About the vegegative growth cycle.

[Cranky]

Vegetative Growth:

This is the period of maximum growth. The plant can grow no faster than the rate that it's leaves can produce the energy required for new growth. Each day, more leaf tissue is created, thereby increasing the plant's capacity for growth. With excellent growing conditions, Cannabis is known to grow as much as six inches a day:eek: , although the rate is more commonly one to two inches.

The number of blades on each leaf begins to decline towards the middle of the vegetative growth stage. Then the arrangement of leaves on the stem (phyllotaxy) changes from the usual opposite to alternate. The internodes (stem spaces between sets of leaves, which had been increasing in length) begins to decrease, and the growth appears to be thicker.When this happens(3-5 weeks)most strains are mature enough to be forced into flower.

The plant will stay in this mode as long as its getting 18 hours or more of light aday,some strains will go into flower automaticly;)


cranky

[Fillabong]

I must have some sativa dominant plants right now because they were vegging under 16/8 and are well into flower now with 14/10.

Marijuana and sunflowers are some of few herbacious dicots with secondary growth. Keep a fan on your seedlings for a bit of mechanical stimulation. This stimulation produces ethylene and the stems/roots thicken and remain short. This is why fans are good. Not too much though! Too much air movement can cause excessive transpiration and burn your babies:D

Keeping coolers temps during veg will influence your babies to keep their nodes shorter. 70-80 I've found is ideal for vegging. There is a correlation between night/day temp differences and internodal length too! The greater the difference from night to day means longer internodes. Careful though... If your night temps are higher than day temps then the shit hits the fan per se. Not sure what actually happens because I havent done it yet.

[peakguy]

Not sure which forum to post this question, but I am wondering, how long to folks keep newly germinated seeds under the lamp 24/7? My girls (think positive until they show!) have been under the lamp 24/7 since they were just over a week old and I am wondering if they need some rest, or can they just keep this up until they are a month or so old.
Thanks for any advice.
peace

[Profound]

BUMP>>>>just to add info



When your plant is around the 12" mark or 4-6 weeks old, you might notice the leaves sets start to alternate. When the top branches start to alternate this is the sign that your plant has reached maturity and are ready to be flowered.

Since you have your plant in the 24/7 cycle let the plant grow for as long as you like. A plant may double, triple even quadruple its' height when flowering. Sativas can stretch up to 4 times there height and Indicas generally double in height. Some strains call for up to 8 weeks of vegetative growth.