Flower gets the glory, but veg decides the yield. Every branch, node, and root you build now is infrastructure the plant will load with bud later.
The environment
| Factor | Target |
|---|---|
| Light cycle | 18/6 |
| Temperature | 24–28 °C lights on, 20–22 °C off |
| Humidity | 50–65 % RH |
| Water pH | 6.0–6.8 (soil), 5.5–6.1 (coco/hydro) |
Photoperiod plants stay in veg as long as the light cycle stays at 18/6 — that's your throttle. More veg time means a bigger plant and a bigger harvest, at the cost of calendar time and space.
Feeding
Veg is nitrogen season. A typical N-P-K for this stage looks like 3-1-2.
- Start at half the label dose and work up; labels are written by people selling nutrients
- Feed, feed, water is a solid soil rhythm — the plain-water round flushes salt buildup
- Leaf color is the gauge: deep green is fed, pale green-yellow (starting at the bottom) is hungry, dark blue-green with clawed tips is overfed
Transplanting
Roots that hit the pot wall circle it and strangle growth. Move up pot sizes when leaves span wider than the current pot — typically solo cup → 4 L → 10–19 L final. Transplant when soil is slightly dry, handle by the root ball, and never by the stem.
Canopy: the 80/20 of yield
Light only penetrates the top ~30 cm of canopy effectively. A plant shaped like a Christmas tree wastes most of it. Your goal is a flat, wide table of evenly-lit tops.
- Topping — snip the main growing tip above the 4th–5th node; the plant redirects to two main colas instead of one
- LST — bend and tie branches outward so light reaches everything (full guide in the members' library)
- Remove growth that will never see light: the spindly bottom third
When to flip
Plants roughly double in height during the flowering stretch. Flip to 12/12 when your plant fills about half its allotted final height and the canopy is even. For most indoor grows that's week 6–8 of veg.