Flowering week 3 and 4
After two weeks with 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness, the plant stops growing and every bud starts to develop its first flowers.
Almost no leaves are being made anymore and the roots also don’t grow as quickly.
All pistils are white and increase very rapidly. The little flowers are now just small white balls, spread along the branches.
And the smell starts to really develop at this point. I always find this stage very exciting.
From now on, you shouldn’t prune your plants anymore. Your plants need all their energy to create buds, and pruning would create a wound the plant needs to repair, which costs energy.
Since the plants don’t grow much anymore and it completely focuses on the development of the buds, you have to provide it with different nutrients.
Your plant needs less nitrogen, a bit of potassium and a lot of phosphor.
You could use Bloom Fertilizer by Flower Power or ask your local garden center or growshop for advice.
The plants now use a lot of water, so make sure they never go without and that the soil is always a bit moist.
Reach your hand halfway down the pot and lift them out of the pot often to check the humidity.
It’s better to water them a bit every day than water them a lot every 5 days.
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You can better manage your plants this way, because you’re checking every day so you won’t water them too little or too much as quickly.
It’s often tempting to already taste a little bud, but that has little use.
The buds barely contain any THC and the taste isn’t all that great. You would only cause damage to the plant. Have a bit more patience.
Bergman’s Numbers
Environmental factors
- Light cycle: 12 hours light – 12 hours darkness
- Light color: Orange-red – HPS
- Temperature: 70-77 degrees
- Humidity: 50 – 60%
- Fertilizer: 1.3 – 1.4
- pH: 6.0
Day 50
You can see the first buds appear starting today. They don’t really look like buds, but you can see more white hairs come out of the new growth.
It’s best visible at the main bud, but you can see little white hairs appear all over the plant.
From now on, the plant will use its energy for the production of as many buds as possible.
So make sure the plant has everything it needs and provide it with sufficient water and a nice climate.
Also check the leaves again, both the top and underneath. They should have a nice green color without spots, discoloration or deformation.
Bugs usually hang out underneath the leaves, so make sure you check these spots.If your leaves look healthy, you can increase the EC to 1.3.
You can also switch to flowering nutrients now. This contains a lot of phosphor and potassium and a bit less nitrogen, which is exactly what your plants need to produce buds.
I rinsed the soil with only acidulated water, so the plants can directly absorb all the new nutrients.
Read more about the use of certain nutrients in the article Nutrients for marijuana plants.
Here are two links to proper flowering fertilizers you can use.
I now give them 1/2 gallons of water every other day and they use every last drop.
This is a good sign, because it means the respiration process is going well. They absorb tons of nutrients along with the water, which is exactly what they need right now.
Day 52
You can now see the first real buds appear. They are just tiny balls with white hairs, but they’re buds!
They don’t contain any THC yet and aren’t really smokable, but they’re starting to get a nice smell.
Gently squeeze one of these balls and smell your fingers after. This is very promising ;)The plant won’t grow anymore really, so you don’t need to check the height of your lamp every time.
Do however maintain a perfect climate. The humidity needs to be between 50 and 60 percent, and the temperature shouldn’t rise above 77 degrees.
Always make sure the plants have enough water, and take good care of them.
This is a very important period, because the number of buds your plant will produce is determined right now.
We’re all doing it for the buds. But in order to grow thick buds, all organs of the plant must be healthy: the leaves, root system, stems and tissue.
Read the article What is a marijuana plant to see how all parts work together and what their functions are.
Day 54
This is really starting to look like a bud. You can see many white hairs grow from the little buds and probably also some leaves.
These leaves are important, because they can tell you a lot about the health of your buds.
If you look closely at those little leaves that grow out of your buds, you can see there’s already some resin on them.
The leaves around the buds are perfect to make hash or weed butter out of later.I already taught you how to check if your plant is healthy.
But now that the plant has buds, there are some more factors you have to take into account;
The color of the hairs must be white during the first two weeks. If that’s not the case the plant can experience stress, causing it to finish flowering quicker.
After two weeks the first hairs will turn red, and towards the end of the harvest they’ll all be red/brown, as they should be.
These should also be green. If the tip of a leaf is brown it indicates a nutrient surplus, and you should give the plant half the dose the next time.
If whole leaves are turning brown, you could be experiencing bud rot. This won’t happen at this stage, but it can occur near the end of the harvest.
So from now
If you are in doubt, immediately talk to one of our growing experts on the forum.
Download my free marijuana grow guide to learn more about growing marijuana.
Day 57
It’s really starting to look like something now! They’ve grown a lot over the weekend!
You can see that the little white balls are getting bigger and are starting to grow towards each other.
This can eventually amount to very big buds. If you look at the bottom of your plants, you can see all kinds of little buds starting to grow.
Keep the climate and your watering at the right level.If your plants are healthy and your leaves are nice and green, you can increase the EC to 1.4.
If this is not the case, follow the step-by-step plan to see what’s wrong with your plants and approach a growing expert on our forum to help you.
The absorption of water and the nutrients dissolved in it takes place through the roots of a plant.
This process takes place through osmosis. Osmosis is a physical process in which substances can move from one liquid – separated by a semi-permeable wall (the plant cell) – to another liquid.
This takes place from the side with the highest concentration to the side with the lowest concentration of nutrients. This movement of ions is called osmotic pressure.
The same principle applies to a marijuana plant, which consists of about 80% water.
So the type and amount of substances on both sides of the cell wall are important.
Let’s keep it simple and assume the liquid in a plant and the water outside the plant only contain N (nitrogen), P (phosphor) and K (potassium) ions.
If the marijuana plant used nitrogen ions, the concentration in the plant is lower than in the water outside of the plant.
So new nitrogen ions are being sucked in from the water. If the plant has enough potassium ions in the plant (the concentration on both sides of the cell wall is the same), the K-molecules won’t come into action and stay where they are.
If a plant has many more P-ions than the liquid outside the plant, the phosphor is sucked out of the plant, creating a shortage in the plant. Read more about osmosis in the article What is osmosis.
Day 59
Despite the fact that this is a very important stage, the days all look the same.
Besides checking the climate, plants and water, you don’t have to do much else.
This is a good moment to start broadening your knowledge and read a number of articles on plant physiology.
The articles are quite detailed, but give you a good understanding of the functioning and the needs of a marijuana plant.
You can use this knowledge in future harvests. To motivate you a little bit, I’ll show you a small series of pictures on how the main bud is going to develop.
If you make sure you have enough knowledge and you stick to this schedule, it will look just like this on your plants…
Day 61
Keep checking all values and take good care of your plants. Starting next week no new buds will be produced, but the buds will start to blow up.
If your plants are healthy, the size of your buds can increase optimally. From this moment on, the risk of fungi and diseases increases.
The buds are warm, humid spots where fungi can develop well under the right circumstances.
From now on it’s important you take a number of things into consideration:
Don’t spray your buds
Make sure your buds stay dry and don’t spray your plants anymore. Bud rot, which develops best under a high humidity, is disastrous to your plants.
You should therefore keep the humidity around 50% and the temperature around 77 degrees.
Proper ventilation
Fungi usually develop in places that don’t experience airflow. A proper ventilation between the buds prevents the easy nestling of fungi. It also blows the buds dry in case they got wet.
Checking
Regularly check your buds and leaves for fungi and diseases. Look for brown, white or black spots on the leaves.
Brown leaves that grow out of the bud and discoloration on top of the buds. Touch your plants as little as possible and preferably wear surgical gloves.
Here’s an overview of the most common fungi and diseases, with a link to an article with more information.
