NEED ADVICE when to flower??? 179W CFLs, first grow!

So I'm growing 4 plants right now under 179W of 5 cool white CFLs: 3 x 23W 6500K, 1 x 42W 2700K, and 1 x 68W 2700K. I have attached pics, but they are all about 6 inches tall right now, about 4 weeks old, and the most developed has about 6 nodes.

I am wondering when is the best time to flower??? Assuming 2 of the 4 plants will be female, theoretically I can put each one under the full 179W for 12 hours if I keep switching them. So my real question is, how tall should I grow them before I switch to 12/12 if I want to maximize my yield without buying more lights.

the general rule of thumb is that GENERALLY the plant will be 1/3 the total height you can have in the room. Meaning, if you wanted a 3 foot tall plant to end usually flowering around 1 foot will give you a 3 foot tall plant. This is a very general rule, all strains are different and all environments are different. Hope this helps, They look really good man!

only you can answer that one buddy. it all depends how much space you have. veg it out as long as you want, but remember the plant will stretch when u flip to 12/12.

good luck!


PS- it looks like you didnt fill your containers all the way with dirt.. why not?

I think u should go ahead and flower now , for 1 you will sex them before they get to tall(to see how many girls) and you wont have enough light to flower 2 big plants. But 2 nice size plants you should be great. Just my 2 cents. Good Luck.


Happy Growing!

Thanks guys, I just had one 8 gallon bag of soil and had to spread it out evenly to the 4 plants, that's why the containers aren't filled all the way haha. I know, it looks real dumb.... Even if I have 2 females, hopefully I can focus all the light on just one plant when I switch it to 12/12 by alternating their light and dark periods. I'm pretty much just asking how tall a plant should be to maximize 179W worth of CFLs I guess

If you don't wanna buy more lights then I'd switch to 12/12 now, I'd guess that 1 for sure will go male(but I've been wronge before lol). If so then you'll have enough light. But if you're lucky and all 4 are ladies then I'd highly suggest going to Home Depot and get a couple socket splitters and a 4pk of 27k's cuz you'll definitely need more than you currently have...again pending they all go female for you.

Happy gardening yo