, should be warm..:).

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Originally Posted by twoguysupnorth

it shouldn't take a month two show flowers, you should definitely see signs in the first week or two at the latest.

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That's correct, under normal circumstances. 2 or 3 weeks of questionable light leaks as soon as flowering is started will do... what exactly? His circumstances were abbynormal.

He flowered for a little over two weeks and somewhere during that time the plants may have decided to go back to veg due to light leaks. Even if the light leaks are now fixed, it could take two weeks to finish reverting, then another two weeks or more to go back to flowering mode, once it decides it's in flowering mode, then a plant can take two weeks or more to show signs of bud. There's a whole bunch of variables in this case, and who the heck knows what's going to happen. It might just decide to take a couple weeks off for some well deserved rest, and do absolutely nothing. We might see a plant that's all male on the top half and all female on the bottom half, with 2 or 3 rose buds popping up.

Just keep proper light on it and don't change the circumstances of the grow much. Anything you change, do it gradually while you watch for signs of stress.

i checked out my lights and they are all 2700k color rating. I'm just gonna hope for the best I guess. If nothing has happened by Nov 1st I'll update this, but if something happens before then I'll let you guys know too. Thanks again for the help/advice/info! :thumbsup:

i guess i missread something, i thought somewhere he said it had been 2 months and no flowers. good luck anyway now that you have it fixed hopefully.

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Originally Posted by Opie Yutts

trynagethigh is kind of right about the kind of cfl needed for flowering. Though it's mostly in the correct color range, many people are saying what we want is warm white, or better yet very warm white.

Ultimately we want to look for a more specific color than what people are calling all manner of white. This is subjective and can lead to hibernating plants if you're not careful.

The numbers we are looking for are the Kelvin temperature scale, for measuring color of light, and you should not buy any bulb without checking this first. It's usually on the package. The color of light we want corresponds to peak chlorophyll activity of plants, therefore the most efficient colors for veg and bloom lights are 5500 or 6000 (not between) for vegetative growth, preferably 5500, and 2200 or 2700 (not between) for blooming, preferably 2200. The soft white are usually somewhere above 3000, which are not too good for our purposes. Whether youâ??re buying CFL or HID make sure you look for those numbers.

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Technically this is all correct.
However, the color spectrums of CFL's are not that narrow. Almost any CFL will have enough of the correct spectrum to grow good cannabis.
I have seen the greatest success with 'daylight' (5000 - 6500K) bulbs. They have a broader spectrum than other CFL's, and can actually be used in both veg and flower with good results.

Yes, you should have both. But if you are only buying one, the reddish wavelengths will work best for all around yield, with more concentration on big buds. You really need blue for vegging and red for blooming, but a mixture is even better. Roughly 75% blue and 25% red for vegging, and the opposite for blooming. Since the proper K bulbs exist, why not just get the correct ones?

my very first grow must have been some very resilient weed. I didn't have a timer for the lights, so I was just trying to remind myself everyday. I went days wher eI forgot the lights, I went days where I didn't cut them off. I was just doin git in a closet and sometimes I'd forget to even shut or open the door. Between work and college the poor plant was abused severely. It still grew to about 3 feet, flowered, budded, and got me very high. Ever since that I haven't been entirely too particular about growing habits. I use regular soil (not the red clay that alabama has everywhere), I get it from the woods where it's not clay. I put in horse manure, and cow manure. I put in decaying leaves, twigs, and fungus. I put the seed in, water it, give it light, and I neve rhave had any problems at all growing nice weed. Maybe It's climate. Even outdoors I seem to have no problem at all. I don't stress, I've never had problems.

So you're saying, No problems, mate.

You are very lucky to never have had problems with a grow. Maybe you should buy a lottery ticket.

I actually only tried lottery once, I don't think that would ever work quite as well as growing cannabis for me haha. I do know that certain strains are alot more touchy, but from the bagseed I've grown, they tend to grow almost in spite of you. some people actually just try too hard and end up killing a fairly tough plant. I didn't mean for that to come off conceited, I was just saying that maybe some people try too hard or take on too much without first learning what they're doing. Nowadays I take alot more of my babies. I actually call them babies and talk to them, haha. I had one entire grow to die. I had 4 plants coming up all about the same size in a shed somewhere. The roof decided to leak and drown my babies. Sometime's I think people just try too hard, or get too upset when it's not going just like the book or just like other people's went. It's a resilient plant, sometimes it's better to let it do it's own thing within reason. That's just my opinion, and it's worked so far.

