Hey all, hope everyone’s doing good!!
I have some cuts currently under 18 hour cycles that I would like to run outside this year and would like to know if any of think it will work putting the cuts under 48 hours darkness then bringing them out to carry on under our normal spring photo period as the days start getting longer? I know it’s said to drop your time the lights go out by 15 minutes every week until you’re at the time frame for your season… but I’m thinking if I can get the cuts to think it’s time to flower then draw that darkness out… they will adapt to the seasonal light when they come out of darkness…??
Does this make any sense … looking FWD to hearing your thoughts …
Thanks
V
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I’ve done both the harsh transition and the 15min/day transition.
The smoother one had better results in terms of not flowering but still had some that flip-flopped & 'sputtered.
The difference seemed to be the strain’s preference-- i.e. the Sativas didn’t blink & vegged happily but the Indica-dom’s were ready to trigger flowering on a 10hr dark period, the Sativa needed a full 12hrs.
Next year I will wait until I have longer days & skip the headache of confused plants. Also have seen great results from seeds started far later than I normally would start them. 
(One factor to consider is I haven’t run clones outdoors in a few years and thes have been seed plants I’ve mentioned.)
(Off topic) @Sunvalley Have you heard of or tried light-dep using a 2x layer of shadecloth? (the idea being to increase airflow, reduce heat…)
I.e. 2x 80% shade = 160% ?!
Really tempted to try that next year.
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I think the 48 hours dark then say 13 hours outdoor light would trigger flower more. I’ve added a hour every night to break up darkness for two weeks. I turned off lights at summer solstice so the longest day of light. 14.5 hours.
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Cannabis need a little week to adapt to a given photoperiod (any type). No matter the trick, idea, theory aimed … it have to be constant for a week to trigger something. The hormonal processing and the enzymatic activity responsible of the expressions is a heavy machine.
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Southern Hemisphere is still technically in Winter. Spring is coming, still a month off.
So, If you are rooted with new growth by Sept 21, your natural light will drive them to flower. That will be good for about 3 weeks, at which time they will stretch out and regenerate.
If you can control the light, shades or move to dark, you can continue to flower.
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Appreciate the replies … will experiment with a few cuts at different times and see how it pans out … may just put up a patch with supplemental lighting if push comes to shove.
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Pretty close. 
First shade passes 20%, shade passes 20% of that, or 4% total.
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Hey bro sorry forgot to reply to this… No I havent but I’ve definitely thought about doing that … might do the greenhouse sides like that come to think of it … I’ll let you know if it works out
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Good catch! I suck at math. 
I guess a 3rd layer would be near darkness but I wonder about spacing between the layers… probably need some air-gap.
@Sunvalley same here looking forward to outsmarting the plants.
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I know this is a Cali thing! From my reading, I could have had just as good of performance starting my seeds in May as I did in April if not more. Unfortunately the only seeds started in May were my damn Strawberry Diesels the ultimate in sativa lol. I’m gonna try a few hybrids next year starting in May and check out the one month difference.
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I would say it would be a hit or miss trying the 48 hrs darkness thing. They may prematurely bud then reveg or they may just finish prematurely budding and never reveg which would suck. I had both things happen to 12 clones last year, but they just went directly into the sun no 48 hours of darkness first. Funniest part was they were all the same exact strain and all acted differently.
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THAT’s weird. 
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Right??! My personal conclusion was “don’t fuck with their light cycle” lol
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