Moving Indoors to Outdoors

[tropical]

I have just germ'd my 4 seeds and put them in a FFOF/FFLW/Perlite mix under 6 x 26watt (6500 spectrum) CFL's. I want to let these grow indoors for 2-3 weeks then move outdoors.

I want to know, is there any possibility that these plants will be kicked into flowering by taking them from a 20/4 light schedule indoors to more of a 13 1/2/10 1/2 light schedule outdoors?? I live in NC and I'm guessing their will be 13 1/2+ hours of sunlight when I put them out in early May. I've just heard some guides say that they will begin flowering at this point if you do this. It was a pretty crappy grow quide so I don't know if this is true or not. Anyone know about this subject?? Thanks.

 

[hic]

Seeing as how you just germed seeds, start your seedlings with just 16 or 18 hours on with your cfl's.. Then you won't have such a drastic light change, your plants won't grow much in 2 to 3 weeks anyway, just keep your cfl's close to your seedlings to avoid too much stretch. good luck!

 

[tropical]

Thanks bro...Think, I'll go ahead and change the timer to 18/6. I just put them in the soil earlier today, so they haven't even popped. I might step the light schedule down about an hour/week. When I put them out in 3 weeks or so, the sunlight should be at about 14/10. Hopefully they will stay in veg and become MONSTER BUSHES. My goal is to grow enough this Summer to last me a year (harvest time in '11). After I put these 4 plants out, I will start vegging a fem'd Lemon Skunk and fem'd White Berry indoors for about 3 weeks. Then they will go out. I just don't have the room inside my grow box for 6 plants, so I've got to split them up.

 

[toquer]

i've tried this and am still working on determining the best method. i will share what i have learned however...
reducing light by 1hour/day or 1hour/week or any increment will induce flowering if you continue it as a trend. i'm not certain how long the diminishing light cycle takes to kick flowering in, but if you have seed you'll immediately notice that the paired branching staggers itself within 3 days of the plant switching to flowering. but once you've gotten the staggered branching, returning to paired is impossible. shortly thereafter gender identification will take place. this will take about a week for calyx to first appear and then it's the hunt to get rid of males. now if you move from 18/6 to outside at 13.5 hours of total daylight including twilight hours the plant will also begin to flower as it won't get more than about 8 hours of direct light. 8 hours of daylight for a sprouting seedling however is a different story, it will not enter flowering until the plant reaches sexual maturity and has a lighting change. about the 9th node is when the plant will begin to automatically form calyx's but it will also stay in paired branching at this time, showing that it's sexually mature but unless the light cycle begins to get shorter it'll just continue to grow. so this year i've been putting plants out 1 per week until i see them continue vegetative growth. one has been out for 4 nights now and continues to grow in the paired formation with no calyx development nor staggering of nodes. i think it may be time here in so cal, but i'm not 100% certain. my veg consists of sunrise to sunset outdoor lighting and the plants get moved inside after sunset and placed under LED to continue the veg cycle for an additional 4 to 6 hours depending on what month we're in. once they're large or i have things timed right, they stay outside. now i'm going to try something else very soon as well. i've got 18 seeds that i just put down on the new moon to sprout, these will get transplanted outside come the full moon should this weeks test plant not enter flowering. They will only be getting direct light from 7am until about 4pm. the rest of the time they'll be in the shade which is twilight hours. i anticipate because they'll go out when the days are still lengthening that they should veg until the solstice and flower shortly thereafter.

hope this long post gives you some insight to my experiments of moving outdoors...

 

[tropical]

i've tried this and am still working on determining the best method. i will share what i have learned however...
reducing light by 1hour/day or 1hour/week or any increment will induce flowering if you continue it as a trend. i'm not certain how long the diminishing light cycle takes to kick flowering in, but if you have seed you'll immediately notice that the paired branching staggers itself within 3 days of the plant switching to flowering. but once you've gotten the staggered branching, returning to paired is impossible. shortly thereafter gender identification will take place. this will take about a week for calyx to first appear and then it's the hunt to get rid of males. now if you move from 18/6 to outside at 13.5 hours of total daylight including twilight hours the plant will also begin to flower as it won't get more than about 8 hours of direct light. 8 hours of daylight for a sprouting seedling however is a different story, it will not enter flowering until the plant reaches sexual maturity and has a lighting change. about the 9th node is when the plant will begin to automatically form calyx's but it will also stay in paired branching at this time, showing that it's sexually mature but unless the light cycle begins to get shorter it'll just continue to grow. so this year i've been putting plants out 1 per week until i see them continue vegetative growth. one has been out for 4 nights now and continues to grow in the paired formation with no calyx development nor staggering of nodes. i think it may be time here in so cal, but i'm not 100% certain. my veg consists of sunrise to sunset outdoor lighting and the plants get moved inside after sunset and placed under LED to continue the veg cycle for an additional 4 to 6 hours depending on what month we're in. once they're large or i have things timed right, they stay outside. now i'm going to try something else very soon as well. i've got 18 seeds that i just put down on the new moon to sprout, these will get transplanted outside come the full moon should this weeks test plant not enter flowering. They will only be getting direct light from 7am until about 4pm. the rest of the time they'll be in the shade which is twilight hours. i anticipate because they'll go out when the days are still lengthening that they should veg until the solstice and flower shortly thereafter.

hope this long post gives you some insight to my experiments of moving outdoors...

