putting clones outdoors

[gmurdah]

hey there icmag. this is my first post on here because ive been searching for weeks for this info but still cant seem to find a reliable article on acclimating my clones to the outdoors. First of all, I know that i want to put my clones outside mid may or early june. i live in Santa Cruz, California so that should be a good time to put them outside. The part that i am confused on is getting my indoor light cycle correct so that they don't start flowering right away when i put them out. Currently I have my indoor setup on a 18/6 light cycle for all of my cloning and mother plants. So my question is if i plan on putting the plants out between mid may and june, what should i begin to do now so that i reduce my chances of the girls flowering on me when i put them outside.

 

[OrganicBuds]

This thread should help you out. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=56985 Good luck.

 

[Sinkyone]

There are a few ways you can go about it. Some of the very late flowering strains like the Sour D can actually go right from an 18/6 to outside without issue. However personally I would not advise doing that, it is a bit risky.

One option is to do a reduced light cycle. Begin lowering the amount of light they are getting by 15-30 minutes a week until their light cycle matches up with the amount of light you would be getting in late May/Early June. This is probably the simplest way to do it, but it does make the plants more hormonally inclined to flower.

The other option is to do an interrupted light cycle. To figure this out look at how much light you get at your planting date, and set this for your main light cycle. Then look at the difference in light between your planting date and the longest day of the year (June 21). Set it so that much light goes on in the middle of the dark cycle. So for example if you get 14 hours of light on your planting date, and 16 hours of light on the June 21, set it for a 14/4/2/4 light cycle. This way the amount of light they get on the main cycle always goes up when they get planted, and the total amount of light they get is never more than what they will get on the longest day. By interrupting the light cycle you prevent them form being hormonally inclined to flower. This technique is used in the commercial ornamental industry to make photo sensitive plants flower whenever you want.

Also be mindful of temperature. If it is really cold when you move them outside they will be more inclined to flower. Same thing if they get root bound - don't let them stress out. Also you will have to ease them into an outdoor environment. If you go right form inside to outside they can burn since the sun is so much more intense than any grow light.

 

[gmurdah]

Thanks a lot for the quick replies organicbuds and sinkyone. i like the idea of interrupting the light cycle that you gave sinky. but would that require me to use supplemental lighting when i put them outside or do i just slowly acclimate them and they should be good?

 

[gmurdah]

i just cheacked a daylight calendar and the amount of daylight only varies by 32 minutes between may 15 (14:10) and june 21st (14:42) . do you think that reducing 15 minutes a week until i plant i will be good to go?

 

[Nez]

id say put your newly rooted clones under 18/6 and every three or four days, move the timer back 20 or 30 minutes. If you do that in a couple weeks they will be under 16/8 and have about a month of veg under that time then ready to transplant june 1st maybe a little earlier

 

[Kcar]

Did you ask what cycle they were under when you bought them?

 

[moondawg]

Hey growbuddy

Ive fiddled with these times for years. Let me tell you what you need to know.

Generally, (there is some very slight variation with haze/sativa's), hybrid cannabis flowers at 14.5-14.75 hrs of daylenthg.

Law of cannabis: Set clones out before the daylenth reaches the 15 hr level and they will flower every single time. Wait until 15 is here and growth is normal.

The closer you can keep your indoor lighting to that of the outdoor (15) during your pregrowth period , you willl reduce the chance of hermi and just as bad for an older plant - severe transplant shock. The older the seedling, the more traumatic the transplant is.


Just my 2 cents. good luck

 

[mr.shiva]

I get my plants ready in the greenhouse. Interrupting the light cycle from 12-1am does it for me. I ran lights till June 22 to be safe.

 

[Friend]

Generally, (there is some very slight variation with haze/sativa's), hybrid cannabis flowers at 14.5-14.75 hrs of daylenthg.

Law of cannabis: Set clones out before the daylenth reaches the 15 hr level and they will flower every single time. Wait until 15 is here and growth is normal.

