First Time Grower, When to Flip?

[MuskieMan]

SensiStarship (Sensi Star x Island Sweet Skunk) x Blueberry

After a terrible start and learning what not to do, I straightened out my grow with a lot of help from the fine people in this forum. The only training that I have done was to top my plants every few weeks and they reacted by producing lots of branches. I feel that they are almost ready to flip to the bloom stage, but not quite sure. The seeds sprouted on Dec, 12, 2020 and after a few problems, (watering, nutrients, PH ), I was amazed at how fast the plants grew after I straightened out my problems. Here's a picture of one of my plants showing all the growth from the top of the plant.

[MeEasy]

It's not necessarily a time thing (except some will start to pre flower and stop growing) that's what's nice about photoperiod they wait for you, it's more to do with size, once you get them about half as big as you want them to end up that's when to switch em because they will stretch once you switch them. It's probably more like a 1/3 stretch but some strains will definitely double in height.

[TOKABIGONE]

That's what mine did. I did a manifold, then kept the side branches staked down to grow out to the side then let them turn up expecting them to then grow up to height. At ten weeks they stopped growing and at eleven I saw pre-flowers so I switched. I think holding them down was a mistake as there are a lot of bud sites on the horizontal part of those branches and I don't know what those will produce. May have hurt my yield. I'm going to release them now to see if they will reach up more.

[MuskieMan]

Should I flush before switching to bloom? The instructions for Flora Nova says to mix Grow and Bloom equally for the first nutrients in Bloom. How much do I defoliate if at all?
The plants are 2.5 feet tall and I am a little nervous that I don't have height in my tent... I am planning to flip in the first week of March...

[MeEasy]

I never flush unless there's a problem and yes plants need both veg and bloom food at the switch because they will stretch (veg food) and start to flower (bloom food) I would continue the mix feeding about three weeks into flower that is about the end of the stretch. I always watered until I got 20-30% runoff and never flushing because of that that much runoff would clean out the old nutes left behind.... obviously my opinion and worked for me

[SoOrbudgal]

Kinda shooting yourself in the foot waiting.

[MuskieMan]

Hey SoOrbudgal I have my clones in the tent with the plants I am about to flip. Got to find a place for them... Since I started using Flora Nova my plants have more than doubled in size and no nutrient burn.. Looking really good...

[MeEasy]

I generally let my plants get between 18-24 inches tall before I switch to 12s and I used to defoliate like 4-5 days before the switch but I noticed that the plants filled back up with leaves so I've been doing a defoliation on the day before and it seems like I get flowers sooner because they get more light right after I defoliate. Here's a before n after right before the switch on my current grow the next pic is 2 days after then last pic is 12 days from the switch not last pic... and just to show it here's the latest pic of this grow last one was on Jan 28th and this is Feb 20th

Edit = sorry I lied I switched on 1/11 because I just had surgery I did the defoliation after I switched to flower on the 18th I was planning to do it the day before I switch but I didn't recover as fast as I thought but had to switch because of height worries lol

[MuskieMan]

Thanks for the input MeEasy. I will try the manifold method of training next time. This being my first grow I just topped the plants a few times. I do have one runt plant but I might get a few buds off it... Muskie Man

[MeEasy]

I followed nebula's tutorial on the main site here's the link she made it easy with a step-by-step with pics 😉 it makes for some nice fat colas. Im on a manifold kick right now lol it really is easy

https://www.growweedeasy.com/manifold

[MuskieMan]

Made the flip to bloom this morning, defoliated a little and gave them some bloom with a little grow mixed in. Will be watching them closely for the next few weeks and adjusting temperature and humidity as best I can... Is there anything that I should be watching for???

[SoOrbudgal]

Yes us watching YOU LOL. Just kiddin......that was a beautiful start off really healthy plants.

[MeEasy]

Yeah big fat sticky buds 😁 lol they're probably going to start growing 2-4 inches a day depending on strains some really go they'll drink more so watch that and of course little round balls males will show their heads first most of the time.

[MuskieMan]

Hey MeEasy, started from feminized seeds but I will be watching them closely just in case... Thanks for your input...