Is this preflower or flower?

Hey everyone, I need some help to find out if this is still in preflower or if it is flowering. It has had pistils for almost 3 weeks now, but no bud so far. Ive grown inside and when I switch to 12/12 I know its flowering, but outside I have no idea. I planted the plants in March and kept them under lights until it was late spring.

When do you classify your plants as starting to flower? I need to know because im hoping to pollinate the buds and I need to do it in the 20-30 day window.



Im in southern BC, and I thought my plants should be flowering by now. There is only 5-6 weeks until the first frost, so im worried they are stressed out for some reason and are not kicking into flower. Here is a pic of some spots on the leaves I started seeing a couple weeks ago when I thought they would start flowering.



More Info:
My male Luv Buzz have started to flower, they arent open yet but the pods started forming in the past week.
The soil was too alkaline when I first put them in the soil, they stopped growing, so I added some natural citric acid and sulfur to lower the pH and they just exploded in size, but now im wondering if it is too acidic because sulfur slowly acidifies. I ordered a soil pH meter about a month ago on ebay and its still not here, but I dont want to raise the pH unless it needs it. They all look healthy otherwise, although my biggest is drooping a bit and has been for about 10 days now. That is the only wilted one out of 20 fems and all the clones I made from it are doing great, but not flowering either

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!

Same issue here only I have a lot smaller plant only about 13'' so far. I also only have about 8 weeks until first frost and started to see preflowers a couple days ago. I have heard once she starts to split the nodes up into 1 then she is getting into flowering but could be bogus. Here's some pics in relations to yours. Other than the preflowers that started only around the nodes just under the tops, all I can see is new veg growth.

still vegging and maybe in the stretch.

yes , you will want to pollinate in week 3-4 of flower.

TokaLot said:

Beef
How many gallons of water do you feed and how often?

I have been seeing pistils for about 3 weeks also but my light cycle was still to long so they were just going back and forth but now there hitting it there starting to flower real good..

I would wait to pollinate till you have formed flowers.

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On average I give the big ones (8 feet) about a gallon a day. If it has been really hot, I will give them 2 gallons

TokaLot said:

You could be under watering it try giving it 5 gallons and see what happens wait till the next day see if its drooping if not wait till the following day.

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Ok great, thanks!

Do you by chance know what the weird whitish marks on the leaves are? They seem to come and go..

TokaLot said:

It kinds looks like water drops sat there and the sun magnified them and burnt the leaves but idk on that do you're plants get wet in the middle of the day?

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Nope, I always make sure to water before the sun hits the plants or after the sun goes down. I also never water through the leaves, always on the base and same with ferts. That would make sense though as why they come and go, Thanks again!

So getting back to the topic of the thread, How do you define when the flowering period begins? Is it when it has more than 1 set of hairs on the nodes? or when you see trichs?

cheers

This is about when I start counting days. This pic was probably considerably in flower a week prior.

So I am still in pre flower... sheeet

Same here probably...Or just about to start the flowering stage.

Reigning said:

Same here probably...View attachment 2790349View attachment 2790350Or just about to start the flowering stage.

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Ya that looks pretty well identical eh? This is worse than waiting for christmas!

Totally agree but worth the wait. Looking at my girl again today makes me think she is getting into flowering now. Denser growth is starting at each of the five main tops she has and the little preflower hairs are getting longer with a little bit of a red tinged appearing as well even for how small they are. This is good because October is creeping up and around then is when it starts to get frosty at night.

I don't know if its the same with all strains but I've noticed that right before plants start flowering, leaves will start to grow perpendicular to the stems; straight up along the stem. These will be the colas. I consider a plant to be in full flower when I see white hairs at the very tips of the bud sites. I not sure if this is right or not. During preflower I start seeing white hairs forming below the tips, along the stems. I have yet to find a definitive answer as to when you should consider a plant to be at the start of flowering.

Tokalot, I gave the wilted one 4 gallons of water yesterday and its mostly perked back up! A few leaves are still down a bit compared to the others, but looks waaay better! I had no idea they could take that much water in a day. Thanks again!

So BWG707 looking back at my pic you would consider it just about starting flowering? Or getting ready to flower?