How to move plants outdoors the soonest

12 hours is too little. They can switch to flowering and it'll fuck up your yield since they'll flower for a month or so before revegging when the days get longer. The reveg can take a month or more by itself and it'll stunt all progress. Not worth it. Revegging sucks.

You want 15 hours of light but it can come in any form. 12 hours of sunlight plus several hours from a spotlight works great. Just put your spotlight on a timer for 4-6 hours at sunset to prevent them from flowering early. It's called the gas lantern routine.

Also make sure you're past the last frost of the season since that can damage or kill them.

 

Brass has had great success maintaining a vegetative state by using clamp lights until he's ready to allow flowering.

 

Once the plants are mature (8 weeks or so) they'll automatically switch to flower mode once they see 12 hours of light. So even if you mimicked outdoor light before you put them outside the 12 hours will flip them regardless. That's where the supplemental spot lights come into play. There's no way around it if you're putting them outside that early, they need the 15+ hours to prevent flowering.

 

14.5 is the cutoff, more light than that = veg, less = flower. In my area (northeast USA) there are only 2 months with enough sun to keep a plant in veg; june and july.

 

Light always matters. If you put seeds in the ground too early, they will start to transition to flower then reveg once day light length increases.

 

Light matters once they mature, around 8 weeks. To plant them outside early add a spotlight on a timer.

 

you can even use solar lights if you dont have electricity near by but if you can run a cord simply put some lights on them but make sure there is no frost or below 40f weather start them inside under 16 hours of light and make sure you use large pots when you transfer them outside minimum 10 gallon but 22 gallon plastic totes make for nice plants and can be moved around to follow the sun heck you could even move them into the garage every night under the lights or something like that ! if you want to have a large harvest and great plants it takes WORK the more you put in the more you get back!!!

 

As OP said 14.5 hrs of light is cut off, less they'll flower, more they'll stay in veg. 12/12 is an indoor thing.

I put my plants out the second week of June every year and usually don't have a problem, this year I had one show sex, the first time in 13 years. I harvest from middle to late October, Indica dominant strains.

I live in the Midwest so my growing season isn't long enough to grow sativa-dominant strains, at least not long enough to get them to the end.

As others have said you can use artificial light to get an earlier start. I think BrassNwood uses light to get multiple harvests per year, he lives on the West Coast, California I believe.

 

You can start some auto-flowers 35 days before your last frost date in their final pots indoors. I grow my auto's in an organic medium in 10 gallon pots. Set them outside after your last frost date and you'll have an earlier harvest than your photo period plants.

 

I'm in the Northeast and I put my plants out no eariler than May 20. Never had a problem with plants switching to flower but wouldn't go outdoors before late May. I start seeds indoors 1st or 2nd week of April. I grow in 25 and 30 gallon pots and get 6-8 feet tall plants. I perfer 5-6 feet tall, easier to work with.

 

I agree, it is easier, I grew mong u mental, herbies offered me to try and it was 5 feet tall

 

I'm in NY state, zone 5b. Most plants will gain almost no benefit from being started outside too early. I've been growing in this zone for over 40 years. If the soil temperature is too cold then your plant will stunt , regardless of being in a pot or in the ground. I plant outdoors around May 15th. I still get plants in the 6-10 foot tall range in 30 gallon pots. This year I'll start my seeds on June first to keep the one plant I'll grow around 5 feet tall. I know it's garden fever time. But, age and experience has me making better decisions. Why only one plant. I simply have enough weed I don't need anymore.

 

Agree, but there are things like raised beds, canopy's, thick mulch etc that can help keep the soil warmer at the beginning & end of the season. I'm thinking more in terms of getting 2 grows for you cats up Nawth. I had lettuce in jan on Long Island. It's a non issue here in zone 9.

 

The difference is that lettuce is a cold weather crop and your zone makes a huge difference. Lettuce takes temperatures as low as 20 degrees f and does best at 60-65 degrees f. Weed will not grow much with night time temperatures in the 40's. It tends to really slow down under 55 degrees f.

 

Weed seems to like the same temp range as I do. That makes it easy to remember.

 

I am getting my outdoor gardening jollies with herbs, vegies, garden beds & about 30 potted plants around my screened in pool area. After every grow I have more & more soil and use it for non cannabis plants, they seem to love it.