In my situation, I am not able to grow the plants very large at all inside. So, are you suggesting that if I go ahead and move these outdoors while they are still small seedlings then they will just stay in a vegetative stage until the solstice in June? These seeds haven't broken the soil yet, so if I just leave them in for say a week then put them outside they won't flower??

 

[tropical]

Basically what I'm saying, is should I just go ahead and put these outside. I wanted to start inside so they could get a good start, but if I'm going to wait 3 weeks and put 5-6" plants outside and have them flower at that point, then its just not worth it. Should I just move these outdoors as soon as possible and hope for the best??

 

[tropical]

Here is another idea. Would it hurt if I just started my seedlings off in like a 14/10 or 15/9 light schedule inside. Then when I move them outside, the light schedule should be pretty similar and it should keep vegging. Is this correct?

Would I see a negative impact on my seedlings' growth with such a low light schedule (ie stretching)??

This whole problem is really stressing me out. I just wanted to get the seedlings off to a strong start so they could handle the elements once I put them outdoors. Now I have no idea what I should be doing as far as lighting indoors or whether I should even be starting them indoors or not.

 

[Norcal808]

I have used both methods you have come up with, with good results. Another idea if it's to cold at night for you to start them outside now is to consider making a small greenhouse. One can be built very quickly, simply and super cheap with pvc and visqueen. If your going to start them under lights use 15/9. Playing it safe is always the way to go when dealing with a reveg imo. Its a waste of one of our favorite summer pasttimes.

 

[tropical]

I have used both methods you have come up with. If it's to cold at night for you to start them outside now, considering making a small greenhouse. One can be built very quickly, simply and cheap with pvc and visqueen. If your going to start them under lights use 15/9. Playing it safe is always the way to go when dealing with a reveg imo. Its a waste of one of our favorite summer pasttimes.

Think you my friend. This is what I am going to do. I'm going to just use a 15/9 schedule indoors after they sprout. Then I'm going to leave them in my box as long as possible before putting them in their outdoor homes. If the weather is nice, I will put the plants out a few days and nights in my backyard I guess in order to get them ready.

So you'd definitely go with the 15/9 over the 14/10 schedule?? I live in NC by the way. Most days are very nice, but we are still getting lows in the upper 40's on some nights. I'm hoping the plants don't stretch like crazy with this lighting schedule. As long as I have the flouro's about an inch away from the seedlings they shouldn't stretch too much should they?

 

[Norcal808]

I'm sure you'll be fine with the 15/9, ive used both schedules. The extra hour will produce a thicker stemmed, deeper rooted, unstreched lil lovely. Really tho I had some under lights to start and I threw some on the kitchen table and let the sun shine thru. Yes, the kitchen table one's had a good stretch going. But after the transplant and putting them outside, they are doing just as well as the ones started under lights.

I live in North Cali and the temps are the same as yours, your going to be fine myman! To the distance of the lights, would be dependent on the wattage. Do you have a daisychain of t5's? Or a 24" 26watt tube? If they stretch, put them deeper in the transplant pot, so only the bottom leafs are 1/2" off the soil, it will grow roots along the whole stem. Ur going to own, I know it!

Duh, I just read your first post again...... Like I said before, I like to play it safe. I keep my fluro's 2-3 inches above, due to the fact that I'm at work alot and dont get to give the babes the attention they deserve sometimes.~

 

[deprave]

I beleive it is actually better to start seedlings outside - in my experience atleast and also I see others on here giving their seedlings sunlight to start, unless you haveto start inside do to weather conditions I say get them outside asap, some people also bring them outside 1 hour per day before finally leaving them outside if they are started indoors so that they can adjust easier

 

[tropical]

I beleive it is actually better to start seedlings outside - in my experience atleast and also I see others on here giving their seedlings sunlight to start, unless you haveto start inside do to weather conditions I say get them outside asap, some people also bring them outside 1 hour per day before finally leaving them outside if they are started indoors so that they can adjust easier

Thanks, yeah I'm going to leave them outside as much as possible during nice days to get them adjusted. I just want them to have a decent stem on them before I transplant them to their 15 gallon holes about a mile from my house. After that, they'll have to hold up to the weather themselves. I've got about 3 acres of land out in the country, so I can definitely hide them outside in full sunlight a bunch.

Again, I just want them to really harden up before I take them to their permanent homes. After that, I'll be starting 2 more fem'd seeds (Lemon Skunk and White Berry) and doing the same thing with them.

I'm hoping to get enough weed to smoke until next year's harvest. Is this reasonable?? I usually only smoke a bowl at night. I'll also have 6 different strains for some variety. Is a lb "combined" off of 6 plants reasonable? That would be less than 3 oz's per plant. With 15 gallons of FFOF, a good spot and good nutes, I think its an attainable goal....I hope.