The various stages of the life cycle of a cannabis flowering plant life cycle are exciting! From seeing the first moments of a tiny seedling poking its head out of the pot to the gorgeous, potent buds that your plant rewards your hard work with, there are many crucial milestones, and the early flowering stage is one of them.
Simply put, the early flowering phase is when the plant transitions from the vegetative stage to the flowering stage, which is when it channels all its energy into producing the buds that we all know and love. The early cannabis flowering stage, where the plant reveals its gender and starts to show signs of maturity, is just before full-on bud production.
In this blog post, we’ll look at the complete life and light cycle of a cannabis plant, the signs that it is the week of the flowering stage, and how you can help your plant flourish during this crucial phase until you’re able to harvest your plant.
Key Takeaways
- It depends on many factors, but as a general rule, cannabis plants grow and start flowering around week 8.Â
- Generally, autoflowers, indoor plants, and indicas flower sooner, which is about week 4, week 5, or week 6.
- Early indicators of flowering include changes to the light cycle, a growth spurt, and the formation of pistils, pollen sacs, or both at the nodes.
- In the early flowering stages of cannabis growing, switch to bloom nutrients, keep up pruning the cannabis leaves, consider LST, and watch out for nutrient burn or deficiencies.
Week by Week Guide to the Lifecycle of a Cannabis Plant
Many factors will determine the lifecycle of a cannabis plant, like the specific strain, whether it is grown outdoors or indoors, environmental factors, and whether it is an autoflower. However, this is a very rough guideline so you can know what to look out for till you get to the week of flowering.
Week 1: Germinating
Your cannabis cultivation all starts with germinating a seed. You can soak them in water or directly plant them in a nursery pot, but the most popular way is the paper towel method.
Weeks 2 and Week 3: Seedling
If all goes well, you’ve got yourself a seedling that can stay in the nursery pot until it has to be transplanted. The little plant is ready to be transplanted to a bigger grow room when it develops a few sets of healthy, strong leaves or its bud site is looking tangled and cramped.
Vegetative Stage: Weeks 2 to Week 8
This is the period of vegetative growth for the male or female cannabis seedling. Your seedling is rapidly growing into a tall, lanky adolescent, where he or she will direct most of the energy to grow an actual bud as well as a strong main stem and root system, and healthy leaves and branches.
Pre-Flowering Stage: Weeks 8 to 9
This is the star of the show, so we’ll talk more about it soon, but as mentioned before, it is when the plant transitions from the vegetative stage and enters the flowering stage.
Flowering Stage: Weeks 9 to 12 (or so!)
We’ll cover the early flowering stage soon. The flowering period is late in the plant’s life and it is when the energies are directly directed towards producing dense, luscious buds.Â
Here’s a quick (and broad) summary.
| Week 1 | Germination |
| Weeks 2 and 3 | Seedling |
| Weeks 2 to 8 | Vegetative Stage |
| Weeks 8 and 9 | Pre-flowering |
| Weeks 9 and up | Flowering |
| Weeks 12+ | Harvest |
This is a rough guide to cannabis flowering, and there are exceptions to every rule, but here are some more points to note.
- Autoflowers will flower soonerÂ
- Outdoor plants tend to show signs of flowering sooner compared to growing cannabis indoors.
- Sativas have a longer growth cycle than indicas.
Signs That Indicate The Plant’s About To Flower
Most cannabis strains start to flower around the end of week 8, but because there are so many variables, it is best to keep a close watch on the plant for the first few weeks prior. Here are some common indicators that your plant is entering the stage of flowering:
Changes in Light Schedule
Changes in light schedule are one of the signs of the flowering stage. When grown outdoors, plants may enter the pre-flowering stage and flowering stage when the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer. They usually flower during a light schedule comprising 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of sunlight. Depending on your geographical location, that usually means late summer or early fall.Â
When grown indoors, cultivators often take matters into their own hands and control the light periods to start flowering. This is done for several reasons, like shortening the lifecycle or controlling the size of the plants during the flowering stage. They might also want to keep the plant indefinitely in the vegetative stage to prevent it from transitioning into the flowering stage because they want cuttings.Â
Increased Stretching
Cannabis plants that are in the pre-flowering or early flowering stages might have a last-minute growth spurt that lasts one to two weeks. Understanding the flowering at this final phase of vertical growth helps inform that the plant is redirecting its energy into growing buds.
Sativa strains stretch more than indicas. The plants tend to grow and can double or triple in height during this phase. Indicas can increase their height by about 50 to 100%. Think about it as a tall, lanky adolescent human that seemingly grows overnight!
When a plant starts to stretch, many growers might control the growth spurt by manipulating the light schedules and temperatures or performing low-stress training. A plant that is too tall is difficult to manage or can become unstable and topple over.
