Home Growers Corner
Life Stages: Adulthood
What to Do and When to do It
Flower( Bud) Stage— Part 2
by Gerry Donovan, contributing writer
Last month, in the May issue, we covered Life Stages: What to do and when to do it, Part 1: Adolescence.( See the May issue at www. theevolutionmag. com if you missed it.) This month, now that your seedling or cutting has fully grown through its Vegetative( Veg) Stage, it’ s time to induce flowering and watch the buds start to develop. The way to do this is by“ Flipping your plants,” which is done by setting your light-timer schedule to turn your plant lights on for 12 hours and off for 12 hours. This signals the growing plant to start making buds.( Remember, an Auto Plant will do this automatically based on how long it’ s been alive; however, even though it’ s an Auto Plant, treat it like a Photo-period plant and change your light schedule— I’ ve noticed far better auto-flower results in terms of bud production and quality when I do this.)
Note: I can’ t stress Patience and Self-Restraint enough. Look at your plants every day, but do not mess with them unless they need something. Also, remember to maximize your inputs— Light, Wind, and Nutrients— to maximize the plant’ s output, meaning— more Bud!
I suggest starting the plant’ s Flower Stage earlier than you think. Many people believe the plant stops growing when you switch it from the Veg Stage to the Bud Stage. That, however, is not at all the case. The plant will grow much larger during the Flower Stage. All varieties are different, but in general, I like to say that the plant is about 1 / 3 grown when you“ Flip” it.
Flower Timeline— What To Do & When.
When you transition a Photo-period plant into flower, it’ s about an 8-week countdown until harvest.( Some are a bit shorter, some a bit longer.) An Auto-Flower plant will take about 8 weeks from starting the seed to finish flowering.
Watering
Nutrient transition( Day 1): This is your first consideration. Your plant has been feeding on a heavy-veg nutrient solution. The very day I adjust my light schedule, I like to top off the plant’ s water with a light Bloom nutrient solution to ease the plant into its new food and life stage.
Day 4-7: Depending on the size of your plant, and the size of the container in which it’ s growing, it’ s now time to water with a fullstrength Bloom solution— plus, a bud enhancement supplement.
You will be watering with this solution until about weeks 3 or 4, when I like to add a sugar-enhancing supplement to encourage the plant to make lots of trichomes( crystals).
At about week 7, or when the hairs on the budsites have changed color by about 90 %, I like to stop using all nutrients and just add plain water to the plants to flush out any extra, built-up nutrients. That final plain-water step will help ensure good taste and a smooth smoke.
Flower Start: May 2nd, light cycle now 12 hours on and 12 off.
22 JUNE 2026
Flower Finish: same plant seven weeks later, on June 21st.
Pruning
Week 1: The plant is now settled into flower and showing you how it’ s starting to develop. Prune the top and chop at this stage to keep forming the canopy of the bud sites.( See QR code at the end of this article for a how-to prune video)
Week 2: There will be significant development at this stage. You will see whether the plant wants to stretch wide or stay stubby. If it is a stubby plant, just prune off some of the lower budsites that have grown and call it a day. If it is a stretchy or“ just-keeps-growing”