How late is too late to start outdoor cali grow??

The title says it all. Behind schedule.. was helping my mom fight colon cancer and recover from surgery. Thankfully she's now cancer free. I usually have quite the grow going on by now but just havent had the time to start anything. Im wondering what the general thoughts are. Its May 1st... is it too late to start a grow. I'll need to pic up seeds, germinate, ect ect... maybe take a weeks time. What are your thoughts?? Please share your info and ideas.

Thanks

just get plants that have shorter flowering times and you should be fine. or you could try autoflowers

happy growing

get a growers almanac and see when the general 12/12 starts and aim for 6 weeks before that.. im sure 4 will be fine but a significantly smaller yeild

August 1st.....imo. October harvest with most, 8-10 weeks of vegetative growth, at least, right? but, i would never plant that late. too hot and dry.

If you think about the people doing 12/12 from seed inside, you could wait as long as mid September and still get bud. You just wouldn't get that much. I guess it depends on what part of Cali as well. The point though is that May is def. not too late.

ul be alright jus get them outside as soon as u can, if possible start with sum good rooted clones, that way u dont have to wait for a seed to germinate an all that

yea what kb said. get some clones if you can....if you can get clones, and your in Norcal, your not really late. I never plant rooted clones until June 1st. If you have to start from seed, you'll still be ok. You will not get full potential yield from the plants, but you'll do just fine. I put some seed out on June 15th last year, and them girls still got 6 ft. tall. They weren't heavy yielders, but they were waaaay better than nothing and the quality was just fine. They did finish a few weeks later than usual though.

I'd consider now is a good time to start. Any earlier and they'd flower instead of veg. And starting past June, you'd still get decent harvest but not optimal.

Get some clones,and put them under a light. Or make a little green house for them.I've had monsters that didn't get put out till mid June.The season is just starting! !

Wheeler man said:

Get some clones,and put them under a light. Or make a little green house for them.I've had monsters that didn't get put out till mid June.The season is just starting! !

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Yup, exactly

Dralion, sorry to hear about your mom, I hope everything works out for you and your family. Cancer sucks!

FM

With due respect to some of the above posters, 12-12 is irrelevant.

Most strains grown outdoors will actually start flowering under only about 9-10 hours of darkness and will be more than 2/3 of the way through flowering at the time of the 12-12 September 21st equinox. In fact, plenty of "early" strains will be *DONE* by the time the light gets to 12-12 outdoors!

If your plants only started flowering in late September you'd have a bad problem in most of the country, where frost can come as early as November!

Presuming the question is "when is the latest I can plant outside and still have the plants mature", the answer depends both on where you are growing (ie when first frost comes), and what strain you want to plant.

Speaking in general, most strains finish up growing outside by mid-October. Allowing 3 weeks for sexual maturation of the plant from seed and another full 9 weeks for flowering maturity, you can plant outdoors FROM SEED into mid-July in most cases and still harvest perfectly mature (though not all that tall) plants at their normal time in October.

Obviously, if you're planting an already mature clone or plant grown indoor from seed you can get away with planting it outdoors later.

Also, many strains take less time to mature than 9 weeks, and/or start flowering earlier. So again, as long as you pick a strain that doesn't take extra-long flowering, you can get away with planting later, even into August.

Lastly, if you're lucky enough to be in a nice sunny state like CA where frost comes late (or not at all), you can probably get away with planting even LATER yet , even into September if you had to.

Again, the main problem with planting really late in the season is just that the plants won't get very big, and yields will be low. But as long as there is no frost, the plants will still flower and mature, even under 10 hours (or less) of daily light.

Bottom line, its not even CLOSE to being "too late" to plant now in May! There is still PLENTY of time to put seeds (or clones) in the ground and grow nice big plants if you wanted to do that.

Wheeler man said:

Get some clones,and put them under a light. Or make a little green house for them.I've had monsters that didn't get put out till mid June.The season is just starting! !

Click to expand...

Thats right but some 'pure' indicas will flower quickly so try to make it prior to june 21, I learnt the hard way last season.

The season has just begun. Many people don't put their plants out until june-july as this minimizes the chances of pest problems and can help them finish earlier before rain hits.

I've always been under the impression that flowering is the same time and length and dependant on hours of darkness, long as they are sexually mature.

Is that totally true, or if a plant is started early on, will it then flower and finish earlier than if it was started a month or two later? I do know the longer the veg time, usually the bigger the end yield

obijohn said:

I've always been under the impression that flowering is the same time and length and dependant on hours of darkness, long as they are sexually mature.

Is that totally true, or if a plant is started early on, will it then flower and finish earlier than if it was started a month or two later? I do know the longer the veg time, usually the bigger the end yield

Click to expand...

In my experience it's all dependent on strain and has nothing to do with when the plant went out. If you start earlier it does not mean your plant will flower or finish earlier, so your right obi, its all about when the plants recognize the days getting shorter. Sometimes I start seeds in August for fun and they veg for just a few weeks at most, then stretch and flower, and will yield about 1oz maybe more. In response to the thread starter, dralion, you have plentyyyy of time. Grow dude! Start now you'll have big plants.

Jogro said:

With due respect to some of the above posters, 12-12 is irrelevant.

Most strains grown outdoors will actually start flowering under only about 9-10 hours of darkness and will be more than 2/3 of the way through flowering at the time of the 12-12 September 21st equinox. In fact, plenty of "early" strains will be *DONE* by the time the light gets to 12-12 outdoors!

If your plants only started flowering in late September you'd have a bad problem in most of the country, where frost can come as early as November!

Presuming the question is "when is the latest I can plant outside and still have the plants mature", the answer depends both on where you are growing (ie when first frost comes), and what strain you want to plant.

Speaking in general, most strains finish up growing outside by mid-October. Allowing 3 weeks for sexual maturation of the plant from seed and another full 9 weeks for flowering maturity, you can plant outdoors FROM SEED into mid-July in most cases and still harvest perfectly mature (though not all that tall) plants at their normal time in October.

Obviously, if you're planting an already mature clone or plant grown indoor from seed you can get away with planting it outdoors later.

Also, many strains take less time to mature than 9 weeks, and/or start flowering earlier. So again, as long as you pick a strain that doesn't take extra-long flowering, you can get away with planting later, even into August.

Lastly, if you're lucky enough to be in a nice sunny state like CA where frost comes late (or not at all), you can probably get away with planting even LATER yet , even into September if you had to.

Again, the main problem with planting really late in the season is just that the plants won't get very big, and yields will be low. But as long as there is no frost, the plants will still flower and mature, even under 10 hours (or less) of daily light.

Bottom line, its not even CLOSE to being "too late" to plant now in May! There is still PLENTY of time to put seeds (or clones) in the ground and grow nice big plants if you wanted to do that.

Click to expand...

very true, this guy is completly right, espcially here in cali u can easily get away with a slow start, when i would cut clones for the co ops id cut them all the way up til the end of august cause people were still needin them that far into the season, alot folks start later so when the first heli fly by's of the year happin they dont have plants in the yard and it doenst attract attention, the clones that never went to any patients i would jus toss them outside and they would start flowering right away, usually pulled in round 2oz per clone in 1gal container (depending on strain) so dralion there is no need to worry u have plenty of time to get them out there, still rule of thumb the sooner the better but if u gota wait alittle to put em outside dont pull ya teeth out stressin on it, ul be all good and have sum lovely ladies growin this year

btw dralion i read a post in this thread, and i know i dont know u personally but its always when a parent becomes ill, cancer is evil its one of those things we wish didnt exist, stay strong brotha