Boy did I screw up

Hi all, need to solicit a little advice. I just found that my 4 week old babies are starting to bud. I was shocked as they're supposed to be on a 16/8 schedule. Checked my timer and realized that I hadn't taken it off the 12/12 schedule from last time. Can't believe I didn't change the timer! They've been 12/12 since the beginning! Anyway, all of the mature ones are starting to bud while the ones that aren't mature (about 50/50) are still ok. However, I do not want any of them to be budding yet. The ones that have are only about 18" high and I had planned to wait another 3 weeks before flipping. And since they've been on 12/12 their whole life I'm not sure if they've stretched or if it's normal veg growth...not really sure what to do with them. What affect does 12/12 lighting for the entire lifespan have? I'm trying to decide if I should put the lighting back up, or let all of them ride the 12/12 cycle and see what happens. The plants that are not mature are way behind the mature ones, so I'm thinking maybe if I reveg the mature ones, by the time they are flipped back they will all be ready to bud. Would that be too stressful?

Thanks!

I just finished up a batch 12/12 and have one more going 12/12.
It works and is fine, you are going to get small yields from them though.

I did the 12/12 because I was getting way too many strains stockpiled that I am not just crazy about growing out.
Figured I would do this to use some up. Instead of having 3 in my batch as normal, I ran with 5 the first time and have 6 going this time.
Next batch I will be going back down to smaller numbers and veg time to get more yield. 12/12 does have it's place in my rotation though. I always order during the March promo at Attitudes and end up with freebie seeds that don't peak my interest. I will do a 12/12 once a year just to use up a bunch of the strains I don't particularly care to put a lot of time into.

me pers I like the look of 12/12 grows betta////as althor sez tho u wont get much yield but still grow them out bro...

I don't know this from experience but here is what I think. People do start to flower plants to sex them and then they flip back to veg. People also re veg their plants after they have harvested. If you are growing with fem seeds there could be stress issues involved. The thing I would wonder about is the time it takes for the hormones in the plant to change. If you only want to grow them out another 3 weeks I would think it would take a week to a week and a half to adjust. This leaves 1.5 weeks for extra vegging. Then you will be flipping back to 12/12. Then this will cause the plants to spend another week and a half to switch back to flower. It seems that this would make for a odd 3 to 5 weeks for your plants. I know this does not really answer your question but I would think about the time the plant is going to spend trying to balance its hormones and if its worth the 3 maybe only 1.5 weeks of veg time. I am interested in hearing a answer from a 12/12 grower or somebody that has tried this. I hope somebody answers you question more precisely. Its a good one.

Some people who want quick bud do 12/12 from seed. Because of the reduced vegetative growth, you'll have small plants and small yield.

You can reveg and give them all more time to grow. I have never done it, so hopefully someone who has will give you some pointers, though you can try searching, or asking about it in the Advanced Cultivation room. My guess is you should put them on 24/0 to get the most out of it, but honestly I do not know.

From my experiences 12/12 from seed isnt much shorter than doing a 30 day veg. It takes 3-4 weeks before the plant to mature enough to begin flowering anyway. Only reason I see to do 12/12 from seed is to stunt growth in order to have more plants packed in a small area. Which does have it's place IMO.

I'm going to try this 12/12 as I have one clone just to see what happens I'm guessing I will only get 1 oz of dry buds but its different way and a learning experience as im new to growing

Thanks for the quick responses! If the other girls that were in the same room were near ready I'd just bud them all out, but they got messed up by a failed pump and fell a couple weeks behind. They're 1/3rd the size of the mature girls, which did come from fem seeds btw. There is a point to be made that if I reveg, then reflower, I really won't gain much....but these girls are in mid stretch. Just realized it this a.m when I saw how much new growth there was. They are going to dominate the poor little babies next to them. Does turning up the light stop the stretch?

After sexing your plants at week 3-4, 12/12 from seed, a nice 4 week veg is a nice way to let your girls fill out. In any case, you are looking at a 100 day grow ( more or less depending on your chop time ). The beauty of 12/12 from seed to sex, to me anyway, is knowing after 3 weeks that your plants are girls ( keepers ) or boys ( garbage can ). No fun growing a plant for months only to find out it has balls.