Transitioning to outdoors

[hooot4]

I'm getting mixed messages on the correct time to completely transition my plans outdoors. I was told that the rule of thumb was mothers day. The hydroponic store sales guy warned me to wait until June to avoid premature flowering. I live in California and would love to transition outside to avoid having to bring the ladies inside every night to place under light.
Also, I think that some of the leaves are getting burned by being outside for more than a few hours on a sunny day. Any recommendation to prevent this?

 

[Anthem]

I'm getting mixed messages on the correct time to completely transition my plans outdoors. I was told that the rule of thumb was mothers day. The hydroponic store sales guy warned me to wait until June to avoid premature flowering. I live in California and would love to transition outside to avoid having to bring the ladies inside every night to place under light.
Also, I think that some of the leaves are getting burned by being outside for more than a few hours on a sunny day. Any recommendation to prevent this?

I have grown outdoors in Socal and to be honest with you I would be about 3 weeks into flower by now. So in my opinion put them outside. I found that growing in the summer months was not good even in a mild aired climate. The heat ruined the terps. But I was also in a greenhouse that had ventilation.

 

[hooot4]

I have grown outdoors in Socal and to be honest with you I would be about 3 weeks into flower by now. So in my opinion put them outside. I found that growing in the summer months was not good even in a mild aired climate. The heat ruined the terps. But I was also in a greenhouse that had ventilation.

My issue is the light cycle. I want to remove artificial lights and let mother nature do its thing. I want to prevent the exact thing that you were trying to achieve. I want to avoid flowering

 

[mancorn]

Most people wait until around the 24th or so. But that's if they're going straight from 24 or 18. What cycle are you on right now? It's about 14 hours daylight now and be at 14.5 in a couple weeks. Some strains handle it better then others. If you put them out now, you can hit them with a little outdoor light for a couple hours. It's really just a light strike as opposed to giving them light, so don't need anything fancy.

You need to harden the plant off. If it's never been outside, then it should be in the shade for a few days. If you're around during the day and keep an eye then I'd move them into the dabbled sun on day 3 or just sun morning and evening. I normally only do the shade for a couple days, but some growers will go longer.

 

[redshift75]

for me mother nature always lets me know. There is no set time. I can go with farmers almanacs and all sorts of things. Ive planted too soon and too late. some geo-locations are better than others with more room for forgiveness from year to year. Other times you are forced to throw it out there whether conditions are ideal or not. I say that to the broader sense of planting as a whole outdoors. I have trays of produce getting root bound cause i cant get them outside and in the ground yet. Just gives me more ideas how i can expand my capabilities in the future to prevent these types of situations.

 

[Greatlakes]

You have to have more then 14.5 hours of daylight outdoors to keep them from flowering. It doesnt matter where you live.
Anything under that can make them start flowering
Make sure to adjust your light cycle indoors down slowly.
There are websites that tell you how much sunlight your specific area is getting.

Good luck

 

[hooot4]

Most people wait until around the 24th or so. But that's if they're going straight from 24 or 18. What cycle are you on right now? It's about 14 hours daylight now and be at 14.5 in a couple weeks. Some strains handle it better then others. If you put them out now, you can hit them with a little outdoor light for a couple hours. It's really just a light strike as opposed to giving them light, so don't need anything fancy.

You need to harden the plant off. If it's never been outside, then it should be in the shade for a few days. If you're around during the day and keep an eye then I'd move them into the dabbled sun on day 3 or just sun morning and evening. I normally only do the shade for a couple days, but some growers will go longer.

I've been moving them out in the mornings & back in at night for almost a month now. I hit a couple of heat waves & heat shock some of them. It's c

 

[hooot4]

I've been moving them out in the mornings & back in at night for almost a month now. I hit a couple of heat waves & heat shock some of them. It's cooling off now & I'm hardening them up by spraying a solution of potasium silicate and neem oil every other day. I'm going to introduce seaweed shortly as it arrives from Amazon shortly. I've been on a 18-6 schedule from the get go. It's just becoming tiring to have to move them twice a day as my indoor light source is not sufficient other than to keep them awake

 

[Madbud]

18/6, they will flower whenever you put them out. The best thing to do is rig a light to come on late each night for a half hour.

