Hello all, long time lurker first time poster here. I really cant find any good threads on this question.... So I have been vegging my plants all winter long (not from seed!) and there about 4 feet tall and i think there about ready to be put into 100 gallon smart pots and moved outside. Or at least I think so.... This has been my plan for this years norcal medicinal grow. However I'm starting to hear conflicting things about doing this. I just want to state I COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND LIGHT CYCLES! There 18 - 6 and I was planning on putting them out when my outdoor cycle here will acomadate a a few more months of vegetive growth. SO to re-iderate there 18 6 now and would be out under a acomadating naturaul vegetative state for the next few months. Basically I was trying to grow some monsters but don't know that this is the best way anymore. Maybe still do this but with bigger smart pots? Any info from FIRST HAND experience would be great! Thankyou so much!!!!
If I understand your situation correctly, your plants have been growing under 18 hrs. of light for 4 months and you want them to continue vegetating when you put them outside under natural day/night cycle. Simply put, that will not happen. Your plants are mature and accustomed to a long photo-period, so when the light cycle changes, the plants will enter their flowering phase. This is assuming you're not in alaska or somewhere else where the days are 18+ long.
Ohhh, that makes alot of sense when put like that, I just assumed since our days are continuing to get longer out here and most people are about to put there clones out and since clones have the same genetic age in essence. it would be ok and they would continue to grow in veg until our days shorten to 12 12. Shoot. So my only option now is to light dep them and get an early harvest? Thank you so much for the reply! My "understandings of light cycles has now changed... Thanks again
So what if I start breaking my light cycle down slowly over the next 2 weeks to match what is the natural light cycle of my area if I were to roughly shorten it from 18-6 to 17.5 - 6.5 for a few days then 17-7 then 16.5-7.5 then 16-8 then 15.5 -8.5 then finally 15-9 to match my areas exact sunlight sunset phase. If I do this slow enough will my plants stay in veg? Here's a link to my daylight chart out here this I what I'm basing this off of. http://www.sunrisesunset.com/calendar.asp