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Originally Posted by Opie Yutts

I have had great success with a closet that is about 97% light proof, so I'm going to have to disagree that it has to be 100%. Also different varieties may act differently (duh). I agree with the others that say your light leaks could have turned your plants back to the veg stage, but perhaps that's not what's happening. Maybe your plants will start budding tomorrow or the next day. Some varieties take awhile. If you need to do some work in your grow room at night, it won't hurt at all to have the lights on for 2 or 3 hours, just don't do it all the time. You can have 2 or 3 days of the wrong schedule without it reverting either way. Of course it is best to try and avoid this; 3 days just might be too much as well. If it does go back to veg at this point, it may be another month or so until you start seeing signs of buds. Also while it is doing all this reverting back and forth, they may appear to be dormant. Don't worry that will change if you just keep taking care of them.

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And again you and I have similar experiences. My first grow I was anal about lightproofing. Every grow since then, not so much. The latch on my flower room was broken, and the cat kept getting in and the hall light was leaking in. Then I moved them to my attic, and the big ass attic exhaust fan let all kinds of daylight in. So, three grows with less than optimal lightproofing, and nothing but good fat buds to show for it.:D

Not that I recommend it. I have just been fortunate.

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Originally Posted by psteve

Almost any CFL will have enough of the correct spectrum to grow good cannabis.
I have seen the greatest success with 'daylight' (5000 - 6500K) bulbs. They have a broader spectrum than other CFL's, and can actually be used in both veg and flower with good results.

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Well, take a look at this chart and notice how more than 1/4 of the light from a daylight bulb is the green area, which of course is useless for plants, but makes them look nice-n-green to humans. On the other hand the grow bulb has only 14% of it's light wasted on the green spectrum.

While daylight bulbs are great for the vegetative stage, they have much less of the desired red spectrum needed to produce big, dank buds. Notice how the daylight and grow bulbs have virtually identical amounts of nice blue vegging light, but the grow bulbs have six times more of the red spectrum that is sought after by serious growers for budding their plants.

So the deal is, both daylight and grow bulbs will produce almost identical vegetative growth, but a grow bulb or any bulb that has most if it's spectrum concentrated in the red wavelengths will completely annihilate a daylight bulb when it comes to how the flowering stage turns out. Most anything will veg, but the flower stage is what's important. It's all about yield. So for the people that skip the veg stage, the outdoor bulb would be completely the wrong choice.

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Originally Posted by Mrs. Greenjeans

And again you and I have similar experiences. My first grow I was anal about lightproofing. Every grow since then, not so much. The latch on my flower room was broken, and the cat kept getting in and the hall light was leaking in. Then I moved them to my attic, and the big ass attic exhaust fan let all kinds of daylight in. So, three grows with less than optimal lightproofing, and nothing but good fat buds to show for it.:D

Not that I recommend it. I have just been fortunate.

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Yup, like TryptamineScape says, sometimes you can abuse the heck out of them and they will grow anyway. Then again sometimes they can act real finicky. It's always best to show them a little TLC.

Right, you can't really abuse them and expect good luck every time, but you can't overdo it either, the result will be the same if you overabuse or overcare.

Well, they are gonna be getting a lot less TLC now cause I finally got a job. So hopefully the theory of a hands off approach works.;)

As a side note, my job is stocking shelves at a grocery store 3rd shift. I'd say at least 20 times a night I see something and think, "Hey I could use that in my growroom!" Took me about 10 minutes longer than it should have in the lightbulb section cause I was checking the color spectrum on all the bulbs and what not. Something tells me about 1/4 of my 1st paycheck is gonna be spent at the store and the rest at the hydro shop. Guess the phone company is gonna have to wait a bit longer:pimp:

Hey, at least you got your priorities right.

could be strain...