Formation of Pre-Flowers at Nodes
This is the most precise way to determine if it’s time to start flowering. Female plants will develop pistils, and male plants will develop pollen sacs. In some cases, a plant can develop both, becoming a hermaphrodite plant that has both sets of organs and the ability to pollinate itself.
Pistils are small structures that will emerge from nodes, which are where the leaves and branches meet the main stem. These hair-like, delicate structures usually contain white, fuzzy stigmas that are responsible for catchgreen pollen.Â
Pollen sacs are little green, grape-shaped sacs that contain pollen. If these sacs burst open, the pollen will be released into the air and can pollinate nearby female cannabis plants, making them grow seeds. If you are growing cannabis to have potent, seedless buds, you might want to remove the males from the females.
Summary of Factors That Indicate Flowering Time
| Indicator | Indoor | Outdoor |
| Changes in light schedule | When growers shift from 18/6 to 12/12 light schedule | When there’s 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of darkness |
| Increased Stretching | Plants have a one to two-week long growth spurt | Plants have a one to two week long growth spurt |
| Appearance of pistils (female) | White, hair-like structures that catch pollen | White, hair-like structures that catch pollen |
| Appearance of pollen sacs (male) | Small, grape-shaped sacs that contain pollen | Small, grape-shaped sacs that contain pollen |
Special Care During The Early Flowering Stage
If you have a happy, healthy plant, you’ll only have to make a few tweaks to your daily TLC routine.
Nutrient Adjustments
The flowering stage is crucial. hence, you need different nutrients that are higher in compounds, such as phosphorus and potassium, but lower in nitrogen. If you see early flowering signs, you might want to switch to a bloom-specific nutrient.Â
Pruning and Training
As mentioned earlier, the final growth spurt might cause a plant to grow too tall and unstable, so if you want to control the size and growth of your plant, employ some low-stress training (LST) techniques such as installing a ScrOG (Screen of Green) netting, gently bending the growing branches, and placing it under to prevent them from shooting for the sky.
Perform regular pruning from the point of the flowering stage and also throughout the flowering phase, to remove dead or brittle leaves at the bottom. If your plant is looking particularly bushy and overgrown, think about defoliating it, starting with a few leaves at a time, to promote airflow and increase light exposure.
Nutrient Burn or Deficiency
Leaves are the first sign that something is wrong. If a plant’s leaves are browning or yellowing, drooping, curling at the tips, or showing discoloration, a nutrient imbalance might be the cause. So it’s imperative that you check your plants for signs of nutrient burn.
Nutrient burn is when a plant cannot absorb any more nutrients from its growing material. This usually means you are overfeeding your plant. The solution to addressing nutrient burn is to flush your growing material with water, then resume feeding, but only feed half to ¾ of your regular amount, slowly increasing while monitoring your plant closely.
The opposite, nutrient deficiency, is when you aren’t feeding enough and your poor plant is starving. Incorrect pH levels in your growing material can also cause deficiency. Check your pH levels regularly and use the water runoff, not the water you’re watering with. In addition, check the amount of food your plant needs.
Both burns and deficiency have similar symptoms, so monitor your soil’s pH levels closely and evaluate how much you are feeding to correctly identify the problem.
Environmental Maintenance
At the early flowering stage, the environmental conditions remain relatively the same as during the vegetative stage, which means you’ll have to keep monitoring them and ensure they haven’t changed. A few slight tweaks can be made, like lowering the humidity levels from the vegetative stage from 55% to 70% to 40% to 60% for the flowering stage.
Also, be careful of light leaks, whether in an indoor or outdoor garden. If you’re using a tarp to artificially control the light exposure to manipulate the flowering cycle, any leaks or holes will cause an incorrect amount of light to pass through.
Here’s a checklist for your easy reference.
| pH levels 6 to 7? | Yes/No |
| Temperature at 65 to 80 °F? | Yes/No |
| Humidity at 40% to 60%? | Yes/No |
| Light schedule is at 12/12? | Yes/No |
Care For Your Early Flowering Cannabis Plant
| What? | How? |
| Adjust nutrients | Switch to bloom nutrients |
| Pruning | Remove the lower dead or dying leaves |
| Training | Tuck stretching branches under netting or tie them down |
| Nutrient burn | Flush growing material and start feeding again with half the amount of nutes |
| Nutrient deficiency | Feed more nutes and monitor the plant |
| Maintain environment | Regularly check on pH levels, temperatures, humidity, and light exposure. |
Final Thoughts on the Early Flowering Stage of Cannabis Plants
The flowering stage is an exciting one in the life cycle of cannabis plants. Now that you know what to look out for, you can keep a closer eye on your plant’s different stages and be ready to help it out or fix a problem if necessary. Good luck!