A question from a fellow grower:
This is my plants which are on 9th week. Are they ready for flowering and how many time they should to be on 12h light/12h dark?
Yes they look plenty ready to start the flowering light cycle, once on the 12/12 cycle they stay on it until harvest, the end of their life. Starting the flowering light cycle is not necessarily dependent on being a really big plant. You need to realize the plant will grow about another third its size through the flowering cycle. So most people take this into consideration for the size of the growing area and start flowering at about half the size they want in the end as not to have the plant outgrow the room and grow into the lights without anymore room to raise the lights higher.
Once the flower/buds are getting well developed you will need a high power magnifier to tell when they are ripe and ready to be cut down. You need at least a 40 to 60 times or maybe even more magnification to be able to see inside the little crystal like trichomes developing on the buds. Get a jeweler’s or photography loupe with this magnification. At first they will be perfectly clear, like a little crystal mushroom forest, when they are all entirely a healthy milky white is when most people cut them down, maybe with just a little amber showing up in a few. A general guide is the more amber, the more sedative the effect will be, usually only needed in some sativa dominant strains to take a little edge off, Indicas are usually fine with all milky white and not really any amber. You will probably need another 6-8 weeks in the flowering cycle before they are ready.
Looking good. Flower them babies! 