This is the part that has been confusing me. I live near 33N and the absolute longest day of the year is a bit under 14.5 hours of daylight. The daylength here is always between 14/10 and 10/14, so for cannabis it's pretty close to a flowering photoperiod all throughout the year. Does this mean that any plants i put outside will most likely start flowering right away, regardless of what day they go out?

 

[gmurdah]

yeah friend thats kinda the problem im having too. i know it is possible where we live though so maybe shorten your light cycle slowly until it is the same amount of light as your planting date and if it starts flowering your screwed haha

 

[Kcar]

This thing is very helpful
http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/coordsmotion/daylighthoursexplorer.html

 

[Sinkyone]

This is the part that has been confusing me. I live near 33N and the absolute longest day of the year is a bit under 14.5 hours of daylight. The daylength here is always between 14/10 and 10/14, so for cannabis it's pretty close to a flowering photoperiod all throughout the year. Does this mean that any plants i put outside will most likely start flowering right away, regardless of what day they go out?

You get about 30 minutes of 'usable' light before sunrise and after sunset. So if your sunrise to sunset is 14.5 hours you actually get 15.5 hours. So for example where I am at, on may 21 (my normal planting date I shoot for), my sunrise to sunset length is 13.5 hours but I really get 14.5 hours of light. This is however assuming your garden is in a spot that gets full sun. If you are worried about it, plant a little later, like the first week of June. Or do what Shiva recommended and interrupt their light cycle till June 21.

 

[gmurdah]

thanks for the explanation on the extra hour of sunlight that makes a lot more sense now

 

[gmurdah]

anybody else got any tips for preparing my clones to go outside???

 

[Sinkyone]

Make sure not to go straight from a greenhouse or indoor room to directly outside, they will burn. You have to ease them into the more intense natural sunlight.

 

[BasementGrower]

i usually bring the plants to outdoors straight from indoors.. but leave in the pots for a week.. so that u can put them in a shadey area so they dont burn.. its tough for some people like me. to put a bunch of plants on the back porch to get them acclimated lol. ITS IMPOSSIBLE. id have cops at my house in minutes.

but this year. i have no choice but to go from indoors to out. so im just going to start planting outdoors by may 1st the latest.. and keep planting spots until july 1st.. giving me 2 months to get EVERYTHING out.. we will have are BUSH spots.. and are SOG Spots.

 

[ozzieAI]

i have been vegging indoors and flowering out for years now here are some tips i use:

plants will often go straight into flower so i grow them BIG in veg
i spray a mix of seaweed concentrate, fish emulsion, silica and potash (medium strength) a day or two BEFORE moving out...i rarely get wilting for more than a few hours before plants bounce back
treat the plants gently during transplant and ensure that root balls are not completely dry or too wet, nice firm root ball is preferred
plant into a wet medium not dry
use same foliar mix as above to water into the plant once transplanted
within a few days i reapply the foliar spray and i am good to go...

i use a heap of silica and go out of my way to grow big strong plants that are able to quickly (within a day or so) resume growing. all strains i have used have gone into flower when using 18/6 indoor lighting schedule...except one long flowering, big arse sativa that got smashed by storms and mould...

pot size counts for planting outdoors...use pots that the plants can fill with roots...loose rootballs tend to fall apart during transplant causing damage

goodluck

here is a seven week old NL#5 ready for the great outdoors...all 90cm of her...

 

[theJointedOne]

too many people in this thread talking about things they have no real experience with...

to the OP do some research on here and all your ??s will be answered, feel free to PM me also

good luck

 

[bajangreen]

You get about 30 minutes of 'usable' light before sunrise and after sunset. So if your sunrise to sunset is 14.5 hours you actually get 15.5 hours. So for example where I am at, on may 21 (my normal planting date I shoot for), my sunrise to sunset length is 13.5 hours but I really get 14.5 hours of light. This is however assuming your garden is in a spot that gets full sun. If you are worried about it, plant a little later, like the first week of June. Or do what Shiva recommended and interrupt their light cycle till June 21.

Not to sure about this as that type of "usable"light is very dull, it's close to a full moons light and i don't think that plants absorb much of this, i could be wrong, i would like some verification, don't take my words for it.