Help me decide when I should start to flower.

[syco_cop]

I need help deciding if I should flower in the near future or wait.

I Kind of want to start it soon for a few reasons.
1. I only have one plant going when I have enough room for four, and I don't know what kind I have now.
2. I have no idea how much bigger the plant will get during flowering.
3. The sooner this plant is over, the sooner I can start four northern lights from seed.
4. I'm out of smoke.

One the other hand I kind of want to wait a while.
1. I have enough hight to let the plant get to 3.5 feet with no probs.
2. The plant has 3 large main branches, I know if I let them get big each one would produce a large amount of bud.
3. If I started to flower to soon and it turns out to be female I will be pissed at myself, on the other hand if I wait a long time and it turns out to be a male plant I would also be pissed.
4. I don't know if the plant is mature enough to start to flower.

As of right now the three main branches are about 8 inches tall. I was thinking of letting the plant get 12inches then flower, or should I wait, please help, thanks.

[Zarnon]

Some of it depends on how tall your growroom is.

I say give the plant enough room to triple and you will be ok (on avg).

Also how long has the plant been growing? Are there preflowers (if over 1 mo and has preflowers you're good to go).

[syco_cop]

The plant is 5 weeks since it showed its first true leaves, yet only 8", dont know what i'm doing wrong here as the plant is kept between 75-80 degs and its under a 250w mh conversion bulb.:confused:
But i see no sign of preflowers yet, though there is a ball looking type growth at each internode, but no hairs or anything like that coming from them.
Overall being 8 weeks since germ i'm kind of disipointed in the size of the plant, figured it should be atleast 1' by now. Either way i'm open to suggestions if anyone sees something i'm doing wrong, thanks.

For the info i'm using jiffy mix soiless mix with 1/3 perlite, ph is at 6.7, and i water about once a week, every other time i use mirical grow, lime has been mixed into the soil.

The plant looks healthy as all hell, but like i say, i am dissapointed in the speed of the growth of the plant.

[rebel dawg]

start flowering now or you will have issues later with heighth. plants are looking great by the way.

[Zarnon]

I am not a soil expert so I dunno. How much lime did you mix in? I would only use it for acidic soil. Are you measuring water/fert ph or soil ph? At 6.7 that's great from what I've read (soil higher ph than hydro). I have no idea what's in Jiffy Mix. One suggest is to get your own nutes next time.

I dunno about the height. For hydro 2 months @ 8 inches would be a lot shorter than anything I've done (should get 1 foot or greater w/in a month). I honestly haven't followed much soil grows so don't know what's expected.

But what you're doing sounds right; temp, watering schedule and as RD said, the plants look great.

[syco_cop]

Well I think I'm going to take RB's advice and start to flower on fri or sat as I'm impatient and want to start four plants from known seed.

Zarnon what do you mean I should use my own nuts, homemade style? If so where do you get the supplies to do this, sorry but I'm a rookie and don't really understand what you mean. I'm retarded.

As far as lime goes I added about a cup worth to three gals of soil, and I add this stuff the the water to make it 7.0 for ph used in fishtanks. Figured if it wont kill a fish then it should be fine for a plant.

Anyways thanks for helping me out guys, as this is my first plant ever, and I keep thinkin I'm doing something wrong because it looks totally weird to me, and not growing as fast as I think it should, thanks.

Also included new pic, so you can see just how slow it is growing.

[Zarnon]

Well, I would not apply the same logic to plants you do to fish heh heh...

I would check your ph. From what I've read, soil ph should be 6.5-7.0 (no higher) and hydro 5.8-6.3. That is a lot of lime my friend. The Foxfarm I used is neutral (right at 7) so adding raising it further would be counterproductive.

Too high, too low ph means nutrients are not getting absorbed. Slower absorption, slower growth.

Again, I'm a newb to soil so please check things out yourself. I would test it out (get ph meter or strips) and check.

By getting your own nutes I meant talking to people, reading forums, finding a grow you can follow. Best would be knowing someone who is good at soil growing and asking advice.