Quote Originally Posted by SimplyWeed
im on my first crop ever just now and about to start flowering.. What changes will I see when I start flowering? obviously buds will start forming etc but will the plant grow faster on 12/12. My plants seem to be stretching rapidly on 18/6 just now while there vegging.

Thanks
Stretching can be caused by a lot of factors. Heat, Light mainly.. maybe there's not enough light.. maybe it's to hot in the room.. Maybe the plant is male? Maybe it's hard Sativa genetic?

To many factors to really say for sure why the plant would be stretching. Female plants, even Sativa's should be slow steady growth with even spacing between nodes.

When you flower a plant before a mature vegetative or preflowering stage it would be considered force flowering a plant. This generally causes the plant to progress hormonally much faster than what is written into it as a normal speed. This can be fairly stressful and can cause the plant to stretch as a result. Usually the plant will only stretch for a week or so then you will see a change in the growth pattern.. In a less stressful environment this stretching can be minimized by doing certain things, Some treat the first 7-10 days of the 12/12 cycle as a "transition" stage where the plant is still treated like a vegetating plant.

Don't forget you're packing the life of the plant into 3-4 months indoors when naturally outdoors plants can grow for 6 or more. "Super speeding" the life of the plant so to speak.

B1 vitamins are great for minimizing stress whenever something is changed in the garden. I would always strongly recommend a B1 complex for any garden.

Hope this helps,
Bob.