1st Grow -- Right time to switch to 12/12

Hello Growers,

I'm in my first grow, and it's been going 4 1/2 weeks (31 days). Most people seem to switch to flower around now. I have 4 plants, of which one DeLaHaze is looking most fabulous. A couple of weeks ago, a lamp fell and broke my top off down to the 2nd node of her, but it's still my star plant. This is her on 9/25:


A couple of days later, I tried some LST on her:

She responded well! a week later:

...another week later, which is today:


Looks good to this newbie grower. Lots of potential bud sites.

I have two thoughts I could use help with. First, I switched to 12/12 last night but wonder if it is too early? Should I veg longer? ... or is this a good time? ... will I substantially increase my potential yield if I wait another week?

2nd, I think I'd like to defoliate her, and I have checked through some tutorials and a couple of journals, but I'm still just not exactly sure what I'm going for with that. I want the plant to focus on all the strong potential bud sites. Do I cut off the small weak stems and leaves that seem to be in the way? Any guidance on how to approach thinning her out would be great.

Many thanks!

p.s. the cool thing also, is the top piece that broke off, I was able to successfully recover the 'cutting '... and now have a mini-me of this plant now, too!

She looks ready to me. Yes, you can veg longer but then it also depends on your lights, penetration, etc as she will get taller. So I say so go for it!

Don't defoliate! Wait until you see what she looks like after stretch....

She's beautiful...

I had a delahaze but chopped it earlyat week 5, and had it in vegg for four weeks from sprout and was still nice as hell lol but the stretch is pritty much nearly every day... I was scared about the hight but I think you will be fine I didn't mature it well but the budds was very nice compared to what was one market
That's what it looked like on chopping day lol but nice smoke and white crystals at week 5.. Can't say how much I gt dry because I was smoking some while still not full dry.
I accidentally snapped the main stem while in flower by LST main stem but went pop on my noobish work lol

I'd wait looks like you got them in a huge pot. Let those roots grow a bit more keep doing the LST and topping more to keep everything even.

Thanks guys!

I've been lurking here for a bit, and thought I jump in -- tons of great info here, I got my LST ideas here.

My tent is 33"x33"x63", so if it is going to get 2-3x bigger, and I have three other plants, I think moving forward with the 12/12 is good for my situation. It is very tempting to keep it growing, and even make it the lone flowering plant, because the other plants have struggles. They are an auto-flower Jack Herer which as part of my earlier learning curve unfortunately ended up in MG soil, and has been struggling. (the rest are in Happy Frog/Perlite mix). My two other plants, are regular Afghans, which were stunted at little by, I suspect, too sensitive to the nitrogen levels in my nutes but have recovered at bit.
They are all part of my first real grow attempt.


I was inspired by a tossed aside bag seed this summer, which I just harvested yesterday. It was totally neglected for the 1st month, had thirps, my cat at leaves, but I think I'm going to end up with just over 1/2 oz dry, which makes me do happy dance.
She was flowering for like 12wks or more, here's the before and harvest day (yesterday). I got ~75g wet.:


I'll try not to consume it all before I can properly dry/cure a few grams.

@Labs Dexter It's great to see that pic, and read the report! Was it a very odorous plant?
But like I said, I'm most excited about the DeLaHaze .. I had ordered only 3 seeds and got those freebies, and this was one of those. But I love sativa, so it's great, and her growth is so vigorous!!

Happy Growing!

BigFun said:

Thanks guys!

I've been lurking here for a bit, and thought I jump in -- tons of great info here, I got my LST ideas here.

My tent is 33"x33"x63", so if it is going to get 2-3x bigger, and I have three other plants, I think moving forward with the 12/12 is good for my situation. It is very tempting to keep it growing, and even make it the lone flowering plant, because the other plants have struggles. They are an auto-flower Jack Herer which as part of my earlier learning curve unfortunately ended up in MG soil, and has been struggling. (the rest are in Happy Frog/Perlite mix). My two other plants, are regular Afghans, which were stunted at little by, I suspect, too sensitive to the nitrogen levels in my nutes but have recovered at bit.
They are all part of my first real grow attempt.


I was inspired by a tossed aside bag seed this summer, which I just harvested yesterday. It was totally neglected for the 1st month, had thirps, my cat at leaves, but I think I'm going to end up with just over 1/2 oz dry, which makes me do happy dance.
She was flowering for like 12wks or more, here's the before and harvest day (yesterday). I got ~75g wet.:


I'll try not to consume it all before I can properly dry/cure a few grams.

