Flowering Outdoors

[mstangerine]

I just harvested my first plant (a Tangerine Haze) which I grew outdoors this Spring. I didn't want to invest in a lot of equipment, so I just grew a clone in a pot outside, topped her to keep her compact, and then started bringing her in every afternoon and putting her in a closet to cut her light to 12 hours, then letting her out again when it got dark. I grew her in organic soil with the same fertilizer combo I use for my tomatoes. The result was fantastic.

I took a couple of clones when topping her and they are now over a foot tall as are a few other clones we bought (yay, Colorado!). Like the first, I am topping them and have been LSTing them also, so they're short and broad. My plan was to start bringing them inside a few weeks from now, like the last one, to start flowering before the days are ~12 hours (we're at about 13h 45m now), since I don't want to worry about frost. But... when I went to look at them this morning, all the plants seem to be starting to flower, with obvious pistils and the start of bud formation. I watch them closely, so I'm pretty sure this is new for all of them, within a day. It's like the 7th grade!

So my question is, I assume that I can count this as the first week of flowering and guesstimate harvest date from that? Or will the plants kind of do their own thing based on the temps/changing light of day?

Also, I was just about to re-pot them and fertilize for bloom, I assume that since they've just started flowering it shouldn't cause them much stress to re-pot now? Anything else I can expect?

Thanks!


PS -
What Strain is it? - Tangerine Haze (H), Hawaiian Haze (S), Golden Goat (H), Blue Widow (H), Super Lemon Haze (H), Blueberry (I), Northern Lights (I), Critical Mass (I)
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? Various
How Many Plants? 12
Is it in Vegetative or Flowering Stage? Flowering
If in Vegetative Stage... How Long?
If in Flowering Stage... How Long? Just transitioning naturally, w/ 13:45 daylight
Indoor or Outdoor? Outdoor
Soil or Hydro? Soil
If Hydro, Reservoir size?
If Hydro, Reservoir Temperature?
If Hydro, what type of Medium?
If Hydro, what type of Setup?
If Soil... What is in your Mix? Organic (EKO)
If Soil... What Size Pot? 1G, moving to 3G
Size (Wattage) of Light? How Many? Sun. 1.
Is it Air Cooled? Yes.
Temperature of Room/Cabinet? Varies
RH of Room/Cabinet?
PH of Medium or Reservoir?
Any Pests? No
How Often are you Watering? Every other day
Type and Strength of Fertilizers used? Light application of blood meal when repotting. Custom mix: eggshells, epsom salts, bone meal, bat guano, potash @flowering
Size or Square Footage of Room? Outside

 

[labexperiment]

Re-potting now is not ideal, but I have seen worse done at the start of flower. You should be ok.

 

[mstangerine]

Thanks a lot. I got them all repotted yesterday and there was a lot of new growth this morning, so they don't seem any worse for the wear. The roots looked great, near the edge of the pots but not at all bound or stressed.

I've read that starting flowering (indoors) at 13-14 hours of light increases the length of flowering by 10-15% from what you'd expect from the same strain under 12/12 - does anyone know if I should expect the same outside, or will they react to falling temps too? If this year is typical our first freeze will happen around week 5/6. I have frost blankets and can move them in to a sun room in case of severe frost, but of course I'd rather avoid that!

 

[Jimmycricket]

Plants do not flower because of light hours. They flower because of darkness.

Even if your area gets 14 hours light and 10 hours dark right now, your plant will almost certainly flower, unless you live on top of a hill facing the south with nothing blocking the sunset or sunrise.

 

[mstangerine]

Maybe you didn't understand my question. They are flowering, and they all started on the same day. Whether you think the light or the darkness is most important, in nature the plant is responding to the changing length of day, right? So it's all the same. With my first plant, I forced flowering by bringing her in after 12 hours, but from what I understand now, it seems like I might have been able to do that after 13-14 hours and have had the same result (or bigger buds from a longer flowering period). I'm mostly wondering if anyone has experience with this and can tell me how long to expect the plants to flower compared to the estimates. Also, I expect that changing temperatures also trigger flowering, especially cool nights, but am wondering how the plants will behave as it gets colder, especially since they are in pots and the roots will not stay as warm as if they were in the ground.

 

[labexperiment]

I do not know the answer to your question as I have never grown in pots outside, but I would err on the side of caution. Or start typing different forms of your questions into google if no one has the answer to your question here. As far as flowering time, I have never had one strain finish when the breeder said it would, it has always been longer. Again, I have never grown outside.

Hope this helped a little.

 

[mstangerine]

Thanks a lot. It should be an interesting experiment!