NW U.S. -- when are you starting your outdoor grow?

After the last frost. I think thats around 4/20 for people in the northwest.

What you really need to worry about is force flowering on accident. If you put clones that have been on 24/0 outside in april they'll probably start flowering. So if you're growing from clones you should probably put them on a 18-6 light schedule now. And don't transplant them outside until the days get fairly long. I've had clones start flowering in may when i put them outside. So june might be your best bet.

If you're growing from seed then april will be fine. Plant has to grow to full maturity before it starts flowering.

@WetNRollin, thanks for that. I'm still at the early part of the learning curve. I'm slowly finding out what the advantages are of starting from seeds... next year that's what I'll do. A lot of the planting times I've been getting were accurate for seed starts, but not clone starts.

I've got the clones at 18/6... this is going to be a trial and error year for sure (a nice way of saying I'm going to fck this up countless ways... ). I understand (now) that they can start to flower, and then go back to veg, and then flower again, but survive this stress and still produce, so I guess that's what I'm going to be risking. The thing is, I need a relatively small volume for my patient (relative to outdoor plant potential yields), although quality would be nice. Luckily I have lots of options, and can plant two more later in the season. If it turns out the last two to go into the ground are the only ones to produce, I'll still probably be covered for my med needs.

Just a little follow up to this. I sprouted some seeds, and while they were still pretty young (a couple of weeks old? I don't recall exactly) I transplanted them and ran out of room inside, so I moved a few outside. The ones that went outside were placed around April 30th. They went into a hoop-house/cold frame, which gets direct sunlight (on days when the sun comes out) from about noon to six p.m. The ones that stayed indoors continued under humble CFLs, and about a week ago I added a non-grow specific LED light that I've had success vegging with before, so now they are under an LED/CFL combination. Nothing to write home about, but, they are doing significantly better than the ones under insufficient sunlight.

The only reason I'm sharing this, is that for the NW, and especially the NW if your location does not get full sunlight throughout the day -- this anecdotal evidence implies that its way better to veg indoors until June 1st, and then put them out.

The pale green stretchy one is the one that is outside, the other is one from the indoor. The indoor has layers of leaves, way more foliage. They are the same seeds, and looked identical until I split them up.



I suppose once full June sunlight comes, it is possible that the ones that spent more time outside will do better under full sun, hopefully I'll have the capacity to continue the experiment.

Here's a post from my thread, hope this helps.
TMB-

When to start your seeds and transplant?
I'm old school here, and what has worked for me and others I will continue to use (not broken don't fix?). Hodge (very old school) started his seeds in March in a Greenhouse for his fall run, this has been my technique for years now. This year I planted during the "waxing moon phase" at the end of February (26th, didn't want to wait until the waxing moon phase in March) and will transplant into the garden during the waxing moon phase in May (May 17th -31st this year). Planting on the "moon phases" was learned by me from reading the Farmers Almanac. It says to "plant above ground fruiting plants during the waxing moon phase, and below ground fruiting plants/clones during the warning moon phase". Not sure if this really matters, but being old school, and what has worked in the past I usually stick with.
Plants have been outside for over a month now with supplemental lighting over them. Light comes on at 5;30am off at 7:30am, by that time of the day sun will be high enough in the sky to take over until late evening. The lights come back on at 6:00pm then off at 8:30 pm. These hours simulate the same hours as the Dawn/Dusk hours when transplanting during the waxing moon phase in May. Plants will be transplanted next week, note the "dawn dusk" hours 1 week from today in the below chart.
TMB-
http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/yosemite-national-park-california.html

That post was last week. The plants went in yesterday, I have 1 left, I need to do some repairs in the garden before she goes in.

Thanks for sharing that info, TMB. Every region seems to have its own sweet spot. I'm still new to this, but my experience so far would indicate that given my particular initial conditions, starting indoors and finishing outdoors is probably my best bet. I'll know more 5 months from now, but that's what I'm thinking so far.

I started another thread asking about growing under limited sunlight (like 6 hours a day of direct light), and with each passing week I learn more about what my yard can and can not produce. This is just another lesson along the way.