When to switch from veg to flower?

Hi All,

I am a complete beginner in growing cannabis but not a beginner in DWC.
Currently I have 5 plants in a 60L pot due to PH and overall stability. (I might kill the 5fth plant as I don't know whether it'll be a male or female)

I have three different strains. One unknown (possibly white widow in the back) and two Indica dominant Golosa early (right) and two Sativa dominant Strawberry blue early (left).

Tent is 80x80cm, 150W led but upgradeable to 250W.

PH 5.8
EC 1.3 (of which 0.25 is from tap water)
Temp 19-20°C

The pictures are from 22.Feb, 25.Feb and 5.March. I started the seeds on 2.Feb. Not all seeds sprouted at the same time hence the size difference.

They seem to grow well (and maybe too bushy?). I topped all plants except the unknown (back left) and the smaller one in the front right.
Both middle plants are now 25cm tall but i had to cut off some fan leaves as they were absolutely massive and blocking each other.
The sativa and indica look like they grow at the same rate with the same node spacing.

Since starting I've been reading a lot...now I know the multiple containers could have been better and it probably wasn't the best idea to have mixed sativa and indica strains in the same reservoir or even grow room. But well it is what it is now

Now the big question: When should I start to flower? the plants should not get bigger than roughly 100-120cm.

CornDunio said:

When should I start to flower?

Click to expand...

Now?

CornDunio said:

it is what it is

Click to expand...

Yup - It's going to get real crowded in that 60L tote. IMO harvest all at once, can't have dead roots decomposing in amongst live roots.
250w led is just enough for that space, so go for it.

Again, IMO - that tent is too small for 5 or 6 plants. 2 plants, each in a 5 gal bucket would be better suited.

Good luck

Thats gonna be a crowded place.little trim and off to flower. Remember they strech 2-3 times their size.gonna be hard to balance indica and sativas height.

Alright, thanks for your advice! Will switch to flower tomorrow then, I'll keep you updated

Alright, as promised I will give you a late update:
March 10: I sent them to flower 12/12 and removed some foliage. I also killed the top left unknown plant because the space wouldnt be enough.


March 14: Then four days later the plants grew quite a bit


March 18: Another four days later the tent was almost filled out with leaves


At this point the water level got relatively low but the EC/PH stayed still constant, they were drinking around 6l/day. I changed the reservoir and then had to leave them alone for a few days due to absence.

When I came back the plants got quite a bit taller and it got pretty dense in the tent. This is 3 weeks after the switch to 12/12 so i decided to defoliate a bit more. Also the PH had quite a strong drop to around 4.2. Still the plants drank a lot and seemed happy. Then I topped up the reservoir and changed the nutrition composition slightly.

March 27: Before defoliage:


After:


March 31: Added a net to keep the stems apart, after the photo I plucked some more leaved so other bud sites can get some light too.
At this point the PH stays at around 6.1, EC at 1.3 and the water level drops. It is much more stable than a few days ago. PH drop from 6.3 to 6.1 in 4 days.


So far... thanks for telling me to immediately send them to flower. They almost tripled in height since going 12/12. Also the lower right plant is relatively heavily shadowed by the other 3 plants. I will leave that as is... the root mass is so intertwined that I dont want to remove the plant as I am afraid the decomposing root material will harm the system. The other 3 plants are thriving.

So far the Sativas are only 10cm taller than the indica. I guess the heigh balance is quite ok. The indica on the right is around 1 week behind regarding bud production. Lets see how that will go regarding harvest.

To the pros: I am probably still doing a lot wrong.... but I already learned a lot since starting

Cheers