Question - Inside young'ns going outside

[ConqueringLOJ]

Hey guys,

Here's the deal.. I've got a White Widow girl , and a White Siberian girl about 3 weeks old that I am going to be putting outside soon. Both have been inside under a 19/5 light photoperiod since popping the seeds..
I am afraid that if I just harden them off and plop them outside, with our current 15 hour days, they might start flowering with the drastic light change. So, I want to gradually bring them down to a photoperiod more closely associated with outside before making the switch. My question is, how slowly/quickly should I make the photoperiod change? An hour change per day?? An hour change per week?? Or.. Am I just worrying too much?

Any seasoned outdoor growing advise will be very appreciated.

Thanks! CLOJ

 

[BWC BayArea]

Re: Question..Inside young'ns going outside

I'm a seasoned indoor grower with a little outdoor experience. I've tried gradually decreasing light schedules (over the course of a week) before and didn't notice too big of a difference. From what I gather I think it best to veg to a decent size indoors before hardening. Everything I put out small especially clones flowered small. Now plants from seed are different.

 

[ConqueringLOJ]

Re: Question..Inside young'ns going outside

Thanks for the reply BWC! So, how many hours of light change did you do in a week? I guess I can just take it slow and sample for myself. I'd rather wait another week or two before putting them out than have them flower prematurely. That would really be a cryin shame!

 

[BWC BayArea]

Re: Question..Inside young'ns going outside

I had a timer with tabs that can be pushed down to add more "on" time. Each day I just pushed down a couple tabs (when the light was out) for a week. Nothing special, I didn't get scientific with it. Didn't notice a big difference in these plants or plants I sent from veg to flower immediately.

 

[Xearoveg]

I wouldn't say I'm seasoned but I've done this inside to outside thing twice now and I've learned a few things for sure. If you don't have pretty thick main stems from fans or whatever you can do to get thick stems, definitely prop them with bamboo sticks or whatever you got because the wind can be pretty nasty. Where I live (Oregon) the light can also get a bit too heavy for them sometimes. I've had even 2-3 ft plants get bleached white leaves which is basically the sun burning them.

So what I have started doing is watching the weather and on the hotter days I'll put them under my 1000w with the budding girls for the part of the day when the sun is directly over them. I've also brought them in after sundown and put them in darkness for 6 hours and then continued with light by keeping them under the 1000w till sunrise so their on a 18 light 6 hr darkness. I have not been able to bring them out till sunrise sometimes and so they will stay under darkness a bit longer. Doesn't seem to hurt them any or put them into bud as long as I keep them out in that long summer day at least.

 

[BWC BayArea]

Xearoveg,
U ever bring bugs in to ur indoor plants doing this.

 

[Xearoveg]

That's a good thing to probably look for but I haven't found any yet.

 

[ConqueringLOJ]

Thanks for the replies guys! I have just decided to lower the photoperiod on em 1 hour every 2-3 days..I think it should be fine. Each plant will be going outside this week to a separate location, but will receive about 3 hours of direct mid-morning sunlight, and then dappled sunlight and shade for the rest of the days. I'm really looking forward to growing a few girls in the great outdoors for the first time!

I'll be starting a journal on the grow here shortly. If you are interested, please stop in and pull up a chair.

 

[Cloudblood]

I take mine straight out. The difference is I don't start them at 19/5 I stick with 16/8 when I know they are headed outdoors. I do nothing special to them other than the fan is on high blowing directly at em as they grow to stiffen em up. I never worry about protecting them from sunlight. I am a guerrilla grower for years now and always start shoots then traffic them across the lands.... your real issue is the temp's. The light can fluctuate because a plant doesn't know if its overcast that causes the light change or not. Your real enemy is temps going way too low for the plant that has been kept indoors and too hot. Another step I take when growing for outdoors transplants is keep my grow room the temp of where I will put them....so if your grow room is 80 and you put them outside and the first night it hits 40 degrees that will hurt your vegetation more than the light. I usually dump my outdoor plants in june so temps average high 60's to high 70's and it involves the least amount of adjustments.