intro to sun?

so my plants have been growing under t5s and i know that you are supposed to intro them to the sun i reall dont have this luxery to do. i was wonerding what the consequence would be if i just put them outside what will happen to my plants stress\growth\hermie is there anyway i can do this without any of these problems tht might occur

jrot22 said:

so my plants have been growing under t5s and i know that you are supposed to intro them to the sun i reall dont have this luxery to do. i was wonerding what the consequence would be if i just put them outside what will happen to my plants stress\growth\hermie is there anyway i can do this without any of these problems tht might occur

Click to expand...

Adjust your lighting hours down to what they'll receive outside. I drop an hour a week until indoor lighting matches what they'll receive when they go outside full-time in mid-May.

Adjust your lighting hours down to what they'll receive outside.

Click to expand...

why would you ever do that??? they will grow much better under 24 hours light and shouldn't have any problems adjusting to less hours, if anything gradually shortening their day period would confuse them into thinking fall might be arriving, and would probably yield a higher amount of hermies. as long as you take the time to harden them off to the sun. to do that you need to give them sunlight till they start to look a tiny bit droopy and bring them inside, then go for longer the next day ect...till they can handle a full day of strong sun, the time it takes to do this will vary depending on how much light they are getting idoors, if you are vegging them with florescent, expect at least a week to safely harden them off, my first batch this year stayed out too long and the sun bleached half the leaves pure white, luckily i was able to save them and they are only a tad bit behind.

if you can't get away with putting a batch of sprouts on your balcony or back garden each day you could bring them out permanently and stash them under a thick pine tree, and each day move them out a little bit farther into the light, so they receive a little bit more filtered sun each day, also if you care to devote the effort a burlap tent will allow some light in and can be pulled aside a few hours longer each day. one other thing i have found was to plant each seedling, then cut the top and bottoms off of 2 liter sprite bottles (any green one will work)and tape it to a stake, then put around the individual sprout. i initially tried this to ward of woodchucks and rabbits,(it works!) but came back after a few days to find the ones with clear 2 liter bottles were all bleached white and fried from the sun, the ones with green bottles had no damage at all, just like with beer, the green and brown bottles filter the sun and protect the plant, those plants were not hardened off at all but were vegged under much higher wattage than yours so i don't know if i would depend on it completely.

24 hour indoor lighting directly to full-time 14/10 will put sexually mature plants (4-8 weeks or any clone) into flowering. They'll re-veg as daylight increases, but why subject them to that stress and risk hermies?

Weather permitting, I take my seedlings from indoor lighting into full sun at every opportunity with no ill affects, they thrive on it. I've been growing for years and never had the sun 'burn' any properly raised plant.

thanks for the help all although my plants are about a foot tall give or take a few i had to sex them so my lighting was 18\6 to 12\12 and thats where im at they eill show in a couple days and want to put them out in a few weeks i live in a place witha lot of people so bringing them out and in during the day is out of the question. ill just try my best to ease them into the sun thnks

Ok, what follows is based on my experiences with "hardening off".

Leaves grown under weak florescent lighting will burn under direct sunlight. They don't "acclimate". They burn and die.

What you want is to place the young plants(as previously suggested) in a place that receives direct sunlight only late in the day, and/or early in the morning. After the plants have doubled in size, they can be safely placed in direct sunlight. The original leaves may die, but the new vegetation will be adapted.

I use a different technique, placing my seedlings in a greenhouse when I transplant them into one gallon pots. This prevents all burning when they go outside. Some stay in the greenhouses.

FYI, the T5s may be strong enough that the point is moot. The transition from T5s to sunlight may not cause burning. I'd put one plant out for a couple sunny days, and find out.

veggiegardener said:

Ok, what follows is based on my experiences with "hardening off".

Leaves grown under weak florescent lighting will burn under direct sunlight. They don't "acclimate". They burn and die.

What you want is to place the young plants(as previously suggested) in a place that receives direct sunlight only late in the day, and/or early in the morning. After the plants have doubled in size, they can be safely placed in direct sunlight. The original leaves may die, but the new vegetation will be adapted.

I use a different technique, placing my seedlings in a greenhouse when I transplant them into one gallon pots. This prevents all burning when they go outside. Some stay in the greenhouses.

FYI, the T5s may be strong enough that the point is moot. The transition from T5s to sunlight may not cause burning. I'd put one plant out for a couple sunny days, and find out.

Click to expand...

I've never had any problem going from plain old fluorescent tube grow lights into full sun for hardening. Weather permitting I like them out for as much of that sun as they can get, but more important the spring wind exercise that hardens their stalks in preparation for being outside full-time.

