when should i put outside(clones)

they can be any size as long as it's not to cold. i put mine outdoors when last chance of frost is over and they have gained enough strength to take the wind.
your biggest worries besides cold would be slugs and any critters that can kill a small plant. if your days are warm and you can keep critters off them put them out.

 

what about lighting? if you put them out too early wont they just start to bud right away and defeat the purpose of growing outside? last year i planted clones outside on june first and grew 9 6 foot tall 6 foot wide monsters. i say dont put em out till mid may if you cant supplement the night hours with some type of lighting. condition ur soil and tighten up ur security while you waight for the season brew some compost teas and drench ur planting sites once every 2 weeks until u plant. all the pre work is well worth the end results

 

count the hours of light we get right now (just estimate in your head) then take into consideration the days are getting longer= the plants will stay in veg
there is always plants that preflower when you put them out. it's just a reaction of them going from 24hours light to whatever is outside they typically revert.
people in the deep south and southern cali already are outdoors.

 

jvgr, cannabis plants that contain significant amounts of indica will begin to flower in daylengths below 14.25 hrs and clones are very sensitive because they contain a degree of sexual maturity.

You can test this for yourself: Cut your lights down to 14.25 and the plants will begin to flower. Turn the lights back up to 15 hrs and the plants will return to veg and remain there as long as the daylenth doesnt fall.

Use this tool to determine what the daylength will be at your lattitude. I live at 38 n and i cant plant clones until mid may if i dont want them to go into flower. I have a buddy that lives just south of Jacksonville and his days never reach 14.25. Regaurdless of when he sets clones outdoors, they begin to flower immediately.

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/coordsmotion/daylighthoursexplorer.html


Seeds can be planted earlier becasue they havent experienced sexual maturity.

 

I put 18 out April 1 an had 3 of them show signs of flower stopped within a week they are loving the sun around 3ft tall already.

 

14.25 seems very specific, have you tried this for different strains of indicas?

 

[quote name='"sgtstadanko"']I put 18 out April 1 an had 3 of them show signs of flower stopped within a week they are loving the sun around 3ft tall already.[/quote]

Where do you live?

 

Nor cal

 

Yes Anonymous. Some years back, 15 maybe, i started 50 beautiful clones that were about 1' tall when i planted them on April 28. Every single clone went into flower and it really ruined my crop. Yes, the did reveg but a reveged plant in the outdoor isnt worth shit. Its got thick vegetaion, disesase prone and the result of all of my work was crap. WHY? I asked myself. I was determined to find ou t why and never let it happen again.

I sprouted 10 seeds of 10 strains and started screwing with the lights. At 15 hrs of light every strain remained in a vegatitive state and would have indefinitely i beleive, but at 14.5, things started happening. About 1/2 of the strains started to flower within 14 days at that daylength. I dropped the lighting to 14.25 and EVERY strain was in flower. These were all F2's that i had made of famous strains - Black Domina, Jack Herrer, OGK, Sensi star and so on.

I tested extensively annonomoys. Without exception, indica containing strains many began to flower at 14.4 and ALL always began to flower at 14.25.

I tested p robably 20 strains over 2 years and had the same results every time. More importantly, i witnessed the impact with clones outdoors. I used the explorer link above and didnt plant my clones until May 20. They finished the season 7' with nearly 1lb os smoke on them.

The only exception to this rule was with a couple of long flowering equatorial sativa's and pure hazes. Im guessing because columbian and Thai type strains exist at a daylength of 12 hours in nature and they didnt immediately show flower.

 

[quote name='"mjmama25"']

Where do you live?[/quote]

Cool. I just moved mine out and they're developing a few preflowers. Last year I started too early so I've been nervous to make the same mistake again. Most growers here say May 15 for putting clones out but mine have outgrown my grow room and I don't have another inch I can move my lights up. So they are out whether I wanted to or not, lol.

 

[quote name='"clodhopper"']

Yes Anonymous. Some years back, 15 maybe, i started 50 beautiful clones that were about 1' tall when i planted them on April 28. Every single clone went into flower and it really ruined my crop. Yes, the did reveg but a reveged plant in the outdoor isnt worth shit. Its got thick vegetaion, disesase prone and the result of all of my work was crap. WHY? I asked myself. I was determined to find ou t why and never let it happen again.

I sprouted 10 seeds of 10 strains and started screwing with the lights. At 15 hrs of light every strain remained in a vegatitive state and would have indefinitely i beleive, but at 14.5, things started happening. About 1/2 of the strains started to flower within 14 days at that daylength. I dropped the lighting to 14.25 and EVERY strain was in flower. These were all F2's that i had made of famous strains - Black Domina, Jack Herrer, OGK, Sensi star and so on.

I tested extensively annonomoys. Without exception, indica containing strains many began to flower at 14.4 and ALL always began to flower at 14.25.

I tested p robably 20 strains over 2 years and had the same results every time. More importantly, i witnessed the impact with clones outdoors. I used the explorer link above and didnt plant my clones until May 20. They finished the season 7' with nearly 1lb os smoke on them.

The only exception to this rule was with a couple of long flowering equatorial sativa's and pure hazes. Im guessing because columbian and Thai type strains exist at a daylength of 12 hours in nature and they didnt immediately show flower.[/quote]

This is very good info. They only difference with outdoor is the plants can feel the days getting longer. I'm curious to see the results if you set the lights to 14 hours and increased the day light a little every day. I think they would be much less likely to flower.

I'm curious to see what my plants do this year. I have 2 sativa Dom, 3 hybrids, and 1 Indica. So far so good. I did a little experiment and put some clones out early to flower. When they stopped showing signs of bud production it told me that it's probably safe to put my summer crop out. We'll see how it goes. I'm working to find the perfect time to put out clones in my micro climate.

 

Ah yes mjmamma, a question i asked and answered as well. The answer is 7-10 days of lengthening daylength.

What i mean by that is after experimenting, i determined that you could fudge just a bit because of lengthening daylight. A cannabis plant begins to display flowers about 14 days after the amount of light reaches a level that stimulates flower set,(14.25). If i cut the lights back today, i will see my first sets of hairs in about 2 weeks.

For about 7 days of that delay you can set out the clones. For example. If my lat hits 14.5 hrs of daylenght on May 15, i can plant my clones outdoors on may 7- 8 and not have them set flower. If i plant them on May 1, they will flower and there isnt a thing that can be done.

Its true however, that the clones set out on lets say the 4th, show a smaller degree of flower and revege than a clone set out on the 1st.

Ive learned that the photoperiod for cannabis is tedious and for clones that already possess some degree of maturity, its tripple tedious.

I hope this helps

 

How many gallons of soil mix did you use per clone?

 

[quote name='"jvjr408"']put blue dream outside lets see how it does[/quote]

I have some blue dream crosses that started to flower a little bit but they have been out side about three weeks. Now should be good though. It not really to big of a deal if it does.