My current grow switched over in just about one week. Of course they are the variety called FLO and they had been growing nearly 2 months before I made the switch. OK so I have to mention that they all turned female, 4/4. I just had to rub that in. I have also struck out- getting 0/3 once. Damn that sucks. They say that FLO can be ready in as little as 6 weeks of 12/12. I have usually let the various strains go for 8 weeks at least. These are Indica/Sativa hybrids.
My first grow was technically my third or fourth because I had all males (6 each round) I want to say 3 maybe 2 times in a row!! They were such healthy plants - genetics from Nirvana seeds back in 2005.
So I was then left with no more seeds from abroad and grew out some bagseed a friend had been collecting whenever he had some fire and found any seeds (always sensi but sometimes you do get a few seeds as you know aka a little hermaphrodite syndrome or whatever you want to call it). I think that's probably why one of my plants had these little yellow banana looking things (Does anyone know what these exactly are? Male pollen sacks?) I picked off of the buds at the end of flowering. Turned out to be excellent all around smoke and bag appeal as well, and all I used was a 400w HPS and believe it or not - miracle grow moisture control potting soil. I don't know if it was better 10 years ago or what, but I practically had no issues the entire grow (except for branches needing to be tied up due to falling over from the weight of the buds). I yielded about 100 grams in the end from 3 plants, one was a runt. I have pics in my journal or if you click my user name.. sorry new here! I think I did use Alaska Fish Fertilizer in flowering and perhaps super-thrive as well, but that's it. Just water and a closet that naturally recycled clean air into the room. There was an attic in the closet and I basically just left it open and had an oscillating fan in the closet as well.
Now I'm learning with my current grow just how important the soil or nutrients, water, and environment really are as my plants are having issues and people are basically saying that because I used crappy time released potting soil I've limited myself to very few options. I'm hoping to transplant to new soil next week and dip the roots in warm water as suggested by someone else to remove the old soil off of the roots.
I wish I had pictures of the males from those first attempts. Such strong green healthy plants. If I knew what I now know today I would have definitely made some seeds!
EDIT: This is my current grow
https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/797143-mag-deficiency-headband-afghan-kush-2.html