When does flowering start??????

So I have 15 plants Hybrid probably sativa dominant unknown bagseed currently flowering under 12/12...
(had 17 two hermied 5 days ago and I chopped, dried and are now curing in jars.. I couldnt just trash them and believe it or now the smoke before cure was a little harsh but otherwise a pretty nice high I was very shocked b/c most of the trichs were about 50/50 clear-cloudy with no amber at all)

I know that many growers debate when flowering technically starts.... whether its when the plant is mature and begins to pre-flower, staggering nodes etc.... or when you actually change the light cycle to 12/12....

4 of my 15 plants showed NO sign of sex prior to 12/12 the other 11 all had tons of preflowers 2 1/2 weeks before I changed the lights.. the ones that had preflowers all look much closer to harvest than the others.... so... common sense says that the plants start flowering when they are MATURE not at the change of 12/12 right??????

with that out there does that mean that 11 of my plants are really almost 9 weeks flowering????and if so how close am I to being finished.... I have yet to see any amber trichs but read somewhere that some strains never turn amber but id say that mine are about 60/40 cloudy-clear now....

Pics 1-3 are 2 of the 11 that showed preflowers early
Pics 4 and 5 are of 1 of the ones that did not show preflowers
All plants have been flowering for over 6 weeks

Any ideas???? Anyone????

i think that i depends on the strain/genetics. you said that you grew from bag seed so there is a very good probability that the plants/seeds have different genetics. so i think it has to do with strain more than anything

common sense says that the plants start flowering when they are MATURE not at the change of 12/12 right??????

no. it says that plants that are mature before put into flowering go into full flowering mode when switched to 12/12 quicker than those that are not. Also. their isnt really any debate on when flowering is considered to start like that, no one considers the start of flowering when it shows preflowers and/or alternating nodes that im aware of unless you are flipping to 12/12 before mature.anyway, it is the first day of 12/12 lighting if they are mature when flipped and its when they show their sex and enter the stretch phase of flowering (which is pretty easy to tell) if they are not mature beforehand I'd say youve got 4 or 5 weeks left on the more mature and maybe 6 on the less mature ones but thats just a rough estimate. ultimately bud swelling and trichomes are what to look at to decide. good job so far, im sure youll do fine.

I have never had pre-flowers in veg on 18/6 or 24 hours no matter how long I veg.. I see hairs but nothing like flowers, maybe that's what the OP is mistaking as preflowers.

preflowers are not the start of flowering. As has been said above, preflowers mean the plant is mature. Many people prefer not to start flowering until this stage.

Flowering really consists of two phases, stretching and budding. The stretching will start as soon as she goes under 12/12 whether she is mature or not. Most people consider the switch to 12/12 to be the beginning of flowering. About two weeks after 12/12 stretching stops and the plant devotes itself to producing buds.

It seems some breeders don't count the stretch as part of the flowering time and this allows them to report very short flowering times for their strains.

BigBuddahCheese said:

I have never had pre-flowers in veg on 18/6 or 24 hours no matter how long I veg.. I see hairs but nothing like flowers, maybe that's what the OP is mistaking as preflowers.

Click to expand...

Uuuuhh, the hairs are the pre flowers. No, you aren't going to see *like flowers*. it's 'pre' flowers.

Make sense?

Wet

Thanks for the help... Im just learning and its very easy to get mixed messages on the internet.... everyone has an opinion LOL. I just needed to make sure I didnt need to stop nutes and start flushing.... one question though... Is it true that some strains trichs dont ever turn amber? and do I really want amber b/c Ive also read that amber just means that the trichs have reached full maturity and have started to degrade? I have always thought that amber just meant more couch lock stoned??

ive heard a few strains dont, ive never seen one though and i think its a myth as its an indicator like you said of the thc degrading. amber trichs have a lower thc content than cloudy. some people say waiting till they amber is just hurting your final result as the thc is more degraded and the cannaboid levels dont increase that much. those people have a valid point to an extent, but the thing is the last few weeks is when the buds add most of their mass so you miss out on that and i dont care who you are youve got to admit for the most part all cloudy gives you more of an upper mind high while all amber gives you more of the downer body stone, regardless of why.

darkdestruction420 said:

i dont care who you are youve got to admit for the most part all cloudy gives you more of an upper mind high while all amber gives you more of the downer body stone

Click to expand...

yea i agree with that. i am going to harvest when they are cloudy and milkly. probably when the triches are about 1/4 to 1/2 amber. thats just my preference.

