Straight to flowering?

Hi ! Just getting back into growing again, now that it’s “legal” in NY. I used to grow in my basement back in the 80s & 90s, but they started urine testing at my job in '96 so I decided to cool it on the growing. The last few crops I grew were Haze X NL5. One crop, I plucked the boys out a bit too late & the harvest had quite a few seeds. No biggie, as the HxNL5 seeds were $100+ for a dozen & you had to mail away to Holland for them. I then read in High Times that the DEA had a plant in the Seed Bank & they got a hold of the mailing lists. Anyway, I read somewhere that you could just sprout the seeds & go right into your 12 flowering cycle. Did that a few times before I gave away my growing system to a friend. I have just ordered Feminized White Widow & was wondering if & how it will work out with feminized seeds. I mean, I could just veg them for a month or so, but being my first basement grow in 25 years, my & wifey will be kinda anxious to put that first bud in the bong !

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Photoperiod plants won’t begin to flower until they are sexually mature. You could run them from 12/12 at the start and they would not begin flower for 6 weeks or so and often much longer.

Here’s a journal for running 12/12 from the start.

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Thanks, 410 !

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@mickey_g at least 3 weeks before you can flower a photo.;o)

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Welcome to the Neighborhood. And welcome back to the greatest hobby ever. :v: :slightly_smiling_face:

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Yeah, I guess I’ll give them 3-4 weeks. I just wasn’t sure about it with the genetics (feminized seeds) being different after 20 something years. I think it was Ed Rosenthal in High Times that suggested to just go straight to flowering cycle if you were in that much of a hurry. I mean, I did get about an oz from each plant using a 1000w HPS in a 6x6 room I closed off in the basement. Plenty for us & friends, but the plants were kinda skimpy. Maybe I’ll try Autoflower next order. Now, those need 18 hours daily until harvest ?

You can run them 12/12 from the start too: they won’t flower until they’re sexually mature either. Personally I recommend feminized photoperiod over autos simply because you have more control.

The amount of light you provide will in large part dictate the yields from your plants. I run home made LED’s and pull between 10 and 14 oz of flower from each plant. You may want to look into upgrading your lighting to decent LED’s as they outperform any MH/HPS light made. Less heat to deal with too. I would suggest that most lights found on Amazon are over-hyped so it might pay to inquire of others here to find what you need. Not all LED’s are the same.

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My wife bought a bunch of gift cards from Lowes, so I got an AB 780 Pro from them. Thinking of getting one of those grow tents also, since I’m only going to use @ a 4x4 space & as there’s probably plenty of light leaking out of the cracks from the old makeshift 6x6 room.

I’d be happy to get 10-14 Zs from each harvest ! ! !

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That light ought to do it.

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Thanks for your advice. One more thing, if you don’t mind. When I last grew I was using 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 perlite & 1/3 vermiculite as a medium. So, I was fertilizing from the get go.

I also got these from Lowes. I’m wondering when I would start fertilizing ?

You need to be careful of any soil you use as cannabis has specific PH range which most potting mixes don’t achieve.

Roots Organics, Fox Farms, Black Magic etc are all designed for cannabis. There are some growers using one of the Coast of Maine products to good effect. Not sure which one though.

Running a soilless medium like you describe is common although most use coco instead as it’s less expensive and renewable. You of course will need to supplement from the get-go. I run coco and supplement using Jack’s 3-2-1 program (JR Peters) which can be found on Amazon or Ebay as well as their website.

Buy a good PH pen like an Apera or Bluelab along with a TDS meter if you are going to supplement. They are the most important instruments you will use growing cannabis.

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I ran into this issue exactly buying some super cheap low end potting soil from Walmart… took me forever to figure out it was the soil driving down my ph constantly.

I now use a mix of 40% Fox Farm Ocean and 40% happy frog with 20% perlite added for drainage. This is what I’ve found works the best for me for what it’s worth.

Your in great hands here always tons of members willing to help.

Get Growing!

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Gotcha. They weren’t my first choice, but the Mrs is insisting I use the Lowes gift crds. She bought them at a 10% discount for windows & doors which didn’t pan out. I’ll pick up those meters and monitor the ph & such as you suggest.

Monitoring ppm and ph levels are critical to properly hydrating and nourishing your plant, they can also tell you when to up feeding or lower feeding, I use runoff tests to determine when to start feeding the little guys as well.
In soil Cannabis needs to have a specific ph level for the plant to be able to effectively uptake specific nutrients, this graph will help explain that in detail.


PH testing will tell you if your water is too acidic or too alkaline. I try to mix EVERYTHING right at 6.5.

Testing with a TDS meter will inform of the amount of total dissolved solids in your water/nutrient mixture. These measurements will change throughout your grow cycle. Each nutrient manufacture recommendation will vary. It’s always a good idea to test your water prior to adding anything to it so you have a baseline number to start at… for example I use filtered drinking water that I get bulk from Walmart that tests <100ppm.

Here is a baseline from one seed company as an example. Again refer to your nutrient schedule.

If you don’t mind calibrating the devices every 5-6 uses this is a lower cost option, I used these testers for a year before upgrading to bluelabs testers

Here’s the ones i use now.


Get Growin

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Measure your grow space for the biggest tent that will fit the space.
Tent space is easily used up. Hieght is everybodies limiting tall and causing other issues.
I hate my 2x2x5.5, but it fit the only closet I could use. Now the 48x48x80 fits the garage and has altitude growth potential

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I have run photo 12/12 start to finish. Act just like an auto. Soon as they mature they flower. Plants were smaller but good smoke. If have some good photo beans and dont mind smaller…auto size…12/12 works fine and saves electric.

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I used that on seedlings and its to hot. Plus using it you wont need to fertilize for 4 - 5 weeks

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Thanks, everybody !

I was cut off from responding yesterday. As I am a newbie here, I was only allowed a certain amount of comments my first day of posting.

Whoa. That’s hi-tech ! Back in the 80s-90s I had this 3-way meter that had these foot long prongs that measured light, ph & something else; I’ve forgotten it’s been so long.