When do you start counting the flowering days?

The transition of hormones from vege to floral take upto 1 to 2 weeks possibly 3 if she is stubborn. Personally I wait till the first bud hairs myself. But each to their own. Once you get used to dealing with trichomes and being able to tell visually when she is good to harvest, pretty much stop counting . Lmoa this must have a week attached, not seen so many answers on a q

My day one is the day i switched to 12/12. There is no golden rule, some people wait till they see preflowers ( with longer veg time, you get during vegetative stage anyways ) some people wait till see first flowers appearing... You are too late in flower, why you ask, who will get The Point ? ;)))

I count 12/12 days. First pistils appear in a matter of days so it's irrelevant if you ask me. Important is that you keep the track of your schedulle and certain cultivar lifespan. Certain phenotypes will always surprise you so observe the plants and do not stick to what breeder may promising. Most of that is bunch of bullshit. Nature operates different than theory. Good luck

The day you switch to 12/12 is when it goes into flower. You cannot see the work being done under the hood without a 400x microscope, lol, but it is happening. It's not about what you can see. It's about the biological processes taking place at the cellular level that you cannot see for a couple weeks. This will also be a far more consistent and accurate way to compare flower phase lengths from plant to plant, too. The alternative adds all sorts of human error.

its your call. I switch it to flower in diary as soon as I switch the lighting schedule. But if its autos I do it as soon as I see signs of flowering beginning but I know it really flipped about a week or two before that its just I have no control over it. With photoperiods they will show flowering signs a week or so past the lighting schedule change. But again, your diary and your call how you want to do it. Does not really matter its the harvest thats the cream of the crop in this game.

If I counted after I saw pre-flowering complete, I'd be lying to myself IMO... I'd be NOT counting 2-3 weeks of de facto/categorical flowering the plant is under via hormones. I always count the day the lights flip as day zero, meaning the first morning after a flowering hormone night is day 1. The counting 2-3 weeks into your grow is why new folks get mad at their seed packs. If your wife gets pregnant, do you start counting days after you see an ultrasound 3 months into the pregnancy as 'pregnancy day zero'? I guess you can. you can count day 32 of your phd program as day 5 of your undergrad, I guess if you wanted to define things that way, but you're literally just ignoring the plant and doing something to make yourself feel better. If I counted this way, I wouldn't have a single flower period longer than 6 weeks on my profile, and I'm sure that's wrong.

agreed with einamio

The moment I go 12/12. Some take longer to show or develop, and the plant can show its sex before you flip. It's arbitrary anyway since you cut when the plant is ready and not when you reach a certain date (unless you do for some reason, idk...)

Hey growmie, I personally start counting flower from the moment I see pistils and proper bud sites forming, not from the 12/12 flip itself. Most strains take about 7–14 days after switching to 12/12 before they "actually" start flowering — the stretch phase kicks in first, and flowering hormones build up during that time. So for tracking accuracy (especially when comparing strain behavior later), I begin my flowering week about 2 weeks after the flip, once those white hairs start stacking consistently at the tops. Hope that helps 👊 Happy growing!

I personally start counting flower phase when pistils appear, in my experience it takes about two weeks after switching to 12/12