Early Flowering

[zorba]

At present I have two plants that I have started from seed ( Sweet Skunk) and they have been growing for nearly four weeks and are about 10 inches high. They have been under a 24 hour light period from the start and after looking today I found one begining to show a female flower.

 

Is this going to be a problem if I still keep the plants in a veg cycle as I would like them to get a bit bigger before flowering.

 

I know some of you are going to question my 24 hour light period but I have used this on my first grow (Sweet Skunk again) and had no problems.

 

My set up is a 4ft x 2ft cupboard with a 150 watt high pressure sodium bulb for all stages. Once again some of you will probably question the use of a sodium bulb for both veg and bloom but my friend in England has grown lots and used metal halide for veg and said it wasn't worth the hassle. He has always got good results from using HPS only and I got a very good harvest on my first grow using my present setup as well.

[Luke Skywalker]

Hey there zorba... Plants will quite often show preflowers at an early age, sometimes long before they are truly mature sexually. 4 weeks sounds about right, another few weeks and they'll be ready to turn to flowering.

 

And yeah, I think plants definitely need a dark period, but that's just me.

 

As to the hps/mh thing, I use a son-t agro 400w hps, and these have an extra bump in the blue spectrum, making them a great all round lamp for vegging and flowering. I'm not at all sure if there are hps bulbs for 150w lamps in similarly spread spectra, but if you can get one I would. HPS bulbs which are not designed for horticultural use may well grow good buds, as you said you got a good harvest using the same system, (btw is it a new globe for this grow?) but you will get better results in vegetative growth with a metal halide conversion globe for the veg period, and switch to the hps or even a mix of mh and hps if possible in flower.... It's marginal, but something you may wish to consider....

 

Anyway, yeah, preflowers are fine, it just means the plants maturing... I hope that little speil helps about the lighting, but quite frankly there are more ways to grow pot than gardeners, so if it works, use it I say. I'm sure I and many other growers here would love to see your setup, any chance of a pic or two?

[Guest Wilderbud]

Yeah... show us yer box?

[zorba]

I'm glad there isn't a problem with pre-flowering at least I know I have 1female.

 

The lamp was new for my first grow so this is the second time it has been used. I think for my next grow I will use an 18/6 cycle for the veg stage and see what results I get ,so I can make up my own mind.

 

I will try to get my act together and get some pics posted next week when I have some more time to do so.

 

Thanks for the help

[budsta]

Sounds like preflowers for sure. Nothing to worry about - keep 'em veggin for as long as you want.

 

I have tried 24 hour for gro - doesn't make much difference IMHO. In fact I have gone back to 18 hours light during veg period & prefer it - they don't seem to stretch as much internodaly though they may perhaps gro slightly quicker under 24 hr light.