Thanks again for your help... Im just going to let them grow and watch them closely.. after a week of curing the 2 early harvest hermies are really good smoke with very little of the harshness from before and compared to the SHWAG the seeds came from I could harvest all my plants now and still have a product that is 1,000% better than its momma LOL... so Im looking forward to the finished product.... Im also looking forward to the end of this BAGSEED grow I am so over the guessing game but Im glad I did all my practicing on crap seeds ...My 5 BlueDream seeds just sprouted yesterday and hopefully this cycle will be easier.... Thanks Again!!!

I dont like couchlock highs. I harvest on milky trichs with just a bit of amber showing.

The quality of the high matters a lot too. Potency isn't everything. You can always smoke more. When you pay $300 an oz on the street you want the maximum stoned for your dollar, but when you grow your own you no longer feel like you are smoking money.

monkie said:

My 5 BlueDream seeds just sprouted yesterday and hopefully this cycle will be easier....

Click to expand...

with a Haze cross you mightw want to harvest a little earlier with as much as 25 % clear still for that electric high, maybe leave some for the traditional starting to turn amber too for some variety to see which is your preference.

frmrboi said:

with a Haze cross you mightw want to harvest a little earlier with as much as 25 % clear still for that electric high, maybe leave some for the traditional starting to turn amber too for some variety to see which is your preference.

Click to expand...

Frmrboi, I crossed a 16-week Neville's Haze (mother) with a 8-week-flowering-till-dropping-pollen Blueberry(male). What do you think about flowering times for the offspring? Is it cut in half or could I be looking at another 16 weeks of impatient torture? I don't wanna hijack a thread, but I can't pm you.

frmrboi said:

with a Haze cross you mightw want to harvest a little earlier with as much as 25 % clear still for that electric high, maybe leave some for the traditional starting to turn amber too for some variety to see which is your preference.

Click to expand...

You've talked about growing Haze before and I would like to grow some in my closet but I don't want to run a six month plant. Is there a cross that you think is good and finishes sooner?

Thanks

allSmilez said:

Frmrboi, I crossed a 16-week Neville's Haze (mother) with an 8-week Blueberry(male). What do you think about flowering times for the offspring? Is it cut in half or could I be looking at another 16 weeks of impatient torture? I don't wanna hijack a thread, but I can't pm you.

Click to expand...

I grew something similar Blueberry X Original Haze that one said 12 weeks in the catalog it took a long time to start flowering though so minimum 14 weeks from switching to 12/12 would be my guess. I harvested some early (just starting to go cloudy) that was scary shit, terrible paranoia for the first 1/2 hour but trippy as hell.
http://www.greenlifeseeds.com/index.php/British-Columbia-Seed-Co./Blaze

I get what OP is saying.....I did a couple seedlings and kicked them into 12/12. One was 1 week and other at 2 weeks from seed.
They took longer to finish when counting days from 12/12. A dinafem blue hash took 10 weeks to go all cloudy and I think breeder says it is a 8-9week can't remember but a incredible high and others agree.
Other one was Blueberry-bubblegum(g-13) was a dud, Didn't like the bud structure and was full of hairs and hardly any trichs.................. not good. But that was just one freebie seed so don't base a opinion off mine. Took her at week 8 cause I hated it and needed room for better.
Clones are mature mostly and they seem to finish faster than from seed is what I have learned.

zvuv said:

You've talked about growing Haze before and I would like to grow some in my closet but I don't want to run a six month plant. Is there a cross that you think is good and finishes sooner?

Click to expand...

that one in my last reply is the only one I've tried, if you get lucky you'll get a killer phenotype in there but it's a crap shoot with Original Haze.
" the best examples (approximate 5%) are electrifyingly cerebral. For decades, words have utterly failed to fully capture the intensity of effect that a good example of Haze can give - it is absolutely in a league of its own and must be experienced."

frmrboi said:

it took a long time to start flowering though so minimum 14 weeks from switching to 12/12 would be my guess. I harvested some early (just starting to go cloudy) that was scary shit, terrible paranoia for the first 1/2 hour but trippy as hell.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, and the link. I figured I wasn't looking at an 8-weeker, but I wanted to ask somebody who has experienced a Hazy/Bluberry cross.

frmrboi said:

I grew something similar Blueberry X Original Haze that one said 12 weeks in the catalog it took a long time to start flowering though so minimum 14 weeks from switching to 12/12 would be my guess. I harvested some early (just starting to go cloudy) that was scary shit, terrible paranoia for the first 1/2 hour but trippy as hell.
http://www.greenlifeseeds.com/index.php/British-Columbia-Seed-Co./Blaze

Click to expand...

Funny story. I enjoy the middle ground myself. The even head and body high. Have you had any experience growing Master Kush? That's what I have on the line now and she's budding nicely.