Alright, flowering outdoors help

I start from seed to select my own genetics. My light cycle is 24/0. When I transfer outdoors they always seem to start flowering and then it takes like 3 weeks to re-veg. Losing out on valuable growth. I’m thinking if I change my indoor lighting to 14/12, it will put less stress on the plants.
I usually plant when the light cycle outdoors reaches above 12 hours of light. Any advice is appreciated.

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Uhh I’m confused feel like there’s half a story here. How many outdoor hours of light are you getting right now also for next time veg cycle is 18/6 never known anybody who runs 24/0 on photoperiods. @I_thewindcries

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I also don’t understand what is the goal…

If you plant outside and there is slightly above 12 hours of light it is natural that they are switching to flower…

It seems like you are pre-vegetating indoors and putting them out to flower… I’d vegetate under 18/6.

If you want them to continue vegetating outdoor you need to have close to 18 hours of light …

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I believe my plants were shocked when I moved them outdoors because they had been under 24 hours of lighting for their life. Do you think 18/6 is optimal? I also think I may have planted them too early in the spring. I should have waited until the days were longer.

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I have always vegged under 18/6. When you’re dealing with a photoperiod plant and they’re used to having some downtime. With them being used to no downtime right now any change is likely to turn them to flowering stage I think even 18/6 would make them flower if I’m honest.

Being truthful and in my opinion I think you’ve two options in your situation. The first being you keep them inside under 24/0 to keep them in veg until they’re of enough size that you want them to flower. Second option would be simply to chalk this one down to experience bite the bullet and flower them now. I don’t see an out personally bro you COULD try gradually adjusting your timer but I think by the time you’d adjusted they’d be big enough to go out anyway :+1:t2:

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There’s a couple things you can do.

There is no doubt at all that you triggered a flowering response by going straight from 24 to whatever the photoperiod was when you put them out - conversation over there.

So like LemonadeJoe said, you need to get the light schedule down to where it’s not such a big shock. If you put them out early enough though, you can still have the same problem even when going from 18 to 15.
If you insist on having such a long light period, then you need to slowly reduce your light over a period of a couple weeks I would think. I have successfully matched outdoor photoperiod by dropping even 30 minutes every couple of days without triggering flowering, and then putting them out. I have a semi-autoflower that I’m working with right now that needs to be slowly matched to when the natural daylight is in excess of 15.5 or it will flower. It’s kind of like a light merge.

I’m not sure of the advantage of having your plants under 24/0, but have gone to 21/3 because I have some trigger happy plants.

Knowing your latitude would really help here. If you are planting when the light is 12/12, you are either planting too early, or you are too far south for many indicas and hybrids.

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No buddy, you have to start lowering the indoor light down by 15 mins a week until you reach the same hours as the sun then they won’t prematurely bud when you put them outside. I’m assuming you are on the southern hemisphere if you are getting ready to veg outside.

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What makes you so sure they’re starting to flower? Are you seeing buds, or just pistils? Myself, I’ve never had an issue with moving plants outside after running them 24/0. When I put them out I always take at least week or so to harden them off by putting them in a bright but shady place and gradually moving them into direct sun.

Seems you’ve confused a few of us.

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I don’t know if it’s necessary to do it that slowly, at least from my experience. It would be beyond safe though if you did. @Meesh, you are very patient :grin: That would make it take 2 1/2 months for me at my latitude - to go from 18 to 15.5 and match the May long weekend.
Just don’t shock them.
Even if you drop the time by an hour at a time, but wait 5 days in between until you get down around 16. Then slow the change down a bit with smaller increments. Not an exact science, but that’s the idea… Like I mentioned above though, I’ve gotten away with some pretty steady and ungraceful changes - maybe more care is required with some strains… I have some indicas that initiate at 14, whether they are shocked or not, so watch your photoperiod when moving outdoors. I would think for most indicas and hybrids you would want to have an absolute minimum of 14.5, but I would love to hear other opinions on that. That would mean certain death for plants where I live.

Sorry for being so long winded, but this has been a big part of my growing lately and this can really give someone a slow start to the season.

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Mine did outside this year. Just a few minutes short of 14. Most of the hybrids at 13.5. Still waiting on the Sativas lol

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Nice! 14+ is what I’m after to help beat the frost up here. What strains triggered at 14 for you?

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Jungle Spice #6 from the preservation run and Good Shit I believe. I have to check back in my grow log. I just noted the times of flower the other day and in true stoner fashion, I already forgot.

Edit: @cannaloop and a cross from @cannabissequoia a hybrid Red Cherry Berry x Berry White

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Plants will actually sleep, even with the light on, for 4 hours out of 24, so there is no point running lights at 24/7 you are just wasting electric.