Flower, Week By Week

Flowering takes eight to ten weeks for most strains, and the first three of those weeks do not look like anything. New growers flip the timer, wait two weeks, see a taller leafier plant with some white hairs on it, and quietly conclude they have failed.

You have not. Bud formation is back loaded. Most of the visible weight shows up in the second half, and the last two weeks are when it actually gets dense.

What follows is a week by week map. Treat the numbers as approximate: your strain, your light and your environment will push things a week either direction. The sequence is reliable even when the calendar is not.

The whole thing in one table#

Week	What you see	What you do
1	Rapid vertical stretch, node spacing opens up	Raise light as needed, finish LST, humidity to 50 to 55%
2	Stretch continues then slows, white pistils at nodes	Taper grow nutrient out, bloom nutrient in at half dose
3	Stretch stops, pistils everywhere, small bud sites form	Light defoliation pass, full bloom feeding, add support
4	Recognizable buds, first real smell, trichomes appear	Steady feeding, watch for nitrogen excess (dark clawed leaves)
5	Buds thicken, pistils still mostly white	Humidity to 45 to 50%, check daily for mold in dense spots
6	Weight comes on, some pistils start to darken	Stake or net any branch that is leaning, keep feeding
7	Buds swell and firm up, smell gets strong	Start checking trichomes with a loupe, humidity to 40 to 45%
8	Most pistils orange, trichomes going cloudy	Decide on a flush, watch trichomes every day or two
9 to 10	Final swell, fan leaves yellowing	Harvest when trichomes say so, not when the calendar does

Weeks 1 and 2: the stretch#

The plant is still in veg mode as far as growth is concerned. It is going to get 50 to 100 percent taller, sometimes more.

Your job is mostly to get out of the way and manage height. Raise the light to keep 12 to 18 inches between it and the canopy. Keep tying down or tucking anything that shoots ahead of the rest.

Start the nutrient switch. Blend down your grow formula and blend up your bloom formula over these two weeks. Half strength on the bottle instructions. Nitrogen is still needed here, just less of it.

Bring humidity down out of veg range to around 50 to 55 percent.

Week 3: the shape appears#

Stretch ends. This is the week the plant stops being a leaf factory and commits.

Little clusters of white pistils at every node start bunching into what will become buds. They are tiny and unimpressive. This is also the last time you can see clearly into the middle of the plant.

So do a light defoliation pass now. Pull leaves sitting directly on top of a bud site, plus anything crowding the interior. A handful of leaves, not a strip job.

Go to full bloom nutrient, still at half to two thirds of label dose unless the plant is clearly hungry.

Weeks 4 and 5: bud formation#

Now it looks like weed. Trichomes appear as a frost on the small leaves near the buds, and the smell shows up. If you have a carbon filter, this is when you find out whether you installed it correctly.

Feed consistently. Watch for the opposite of a deficiency: dark green leaves with tips curling down like claws mean too much nitrogen, which in flower costs you bud density. Back off if you see it.

Humidity down to 45 to 50 percent. Keep air moving through the canopy, not just over the top of it.

Weeks 6 and 7: weight#

This is when the harvest actually happens, mass-wise. Buds thicken, stack up and get heavy.

Branches will start leaning. Tomato stakes, bamboo sticks and a second trellis net all work. A branch that snaps under its own weight at week seven is an avoidable loss.

Around week 7, start looking at trichomes. Buy a 60x jeweler's loupe for eight dollars or a USB microscope for twenty five. You are not harvesting yet, you are learning what clear trichomes look like so that you can recognize the change later.

Humidity to 40 to 45 percent if your space allows it.

Weeks 8 through 10: ripening#

Pistils go from white to orange or brown and curl inward. Fan leaves start yellowing as the plant pulls nitrogen back out of them, and that is supposed to happen. Do not fight late season yellowing with more nitrogen.

Buds make their final swell here. It is real and it is significant, which is why harvesting at week eight because the calendar said eight is a common and expensive mistake.

Check trichomes every day or two now. That is the actual harvest signal and it gets its own page.

About the flush#

In the last one to two weeks, many growers stop feeding and water with plain pH'd water only, the idea being that the plant uses up stored nutrients and the finished product burns cleaner.

There is a real disagreement here. Controlled comparisons have not shown a reliable difference in taste, and some growers argue that starving the plant during final swell costs you yield.

The call: do a one week flush with plain 6.5 water. The evidence for improved flavor is weak, but the cost is close to zero, it is a natural point to stop fussing with bottles, and if your feeding has been heavy it genuinely helps clear salt buildup. Do not extend it to three weeks.

Things that look wrong and are not#

• Yellowing fan leaves after week 7. Normal. The plant is cannibalizing them.
• Some pistils turning brown early. Normal, especially where a pistil has been touched or dried out.
• Purple or dark leaves as it finishes. Usually genetics plus cooler nights, not a problem.
• Buds that stop getting bigger for a week. Growth comes in waves. Give it time.
• Leaves reaching up and praying. Good sign, it means the plant likes the light level.

The mistake to avoid#

The single most common flower mistake is not a nutrient problem or a light problem. It is changing things constantly because the plant is not doing what a photo on the internet showed.

Pick your feeding schedule, hold your environment, and let the plant run. Most of what you would call intervention at week five is just stress.

Next up is the only harvest signal that actually works, which is what the trichomes are doing.