Got a seedling I started a couple weeks ago, giving it rainwater and starting it under CFLs for now but at the end of April I wanna plant it outside because I have access to an undisclosed confidential rural location I can do so (i.e, a hidden spot on some adjacent land to a gas line right-of-way, where it will be untraceable who planted it), and didn't feel like spending $500 of my stimulus check on a mars hydro all in one kit. I read that in WNY, by the end of April it's safe enough to put them outside. Just figured it would be easier and cheaper to let it follow the natural light cycle plus it's only one plant and idk yet whether it's a boy or a girl. Thoughts? Pic:
To early. It'll try and flower then reveg and just be trashed. For successful transition to outside you needed to start your seed on 15-9 or 16-8. Set out on June 1st. Harvest mid Oct. Direct seed planting can be done as early as May 1st as the plants are not light aware for the first month. The 3rd option is to light them up at night keeping them on 24-0 light cycle. This is what I'm doing. Three 23 watt CFLs. BNW
morning, im in central ny,if i put anthing outside,its june 20th for the proper amount of sun,15 + hrs. I dont usually becacause of the heavy humidity. Weather up here is somewhat finicky
The peak outside light is the 30 days either side of the summer solstice. That means setout May 21 to June 1st. You only have June and July to veg in as by Aug 1st the days have shortened enough to trigger flower and you have buds by mid Aug. BNW
I'll just light them at 16/8 until may or june idk what else to do. Then i can put it outside and it'll be used to the light cycle anyways and hopefully it will flower in aug
I've been screwed to many time trying to get a good time match and finally said to hell with it and just put it all on 24-0 and light them up. I'm down at Latitude 33 so I don't get the big swings in hours like you'd get further north. As always experience of local conditions beats the best long distance advice BNW.
Based on living here it's definitely not safe to put anything outside until may. Last summer i tried this indoors with 4 plants and didn't have enough light, still don't, also started too late and they were just dwarfed. I wanted to use natural sunlight for veg because it'll get bigger than under any lights I have unless I spend a bunch on good ones. No way am i spending 500 bucks on one plant that could be male or female
June 1st is what I use for setout. If your match is good the plant keeps rocking along like nothing happened. If you miss by to much she will start to flower, Stall, Think for a week or two then go back to vegging. It's that lost time we can't get back. BNW
Yeah it's a real delicate balance. At best what i have for lighting are an LED strip shop light and a 2-tube CFL fixture that i could put it under until June 1 and i got a timer. It's not going to be that big though, it would have to do some serious outside growing between june and aug to get a decent harvest but ya never know
lol, thnx bnw,that really makes sense to me,ive had so much bud ruined from finishing outside i havent done any in years. But,you got me thinking,if i start early,i can finish early and avoid the fall humidity,it gets so thick ya caant see 10'!
We just talked about this in another thread. You can fool the plants in summer and finish 2-4 weeks sooner. Start them on 24-0 about now. Set out after chance of frost has passed. Keep under lights. As a 24-0 plant it'll slam into flower as soon as the lights are turned off. Normal flower triggers Aug 1st and is finished 10 weeks later Oct 15th. Kill the lights July 15th they'll finish Oct 1st. Kill the lights July 1st and harvest Sept 15th. This is about as early as this trick works. Any sooner and she'll start to reveg. BNW
@Green Dragging Another option is to thin the colas as they form. Remove every other bud site. Thinner buds = less chance of mold. Smaller harvest beats zero harvest. Grow more plants to compensate. Used to talk with a South Florida grower who did that. BNW
Thats a good trick!,only thing is if i left lites on ouside,id get caught,pretty dark at nite here,but, i can keep them inside and put out july 1rst,thin the buds buds for sure,thnx bnw!
Ok so just for clarity, i'll plan on vegging indoors on 16/8 until june 1st then transplant it to my outdoor location. No guarantees as to how big it's going to get since again i'll just be using what amounts to the output of 4 CFL bulbs. The whole point of me wanting to do it outside is to avoid spending money on lights and shit i cant afford
That sounds like a good plan, im gonna toss a few clones outside this year, hopefully ill get enough over summer to let me grow vegys inside next winter.
I grew outside last summer. Not saying I’m a great indoor grower but between fighting the rain and mold the only reason I’m doing one outside this year is to keep my strain alive through out the heat. Might make rso with it. I had 3 plants in 25 gallon buckets and got half to 75% less then I expected to get going by my indoor numbers. It’s a labor of love. Don’t have any expectations and you won’t be let down. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I read that in WNY, by the end of April it's safe enough to put them outside. I live in Michigan, if I put my plants out in April they'll flower due to the daylight hours and frost will kill them. I put my plants out every year in the 2nd week of June. This gives me plenty of daylight hrs. and the nighttime temperatures are warming up. I go from 18-6 to outdoors. I've found this to work best for me. Very little if any growing lawl time. .
I put it in my closet under a CFL shop light + a couple of fluorescent spot bulbs and it's on a timer now at 18/6. I'll probably keep it like this maybe add another light for another month, we just got snow last night and it's almost april. Hopefully having it on light cycle now will put it in sync for when I put it outside and then it can finish veg and flower under natural light. But this is my second attempt. I'm just a novice lol. It does seem to be shooting up fast tho