New Grower How long do autos preflower before blooming into bud production?

I have been growing a fastberry from fastbuds from orgeoneliteseeds, I am growing it in Coco coir and I'm feeding it with the complete set of roots organic liquid nutrients and I'm on week 5, or bloom one. My problem is that my autoflower entered into preflowering in it's third week from sprouting, it's week 5 now and it still has not started bud production. I have been feeding it now at least 800 to 1000 ppms with 5.8 to 6.1 pH of the nutrients with more of the Buddha bloom in it.

If you have grown autos, what's the longest you have had yours in preflower before it started to enter blooming?

 

[Proph]

This is kind of a tricky question.. It depends on what you are calling preflower.. I've grown countless autos, and none have been in free flower at week 3. Most people confuse "showing sex" as "pre-flower".. Pre flower is when the the bud sets start forming little cotton ball shaped pistils.. In general, pre flower can start anywhere from 35-45 days from seed. Some strains take even longer. I have a couple sour stompers from Mephisto that are on day 37ish that hasn't hit pre-flower yet.. But it showed sex almost 2 weeks ago.

 

[Proph]

This is a good reference pic of "pre-flower"

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

People mistakenly think that nutrients push a plant into flower. It is the genetic time clock in an Auto and the length of the day/night for Photoperiod plants that put them into flower. The plant simply uptakes the nutrients that it needs for the stage of life it is in. Adding more Bloom will not make it flower faster but it may allow bigger flowers. I think you are getting close to the upper limit on the PPMs for most autos so keep an eye on toxicity.

Remember those plants are on their clock not yours .

 

[Kinezokyprios]

Usually fast buds strains start flowering between the 3rd and 5th week. Signs of sex can be visible from the 2nd week but in your case you are already in bloom. However your plant is stressed. You feed it too much. This delays the blooming process and things start to go really slow. Just lower the amount of nutrients for now and don't worry soon the plant itself will ask for more. If you want an auto to flower early, don't feed it much, use a smaller container. One of the ways to trigger their internal clock is to make sure the roots will reach the bottom of the container sooner. In a bigger container this takes more time, and you must follow another strategy to speed up blooming. You can try to manipulate the grow room's weather to emulate autumn. Lower the temperatures to a steady 20C, use 3000K lights, feed less and water more for a week. That would do the trick.

 

[Taino1171]

Usually fast buds strains start flowering between the 3rd and 5th week. Signs of sex can be visible from the 2nd week but in your case you are already in bloom. However your plant is stressed. You feed it too much. This delays the blooming process and things start to go really slow. Just lower the amount of nutrients for now and don't worry soon the plant itself will ask for more. If you want an auto to flower early, don't feed it much, use a smaller container. One of the ways to trigger their internal clock is to make sure the roots will reach the bottom of the container sooner. In a bigger container this takes more time, and you must follow another strategy to speed up blooming. You can try to manipulate the grow room's weather to emulate autumn. Lower the temperatures to a steady 20C, use 3000K lights, feed less and water more for a week. That would do the trick.

Now that you mention it, I have been feeding it twice a day, one in yeh morning and one at night.

 

[Kinezokyprios]

Well, plant meals have a periodic regularity that is not related to human needs for nutrients, they don't need breakfast, lunch and dinner. Once per week, maximum twice, is more of an appropriate approach to cannabis feeding. Not to mention that feeding once per month or never are also common and productive approaches.

 

[Kinezokyprios]

So how did your grow go?

 

[briefbriefs]

This is kind of a tricky question.. It depends on what you are calling preflower.. I've grown countless autos, and none have been in free flower at week 3. Most people confuse "showing sex" as "pre-flower".. Pre flower is when the the bud sets start forming little cotton ball shaped pistils.. In general, pre flower can start anywhere from 35-45 days from seed. Some strains take even longer. I have a couple sour stompers from Mephisto that are on day 37ish that hasn't hit pre-flower yet.. But it showed sex almost 2 weeks ago.

interesting! I was mistaken in thinking that preflower and showing sex were the same thing. So when would you suggest that a grower starts using bloom nutes? During preflower or a week into proper flowering? Also, does the stretch usually take place during preflower or is it when the plant shows sex?

 

[Kinezokyprios]

interesting! I was mistaken in thinking that preflower and showing sex were the same thing. So when would you suggest that a grower starts using bloom nutes? During preflower or a week into proper flowering? Also, does the stretch usually take place during preflower or is it when the plant shows sex?

Start using bloom nutrients from the start of feeding. Autos have a much smaller lifespan and preflower or blooming starts very early. Bloom nutrients also boost root development so even if it takes a while to start flowering, the plant will use them for root development. It is a blur zone, when is sex just showing or the plant actually flowering. It is actually stretch itself that marks flowering in this sense. Expect it to start around week five, but this is not always the case. Photos are a different case, nutrient use depends on your light schedule, but veg nutrients are a must throughout the grow. No nitrogen means death for the plant. Try to use a balanced mix of nutrients for both growth cycles. NPK 7-7-10 is a good option for steady use in both vegging and flowering. No need for more N or/and PK boosters if your feeding follows such a balanced schedule.