just noticed that my response was out of place.

let me try again...

as far as time from seed, your plants will have to reach sexual maturity before you can flower them (you CAN flower earlier, but you'd still have to wait for them to mature, which would take longer because of less light hours.)

the veg time from seed to maturity is generally 4 to 8 weeks, averaging 6. if you grow uder 24/7 of light, chances are they will reach maturity sooner.

to tell if your plant is mature, look for alternating nodes. see how your plants' nodes have two leave per node? at maturity, there will be one leaf per node, and the branch will take on a zigzag shape.

i throw my plants into flower at 4 weeks because of the extremely rapid growth rate of my plants. they look equal to or bigger/better than most twice their age (i'm a good mom) remember; your plants will double, if not tripple their size in the flower stage, so if you have little room, use lst techniques, or flower early.

now, for the merc vapour lights; get rid of them. i know they say they work good, but i had three that were nothing but a pain (heat probs, distance, and the fact that the ones under flo's were growing at twice the rate) so i lost the mv's and got more flo's. remember the kind i told you about? i'm telling you, those are the best for veg (my opinion only, not based on fact. don't want any bad feed back please).

if you are going to use hid's and can afford it, get a metal halide for veg and hps for flower. i think they even make a conversion bulb for one or the other, but i'm not sure which.

as for distance, if you use flourecents, cool ones, you can put the light right on top of them. and i do mean right on top of them. because of the fact that the light puts out virtually no heat, the plants can touch the light without being burned.

for metal halide, if you use a cool tube, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 feet away, if not, 3 to 4 feet
same for hps.

whew, now i gotta go smoke a bowl.

love, brooke