@Labs Dexter It's great to see that pic, and read the report! Was it a very odorous plant?
But like I said, I'm most excited about the DeLaHaze .. I had ordered only 3 seeds and got those freebies, and this was one of those. But I love sativa, so it's great, and her growth is so vigorous!!

Happy Growing!

Click to expand...

Mine was freebie too, God bless herbies........ Like some where else I read sativas are pritty good you see them grow every day lol

Enwhysea said:

I'd wait looks like you got them in a huge pot. Let those roots grow a bit more keep doing the LST and topping more to keep everything even.

Click to expand...

It does grow big in flower mate I chopped it at week 5 at four maybe five time its size and that's with just honey with water and mg root boost potting mix with perlite no other nutrients lol

BigFun said:

Thanks guys!

I've been lurking here for a bit, and thought I jump in -- tons of great info here, I got my LST ideas here.

My tent is 33"x33"x63", so if it is going to get 2-3x bigger, and I have three other plants, I think moving forward with the 12/12 is good for my situation. It is very tempting to keep it growing, and even make it the lone flowering plant, because the other plants have struggles. They are an auto-flower Jack Herer which as part of my earlier learning curve unfortunately ended up in MG soil, and has been struggling. (the rest are in Happy Frog/Perlite mix). My two other plants, are regular Afghans, which were stunted at little by, I suspect, too sensitive to the nitrogen levels in my nutes but have recovered at bit.
They are all part of my first real grow attempt.


I was inspired by a tossed aside bag seed this summer, which I just harvested yesterday. It was totally neglected for the 1st month, had thirps, my cat at leaves, but I think I'm going to end up with just over 1/2 oz dry, which makes me do happy dance.
She was flowering for like 12wks or more, here's the before and harvest day (yesterday). I got ~75g wet.:


I'll try not to consume it all before I can properly dry/cure a few grams.

@Labs Dexter It's great to see that pic, and read the report! Was it a very odorous plant?
But like I said, I'm most excited about the DeLaHaze .. I had ordered only 3 seeds and got those freebies, and this was one of those. But I love sativa, so it's great, and her growth is so vigorous!!

Happy Growing!

Click to expand...

Those plants look sooooo stressed out, they didn't even produce trics. Better luck next time bud.

BigFun said:

Thanks guys!

I've been lurking here for a bit, and thought I jump in -- tons of great info here, I got my LST ideas here.

My tent is 33"x33"x63", so if it is going to get 2-3x bigger, and I have three other plants, I think moving forward with the 12/12 is good for my situation. It is very tempting to keep it growing, and even make it the lone flowering plant, because the other plants have struggles. They are an auto-flower Jack Herer which as part of my earlier learning curve unfortunately ended up in MG soil, and has been struggling. (the rest are in Happy Frog/Perlite mix). My two other plants, are regular Afghans, which were stunted at little by, I suspect, too sensitive to the nitrogen levels in my nutes but have recovered at bit.
They are all part of my first real grow attempt.


I was inspired by a tossed aside bag seed this summer, which I just harvested yesterday. It was totally neglected for the 1st month, had thirps, my cat at leaves, but I think I'm going to end up with just over 1/2 oz dry, which makes me do happy dance.
She was flowering for like 12wks or more, here's the before and harvest day (yesterday). I got ~75g wet.:


I'll try not to consume it all before I can properly dry/cure a few grams.

@Labs Dexter It's great to see that pic, and read the report! Was it a very odorous plant?
But like I said, I'm most excited about the DeLaHaze .. I had ordered only 3 seeds and got those freebies, and this was one of those. But I love sativa, so it's great, and her growth is so vigorous!!

Happy Growing!

Click to expand...

I think your going to run out of room in your tent, at least width wise if your going to lst. I have a 24"x30"x7' tent, I vegged this one plant (Super lemon haze) for 4 weeks total, from seed. Here she is today, @ 2.5 weeks into flowering:

@Labs Dexter Thanks! ... Yes, this 'freebie' is my best plant. I had total 7 seeds, newbie errors drowned 2, 1 was a dud ... finally got last 4 to launch, of which 3 are struggling - but my haze is rocking. The cutting from her is doing good, too, so I'll get to experiment more. .... I was originally interested in autoflower, but that's the way it grows for me. I did order a few more seeds ... but for such one beautiful plant in my first grow, I'm stoked!

@srt42fast Wow!! ... how big was she comparison to my haze at 4 weeks?

