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DR. ATOMIC ADVANCED GROWING GUIDE
The Stages of Growth
VEGETATIVE STAGE
Marijuana started from seed, will grow in the vegetative stage, under lights that remain on for 18 to 24 hours per day. The plants will grow rapidly, requiring that you have some way of raising the lights, and that you transplant to bigger pots as needed.
After at least 8 weeks of growth, and certainly by 12 weeks, the sex of the plants should become apparent (see section on pre-flowering). At this time any males are removed and flowering is induced by turning the lights back to 12 hours on, 12 hours off. In a two stage garden the plants would be moved into the flowering room and a new batch planted.
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WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE PLANTS?
A marijuana seed will grow into either a male plant or a female plant, and both will produce a "flower". These are not like flowers that you are used to. The male plant produces tiny pods in clusters at the top of the plant and the end of the branches. The pods open to reveal stamens that release pollen. Unless you plan on producing seeds, male plants are cut down as soon as they are discovered, because it is the female flower that is the most potent.
Female plants will usually flower later than their male counterparts and at first are small clusters at the ends of branches and at the crook of the stem and branches. These clusters are actually a bunch of flowers which are tiny green ovules called bracts, with two fuzzy white (sometimes pink or purple)
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stigmas protruding from each. Over the course of 6 to 14 weeks, more and more bracts continue to grow atop each other, forming the large clusters we know as buds or colas.
If pollen from a male plant comes into contact with the stigma of the female, it will fertilize the ovule, where a single seed will begin to form. Shortly thereafter, the stigmas of the fertilized ovule will wither and turn brown. Many schools of thought contend that seeded buds are less potent than those without.
Sinsemilla is a Spanish word that means "without seed" and is primarily how you see buds sold in the marketplace. If the female isn't pollinated, more bracts continue to grow more dense and grow bigger than seeded buds, but take somewhat longer to reach maturity.
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