Premature flowering - indoor to outdoor, advice?

[radrichie61]

On advice from a friend in the business, I started my girls indoors at the start of March. In NC it is so warm so long I went early. He thought I was doing inside only. My bad. Well, out at my GG site I am seeing preflowering in 3/6. Was inside on a 16 / 8 and the switch to slightly less outside set them into flower with pistils. Are they doomed?

 

[Emeraldo]

Are they doomed?

Absolutely not. And it sounds like you know what happened: When you put them outside, the day length was shorter than your 16/8 schedule, so the plants went into flower. They will revert or "re-veg" as the days get longer, if not already.

 

[SmokingWings]

Was inside on a 16 / 8 and the switch to slightly less outside set them into flower with pistils.

When going outside it is more than just the weather and how warm it is. Your problem is that there still is not enough quality daylight to shut off the plant's production of flowering hormones. Using Raleigh, NC as an example that area is still 2 to 3 weeks away from getting 12 hours of decent sunlight.

The angle of the light at sunrise and again at sunset and basic everyday weather is pretty much blocking any quality light for the first hour and last hour of the day. Everyday weather includes the morning fogs and mists that will burn off about an hour after sunrise. In the evening we have dry air which means there is more dust and pollen in the air blocking the last sunlight of the day which has already gotten dim. This pollen and dus settles back down overnight and we repeat the process again in the morning.

If you know anyone who is into photography ask them what it is like taking pictures at sunrise and sunset using manual exposure settings.

The link is the basics of what is happening.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight

Are they doomed?

Nah. It will be a few weeks and Mother Nature will forgive you. Around the 15th of May the daylight will be long enough that after subtracting the first and last hour there will be close to 12 hours of decent quality light that the flowering that the plant is going through will pretty much stop. And by the 25th of May the plants will be starting to go back into a "revegging stage". By the 10th of June it should be noticeable that the flowering stage is pretty much over with. Some of these times can be off a bit depending on whether there are tall trees or shrubs which are blocking direct sunlight from hitting the plant in the morning or evening.

This sort of situation is why many outdoor growers in North America do not bother to put out their plants until the last week of May. And, there is a good chance that the plants will start to flower sometime about a week to two weeks into August while the length of daylight is still just under 14 hours according to the astronomers.

Depending on the strain and a bit on local weather.

 

[Stankyflars]

After growing indoors for years, I have taken to finishing plants outdoors. This year, after maybe 6 weeks indoor veg from seed, I set out a pineapple chunk and a Colombian gold on April 1st (12:32 hrs daylight) and they both started flowering after a couple weeks and finished normally around 8 weeks. I set out a Pineapple Express and an amnesia haze on April 15th (13:01 hrs daylight) . The PE flowered in a couple weeks and finished normally around 8 weeks. The AH has yet to flower and it is monstrous huge viney thing and today is 14:09 hours daylight. My conclusion is that different strains have different photo periods. And perhaps once in flower, increasingly shorter dark periods have no effect. I think the AH is sativa dominant, the others, hybrid and less sativa dominance. Photo is the CG.