 

[mancorn]

I hear you about the moving rigamarole. I do the same thing and recently couldn't take it any more and planted a mom outside. (I had up potted and she was just to heavy when wet and I was one wrong step away from trashing my back hauling her in and out.) She was down to about 14.5 hours anyway, so crossing my fingers. Next time around you should start slowly reducing your light schedule as soon as you purchase your clones, so by the time you transition your plants outdoors it will match the natural photoperiod.

There's nothing magical about the 18/6 schedule. I took about 20 clones off a plant about 3 weeks ago and put them under 15 hours instead of the 18 (or 24). Maybe took a day or 2 longer to root (10-12 days), but they're all outside now. There's various things you can try; reducing your light down incrementally, giving them extra light outside with a porch light for a few hours, or light striking for a shorter period, after a dark period. It's really the total uninterrupted period of dark time as opposed to the total light time (and why indoor growers are super anal about making sure they don't get any light leaks during lights off.) As I mentioned, it doesn't need to be a grow light (just slightly more than a full moon). Indica's are a little more fussy then the sativa, but it's always somewhat of a crap shot. (We've been having shit weather for the last week, so I'm sure the evening and morning light isn't as good as a sunny day. And it's suppose to rain this weekend, so if you're up north, I'd try to keep plugging away with your moving for another week or so.)

If you've been giving them daily sun, they're already hardened off, so they'll be fine when you move them out permanently. Nothing wrong with neem & silicate, but that's a very aggressive schedule and you should reduce you're spraying down to every other week or so (unless you're trying to cure a specific problem.) It's fairly easy to burn the plants with neem, so might be why you got some burn.

 

[ItalWinston]

This reply is for new Growers. In California there is absolutely no reason to start the plants indoors it, will only confuse them.
Plant your Sprouts directly Outdoors between the end of April in the end of May.
These are annual plants that mature 4 to 6 months old. Starting indoors is completely unnecessary.
Good luck Growers!
Check my grow out on YouTube ( rareroots )

 

[hooot4]

I hear you about the moving rigamarole. I do the same thing and recently couldn't take it any more and planted a mom outside. (I had up potted and she was just to heavy when wet and I was one wrong step away from trashing my back hauling her in and out.) She was down to about 14.5 hours anyway, so crossing my fingers. Next time around you should start slowly reducing your light schedule as soon as you purchase your clones, so by the time you transition your plants outdoors it will match the natural photoperiod.

There's nothing magical about the 18/6 schedule. I took about 20 clones off a plant about 3 weeks ago and put them under 15 hours instead of the 18 (or 24). Maybe took a day or 2 longer to root (10-12 days), but they're all outside now. There's various things you can try; reducing your light down incrementally, giving them extra light outside with a porch light for a few hours, or light striking for a shorter period, after a dark period. It's really the total uninterrupted period of dark time as opposed to the total light time (and why indoor growers are super anal about making sure they don't get any light leaks during lights off.) As I mentioned, it doesn't need to be a grow light (just slightly more than a full moon). Indica's are a little more fussy then the sativa, but it's always somewhat of a crap shot. (We've been having shit weather for the last week, so I'm sure the evening and morning light isn't as good as a sunny day. And it's suppose to rain this weekend, so if you're up north, I'd try to keep plugging away with your moving for another week or so.)

If you've been giving them daily sun, they're already hardened off, so they'll be fine when you move them out permanently. Nothing wrong with neem & silicate, but that's a very aggressive schedule and you should reduce you're spraying down to every other week or so (unless you're trying to cure a specific problem.) It's fairly easy to burn the plants with neem, so might be why you got some burn.

They have been getting some light @ night since they are behind a living room glass door. I have some porch lights that i can add as well. At what rate do I adjust down to match it with outdoor light schedule? More coming on why I use neem so often. Thanks for the elaborate explanation btw.

 

[hooot4]

Can I reduce the amount of light hours 30 minutes every 3 days?

