When do you say a plant is "flowering"?

Alright, the GrowFAQs are gone (hopefully not for long) and I have what may be a dumb question; At what point do you say, "This plant is flowering"? Or, when can I say that flowering has begun? Is this like sexing, I'll know it when I see it?
Growing outdoors I'm not manipulating the light in any way, either.

I ask for a couple of reasons, one of which is, obviously, to track bud development. The other is that I've started taking clones of my best girls, and don't want to clone a flowering plant, and don't want to pull too many off at once (I highly doubt I've done that, but anyway). My grow books talk about indoor grows, flowering, etcetera.

My guess would be seens how your growing outdoors, that you would start counting from the first signs of sex

hey sea
i often wonder the same thing
i grow inside change the light and outdoor i gorrila,so when i go back in late september the buds are ready...
this year i keep some closer so i can lookat them more
i went to look at my leda this morning and her leaves are twisting ..
so i think she is about 2 weeks into bud ..
but i think i am going to take clones anyways.
i have taking clones 4-5 weeks in .
some dont root and they take longer but still able to keep the strain.
i know i was not much help but you know

damn
i watched both of mine from start till now
i live a 2 min walk from city limits
and i grow in my back yard
how i havent been busted
i have no clue!
i would say the flowering starts when the white hairs start showing up

i am looking into that now. i have one of these light calculaters. put your location in and it tells you the day hours, twilight hours and some others. but my 12/12 isn`t till end of october, shit i`ll be smoking it by then.
i need to iknoew to, my geusse is that when the hairs start to shoot at about 15 or so hours of light then that is the transitional phase, 2 more weeks woukld be roughly 12/12.

Dude, when they look like this, they are flowering

Dude..! That's awful. That's one thing I can't remember from the reading, and why I need them GrowFAQs, because I see people posting about how they're so many days or weeks into flowering, but I haven't sorted out exactly when or how that "flowering date" is pinpointed. I'll admit, I've only been looking for a couple of days.

They look pretty hairy to me. On one hand, most glad, most happy. On the other, gotta work quickquick! if they really are beginning to go into full flower. Have a look-see.

Seamaiden said:

Dude..! That's awful. That's one thing I can't remember from the reading, and why I need them GrowFAQs, because I see people posting about how they're so many days or weeks into flowering, but I haven't sorted out exactly when or how that "flowering date" is pinpointed. I'll admit, I've only been looking for a couple of days.

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If growing indoors...flowering starts from the day you put them in 12/12

outdoors is harder to pinpoint, usually first signs of sex as mentioned before, and if you want to be more specific you can add 7-14 days to account for time it takes them to show sex

Indoors, I start counting when I see my first pistil.

from what i know seamaiden is that those alternating nodes is the sign your looking fort also the hairs.
for me mine starts at about 15 hours, a couple weeks later i see it start. a buddy told me that for my erea it is full flower on aug 15, but my erea.
what is your sun up and down now?

38N Lat, bonz. It's light by 6:30, dark by 8pm now, that's closing in fast, too. So.. didja see my piccies? Some are more advanced than others, there's always those couple of girls in the class who need brazierres earlier, who start their period and so on.

I think 12/12 is next month sometime, around the 21st (the autumnal equinox?), but I'm not positive. Everyone has been sexed, I'll just keep checking the ladies to make sure no one goes hermie on me, which would sadden me.

they look good. what i can tell from the pic`s i would start my transitional phase of nutes, nitrogen still.
i went and looked at mine yesterday and i`m at about the same stagte as you and in a couple days i will be hitting mine with my transitional phase. still a bit of veg with my flower. i use pure blend pro

were outdoor. different timing

The day ya switch to 12x12 your flowering.
Outside when the hours change.

The hours change every day, though... don't they?

bonz said:

were outdoor. different timing

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ya i checked mine today and i`m at 13 hours light now and it gets less by 5 minuites on average each day.

When your growing outdoors, they start flowering before the days get to 12/12

ya i know, thats what i call my transitional phase for nuting