When Does the Flowering Stage Begin?
Despite the name, the flowering stage doesn’t start with the formation of flowers. Flowering occurs a few weeks into the flowering stage. In fact, it doesn’t even correlate to when you induce flowering.
In fact the flowering stage begins when the cannabis plant notices a change in light. This is how it knows winter is coming.
Many people mistakenly think that this change means a decrease in light. Actually, the change is measured by an increase in the amount of continuous darkness. Soon after the strain’s threshold of darkness is met, the plant will grow rapidly, gaining height and stretching. Some plants may even double in height during the first two weeks of the flowering stage.
THE FIRST FEW FLOWERING WEEKS (WEEKS 1, 2 AND 3)
When the flowering period starts, it isn't an abrupt change in your plants’ growth. Cannabis won’t just stop growing and then go into flowering right away. In these first weeks of flowering, many cannabis strains may indeed undergo a considerable growth stretch. This is important to know when it comes to feeding your plants properly, but also if you want to give them sufficient space to grow.
The pre-flowering phase is an important part of your plant’s life cycle. It starts when the grow light conditions around your plants change and the days become shorter. In a grow tent, this is usually when you switch your light cycle down from 18/6 to 12/12. In nature, this happens naturally at the end of summer.
Cannabis plants undergo a variety of changes when they enter this phase. Pre-flowering plants stop focusing on vegetative growth and instead get ready to reproduce. This is also the time you’ll start noticing the gender of your plants; female plants will start developing calyxes and hair-like pistils, while males will grow round pollen sacs.
The pre-flowering phase can last anywhere between 1–3 weeks—depending on genetics and the environment you’re growing in.
WEEKS 6, 7 AND 8 (LATE FLOWERING STAGE, RIGHT BEFORE HARVEST)
From week six to the last week of flowering, your plants will give you more indications that they are ready for harvesting. The odor becomes even stronger to a point of a stinking stench of cannabis all around the growing space. Whatever you do during this period should be seamless to avoid any mishaps during harvest time. You should also be keener on any deficiencies on the crops by checking out for leaf discolorations and any other deficiencies. Yellow leaves means that you have a nutrient burn but you can still fix the problem before harvest.
Two weeks before the harvest, when the plants are on their final flowering stage, you should flush them. Flushing the plants also means discontinuing nutrient administering and feeding the plants with only water. The water you give the plants during this time should have a good pH balance. the reasons for flushing the plants is to get rid of the salts and minerals in the soil, which helps to improve the cannabis taste. if you harvest the buds without flushing off the minerals and salt, marijuana will have an unpleasant chemical taste and a bad smell.
You also have to remember that while many of the strains reach the end of their flowering stage at the eighth week, others may go beyond even ten weeks. This last stage is very crucial and you should handle the buds with utmost care before HARVESTING stage arrives. This is also the time that you start preparing your plants for the harvest and the best way to do that is by flushing.
Follow these tip wisely to get more resin glands, earlier flowering, and larger buds from every cannabis plant you cultivate.
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