@Yodaweed ... sorry for any confusion, just one plant had buds, and that was my bag seed I just chopped. I thought trichs were those balls of resin that turned amber(which the bagseed plant did have). Anyway, I get a decent buzz from the wet pieces I'm snitching ... but yeah, it was a very sad plant, but inspired me to get a kit and try to be a little more deliberate this time around. Thanks for wishing me luck with these babies! I seem to be having some at least with one...

Moving forward w/ the flowering... Many thanks & cheers!

Watch out Bigfun...this hobby is an addiction...

tomuch said:

Lord, this is a beautiful sight. One plant only? Wouldn't have guessed that just by looking at that pic.

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Thanks I appreciate it. Yes it is just one plant. I'm growing in a 8 gal dwc bucket. Here is the plant at the beginning of flowering.

BigFun said:

@Labs Dexter Thanks! ... Yes, this 'freebie' is my best plant. I had total 7 seeds, newbie errors drowned 2, 1 was a dud ... finally got last 4 to launch, of which 3 are struggling - but my haze is rocking. The cutting from her is doing good, too, so I'll get to experiment more. .... I was originally interested in autoflower, but that's the way it grows for me. I did order a few more seeds ... but for such one beautiful plant in my first grow, I'm stoked!

@srt42fast Wow!! ... how big was she comparison to my haze at 4 weeks?

@Yodaweed ... sorry for any confusion, just one plant had buds, and that was my bag seed I just chopped. I thought trichs were those balls of resin that turned amber(which the bagseed plant did have). Anyway, I get a decent buzz from the wet pieces I'm snitching ... but yeah, it was a very sad plant, but inspired me to get a kit and try to be a little more deliberate this time around. Thanks for wishing me luck with these babies! I seem to be having some at least with one...

Moving forward w/ the flowering... Many thanks & cheers!

Click to expand...

It's ok, genetics play the biggest part in tric production so if it was just a random bag seed don't feel too bad.

fandango said:

Watch out Bigfun...this hobby is an addiction...

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... a great one -- a litle sneaky with the costs. a seed here, a tent there, a light here, wait, need more light ... I dream of becoming a self-sufficient grower, always providing my own supply. I hope I can keep the smell under control -- it's a family environment w/ 4 teens (I'm the dad, lol) -- I've already got a carbon filter and ona bucket running... and wife's blessing ... made it through the bag seed with no overwhelming smells (a little funky sometimes, though) ... last thing I need if for the kids to start bringing all their friends to raid my stash, though.

@Labs Dexter -- I noticed you said you chopped at week 5. When I searched out info on this strain, I saw the breeder, Paradise Seeds, listed a 9 week flower-to-harvest time. Did you just harvest early, or were they ready?

@srt42fast -- thanks! I appreciate the reference. Great plant, and I enjoyed browsing your journal (nice scrogg). How long have you been growing? I thought about trying the scrog, but figured 1st go here I would just stick with scrogless LST techniques.

BigFun said:

... a great one -- a litle sneaky with the costs. a seed here, a tent there, a light here, wait, need more light ... I dream of becoming a self-sufficient grower, always providing my own supply. I hope I can keep the smell under control -- it's a family environment w/ 4 teens (I'm the dad, lol) -- I've already got a carbon filter and ona bucket running... and wife's blessing ... made it through the bag seed with no overwhelming smells (a little funky sometimes, though) ... last thing I need if for the kids to start bringing all their friends to raid my stash, though.

@Labs Dexter -- I noticed you said you chopped at week 5. When I searched out info on this strain, I saw the breeder, Paradise Seeds, listed a 9 week flower-to-harvest time. Did you just harvest early, or were they ready?

Click to expand...

I did mention up there the only reason I chopped at that time cause 1 my jar was empty so I had to buy shitti buds for shitti weight, I out of anger the trichomes was all white enuff so I took it down knowing that it's gonna be nicer than what I normally buy lol and it was freaking best early chop I smelled and smoked and my afghani took longer than expected, delahaze was so young the flowers were still on first Bloom not even receded yet. I do kick my self for it but still got me higher that the crap that was about

First it started with a boiled onions smell then it got to more of a skunky odour, and I have smellies all over out side of my grow room and out vent from my tent.. Only time I had to use carbon filter was for deep cheese that was very distinctive bud smell.

Thanks Dex, that's great info! Heck, my bag seed is better than what I can usually pick up. I'm stoked!

... I googled out a few grow journals for DeLaHaze, and it seems this plant was a big hit and produced several BOMs 4-5 years ago. I guess yesteryear's hits are today's freebies. But if it's like having to drive a 5 yr old Porsche..... oh, darn.


Happy Growing!