How long can I veg?????

W

wilcockson16

Active Member
Since my plants sprouted im in the early second week and they range from 2-4 inchs in heighth and I am wonder how long can I keep them under the 18-6 light cycle before I have to switch to 12-12? Also about how long after sprouting can I tell sex?
 
mr.red

mr.red

Well-Known Member
You can keep them in veg as long as you want, that is the beauty of growing indoors.

You are not restricted by the seasons.

You won't be able to tell sex until you switch to 12/12

I usually keep my plants in veg at least 2 months before flowering...remember though... this is 2 months after veg has actually started, not 2 months from seedling and germination.
 
Sub Zero

Sub Zero

Well-Known Member
If you have a small grow area, you may want to start flowering soon. In the flowering stage plants can double in size...
 
D4rKeN

D4rKeN

Well-Known Member
ide like to climb that three but you ya u can veg anytime from 2 weeks up to 6 months if you want
 
SpruceZeus

SpruceZeus

Well-Known Member
wilcockson16 said:
Only if the characteristics of the strain allowed you too but the tallest strains only gets 9-12ft max
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While you are right that genetics are a determining factor in max height, your numbers are a little off. I've seen plants grown to 8 or 9 feet indoors and have heard of afghan fields with 15-20 foot tall marijuana trees.
I'd google it, but i'm stoned and lazy.
 
Brick Top

Brick Top

New Member
wilcockson16 said:
Since my plants sprouted im in the early second week and they range from 2-4 inchs in heighth and I am wonder how long can I keep them under the 18-6 light cycle before I have to switch to 12-12? Also about how long after sprouting can I tell sex?
Click to expand...

You can veg as long as you want, there is no correct timeframe for vegging that needs to be followed for proper growth or the best growth. You can put seedling right into the flowering cycle because the hormone that induces flowering once the period of darkness is 12 hour long or longer is always in every pot plant or you could veg until you have Christmas Trees if you wanted to and have a strain that could grow to such size due to its genetics.

The two things to keep in mind when growing indoors are what if any height restrictions/limitations you may have. A plant will double to triple in size/height during flower (some pure sativa strains or highly dominant sativa strains will grow even more during flower) so you need to flower at a point where if your plants triple in size you will not run out of height. The other is depending on your lighting and how much penetration it will give the plants you can outgrow your lights capability to provide adequate light to the lower portions of your plants so there will be extremely limited bud production on the lower portions of your plants and it is normally so little that it is not worth it to many to veg past a certain point just to end up with roughly the same amount of good buds you will end up with plus a lot of popcorn.

Myself I do not mind if I somewhat outgrow my lighting. I end up with a bunch of popcorn on the lower portion of my plants but I harvest all the good buds as usual and then clip the main stem just above where all the popcorn begins and then clip the main stem below the popcorn and clip off all the leaves and hang the rest of the lower portion of the plant with all the popcorn to dry. When dry just like the rest I cure it and then jar it and there have been times with the next crop was not ready to be harvested and I had run out of good buds and all that little popcorn came in really handy because while it is all small and light and fluffy buds if you jam a few into a pipe they will get you high so to me they were just a small added bonus since they got me through until harvest and drying time for the next crop.

But the key to vegging is to not veg so long that your plants will then outgrow the amount of height you have to work with and secondary is to not outgrow your lights capability to provide adequate light to the lower portions of your plants but again if that happens it is not a problem and it can be a small gain but to many it is not worth it for the additional time it adds to vegging time and the overall growing time and if they are commercial growers that is important plus popcorn in bags is not impressive so they do not have any interest in it where someone growing for their own consumption may like me see it, if it just happens due to not timing things perfectly, as a slight bonus in overall yield.

To determine the sex of your plants accurately they need to be put into the flowering time cycle and that will induce the hormone in the plant for them to flower and that means they will show their sex. Different strains will show their sex earlier than others and due to differing conditions the timeframe can also vary. It can take up to two weeks before the hormone fully kicks in to induce flowering though it normally happens sooner.

Roughly two to three weeks after starting your flowering light cycle your plants should begin to show their sex. It may vary somewhat time-wise but it should be roughly two to three weeks. Normally males will show their sex first and that is handy because it allows you more than enough time to separate them from the females or just yank and toss them, depending on if you are going to keep a hearty male or two for breeding purposes or not.
 
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