when to start photos indoor to move outdoor

[imgrowing]

i plan on starting northern lights indoors and then moving them outdoors to finish.
l live on lower vancouver island.
i know they switch to flower with 12 hours light, but will they switch if they go from 18 hours to 14 (+-) light?
we don't hit 12 hours of darkness until october

 

[Phyto]

i plan on starting northern lights indoors and then moving them outdoors to finish.
l live on lower vancouver island.
i know they switch to flower with 12 hours light, but will they switch if they go from 18 hours to 14 (+-) light?
we don't hit 12 hours of darkness until october

They shouldn’t, but they might. I’d try dropping your artificial light down slowly to about 14-15 hours before you put them outside. Outdoors, my outdoor plants start to flower at about 13-13.5 hours, outdoor the 1st and last half hour really don’t give the plant much usable light.

 

[Ninjadogma]

Like a typical stoner I had a long response telling you all about my grow and what I do, lol. Long story short, I kind of grow like you do, and here's the hack. Set up an enclosed space big enough for your plants that can be made completely dark with no light whatsoever leaking in. Then when you are ready to flip, start putting your plant to bed at 7pm in that space and take her outside at 7am. Now this sucks if you ever want to go out for dinner or something but you mentioned you have supplemental lighting, so easy peasy. If you are gonna be gone when the plants have to come in, bring them in early and put them under your lights and time it to go off the same time you would bring them in.

Alternatively, you can set a longer day for your veg like 20 hours and you should be able to flip on a 14 hour day. So as long as you don't try and flip in June you should be okay but if you have a stubborn bitch, just manually send her to bed early.

 

[Oldchucky]

You can start them indoors whenever you want! Just depends on how big you want to get them before you put them out! The thing you want to watch out for is putting them out too early and have them prematurely flowering on you! Then you’re fucked! I’ve screwed myself a couple of times, trying to cheat and put them out permanently Too early and they flowered on me! I am in nor Cal and I’m not comfortable putting them out full-time till June 1 at the earliest! You’re about 1000 miles north so I don’t know when you’re safe to put them out Full-time! Just my experience with it! Growing mostly regs from seed! No clones! No autos!

 

[imgrowing]

i'll keep them inside until may 10, that seems to be the right time here.
how important is it to gradually put them out?
last time i brought outdoor in i had to toss everything because of spider mites, so no in and out this time.
is putting them in shade covered with cheese cloth good enough?

 

[Galgrows]

2-3 days should do it for getting them acclimated to outdoors. Photoperiods aren't as finicky to weather. Just as long as they get direct sunlight for over 13hrs and it's not too cold they'll be fine.

 

[Ninjadogma]

FWIW here in So Cal plants usually naturally flip and begin their stretch around the first week of August, which coincides with when days have just dipped to <14 hours. You'd think 13+ hours would be safe, but not necessarily. My supplemental lighting is only off from mid May to mid July to make sure nothing flips that I don't want flipping.

 

[Oldchucky]

FWIW here in So Cal plants usually naturally flip and begin their stretch around the first week of August, which coincides with when days have just dipped to <14 hours. You'd think 13+ hours would be safe, but not necessarily. My supplemental lighting is only off from mid May to mid July to make sure nothing flips that I don't want flipping.

I used Vancouver BC! Right now the OP is at 13 hours and six minutes sun up to sundown! And the solstice there is 16 hours and 15 minutes! That’s an hour and 15 minutes longer than mine! But I think what he is planning should be well within the safety parameters to keep them from prematurely flowering! Getting pretty close to the land of the midnight sun! and I wouldn’t be comfortable around 13 either! A little gun, shy!