I live in central New England and I have a few plants indoors that I have started flowering under 12/12. I want to move them outdoors for the remainder of their flowering cycle asap but I am scared about stressing them out with odd lighting. I had made this mistake already 2 months ago by bringing flowering plants outdoors for the summer and they reverted to veg, turned hermie and pollinated the $hit out of themselves and totally destroyed the crops. Can not let this happen again, granted the reverting process took several weeks I do not want to take any chances this time! Seems from my research most New England growers start flowering in August through September but I am unsure if Aug. 1st will have less than 13 hours of light...I could take the chance and let them take more light for a few weeks until it drops to a 12/12 but even if they do not develop hermie organs it still runs the chance of putting them in stress for a few weeks. So I guess to be safe I am asking if I should wait until mid August to move my already flowering plants outdoors? They can always be brought back indoors in October if the weather turns too fast on me. This seems like such a fine line to calculate...do I factor in mild sunrise and sunsets? Do I just go by TheWeatherChannel's sunrise-sunset "meter" and base my daylight off that??
You won't be in a 12 hour daylight term until the 25th of September In NE. It's not the amount of light that triggers flower. It's the amount of uninterrupted darkness. Sunrise and sunset times in New England, September 2017
I understand the darkness which is just a given when talking about lighting. 25th of September means 12 hours of darkness. This is a tricky situation sounds like I am indoors for at least another month. Maybe I can get away with September 1st @ 11 hours darkness according to your link? Maybe shift my timer now to prepare for it by using an 11.5/12.5 lighting? (11.5 hrs darkness for August?)
If you can cover them and guarantee that there will be no light leaks then maybe you can pull it off. Light Dep. Good Luck!
I'm in southern New England and all my plants outside are beginning to flower. Why can't you keep them inside? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
My outdoors are not yet, but I am not setup for flowering indoors my lights are not intense enough and I do not have good enough odor control. To compensate my plants get a solid 5+ hours of direct sunlight during the peak day.
You're kinda screwed since youre reprogramming the plant. You're just gonna have to stick them out there and hope for the best. I'm guessing it's gonna have to be pitch black too. Not sure how that's possible outside without extra stuff to shield light
Moonlight does not affect the dark cycle but I know plenty of people do this, it is just a sweet spot?
You're also gonna have to harden it off. Sounds like a lot of stress but if it works I'd def keep that strain for the longrun. At least then you'll know it's not sensitive
Not the moon but like streetlights, kitchenlights, random neighbor windows... etc. Moon too though, didn't think about that. I doubt the moon will do anything too
I downloaded a lux meter app with my phone to see if the streetlight would be a problem. At my distance it didn't pick up just like the moon. So far so good. You can also see how long the day is for your plants wherever youre growing. Slope or location can mess with it. Use that app and find out when the sun starts to rise, go outside and put it at the top head and point it toward the the sun. When it starts to read that's when your day starts. Then do the same when it starts to set. Make sure you set the phone at the level of your top cola and point it toward sun like the plant does. Dont just point it straight up
Anything higher than 1 lux could be a problem according to the extensive research I've done on forums, books, youtube, and google
You know what....I looked closer and I do have tiny preflowers! The season has begun! Good point about the lights, my neighbor has a floodlight outback that makes its way through my fence I will have to do something about this.