Quick question about Veg length

[AspiringBudBaron]

Hey GWE community! Just joined the forum and this is my first post! Let me start by saying I love this site. I have been recommending this site to everyone I know who is interested in growing their own bud. You guys and girls are awesome. Thanks to Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (plus the rest of you) for this amazing treasure trove of knowledge and reference material. Looking forward to adding my 5 cents (no more pennies in Canada) to this site.

Ok, enough smoke blowing. On to my question.

How long should you generally vegetate your plants? I mean how long to keep it in the veg stage of life before switching to flowering?

And I'll apologize to everyone if this is an ongoing topic somewhere on the forum. I did a quick look but couldn't find anything.

A little background info on my grow. I will try to provide photos of the set up for visual assistance asap.
I currently have 2 white widows in 5 gallon fabric pots on the go with about a month and a half into veg. This partly due to the fact i had these in a cfl grow box for the first 2-3 weeks of veg while i got my grow equipment together. What can i say, I was impatient. Now for the rest of their grow, they have been in a 3'x3'x7' tent under a 600 watt MH bulb. The tent air system is 1 - 6" intake fan connected to a carbon filter with 2 small fans, 1 blowing above and 1 blowing below the canopy. I also have a small humidifier in there as well for obvious reasons which keeps it around 45-55% humidity. The plants themselves are about 2' tall from the top of the soil as i type this.

This is my first serious grow, and I'm looking for any advice and/or suggestions that could help me along my journey!

Thanks gang!

[Campesino]

Consider your canopy and horizontal coverage. You want to fill the space, by the end of the stretch to maximize your light. Be aware that plants will approximately double in size during the first three weeks of 12/12 lighting ("The stretch") and factor this into your timeline.
How have you trained the plants? That will determine a lot. Generally, 2' tall is around the time to flip, but I think horizontal coverage is more important than vertical height (assuming they still fit under the lights).

[AspiringBudBaron]

Interesting, yes i have been training them both with LST, one was topped accidently during the transplant into the 5 gallon pots about 1 month ago. I say accidently cause i wasn't paying attention and snapped off the top growth. Oops, well as it turns out shes doing better then her sister, which I topped a few weeks later. I was thinking over all i would veg till the end of april then I switch over to flower for an approximate harvest around end of June, if thing continue well.

[DrPhoton]

Campesino is spot on.

[kingfish]

For a easy answer to your question. I would veg them as long as the flowering period. After you get a few grows in, then you can customize it to your own liking.

[AspiringBudBaron]

Cool, thanks kingfish. That was inline with what I had already planned. 2 month veg, 2 month flower. Will post pics soon. Thanks for the advice

[kingfish]

My pleasure,. and welcome to our world.

[9fingerleafs]

agree consider horizontal space before height and 2 months veg its a great general rule for flowering, not only because of size but also internal hormonal maturity, some plants take way longer to flower if you flip them too young. welcome. we are all picture addicts btw

[GreenhouseEffect]

Great advice above.

Also to make sure you don't run out of head room....
Take a measurement from the bottom of the light, to the top of the soil, while the light is moved up as high as it can go. Then subtract the minimum distance that light can safely be, from the top of your plants, this is how much height the plant can use of the 7' tent. Take that number,and divide it by two, since your plant could potentially double in height during the flowering stretch. That is how tall you can let your plants get in vedge, without potentially running out of head room for your top colas.

Heads up that some breeders measure flowering times from the start of actual flowering, which is a week or two after flipping the light schedule. Also, flowering time is advertised for ideal conditions, and breeders are sometimes full of a little organic fertilizer, so they may very well take longer until harvest.

[oldjarhead100]

I do a couple of different things in veg I top quite often until my canopy is flat and wide thin I'll flip this might take 4 weeks or 10 weeks up to the plant , I also Manifold plants , when I keep the girls in veg for a long time 8 to 10 weeks I noticed I don't get a huge bloom stretch and the reason for that I think is the length of time in veg .

[AspiringBudBaron]

Hey gang, wow thanks again for the great advice everyone. well here goes nothing took a couple of quick snaps from my phone (G5, I'm no photographer) what do you guys think?
Just gonna say right off the bat, i did have a little PH trouble with fluctuation patches forming on some leaves. And i may have pushed the nuts a little much a feeding or two ago. Did a flush a day or so after that. But asides from those it seems to have been alright.



Ok, hope i didn't screw this up and the pics come up.

[julik]

Awesome, a beautiful and prolific-looking white widow! Looking forward to further updates. Happy growing

[Campesino]

Nice looking plants!
Tough to see how much space there is total (I know 3x3) or how much space there is left, but they are certainly mature enough to flip IMO. If you want to maximize yield you may want to veg a little longer to ensure they fill out the tent, but you could flip at any time.
Curious about your media, seems to be primarily perlite on top - assuming its coco?

[AspiringBudBaron]

I have a basic generic garden soil mixed with a roughly 30-35% perlite to improve the drainage. After that i spread a bit of left over perlite across the top for extra protection for the roots and soil erosion. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and couldnt think of a way that it would negatively affect my grow. If Im wrong, please set me straight.

[Campesino]

There is no issue with having the layer of perlite on top. However, "generic garden soil" scares me a little because a lot of garden soil comes with time release fertilizers that can create problems. Does your soil claim to "feed plants"? or even worse "feed plants for 90 days"? Are you using nutrients in your water?

[AspiringBudBaron]

I understand and felt the same fear so rest assured this soil was just regular no additives dirt. Bag did say it was pre-balanced to a neutral 7 ph. Which I tested before putting into action so it was actually 7.

[Tika]

Oh pardon me thought you were in Coco. Also...My perlite has no bites/fertilizer in it for sure. Thanks for the check😊

[AspiringBudBaron]

Heres a overall shot of my set up,

[Campesino]

Yeah, I'd say about another week - depending on rate of growth. They don't have to fill the tent before you flip as long as the project to fill it by the end of the stretch.

Are they just sitting in fabric pots on the floor? do you take them out to water? may want to reconsider this as they grow.

[AspiringBudBaron]

What would you suggest? A side by side set up? It hasn't been too much trouble to water them so far but yes, you have a good point. Ill give it some thought for future-proofing. Thanks again!

[Campesino]

This is my solution

https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/growing-community/191141-diy-drainage-system-if-you-re-tired-of-lugging-around-a-shop-vac

[AspiringBudBaron]

That is absolutely genius!! Looks like i have a little diy project to do

[Campesino]

Thank you!
They are working great!

[oldjarhead100]

Hey Camp just got a mental picture of all the hoses that would be in my bloom room 6 for the air injectors and 6 for the drainage system then I saw me laying across all 6 plants with hoses wrapped around me and broken plants under me lol I think I'm going to install behind the plants so I dont have to trip over them lol