SOIL Flowering phase

[At89]

Hoping somebody can help me.. I was given seeds and told they were autos so I planted them under a 250 watt CFL vegetative bulb on 24/0 cycle.. 6 weeks later I discovered they were feminised seeds not autos.. the plants are over 3 feet and I switched them last week to 12/12 to start budding.. as I said I didn't realise they were feminised and required a 12/12 cycle.. the plants are so big that I had to top them 2 days ago.. I also switched to a flowering bulb now and I'm wondering what the consequences will be? I read that feminised seeds should be in vegetative for 2-3 weeks but mine were vegetating for nearly 7 lol rookie mistake I'm a first time grower and basically wondering if topping my plants will have consequences during flowering? Note that I don't even have pistils or hairs yet.. the strain is Barney's Utopia haze and takes 70-75 days flowering.. should I be worried that I'm seeing no pistils? I feel like I'm stuck in limbo .. any help is much appreciated 😊

[Aloner]

You're good. If anything, you'll have a greater yield because of the extra time in veg. The only potential problem is how big they'll get (see: flowering stretch). With some judicious application of LST you should be drowning in bud in a few short months!

[At89]

Thanks for your reply.. any idea how long iv left till harvest? As I said their 8 weeks old now and were supposed to be done around week 12.. I know I prolonged it by over vegging so I'm hoping they will be done by roughly week 14-15?? Is that too optimistic considering iv no pistils yet?

[Aloner]

If the breeder says around 10 weeks of flowering time, my understanding is you should view that as a best case scenario -- it's usually longer than the stated time. So yeah, only 7 more weeks is extremely optimistic, especially since no pistils yet. It's a bummer but with a little patience you're gonna end up with a killer crop!

[berrypilot]

🌱 After the switch to 12-12 you should see pistils within 1-3 weeks, and they will be growing like mad in that time. Plants can double in size during the first month of the flowering stage. Here's a timeline of what to expect during the flowering stage if it helps! Usually the breeder underestimates the time for the flowering stage, so I'd expect it will take another 75 days at least until harvest. Keep the plants flat while they're stretching so all the buds can be close to the light at the same time!

Do you plan on adding more light? In the flowering stage the amount of light is directly correlated to your yield since light is like food for your buds. With fluorescents like CFLs you can expect about 0.25 grams per watt, so with a 250W CFL you could hope for about 62.5 grams or 2.2 ounces. 🌱