Opinions needed!! 12/12 slow flowering grapefruit

Hi all, im new to this forum and i desperately need advice! Im rather new to growing (4th grow) but have been a keen connoisseur for quite some time..

Im busy with a soil grow with 3 beautiful grapeftuit hybrid ladies i got from a friend. Im using a 400w MH in a more or less 2x3 grow area with good ventilation. Temps are 26 C day and around 21 C night. Soil PH is always in check. They were in veg for around 6 weeks and they are currently just past week 2 of 12/12 but are really slow.

My question is: does it matter when i switch to 12/12 to have done it to have later "mornings" or earlier "nights"???? When i was on 18/6, lights turned on at 01:00 and off again at 19:00. When i switched over to 12/12 lights still turned off 19:00 but now came on only at 7:00 (later morning)... (don't know why on earth i did this, but i stuck to it)

Would this be the cause of the slow start to flowering?? There is nice pistil formation but far less than my previous grows... And what can be done to help the girls really explode?? Or should I leave it and hope for the best?? I can post pics if needed.

Thanks guys!! TKid

Any advice would be much appreciated

It makes no difference when or what time you do 12/12.
It's probably just the strain, they are all different and tend to do things at their own pace. It's mostly sativa and they can be a little slow to start.
I saw 1 site saying 8 weeks till harvest, but you could most likely add a few weeks to that, it's a selling trick and not always true.
Give it another couple of weeks and it should swing into go mode.

Thanks for the reply spiked!! I know that strain plays a big part with how they flower, but with my friend's grow his plants really flowered fast from the beginning, and i got the cuttings from him off the mother he took his from...
Could it maybe be that I still have high N levels that is delaying flowering a bit? They are rather dark green Would i need to flush a bit? Thanks!

No flush necessary, in fact I don't start the flowering nutes until they absolutely have started making flowers. Patience is the key, especially with a sativa.

Thanks for your input Tommy... Looks like i will have to be patient with this one.... I haven't fed any bloom nutes as yet, that's why i think im seeing a bit of a build up of N from the veggy nutes... I might feed straight water then start with bloom nutes.

Sativas are driven alot by chronological age, especially true equatorial types.

For the typical mutt, it doesn't matter when the 12/12/ starts or finishes regarding YOUR clock cycle, just keep it consistent once you go there or you'll be prone to AC/DC. The flowering response is governed by chronological and/or phytochrome changes depending on genetics.

As an aside, I've had great flowering results based on staying with a high N food throughout the flowering response. Since leaves are the plant unit that produces bud, and N supports leaf growth and maintenance, the use of high or low N foods is your call. I don't have enough fingers to tell you how many good gardens were screwed up because folks went with a so called "bloom food" as they watched their leaves yellow and fall off due to a lack of N in the particular food.

Read your plants.

Good luck,
UB

UB, thanks for the reply! I generally don't follow what fert companies say I should as each plant has different needs (learned the hard way)... However the general concession, not only in MJ books, forums etc but also in general botany is that excessive amounts of N can delay flowering. I also forgot to mension that they showed clear pre-flowering a week or so prior to switching to flower so i don't think they were way too young.
The chronological age thing definately adds up. I think the reason why my friends really budded quick is that he kept them in veg for around 10 weeks! These feisty sativas...

PS: Great thread about topping for 4 colas BTW!! Definatley going that rout in my next grow
Peace

trichomeKid said:

UB, thanks for the reply! I generally don't follow what fert companies say I should as each plant has different needs (learned the hard way)... However the general concession, not only in MJ books, forums etc but also in general botany is that excessive amounts of N can delay flowering.

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Yep, that's what they say. Question is what constitutes excessive N? For some that may be a 10-10-10. I guarantee you that a Dalat will not bloom any quicker getting a 10-30-20 versus a 30-10-10. I read my plants and try to keep the leaves as healthy and green as possible.

Good luck,
UB

Thanks UB, makes sense. I will just carry on doing what im doing and im sure i'll get a decent harvest when the girls decide to surrender

trichomeKid said:

Thanks UB, makes sense. I will just carry on doing what im doing and im sure i'll get a decent harvest when the girls decide to surrender

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Learned a long time ago that whips don't work.

Uncle Ben said:

Learned a long time ago that whips don't work.

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lol maybe not, but talking dirty to em sure will