I have learned here in the Bay leave in a shaded area for a week then move into direct sun it works. If i put into direct sun they bleach the leaves white. Then I ended up putting in shade and saved the plant but it could have been a beast without the burn. Veggie and Beaner are giving you good advice.
Dirrtyd

dirrtyd said:

I have learned here in the Bay leave in a shaded area for a week then move into direct sun it works. If i put into direct sun they bleach the leaves white. Then I ended up putting in shade and saved the plant but it could have been a beast without the burn. Veggie and Beaner are giving you good advice.
Dirrtyd

Click to expand...

Do the leaves of the seedlings on the left side of the table in the image I posted above look bleached to anyone? That's their second day of 8 hours of Southern Oregon direct sunlight at 74° out of an 18/6 plain old florescent tubes (around 2,000 hours on them) lighting schedule and back inside at night. I've also grown directly from seed in the ground and never experienced sun burning any type of ornamental or agricultural annual dependent on photosynthesis (the process in green plants and certain other organisms by which carbohydrates are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water using light as an energy source) that has good soil and adequate water.

Pardon my skepticism but how would marijuana ever grow on its own in the wild if as a seedling it required partial shade to 'adjust' to the sun? If I had a plant bleach out I'd be looking at growing media corruption locking out nutrient intake and if not that trash it to eliminate poor genetics.

O.K., still not completely sure about all of this. Maybe there is no perfect answer? I'm in the same situation as the OP, trying to harden my seedling off, except mine is only a week old and is just developing its first fingered leaves. Its just one fem'd cheese seedling from Greenhouse seeds. I put it outside yesterday for the first time for about an hour in direct sunlight (temp in the low-mid 70's). Today I'm probably going to leave it out for about 2 or 3 hours maybe and just see how it responds. I have a nice breeze going outside and really want to thicken that stalk. The fan inside the grow box should help with that too, but anyways. I am interested in how to move these plants outdoors without them going into flowering. I've got my seedling on an 18/6 light schedule right now like jrot did originally as well. I won't have to sex the plant because its fem'd. Lets say I put this seedling outside at 3 weeks old. It shouldn't be a fully mature plant at that time should it? So maybe it won't be shocked into flowering. Beaner that is a great idea with the green 2 gallon bottles. I'm definitely doing that when I put my plant outdoors in a couple of weeks. Would you also recommend pissing all around the grow spot? Does that really work? I'm more worried about deer than anything else. Thanks guys.

Tropical, thank you for clarifying. There is no perfect answer.

hmm i just messed up the post somehow if i posted twice accidently sry lols i feel dumb
in my situation i leave them outside and bring them in at night and put them under floros for another few hours to make it an 18/6 light cycle, currnelty in natures its roughly 12/12 if im not mistaken, then take them back out early in the morn. i also bring them in during inclement weather. theyve been up for 1 week and theyre 4 inches tall and are on theyre 3rd set of leaves... they seemed to do alright and not stressin. you guys think this could cause herms?

ive gone from t5 2 sun with no prob in south , skunk x affie

Now im kind of worried I have my babys vegging under 400 watt CFLs (3" above plants) 24/7. If I put them in a shaded area for the first week then intro them to their permenent full sunlight home will they be ok? Do I need to switch my lighting down to 18/6? I have about 1.5 weeks until I was planning on putting them outside. At the moment all I dont have the ability to get them outside.

Definitely start introducing them to your outdoor environment. As for the light question, I'm still wondering about that myself. I've heard people say to gradually reduce your light schedule until you plant them, but then others say the decreasing of the light will just make them switch to flowering. I'm just going with an 18/6 light schedule then putting them outside after a couple weeks (when they get too big for my box and/or start smelling). If they are shocked into flowering then so be it. They will convert back to veg since the days are getting longer anyways. I'll just cross my fingers and hope they don't turn hermie in the end.

24/0 lighting should only be used for the first week or 2 of a plants life. Plants use the 6 hours of dark for root growth which is equally if not more important to shoot growth. I know at one point I read a study that compared 18/6 to 24/0 and 18/6 won.

chronic coinoisseur said:

24/0 lighting should only be used for the first week or 2 of a plants life. Plants use the 6 hours of dark for root growth which is equally if not more important to shoot growth. I know at one point I read a study that compared 18/6 to 24/0 and 18/6 won.

Click to expand...

ok thank you my plants are a little more then two weeks old. Ill switch them over to 18/6 tonight

When growing indoors, I've always noticed that the plants seem to grow the most (or maybe it just seems that way) during the period the lights are off. I definitely like having at least 6 hrs of darkness (unless you're using an auto-flowering strain).

Just put your plants outside and let God handle the rest, cannabis is a hard plant to kill unless you're just a evil person and God won't help you at all... Have faith and all will work out...
But what do I know I'm a N00b

I just switched mine from 24/0 to 18/6 they are about 2 and a half weeks since sprouting and around 5-6".