Outdoor Advice for all latitudes! Yes you!

[Badmf]

If you live somewhere other than where the breeder of your strains do, you will find the published finish times not very accurate! (Sometime not accurate even "if" you do, lol) There are a few tidbits of grows outdoors I added to give you a leg up! It is not too late to put em out, even in Canada!

Do a search for your cities latitude, this will give you Sun times. Armed with this you will now when "your" areas time, and when it will change.
Each strain has a different "trigger time" for bloom to begin as well as the length of the bloom cycle.
Take your strains common bloom time and look at the time of Sunrise and Sunset for your area. Aproximate 12.5 hours( some strains are more some less!) figure when this is on the calender (and every strain should begin bloom at this level of darkness.) You can figure the aproximate finish.
And also pay attention to "early Frost" dates common to your region at this time!! If you will get impossible weather follow the addendum.
You should figure on some inclement weather; winds, cold and rains! Be prepared to counter these situations ahead of time!!! Make a cone cover and clothes-pin it (or other) over the tops for excessive rain, then remove before Sun returns, either lay down or cross tie bracing to hold up plants in medium windy conditions, A cover for the cold evenings with an added couple of water gallon jugs will help. If in Sun they absorb Sunlight slowly and give off the heat at night, best under a cold frame or tented covering, use your imagination!
Remember anything you cover should breathe or you run the risk of high humidities and mold!! Spraying to prevent moths, molds etc ahead is wise. Mulch your summer day plants to slow down evaporation rates. If you have em under a "long" day such as 18 or more on time they may start bloom immediately! Phase back or just live with the results.

Adendum for you winter folks, if you run the calculations and it seems frost or cold will not allow you to finish; simply cover the plant for the morning hours for a few weeks or more to "cheat the time" and start bloom a little earlier. IOWs; coverthe plant at sunup til say 9 am, remove daily till bloom starts the extra weeks you wouldn't get at the end of the year are now yours in better weather! Peace Bad...

 

[Seamaiden]

A little something for folks to play with as they work on the rest of what you've posted.
Daylight Hours Explorer

 

[Paul Nepal]

good info, all very true

 

[Tobor the 8th Man]

IMHO this isn't accurate Badmf.


Sept 1 at 41N in the USA sunrise is 6:33 am and sunset is 7:40 pm this is 13 hours and 7 minutes of sunlight.

Sept 15 there is exactly 12 hrs and 30 minutes of sunlight with sunrise at 6:47 am and sunset at 7:17 pm. This would mean a fast flowering 60 day strain would not finish until November 15. Growers would never be able to finish anything.

Outside under normal, natural conditions pot plants don't just trigger at a certain light point. They actually respond to an increasing period of darkness. As each night starts to get longer after June 22 in the northern hemisphere. But there is more than 15 hrs of sunlight most of July so plants still vegetate even though there is increasing darkness.

Come July 30 the amount of sunlight as slowly decreased to 14.5 hours. They start to respond to the increase darkness and by August 10 or so there are some early pistils being formed. So whenever you see those you can figure it was 10-12 days before that they actually triggered to start flowering.

This is the tricky part because they responded to increasing dark and not every strain will trigger at the same point. You have to see what strains work by trial and error. You can't tell by flowering times on a seed pack. Even if they really do finish in 70 days they might not respond as fast as another 70 day strain so they don't start as early and finish later even though they took 70 days.

You can make good estimations on what plants you need to have them finish. I choose 60-75 day strains to begin my search. Using my above time of August 10 you see pistils and you go back 10-12 days that is when flowering was triggered. That Would be August 1. So a 60 day strain with a good response time will finish roughly on Oct 1. 70 days would be Oct 10 and 80 days would be Oct 20.

Now you have a rough idea of what strains can work. I figure 60 day strains always work because there is all of October as a buffer zone to finish. 70 day strains have a buffer zone of Oct 11-30 and 80 day strains have a buffer zone of Oct 21-31.

My general rule of thumb is August 1 is like the first day of 12/12 outside. The flowering days start then for indicas and hybrids. I have great luck with 70 day Chemdog D and 60-65 days The White and many other 60-80 day strains.

I always plant mostly known finishers and then I add a few new strains every year to see what and how they do. If I was buying seed for the first time I would buy 60-75 day finishers and start my search from there.

 

[SLO Grown]

This is my grow bible...


http://www.sunrisesunset.com/usa/California.asp

 

[Badmf]

Tobor, I would dis-agree that the plant doesn't have a "Dark trigger time" my point was to illustrate the fallacy of 12/12 time in bloom. The light reaches the earth at different angles and in different spectrums during fall months, hence the advent of HPS. But this is old news, plants respond to different lengths of darkness, not light. When I spoke, it is the darkness length not light that is the trigger, if I mis-spoke I will correct it. But note " and every strain should begin bloom at this level of darkness " not light!
Temperature and darkness length are signals to end veg and start bloom as noted, each strain originated from different parts of the planet so there are different times, now factor in hybrids and it can get interesting, no?
Your notice of "July 30th time" confirms this.
I also didn't make an issue of Sunrise or Sunset as the Sun doesn't rise or set for the record, the Earth revolves around the Sun not the other way around, last time I looked anyways jk..
I didn't show my research into "Time Shifting" where I used 36 hours on with 12 off to show it is "darkness" that effects the plant and light is irrelevant. This will be explained in another piece, I have some of my research from Overgrow leftover. (done to increase bud formation during the early weeks)
You agree with me in that each strain has a distinct dark time to set bloom in motion. Right? If you are in a far north region figure your last date for harvesting and adjust the time by enclosing the plant earlier than then Nature would do for the dark cycle. The cold weather would prevent harvest so light depravation works well here. Your thoughts? :ninja

 

[OMRI93631]

So, this might be a stupid question. But, if in my region we won't have a 12.5 hour period of darkness until the 2nd week of September. Might this be an issue if the flowering goes into November??

 

[Badmf]

This is the example I'm speaking of. The plant will start bloom way before 12/12 and noting its start, helps to "know" the finish. If weather concern,s you may reduce light which adds darkness a few weeks or more early to off set the chilly weather. Growers have this false idea of 12/12 being the trigger and it's much more for most strains, but each is different. I would plant ones that finished a few weeks early to lessen harvest labor, and the rest when ready! Your plants should start bloom earlier and finish before it gets to 12 hours of darkness. Peace Bad...

 

[Badmf]

This is the example I'm speaking of. The plant will start bloom way before 12/12 and noting its start, helps to "know" the finish. If weather concerns, you may reduce light which adds darkness a few weeks or more early to off set the chilly weather. (cover with a light proof box or... just a few hours in the mornings are best but evenings will work too)
Growers have this false idea of 12/12 being the trigger and it's much more for most strains, but each is different. I would plant ones that finished a few weeks early to lessen harvest labor, and the rest when ready! Your plants should start bloom earlier and finish before it gets to 12 hours of darkness. Peace Bad...