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Originally Posted by Opie Yutts

So the deal is, both daylight and grow bulbs will produce almost identical vegetative growth, but a grow bulb or any bulb that has most if it's spectrum concentrated in the red wavelengths will completely annihilate a daylight bulb when it comes to how the flowering stage turns out. Most anything will veg, but the flower stage is what's important. It's all about yield. So for the people that skip the veg stage, the outdoor bulb would be completely the wrong choice.

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On paper, maybe. But in real life, I have seen the results of buds bloomed under both kinds of bulbs, and the difference is negligible. The plants grown under daylight bulbs were just as big and dense as the ones grown under 'soft white'.

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Originally Posted by psteve

On paper, maybe. But in real life, I have seen the results of buds bloomed under both kinds of bulbs, and the difference is negligible. The plants grown under daylight bulbs were just as big and dense as the ones grown under 'soft white'.

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1) Of course in my last sentence on that, I meant to say "daylight" bulb not "outdoor" bulb.
2) I'm not saying you are wrong. Your experiences cannot be wrong unless your perceptions were really altered. However, I'll stick with the bulbs that have 6 times more red spectrum when I am budding, since it is proved that the red spectrum produces much better results when it's time to bud. I'll take what's been proved in experiments and on paper, over and over again by many people, over what someone perceives is happening when doing something the wrong way. Different strokes and all...

Even if the difference were negligible as you say, that means there is a difference. Considering that, and the way that red bulbs are more intense (lumens), and generally about half the price of blue ones, wouldn't it make more sense to buy the red ones for budding instead of blue?

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Originally Posted by Opie Yutts

Even if the difference were negligible as you say, that means there is a difference. Considering that, and the way that red bulbs are more intense (lumens), and generally about half the price of blue ones, wouldn't it make more sense to buy the red ones for budding instead of blue?

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All I was trying to say (and I believe I said it) is that there is no 'wrong' CFL for flowering cannabis. They will all give satisfactory results.
I stand by that statement.

Well, one for sure is in flower, it is a female with slight hemaphrodite leaning I believe. It has hairs on the upper bud sites, but I believe I see balls on one of the lower branches. I'm gonna give the balls a day or 2 more and if they don't show any hairs by then I will pick them off and keep an eye out for more throughout flowering. The other plant looks straight male, will give it a cpl more days but then its choppy chop. I do have another decent plant in veg and am flowering a clone of it atm so its all good unless that turns out male too.

Anyway it goes this is my first try so its all invaluable experience I am gaining.

The first one is definately female. The hairs exploded over night, it looks like its gonna be a nice plant as long as I can keep stress to a minimum and prevent too much hermie action. I did pick off the balls I saw, just 2 so far. Will keep a close eye on her. The second was definately a male. The balls exploded as well overnight :p. I cut it down, got it sitting in a glass of water to ghetto flush it a little then will do something with the leaves. One of my plants in veg showed what I believe are pretty clear female preflowers, so I threw that into the flower closet to take up the vacated area under the cfls. That leaves me one bagseed plant left in veg, though a clone of it is in the flower room so I should have the first stage of my first grow complete soon. I'll try and get hold of a camera to snap a cpl pics.

Thanks to everyone who gave advice and commented on this thread, it is much appreciated and was enlightening.

I got 2 White Lady seedlings I just started, so hopefully I learned from some of my mistakes and am growing some good genetics soon :) Anyway you look at it, I figure I should be harvesting some decent bagseed right around my birthday, yay me!!! :rastasmoke:

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Originally Posted by psteve

All I was trying to say (and I believe I said it) is that there is no 'wrong' CFL for flowering cannabis. They will all give satisfactory results.
I stand by that statement.

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All I was trying to say is that I disagree. I firmly believe that blue-spectrum bulbs are not proper for flowering, unless they are mixed with a greater proportion of red. Sure you can flower with MH, but that's blue and it won't give you near the yield that HPS would, which is of course reddish.

Of course there are wrong ways of doing things, but there is no one right way. I'm sorry that I hinted you were doing things wrong. If the THC hits your brain you did it the right way.

Cheers.

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Originally Posted by wisco61

this is my first try so its all invaluable experience

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That's what the first one is all about. That, and trying to have a little fun and perhaps end up with something to smoke.

Continued good luck on this and future grows.