The flip and early flower
Days 3 to 4
Growth habit starts to change after 10 to 11 hours of daily dark
Week 1
Stretch slows compared with veg
Week 2
First flowers show at the nodes
Week 3
Veg growth can still add 25 to 50 percent more size while flower sites multiply
Mid flower
Week 4
Stretch is mostly done. Energy shifts into flower. Capitate trichomes and odor rise
Week 5
Flowers thicken on old sites and appear along the tops of branches. Smell gets louder
Week 6
Longer varieties keep stacking. Seven-week plants slow, swell calyxes, and get much louder
Window
Modern breeding packed a lot of this work into six to ten weeks
Ripening
Week 7
On fast plants, calyxes swell, glands stand up, and resin caps fill. Peak often lands at week's end
Week 8
Eight-week plants hit their peak zone in the last 72 hours, then slide if you wait
Stigmas
The hair-like pistils brown as the bud turns from growth to finish
False swell
Unfertilized ovaries often puff as if a seed were coming
What ripe looks and smells like
Trichomes
Glands stand like tiny mushrooms. Caps look ready to burst and sparkle like frost
Coverage
At peak, the whole reproductive zone can look sugared
Odor
Veg smell is mild. Mid flower is the same note, louder. Ripe flower can soak a room and leak through bags
Not all loud
Variety and lighting both change how far the smell travels
Potency
Genetics plus bud maturity set strength. Plant age does not