How much longer before seeing buds?

I agree with organamon to a certain extent. You have defoliated far too much and at the wrong times and moment. Bloom nutes should be introduced as soon as you see preflowers at a low dose but not dismissing grow nutes as alot of nitrogen is needed for the first 2-3 weeks of flowering.I think you might have tried too much for your first grow. One or two plants with some gentle LST work would have been enough to ease you into the game and understand the plant and its need for npk at different stages of its grow. Trying to grow a sativa for the first time is tricky and using bag seed (if that's what you done) is never a good idea. 👍🌱

Wow, you really are having hard time with these plants! They are 11 weeks old according to your diary, so, being autoflowers they should be well and truly on their way. Boy oh boy! Highly acid substrate, nute burn, fungal problems,- you are getting hit from all sides! Add to this, a massive defoliation in week 7, and no wonder your plants are unhappy and unresponsive. Right, so what to do? These would be my suggestions. Others may disagree, but these are my ideas. 1 - First off, just give them plain water for the next three waterings, no nutrients, and this will give your soil a bit of a "tidy up". After this, start feeding them with half strength "grow" nutrients. You are feeding them "bloom" nutrients, however they are not blooming yet. This could account for the stretched growth. Only once they have formed small "budlets" or "tufts" of flowers, should you switch to bloom nutrients. 2 - Soil Ph. This needs attention. 5.5 is waaaay too acidic. Even if your solution is 6.6, if your soil is 5.5, this is a big problem without a quick fix. Reducing soil Ph is a slow process and I would suggest top dressing your soil with some dolomite. About 3-4 level tablespoons per pot. This will reduce the Ph more quickly than most anything else in soil, but is not detrimental to the soil or the plants as it is still mild enough. 3 - The BIGGIE! (Un)fortunately, you are todays lucky recipient of Organomans rant against de-leafing! Defoliation, especially with autos is a no-no. This could also be the main reason as to why your plants are taking so long to start flowering; - metabolic shock. This can throw your plants 2-4 weeks off their time frame. Each healthy green leaf you removed, was providing energy for your plant to grow. After removing as many leaves as you did, your plant has now had a fit because instead of getting 100% energy, with all those leaves removed, she could be back to only 30-40% energy, causing "metabolic shock". So, the first thing your plant "thinks" is; forget about flowering, I can't make enough energy to accomplish that. First I need to grow some new leaves so I can produce enough energy to flower properly. Then you go and change to feeding her bloom nutrients with lower nitrogen and once again your plant has a fit because she is getting barely enough nutrients to grow leaves, so why would she think about flowering? Combining all these issues together and you get an unhappy plant that is unwilling to flower. Those "bud sites" you thought you were exposing to more light so that they would grow, were actually relying on those very same leaves to produce the energy so that they could grow! The tiny little leaves associated with flowers/"bud sites" can in no way produce as much energy as even just one healthy green "fan"/"shade" leaf. Plants can not "channel" energy, all energy is used throughout the entire plant. A plant does not have a brain to decide where energy will go. There are no energy highways with little policemen directing where energy should flow. So, fewer green leaves = less energy produced = slower and smaller growth. It is basic plant biology 101. Then we get to another down side to leaf removal, and that is the storage of vital growth elements such as sugars, amino acids, carbs etc that the clever cannabis plant deposits in her leaves to be used when she is flowering. This is why leaves will go yellow on otherwise healthy and well fed plants during flowering. It is far more efficient for the plant to reuse the stored elements in her leaves, than it is to make them from new when flowering. Therefore, on top of reducing your plants ability to produce energy by removing healthy green leaves, you are also robbing her of a vital resource of stored vital growth elements that she has cleverly put aside for future use in her older leaves. You should try only removing yellow leaves, for by the time they are yellow, they have served their purpose. Rant ends here! Thanks if you or anybody else made it reading this, this far! So, where do we end up? To sum up, issues with nutes combined with Ph issues combined with massive defoliation has caused your plant to "sulk" basically. How to get a harvest? Feed her some nitrogen after giving her a break from everything except plain water, leave the leaves alone (very important) and let the soil slowly recover. It is then up to you to be patient for a while and with a bit of luck, she will start flowering properly soon enough. At the moment she is recovering from multiple traumas, but being the hardy plant that cannabis is, she will still reward you with tasty flowers. The Grow Diaries "Journal/Blog" section on the home page has much information about growing auto flowering plants in case you want some tips. Hope this helps,....... Organoman.

It looks like it's coming. Are you sure they're on 12/12 schedule? Are you sure there's no light source inside o or getting inside during lights off. Did you have the lights too far away at first? Are your lights powerful enough, or on full power?