SW Ont Q on when to plant

I'm attempting my first grow this season. I currently have 17seedlings about 2.5 weeks old that seem kinda small for their size. Got stretched at the beginning due to incorrect lighting. Switched to slightly better lights and am now trying to catch them up. Im in SW Ontario and am wondering when the best time to plant the seedlings in their outdoor plots would be? I have always heard the May 24 weekend, but since my plants are way too small I'll have to wait for a bit. My plants are just starting to work on their 3rd set of true leaves at the moment. Im kind of worried that if I plant them too soon that they will immediately try and flower without getting some natural veg time in to grow more. Any growers from this area have any insight on what to expect as far as what size the plants should be and when to plant in my region? If I transplant them at the end of May and they are 1' tall(lets just say), would they immediately try and flower? Or should I try and veg them at home for as long as possible?

Well the sun is the ultimate light, so as soon as there aren't going to be any more frosts I'd get them out, especially if you're trying to play catch-up.

Beats said:

I'm attempting my first grow this season. I currently have 17seedlings about 2.5 weeks old that seem kinda small for their size. Got stretched at the beginning due to incorrect lighting. Switched to slightly better lights and am now trying to catch them up. Im in SW Ontario and am wondering when the best time to plant the seedlings in their outdoor plots would be? I have always heard the May 24 weekend, but since my plants are way too small I'll have to wait for a bit. My plants are just starting to work on their 3rd set of true leaves at the moment. Im kind of worried that if I plant them too soon that they will immediately try and flower without getting some natural veg time in to grow more. Any growers from this area have any insight on what to expect as far as what size the plants should be and when to plant in my region? If I transplant them at the end of May and they are 1' tall(lets just say), would they immediately try and flower? Or should I try and veg them at home for as long as possible?

Click to expand...

Hey man quick question do you have a fan blowing on your plants?? I find that once the stock is the size of a pencil I throw em out...

Hey man, I live in SW Ontario as well (Kitchener area). You should put them out when you know there won't be another frost. May 24 is usually safe, but you can wait till later if you're not sure. It don't matter if they're 1 inch tall or one foot tall, as long as there aren't any frosts they'll do just fine. Be sure to "harden" them off first - meaning taking them outside for a few hours a day for a few days, and bringing them in at night. It helps your girls get used to the outdoor environment without shock. And don't worry about them going into flower - mother nature will do all the work for you. If you put them out at the end of May that'll givem a full month to veg outside under the best lighting there is. Once the days start to get shorter at the end of June they'll start to flower on their own.
Good luck bro.

Thanks for the replies. The plants are about 4-5" tall at the moment and almost all have been supported beneath the cotyledon leaves with a drinking straw. For the first 2 weeks or so I was growing them in my window sill during the day and under lights with a fan at night. The fan was set on the far side of the room so that it wouldn't knock the plants over since they had stretched a bit and were lanky. Since getting slightly better light I have put the plants in a closet at night without a fan but I have been putting them out in full sun all day where they get enough of a breeze to move around a bit and strengthen their stems. I know that most ppl just move new plants out into the sun for a few hours a day to start, but since I had been growing them with natural sunlight on my window sill the whole time they seem to be just fine with it.

I was just concerned because some ppl had implied to me that since my plants were getting about 18 hrs a day of light, that they would try to flower as soon as I planted them outdoors. This was making me think that I must veg them at home longer so that they didn't flower at a tiny size. I'm trying to bulk them up as soon as possible with mostly natural light so that I can get them outside permanently in their plots. But having someone say now that the plants will still have a month to veg if I get them out at the end of the month makes me feel much better.

One more thing! My spots are all ready to receive these plants when the time comes. But when I transplanted the seedlings into the cups as you see them in the pics I didn't have the Promix BX bail that I set my outdoor plots up with yet. So the soil in the cups was just taken from a garden planter in my yard. Do you think transplanting these plants into cups of the promix would help them grow faster or would that just be a bad idea? I know the soil is decent because I started pumpkins a few weeks earlier in the same soil and they are very healthy. Just wondering...

huh...never seen the straw thing before. I'd be scared I'd cut the plant getting them off.

Well, I carefully transplanted my seedlings an hour or so ago. What I did was flip the cups over and very delicately shake the soil off the plants. I put each plant back into the same cup it had been in but filled the cups with promix BX and then gave them each a drink. They are out in the sun and hopefully they do better this way. I started the plants initially in Jiffy pellets and from the looks of things it appears that the roots aren't getting through the pellets as much as I had thought. Perhaps next time I will skip the pellets and try another method. I fear the neting on the pellets has stunted root growth. On a good note, roots are starting to form on the seedlings' stems whcih had been buried into the soil. Ill just have to keep a close eye on them and see if I notice any difference in growth rate. Also, I must have read about using straws as stakes somewhere years ago because I have always done it that way. I just cut them so they go inot the soil 1/2" to 1" and cut a 1/16" or thereabouts piece out of the straw so that the plant slides in easily. It's really easy to get them on and off at any point and they really work well.

Beats
When you are about to put them outside, put them in the ground to about the first round leaves. (The first ones they grow not sure what they are called? They are the ones that usually fall off) This will eliminate any issues of support. As for the meshing, If you can get to it I usually cut it with scissors when I am putting them in pots This eliminates early roots from not penetrating the mesh. But no worries in a short time they will get through.
I'm in the same area as you and have put my plants out as early as May 24 and as late as 2nd week of July. With no issues. This year though we have had frost warnings lately?? And looks like more by Sun. Mon. with lows of -1. I'll be putting mine out by 1st week of June.
Sounds like you have some buddies that know about this grow GOOD luck with that one man. The less people that no the better off you are with a small grow dude! Just my thoughts

The initial leaves are cotyledons and yeah, I know to bury up to them. When I first put them in the beer cups they were buried to there but they stretched up again. I need to keep them in the beer cups for ease of transporting them to their grow site. Unfortunately, from all the stretching, the jiffy pellets, are actually almost sitting on the bottom of the cups, so I can't bury them deeper. Only 1 or 2 ppl know I'm doing this but they have no idea where. All ppl who have been giving me info have been from online sites. I'd like to get them outside as soon as possible, but they are way too small at the moment. I'd like the stalks to fatten up and the plants to be at least 2-3x in size before moving them to their final destination. Thanks