How early may the Bloom cycle be started

[DW2]

I am planning a small experiment for my next grow (in a couple of weeks). I am going to sprout several seeds from one of, or both of the plants that I harvested last July. The plants hermied and produced seeds, about 100-150 seeds from 7.25 oz. of bud. I want to see if the hermied seeds produce a higher ratio of male to female plants than the expected ratio of 50/50 in nature. I am not as interested in production quantities (but I'm not going to throw anything out, either! LOL) as to the gender. Green75 , NebulaHaze , how early may the plants be placed into the 12/12 light cycle without undue stress to them? I can sprout up to 12 seeds ( two six hole DWC reservoirs) for this test and of course, will cull out what ever male plants show up. Thanks in advance for everyone's input on this.

[Green75]

If it's just an experiment then flip at two weeks....

[DW2]

Thanks for Your reply. Would You run the lights at 18/6 or 24/0 for that two weeks, or will it matter that much? (time cycle wise)

[Green75]

24.......

[9fingerleafs]

I would like to throw in my opinion no matter how many hours of light you give a young seedling it's going to veg until its a teenager. Talking about hormonal internal processes. Little light in veg translates into slow and poor developement. So just like green said just a week or two can make a huge difference. If you are not going to train them you'll be able to switch very soon if your environment is ideal. If not waiting a few more days until you see they grown nice roots and they start drinking more water. Happy growing good luck

[DW2]

Thanks 9fingerleafs, I appreciate Your opinion (fact is, I need ALL of the help that I can get! lol). So, if I understand Your train of thought, is that the plants should be allowed to develop before placing them into the bloom cycle? The GH nutrient feeding schedule that I have been following shows a three week period of 18/6 until transition to 12/12 in week four. I have been running the 18/6 for seven or eight weeks before the switch for my last two grows, but I do not want to harm the plants by starting them too early into the bloom cycle.

[9fingerleafs]

yes exactly, you can pretty much tell when a plant is no longer a baby, growing rapidly and drinking a lot more than a seedling, think about this way, it takes the plant three weeks from seed to become a teenager(hormonaly ready to reproduce) with 18 hours of light a day, that same process under 12 hours is going to happen much much slower. you probably wont "harm" them in any significant way cause 12/12 is a natural occurrence and seeds have sprouted in winter without any issues for millions of years.
we need much more experimentation to determine how young is too young and what is best to certain purposes, like yield.

[9fingerleafs]

by the way, all nutrients have only 3 weeks of veg on the recipe and most of them state any extra weeks of veg just repeat week 3

[NebulaHaze]

When I first started growing weed I tried to grow a bunch of plants on 12/12 from seed. I found that even if you give them a 12/12 light schedule from the beginning, they won't start making buds until week 3-4. So you probably want to wait at least until then before switching to 12/12. That way they get more light each day for the first several weeks, giving you bigger plants in the same amount of time, so you get more bud at harvest. Just for reference, a 4 or 5 week veg stage will give you plants that grow to about the same size as a typical auto-flowering plant

[DW2]

Thanks Nebula for the information. Like I said, I'm not too concerned with production quantity, I just want to see if the seeds produced from a hermied plant will tend to be more female than male and, hopefully, have some more bud as well. I am not planning on doing any training on them unless necessary, due to the 'stretch'. I think that I will let them 'veg' for three weeks, then switch them. I will keep photos and a ledger on the experiment and let You know the results. thanks for Your help.

[South Sierra Dude]

I'll follow, with interest, any thread on this topic. I am going to flip my current grow early; probably around week four.

[DW2]

Thanks for Your interest. I will post a thread (topic) when I get the experiment going. I am planning on posting weekly photos and an update as the experiment progresses. I've yet to harvest the final plant of my current grow, but she will be 'hanging' by Friday afternoon. I should have everything cleaned up and ready in the next couple of weeks.