Grow-gardening is a tedious and difficult task. And there’s nothing worse than seeing your plant failing to flower after months of nurturing.
You might be thinking:
Why my plants are 4 weeks into flowering and no buds?
Your plants won’t bud if you’re not taking care of them the right way. Insufficient lighting setup is one of the major reason. Long periods of lighting, can be blamed for this problem as well. Moreover, if you’ve attempted to provide bloom light early in the vegetative stage, it won’t bloom.
Looks like a lot of information was left out from the above paragraph. Let me help you out with more in-depth detail about the topic. You’ll figure out the problem in no time and can solve it with some minor tweaks.
Time to get started!
Why Plants Won’t Flower 4 Weeks into the Flowering Stage?
As a new gardener, many things can go wrong. You’re always learning. One step at a time.
But there are times when you might feel that your hard work has resulted in nothing. Even after 4 weeks of flowering, your plant might show no signs of budding.
Source: Reddit
Will it flower? Is something wrong with my plant?
You don’t know the answer to that.
We understand how stressful that can be. So, to help you, we’ve explained all the reasons hampering the budding of your plants.
Let’s go through all of them:
Reason 1: Initiating Early Flowering
We see a lot of 4 weeks into flowering pictures, but still no budding. And that’s just sad.
This is a common problem new grow-gardeners fall victim to. It mostly happens due to a lack of experience. Also, inadequate knowledge about the plant’s growing phase.
A plant experiences its vegetative growth during the first 10 weeks. During this time, the plant requires an adequate amount of veg light to help aid its growth. You might require 11-12 weeks of vegging for one pound yield.
Prematurely forcing the plant to transition to its blooming stage can have severe consequences. First of all, the plant won’t be mature enough to grow buds if it’s in its vegetative stage.
Secondly, attempting to flower early might result in poor budding. As the plant is not capable enough to sustain such transitions so early. And you can also notice signs of flowering buds not getting bigger.
Source: 420 Magazine
You might notice white pistils but no buds in your plants. In the worst-case scenario, you might notice your plants having buds with no hairs.
Reason 2: Providing Longer Periods of Lighting
In its vegetative stage, the plant demands at least 15-18 hours of lighting per day. This helps the plant to sustain the growth of its stems, roots, and leaves.
However, when the plant transitions to its blooming stage, it requires only 12 hours of lighting. In fact, the plant must receive at least 12 hours of darkness to start flowering.
So providing longer than 12 hours of lighting might stagnate the flowering of the plant.
You might wonder which light will be perfect for you. So here are some of the best picks-
Reason 3: Inadequate Lighting Setup
Depending on your setup and the number of plants, you need to set up your light differently. Take a glance to get a clear idea here.
| Area | Watts per Coverage Area |
| 1’ X 1’ | 30~40 |
| 2’ X 2’ | 120~140 |
| 2’ X 4’ | 240~300 |
| 3’ X 3’ | 250~300 |
| 4’ X 4’ | 500~650 |
| 5’ X 5’ | 700~900 |
| 6’ X 6’ | 1000~1200 |
| 4’ X 8’ | 900~1100 |
| 8’ X 8’ | 1200~1400 |
Excess lighting can burn the leaves of your plants and leave an adverse effect on flowering. On the other hand, inadequate lighting can leave a lot to desire for the plants.
Without adequate lighting, the plants will suffer from producing enough chlorophyll. This will suffocate the food production of the plants.
And that’s all the reasons for which your plants might struggle to bud. Your plant might succeed to bud, but it’ll grow small buds after 6 weeks or so.
Try to make sure that your plants produce female flowers. You should notice it after your plant finishes its vegetative state.
Necessary Measures to Get Your Plant to Flower
Now that we’ve gone through the reasons responsible for hampering the flowering, it’s time to solve them.
It’s actually very easy. With just a few tweaks and enough patience, you can make your plant flower. Read the steps below to learn how:
Step 1: Transitioning at the Right Time
The first step is to learn when to properly transition. You should switch from veg light to bloom light once the plant enters 10 weeks of vegetation. That’s the perfect time for switching to the bloom stage.
You might be wondering:
What week of flowering do buds get bigger?
The buds start getting bigger within the first 3 weeks of flowering. But the time can vary depending on a lot of factors. Like the period of lighting, the amount of lighting, and many more.
Be sure not to fully bloom on the plants. Start by providing 30% bloom light. Slowly crank up the lighting as the plant settles into the flowering stage.
Step 2: Providing Proper Lighting Hours
A plant starts flowering when it receives about 12 hours of darkness during its flowering stage.
Make sure you provide your plants with at least 12 hours of darkness in the flowering stage. For that, you have to take the necessary measures to darken your grow tent.
Be careful! Exposure to too much lighting can lead to autoflowering pistils. If there’s any source from where light leaks inside the grow tent, block it out.
Source: I Love Growing Marijuana
Step 3: Setting up Proper Lighting Setup
This is a very important step. For that, you need to gather the appropriate lights.
Luckily for you, we’ve done the math and made it easier for you. Here’s a chart showcasing the optimal distance of LED full-bloom light during veg-
| Image | Product Name | Wattage | Distance of light from the plant | Number of plants | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  | California Light Works SolarXtreme LED Grow Light | 200-399 | 12-20” | 2-4 | Buy Now! |
  | VIPARSPECTRA LED Grow Light | 400-599 | 20-27” | 6-8 | Buy Now! |
  | Phlizon 2022 Upgraded LED Plant Grow Light | 600-799 | 30-38” | 8-10 | Buy Now! |
  | BLOOMSPECT Upgraded LED Grow Lights | 800-1000+ | 32-46” | 10-12 | Buy Now! |
As you can see, the number of plants grows with increased wattage. And so does the height of the grow light. Grow lights should be appropriately far from the plants.
Choose your lighting setup based on the number of plants you’re growing. It’s also important to fix the distance of the LED grow light from the plant.
And that’s everything you need to do to make your plant start budding. Plants are very sensitive to change and might require some time to adapt to it.
So hold your patience and watch your plants undergo positive changes.
FAQs
How Long Does It Take for Plants to Start Budding?
It takes 1-3 weeks for plants to start budding if all necessary measurements are taken. After that, the plant will be ready within 1-8 weeks of flowering.
What Does Pre-Flower Look Like?
Pre flower or the female calyx looks like female flowers with white pistils. The pistils usually grow from the node of the plant. The pistils might also look slightly pinkish at times.
What’s the Reason for Growing Small Buds?
Plants can grow small buds. It is due to overcrowded grow rooms, bushy growth, and poor spacing of the plants. This blocks out the light from reaching the buds of the plant, affecting its growth.
Time to Wrap Things Up!
That should fix the problems for plants 4 weeks into flowering and no buds.
Give your plants some time to adapt after tweaking the settings. Hopefully, you will see positive results within 3 weeks of making changes.
That’s all from us. Best of luck with your grow-gardening!
