Need advice about my 1st grow...Newbie, please help

[OutOfControl]

Hi all, first posting of a beginner, so please be gentle with me...
First off I should point out a few things dealing with how I got this far....
4 plants, nearly 3 months since germination
Growing OUTDOORS in a polytunnel in a temperate climate
Feminised seeds from a reputable supplier (Afghan skank?)
Okay so here's my problem...
The plants are apparently thriving and are around 7ft high! This is problem no:1 as there's no headroom left for them to grow into and I've resorted to tying the main stems down to grow sideways!
If they do go into flower, will they double in size like I've read?? I did top them at around 3ft btw, well I did what I saw in videos, but they seem determined to keep growing.
The second problem is...will they/ when will they ever flower? Each time I look at them all I can see is more and more green shoots emerging, but nothing that looks like it will flower?
Most of what I've read refers to switching to 12/12 lighting, but very little seems to deal with covered outdoor plants.
Should I just be patient and let nature sort it out? I was thinking of covering the polytunnel for part of the time to give 12 hours daylight but in a couple of weeks it'll be like that anyway here.
Should I just take a chainsaw to them and give up? Is there a chance these plants will produce? Should I just wait it out? Any suggestions/advice would be appreciated. Thanks

[9fingerleafs]

pictures would be great to get an idea of the space problem, but yeeah you can tie down colas horizontally or if you got big enough plants you can remove the bigger branches. you can force the start of flowering by covering your greenhouse and providing 12 hours of darkness to speed things up but theres no way around the waiting when growing. share some pics so we can advice you better how to train them

[SoOrbudgal]

No sir or lady do not take a chain saw to them. Nature will always show you when flowering is taken place. When daylight is decreased. I am an outdoor grower, I live in Oregon. We are fast approaching fall and our daylight is decreasing. My plants are photos, they are almost 6 month old. They started to flower in Aug. at approx. 5+months. Patience. Good to tie down main cola, next time top it. Pull down those side branchs anchor them down. If you like what you see with the growth of your plants, you could cover and remove blackout every 12hrs it's importaint that you follow same routine daily your in this for months. Post some pics others will give you help. Good luck

[OutOfControl]

Thanks for the replies guyz
I won't say where I am exactly (just in case!) but suffice to say I'm "on the edge of Europe somewhere"..
As you can see, space is becoming a bit of a premium?
I'm a patient guy and I don't mind waiting if that's all it takes, but I just don't want to mess up when I've been tending them for 3 months.
The thing is though that if they don't stop growing or (lord help us) they double in size when flowering, I may crawl in some day to water them and not make it back out?
When you look at the pics keep in mind that tunnel is around 6 1/2 feet high.
I would need a 6 yard square light excluding fabric to limit the daylight, and sure in about 10 days where I am it will be down to 12 hours daylight anyway.
The 3rd pic shows a shrivelling/browning of one of the leaves. Around a dozen or so leaves are like this one. Should I trim those leaves? Is it a disease??
I'm wondering is it due to too much humidity maybe? It's pretty moist in there because the nights are getting colder and you get a lot of condensation in the mornings.
Any suggestions on any of this would be appreciated. Thanks

[9fingerleafs]

being so big with so many leaves the plant naturally sacrifices a few that dont get much light. dont worry about it, i would just get them out of the green house.

Ventilation is necessary before budding begins , lest you may find bud rot. Those are awesome ladies and you're going to be stacked with much bud. Great job

[SoOrbudgal]

That is nearly identical to my GH mine has a 8ft headspace but still I needed to supercrop my tops to fit it in. I got just a few inches to spare uptop and my gorilla bomb is in the flowering stretch she's too dang big really. Are there flaps for windows on yours? Yes we become " hunchbacks" for the tunnel. Hey this is how we learn sometimes if one never trys to grow weed one never knows how they grow it can get wildly unruly. Supercrop is my way of taking a bit of control of the plants. Good luck.

[OutOfControl]

9fingerleafs...wow, do you mean just take them out and let them fend for themselves in the open? I'm not doubting you or anything I just want to be clear on what you're saying.
I could take them out and try and find a relatively sheltered south facing spot, and keep an eye on the night temp so it doesn't drop near zero degrees Celsius (32f).
I'm presuming frost would kill them, yes?
Would that be okay do you think?
I'm just a bit nervy about doing that, like sending your baby to it's first day of school, but if you reckon that's the way to go then I'll move them out tomorrow.

[OutOfControl]

Mud: I sincerely hope that you know what you're talking about...If I see one bud forming I think I might have an orgasm...
I open the vent flaps every morning and close them each evening so they should have plenty of air, If I follow 9fingerleafs advice they should get ample air by being outdoors, although I'm a bit worried because the nights are getting decidedly nippy here these last few nights. I might try and acclimatise them by moving them out during daylight (harden them off I believe is the term) then move the back into the tunnel for a couple of days first?
FYI in case anyone is interested when I transplanted them into their big pots it was into a mix of potting compost,vermiculite and worm castings, with about 2 inches of farmyard manure in the base, and a plant feeder every 3-4 days when watering.
I'm not looking for bumper yields or anything remotely close, If I get a few good nights out of all the work I'll be over the moon tbh.

[9fingerleafs]

thats a pretty good plan, but i dont think much hardening is necessary being huge trees haha

[Farmall]

Frost will kill them... but I have family in Europe but they’re bitching about the heat... you can also use a small fan to circulate the daytime air if you feel you can’t expose them to the “outdoors, neighbors, helicopters,”

[Rwise]

I want to know about other lights around your girls, any artificial light will be bad for them and could explain why they are not yet flowering.
Fans for air flow

[OutOfControl]

@Rwise: They've had no artificial light at any stage, just that big light 96,000,000 miles away occasionally. Even when they were initially potted the pots were simply left on a south facing windowsill and rotated each day to stop them leaning too much.
Update:
The plants have now been moved outside into the big, bad world to fend for themselves.
I think I may have taken the advice from you guys just in time, because when I got them out from the polytunnel into full sunlight I realised that they are in fact beginning to flower (well I think they are cause they look like bud beginnings and have wispy white hairs?).
In fact some of them were beginning to get damaged due to coming into contact with the sides and top of the tunnel, so the relocate was in the nick of time methinks.
Hopefully I'm right and when the buds fully form I'll post a pic or two as an update.
I'm off now to explore the site a bit more (great site btw and maybe educate myself in the process.

So a big thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to my quandary, you may have saved my harvest

[9fingerleafs]

im glad to hear that, hopefully they wont get much taller but theyll get much fatter, so keep an eye on big branches that will need support, i like to tie a few branches with plastic hooks and thread but youll find what works for you, good luck

[SoOrbudgal]

That's excellent great advice from all of you. I've never had plants go for long enough to freeze, light frosts but under tent so no worry. Best of luck with your grow.