 

[Mazeblue1]

I had five seeds but only 4 hydro buckets so put the 5th in dirt but just was waiting forever on some soil from Amazon. I used some succulent soil I had and planted it in that in Rockwool and then transplanted into soil when it arrived. It’s been outside for two weeks and is vegging out. It’s catching up to the hydro plants fast with no sign of flowering at all. I was concerned about it starting to flower before it got big because this is week 5 of veg actually and it is time technically??? I’m a new grower and I’m finding out nothing is written in stone and it’s very confusing

 

[mancorn]

Can I reduce the amount of light hours 30 minutes every 3 days?

If you were simply transitioning outside the first of June, you will go from 18 hours, down to ~14.5. So a 3 1/2 hour jump in 1 day, and the plant normally makes the transition. So yes, doing 1/2 hour drops isn't going to be worse. Lots of people buy clones in the next couple weeks and most are going from 18/24 to 14/15 and it works out. That said, a ton of new growers try and get a jump on the timing and end up with a 6" flowering plant. There are enough variables that's it impossible to say definativly what will work.

Ideally you would want to start as soon as you bought the plant. If you bought the clone from a dispensary the grower was probably giving the clone 24 hours. (They primarily just want to pump out clones as fast as possible and in my experience, don't give two hoots to the end user.) So the plant may have gone from 24 to 18 when you brought it home. (Virtually no commercial grower is going below 18, even though that would certainly help out the average Joe.) Best to ask the seller (and hope they know, as the seller and grower aren't normally one and the same.) If it's 18, you can just drop down to 16 when you bring it home and then spend the next month dropping down to 14. But that's planning for next year.

 

[mancorn]

I had five seeds but only 4 hydro buckets so put the 5th in dirt but just was waiting forever on some soil from Amazon. I used some succulent soil I had and planted it in that in Rockwool and then transplanted into soil when it arrived. It’s been outside for two weeks and is vegging out. It’s catching up to the hydro plants fast with no sign of flowering at all. I was concerned about it starting to flower before it got big because this is week 5 of veg actually and it is time technically??? I’m a new grower and I’m finding out nothing is written in stone and it’s very confusing

Maze, if the plant is outside (all it's life) then there is no threat of early flower. Hoooot is going from indoor (after growing for a month or 2) and transitioning outside, so a different situation. If you're already outside and have a private space, you'd do best just to keep it outside. Moving outdoor to indoor brings it's own rash of problems, and not advisable if your other 4 plants are growing inside.

And just to be clear, the 3-5 week veg is only for indoor growers (Who might be on a 12 week total grow schedule.) A plant outdoors will veg for several months, with a total time of 6-8 months.

 

[Mazeblue1]

Hey man corn, so the five I’m speaking of are indoor plants. Without a bucket for number 5 it sat outside the grow tent in front of a Velcro window for weeks while I waited on soil getting minimal light, it was so small. I used some other soil just to get it going and started putting it outside and then bringing it in at night and put back in front of Velcro window. When soil came it went out for good. I actually 4 clones yesterday and will be putting outside in the next few days, currently they are in a humidity dome sitting outside of tent in front of Velcro window. So they are all 5 weeks old and this is how they look?

 

[Mazeblue1]

Didn’t mean to show first pic 4 times..

 

[BudBogart]

I'm getting mixed messages on the correct time to completely transition my plans outdoors. I was told that the rule of thumb was mothers day. The hydroponic store sales guy warned me to wait until June to avoid premature flowering. I live in California and would love to transition outside to avoid having to bring the ladies inside every night to place under light.
Also, I think that some of the leaves are getting burned by being outside for more than a few hours on a sunny day. Any recommendation to prevent this?

I’ve grown outdoors in California for a while.
This year, my plants went outside a week before Mother’s Day, although I agree Mother’s Day is historically when we plant.
What matters most in transitioning is the amount of time each day your plants have been under light before transitioning.
I grew my plants under 15 hours of artificial / sunlight until I put the out plants outside.

Mho, seeds are more stable transitioning than clones.

 

[BudBogart]

Didn’t mean to show first pic 4 times..

Been there, done that.