Should I start flowering?

Plants are around 5 1/2 weeks old. Here are some photos. Just want to know if there is a deadline for flowering. I'm assuming that the bigger they are they more they produce and space isn't an issue so I can let them go as long as I need to.

You can start flowering whenever you want, although some people wait for alternating nodes which means the plant is sexually mature. Longer veg = more bud if you have the proper lighting. The plants will double or triple in size during flower, so make sure you have enough space. I went into flower at 5 weeks with my first grow, and ended up with about 2.5 oz a plant with my 400w HPS.

Here is a picture of alternating nodes: http://www.gardenscure.com/420/attachments/growth/32397d1037900920-indica-plant-18-inches-flower-soon-josesnodepic.jpg

yes start flowering now. those look great. nice work.

It looks stretched but you can flower if you want. For me I would top it and make it bushier and LST it.

yea but i'd transplant to a three or five gallon bucket.

The bottom one is a sativa dom. so i'm pretty sure it's supposed to be tall and lanky. Also they are both already in 3 gallon pots. What exactly is topping and lst?

marvelgirl13 said:

The bottom one is a sativa dom. so i'm pretty sure it's supposed to be tall and lanky. Also they are both already in 3 gallon pots. What exactly is topping and lst?

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Topping is when you cut a few nodes of growth off the top of the plant to promote it to grow bushier.

LST (Low Stress Training) - To use string to make a plant grow along the ground way and not higher thus a single plant get yield more because your exposing more budding sites.

If you gonna do anything like that will cause stress, do it before you flower. Like transplanting.

It looks amazing, i wanna see it flower .

Toolage 87 said:

Topping is when you cut a few nodes of growth off the top of the plant to promote it to grow bushier.

LST (Low Stress Training) - To use string to make a plant grow along the ground way and not higher thus a single plant get yield more because your exposing more budding sites.

Click to expand...

Can I LST them now since they are so big? I looked up tutorials and all the plants I saw were still small. I also saw something about super cropping, has anyone done that?

marvelgirl13 said:

Can I LST them now since they are so big? I looked up tutorials and all the plants I saw were still small. I also saw something about super cropping, has anyone done that?

Click to expand...

LSY is usally done with small plants because they are flexible compared to older plants. Because they are bigger topping is the method people use when their plants are older and bigger to make their plants bushy to produce more bud sites. Topping can be almost like LST except your restricting the tops of the plnts limited so it will try to grow the lower branches to the light.

3 gallon is kind of small for a big plant.

plant looks great i would top it a bit and get it bushy, but it would do just fine the way it is