Moving indoor plants under 18/6 to the outdoors without triggering flowering

[Seamaiden]

If your seed starts are mature then you should use the interrupted lighting, otherwise you should expect them to flip into flower.

 

[caligirl]

Yes i have done that with clones and it is not pretty at all - never do that again. I have porch lights on at night to keep my clones from flowering on my deck. But i was wondering if I use interuppted light in veg room for a couple weeks, as seamaiden mentions, if that can help to prevent my mature germinated plants from flowering if put outside in May or so - im am just soooo running out of room in my veg room and my flower room is occupied. i just would love to get as many plants out as possible - i always clone too much!

 

[Seamaiden]

Yes. Treat them like the clones. All are sexually mature so all have that same hormonal thing going on.

 

[caligirl]

does anyone know if indirect but bright light from the house can be enough to prevent flowering of plants on adjacent deck?

 

[Seamaiden]

If it's bright enough, I'm sure it could/would. If it could cause revegging to occur, and I've seen it happen to others where a neighbor's (outside) light has caused reveg, it seems it could also prevent flowering altogether.

 

[woodsmaneh]

Put them outside they will be fine, just harden them off first.

Harden off = do not put in direct sunlight for 3 days than only 2 to 3 hours direct sunlight after a week your set. Plants get lots of light when in the shade. I do it every year and in fact I have my Mom's outside and they have been for 2 weeks off and on. I test grow about 12 to 14 new strains every March and start them inside 18/6, and kick them out no later than third week of May and have never had issues.

 

[BobbyPacman]

Hello there. I'm new to this site. It looks great. I've done some outdoor growing but I would like to start learning indoor growing. I understand that the electricity is very expensive. I have read some posts where people talk about taking the plants outside after growing them with lights for a certain period. They also say it should be done gradually to not give the plants too big of a shock (e.g., they can start off outside but in a shade vs. direct sunlight). I'm wondering if it would be OK for the plants to have some indoor light from the lights and outdoor light from the sun every day. For example, if I want to simulate a 16 hour light period for the veg stage and it's winter in California. Maybe we get 10 hours of sunlight on average in California. Can I keep the plants outside for 10 hours and then bring them in for another 6 hours of light? Perhaps this can even be done with a greenhouse that gets good lighting from the sun during the day and when it gets dark turn on the lights for the extra needed light. Does anyone have experience doing this or know if this would work well or would it be too much of a shock for the plants every day?
I wanted to post a new thread about this somewhere but I didn't figure out how to do it. If I should post somewhere else, please let me know how and where to do it.
Thank you.

 

[Seamaiden]

Yes, exposure like that is fine. Just be sure to acclimate them to the sunlight by using something like shadecloth, putting them under a tree with heavy canopy, whatever, otherwise you'll burn the bejesus out of them. What you describe in use of the GH's is how light dep is done (deprivation).

Btw, nice necropost! And welcome to the farm. You may want to post up an introduction in the "Introduce Yourself" forum. :)

 

[Moose71]

After reading this thread I think I'm going to start from seed in the greenhouse so I don't have to worry about light cycles next spring. Seems like too much hassle to start indoors the sync them to outside light. Still would have to harden off still but that's minor crap.

 

[Daylight]

45*N - read entire thread and dozens of sites and calls to local grow shops. want indoor to outdoors continue vegetative cycle. why doesn't anyone mention 15.15 hours on indoor T5 from the day planting the seeds and my put out date is june 1 which my light chart shows 15.26 hours of light that day. all the shops and 95% of forums say 18/6, some shops say 20/4. then i mention about the flowering because of light drop and they dodge the question or answer something else. if going 18/6 or 20/4 i've read about the the mandatory light reduction before moving outdoors but still could have problems... so why not just do 15.15 on from day one? one shop told me if you only do 12 on it will make the plants flower very quickly.

how tall indoor would my plants get in 10 weeks? we have a freeze may 30 last year so very risky to move outdoor sooner. a bunch of "pros" on forums said moving out in may actually causes flowering and they found june will keep the vegetative cycle going.

start indoors, move outdoors, seeds (regular, feminized, (if there's a way would like to try autoflower indoors move out too but i know this a bit trouble to get a larger plant). have no space to flower indoors, set up is in the living room, smell would be to strong too. have 8'x5' south side windows too for plants.

thank you for any tips or direction!

 

[babycow94]

so is it reccomended to start seedlings indoor then move outdoor to control the youngins living enviroment as long as i sync the light schedual to outdoor. if so at what age should i move them outside. Or should i just take them outside as soon as they sprout?
- north carolina

 

[trickle]

lol GrowMore that's a joke right

Use timeanddate .com and don't forget to use the solar sunrise/set and to include twilight. @Daylight
If your actual daylight hours are less than 18 at the time of planned planting .. start the seeds on less light, and Every week add 15+ minutes to the timer until your final week is Equal to the Actual daylight hours of your region ( including twilight) ..... basically this tells the seedlings it is very early spring and the summer solstice is coming - there is not shock to induce flowering or herms at that point.
This method, or mimicking the hours Exactly by waking up at dawn and setting your lights , is the Only way I was able to grow photoperiod sensitive strains from Hybrids From Hell and even some Canadian strains .... without getting hermis or freakouts etc

edit @babycow94 start them inside so they have at Bare Minimum 2 sets of true leaves, I don't have good luck planting anything younger outside, the slugs and bugs get them too quick then. The bigger and healthier your started plant, they bigger/healthier your adult plant will be (assuming it's happy in it's outdoor home :) )

 

[Madbud]

Glad this thread popped up. My plants went from 18/6 under flourescents to 14+ direct sunlight and they are sexing in mid-may, right about 90 days. Rookie mistake but i have plenty of summer to get it right revegging some clones, i hope

 

[trickle]

...not tryin to sound preachy but you sound bummed/want to restart? Well it may not be a bad thing @Madbud. Some strains 'ride the line' and will show sex, but not flower and then reveg before flowering again ... pretty handy tool for those that can't be pre-sexed as seedlings in small containers under natural light cycles (mighty might, danish gold, and hybrids of, etc), but still show some photo period sensitivity ... and of course that's all subjective to your latitude and genetics. Just sayin it may not mess with the plant to bad at all and allows you to cull your males Way ahead of time.

 

[Madbud]

Yeah, i separated the male. Hey, they could be autos, had one last year. But it feels like a cool fall night outside so they could be confused. Clones are hanging on the first couple days but need to give the two girls a haircut to veg a couple more. Think i’ll try some in honey, heard that works as a rooting agent.