THE FLOWERING STAGE

After you have vegged your cannabis plants for a period of 4 to 6 weeks depending on the strain and the height of your grow room, you will be ready to put your plants into the flowering or budding stage. This is done by reducing the light cycle to just 12 hours per day resulting in 12 hours of light followed by 12 hours of total dark. This triggers the plant into believing Fall is near and hence must get its reproductive issues addressed before the cold comes in.

THE STRETCH

The first 3 weeks or so of 12/12 are characterized by accelerated growth. The plant's machinery goes into high gear and will start the plant's "stretch" causing it to start its rapid climb to maturity. You should be able to tell the sex of your plants anywhere from a few days to a week or more (depending on maturity) after the light cycle is reduced to just 12 hours of light per day. (see "SEXING")

YELLOWING OF LEAVES DURING 12/12

It is not unusual to see a loss of green color in the leaves of your marijuana plants during the middle to late flowering stage. The lower leaves will start to turn yellow and fall. This is normal as long as it does not happen prematurely in the early stage of flowering. The plant is drawing on its resources stored in its leaves to power itself during a time of accelerated growth. During the late stages of flowering some marijuana strains will produce a beautiful array of yellow, red and blue color on their leaves.