3 Weeks Into Flowering w/ NO BUDS in Aerogarden!!!

This is my first attempt at growing so go easy on me. I am a NEWBIE who thinks that I may be growing a male plant. I cannot tell the sex of the plant. I veg'd for 5 weeks @ 18/6 and then switched over to 12/12 3 weeks ago. This plant does not seems to be forming any hairs, buds or colas for that matter. What am I doing wrong. I initially started with the AG nutes but since Week 3, I've been using the fox farms nutes and following their schedule at half the recommended feeding (Grow Big, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom).

Am I wasting my time on this purps strain? Could someone give me some helpful advice...

Are you sure there are no light leaks? It's hard to see from your photos, but you should really have seen some signs by now. If your grow space isn't totally light-tight then it can cause real problems in your flowering schedule.

I have personally made sure that no one enters the closet once the lights are shut off. The only light that I notice is the one(s) produced from the aerogarden which is the light coming from the "tomato" setting and "mature" setting lights on the front of the unit. Other than that...NOTHING!

I'm also trying Purple Kush. Maybe they just take a little bit longer? Are they still growing fast or has veg stopped? Try 11/13 instead of 12/12....maybe that'll do it. Good luck

They're actually still growing. I'm hoping that this is just a rare case and I'm not wasting my time with a male plant. I'm actually doing 36 hours of darkness now to try to force the flowering process. I will try the 11/13 when I start the AG back up. Thx for your input.

What kind of lights are you using?

doesnt look like its a male but it may be alittle too earlier to tell
mine is about 3 weeks into flowering

an i got some buds forming already
but i had mine veg for 9 weeks so maybe the problem is it needed a few more weeks in veg
or there could be a light leak in that closet

Hugo - The lights I'm using are the AG lights.

Mike - I think that may be my problem. I should have allowed the plant more time to veg. I'm learning. I'll veg much longer next time.

willin2learn said:

This is my first attempt at growing so go easy on me. I am a NEWBIE who thinks that I may be growing a male plant. I cannot tell the sex of the plant. I veg'd for 5 weeks @ 18/6 and then switched over to 12/12 3 weeks ago. This plant does not seems to be forming any hairs, buds or colas for that matter. What am I doing wrong. I initially started with the AG nutes but since Week 3, I've been using the fox farms nutes and following their schedule at half the recommended feeding (Grow Big, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom).

Am I wasting my time on this purps strain? Could someone give me some helpful advice...

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Willin2learn: what does your seed supplier say? Different strains have different growing characteristics. For what it's worth one of our instructors at school said the purple strains can be a challenge. HSA

willin2learn said:

Hugo - The lights I'm using are the AG lights.

Mike - I think that may be my problem. I should have allowed the plant more time to veg. I'm learning. I'll veg much longer next time.

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yeah this is my first grow in the Aero also but i just used some random bagseed so it was pretty much a gamble for me
but u used a specific breed so maybe urs just needed a couple of more weeks. smart move gettin that desk lamp in there but ur gonna wanna do somethin about them curling leaf tips and u may be using too much of the foxfarm. i started out tryin to use half an noticed it was still too much for her and had to go even lower
i dont know enough to give ya a proper diagnosis so ur gonna want to check out that plant problem section

willin2learn said:

They're actually still growing. I'm hoping that this is just a rare case and I'm not wasting my time with a male plant. I'm actually doing 36 hours of darkness now to try to force the flowering process. I will try the 11/13 when I start the AG back up. Thx for your input.

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After you switch from veg to the 12/12 flowering cycle the plant will typically double in size until a couple weeks before harvest. You should be able to tell if it's a female by the hair on the plant or a male by the seed pods that begin to develop on the plant within 3-7 days of switching to flowering. The plant looks tall enough I flower mine at 12 inches (SOG) but height really isn't a factor it's the type of light and the light schedule. You should be using a light that puts out an Orange or Red Spectrum such as an HPS or red spectrum LED an MH will work but not well at all. Even if this plant were a male you would have already seen dozens of small seed pods. I would cover up the light source display that displays tomato and mature this could quite possibly be the problem. Sometimes, even the slightest light disturbance will prevent the plants from going into a bloom cycle.

Thank you guys for all of the helpful advice. My seed supplier said that he would have veg'd for 8 weeks. If that's the case I can see why it has yet to flower...it is still growing. I'm going to keep the 12/12, be more patient and allow this plant to do its thing. Sooner or later I'm hoping that this thing will eventually flower.

Willin: I found flowering in an A/G to be a challenge because you're limited to what you can do. They're great to start seeds with but even difficult to veg with unless you keep it down to two small plants from really small strains.
1. Have you changed your nutes? You need less N and more P and K. If you're using A/G's nutes, good luck because they're designed to keep your plants in a perpetual vegging stage for continuous harvest.
2. Most folks agree you want your lighting in the 2,700K range and that's not doable with an A/G because they have only one light for their unit and it's great for vegging but a bitch to flower with. You can change the photo period and what I always had to do was go down to 14 hours of dark and 10 hours of light. That and the diet change always worked for me.
What are you using for nutes?
What's your light schedule set at?

Hmm...well I see that you might have a little over fert happening, and high levels of N can delay flowering..so give water only and see if there is a change by time for next water.

willin2learn said:

Thank you guys for all of the helpful advice. My seed supplier said that he would have veg'd for 8 weeks. If that's the case I can see why it has yet to flower...it is still growing. I'm going to keep the 12/12, be more patient and allow this plant to do its thing. Sooner or later I'm hoping that this thing will eventually flower.

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Any strain can be grown 12/12 at anytime you want...as long as the plant is more than 2 weeks old, it will stretch and flower just like any other...even 12/12 from seed the first few weeks aren't budding it is just the plant growing...

dont rush. she will come, i have had plants take over three weeks to start budding.

i forgot to ask how many lights an what kinda watts ur working with
if ya got the aero with just 1 or 2 lights definitely gonna need more than a desklamp in there, as well as something to deal with the extra heat
i got the one with 3 37 watt bulbs and i'm still gonna setup 2 y-sockets later this week

missnu said:

Hmm...well I see that you might have a little over fert happening, and high levels of N can delay flowering..so give water only and see if there is a change by time for next water.

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this guy might be on to something

welshsmoker said:

dont rush. she will come, i have had plants take over three weeks to start budding.

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really? that had to be a pain in the ass

If it ain't one thing...it's another! You guys have been great in giving me feedback. I APPRECIATE the info. I was out of town for 4 days and when I returned I noticed that the plant had begun to flower and was about 2ft tall. Needless to say I had to remove the AG light to allow this thing to grow...Unfortunately, while removing the lamp, it fell on top of my plant, damaged it, and took some fan leaves and flowering stems off with it. I know this had to be a major shock to the plant because it was a major disappointment to myself. I don't know how to react now. Any advice?