Hi everyone,

First off, thank you all for sounding in on the problem. Here's a bit more information for y'all to chaw on, although I have a hunch that it might not make things much clearer.

Initially, my thoughts were similar to those that a number of you suggested: that these were just pre-flowers and the kids were just indicating their gender early on. Unfortunately that is not the case. At least one of the boys has developed a fully functional set of reproductive organs that were indicated to me when I poked 'em and they went "puff" and a bit of pollen erupted (geez - sounds a little erotic, non?).

Anyway, prior to posting I had pretty much given up on the thought that I was looking at pre-flowers.

I hadn't realized though that there were strains of MJ that were autoflowering and self sexing. My initial reaction with no contrary indicators would certainly have been that I was growing that sort of strain, especially since this was a bag-seed grow and I don't know the strain at all except, the buds were good to smoke The thing is that the autoflowering explanation doesn't really explain why all of the different plant species in the room decided to flower at the same time.

The major fly in the ointment here is that I have tomatoes and peppers growing under the same conditions and they have spontaneously decided to flower at the same time as the MJ even though the light cycle hasn't changed.
I think that it's a really strange coincidence that the tommies, peppers, and MJ would all decide to flower at EXACTLY the same time without being induced by a change in the light cycle...

To answer the questions posed by DRSICE:
Yes, I have grown tomatoes and peppers before - but only in dirt and the tomatoes I have only grown outdoors.

For the record, the tomatoes are well within an acceptable size range for them to start flowering so I was ready to let them flower as much as they want. The peppers on the other hand are a strain of japapeno (not an ornamentnal variety) and the plants are less than 8" high at this point and definitely Not large enough to support fruit.

The veg section of the room has the following light set up: 6 four foot fluorescent lights (half cool white, half warm white) at 32 watts each. In addition there is a CFL strip of 6 lights at 23 watts each (approx equivalent I believe to incandescents at 100 W per bulb). I don't think that the quantity or quality of lighting is a factor here, but thanks for enquiring.

That brings me around to my real suspicion of what has happened here. I *think* based upon all of the reading that I have done here on the board and elsewhere, that several cool nights in a row have caused the plants to think that autumn is approoaching so they're starting to flower.
The best support I have for this hunch is a paper I read here:
A thermosensory pathway controlling flowering time in Arabidopsis thaliana - Nature Genetics

From previous experience I know that in a "typical" grow of MJ, the plants will continue to veg for as long as the light cycle stays constant at 18/6. And that is the mantra that everyone here has been echoing. The truth of the matter is that the light cycle has stayed constant and "correct" yet the kids are developing full-blown reproductive organs and I'm not just seeing pre-flowers or the onset of puberty (thanks for the suggestion DRSICE).

I'm sure, if you've bothered to read this far, and you're interested enough you'll want to see pictures. They're on their way!
I'll post some tonight showing the boys and the girls in all of their glory.

Hope you can wait that long. Thanks for all of the replies. This forum rocks!
peace,
D-O