Picked this out of the thread. It caught my interest, would like to hear other members thoughts on the subject. Is this fact ? Living in the N/W, my growing season is short. I need all the outside time I can get but starting in June would eliminate the threat (or most of it) of frost. "Main thing,and one of the bigest mistakes-Don't Start Too Early Outdoors!!!For several reasons! If you are starting outdoors June 1 is perfect. But if I start earlier I will get bigger buds right? Probably Wrong! Its strange but usually true. ill explain. Plants started in early spring will get big but they will take significantly longer to start flowering. This is because at the peak vegetative period they sense the light cycles getting longer and longer, until June 21. But they don't realize that its time to flower yet. Finally in the middle of August the plant says "HEY" "time to flower already" and it produces buds in August and September or later they will be tall as trees but thinner buds due to the fact that the sun is not as strong in September. Now if the ganja plants were put out later, as soon as they get a foot off the ground they say "what's going on" I am just in early veggie and the light hours aren't getting longer in fact SHORTER" Then the plants go crazy and since the sun is so bright in July and August you get amazing 6 foot trees that are heavier than the plants started in April!!! in addition to finishing earlier the late started plants are not nearly as noticeable "
Its from my thread : ) I dont know how that would work in your area but in europe works well.I can tell this from my experience...if that means anything.
I read that elsewhere too from a guy who knows his stuff. Plants with a very long veg.period (as plants vegged inside for 6 months vs 2 or 3), will take longer to begin flowering than ones with a shorter/normal veg. period (just start in Spring more or less early, according to your strain and climate and it'll work fine). You don't want your plants to start budding in September.
its never been true for me in all my years, my "season" could easily go from april 1st- oct 31st but is prime from may 1st-late sept. the earlier i start the better i yield everytime. ive started in april, may and june before
I was actually reading up on this this morning, sounds smart to me. but it depends on where you are, mainly.
yep. Yeah, start early if possible but not super early inside.... From DaShadow on UDG: "Time is the big factor when it comes to yields. In my area there is 156 days of growing between the last frost in the spring and the first killing frost in the fall. A plant that is 156 days old will grow a lot of plant material in a week, so starting the plant a week early adds 7 days = 163 days, if started 2 months early it will be 216 days old when harvest comes. Even a day will add a lot of growth to a 200 day old plant! And it will eat like a teenager. On the other side of the coin every day of veg adds to the anti-flowering hormone. Very old plants will resist flowering and may add 3-4 weeks to the harvest date, you can try switching the nutes to a flowering formula around 2 months before the “true” harvest date to help them along".
Like I said for me it works,and yield is better then on plants i started earlier but it depends where you grow,or what you use blah blah blah...Main point-dont start too early!But april 1st,whoa,too early for my region...
Sounds logical. I'm doing my first outdoor grow thois year and was just thinking about when would be theoptimum time to put my girls outside.
If your grow window is short (freeze in April for Northern hemisphere), it's best to start earlier (2-3 months) indoors because natural veg period is short (cold spring). And since the summer will end earlier too, use an early strain. If it's hot where you are, start sativa phenos later (2 months after last frost mid may here), so they don't get huge. But if stealth is no problem than you can start mid march and let them get a longer veg. period. Basically, 4/20 beg. may is a good date. If the pheno is a small indica starting them in feb-march is not a good idea (unless you want clones from inside) because they will stop growing once the've reached their max height (rather short so quickly like mid July outdoors when started in may: 2 months and a half-3months veg is enough for indicas). If started in feb, they will wait from May until flowering comes along (mid July/Aug). If it's guerilla it's extra work for nothing with smaller plants started earlier. And they might start flowering later in the extreme example I mentioned (feb indicas outdoors). Due to the anti flowering hormones. In any case, they'll all flower (bud formation) around beg. August (July for males) and be ready in Fall (+ or -: end Aug, Sept, Oct +) depending on plants' genetics. Some hermies can appear in October.
I am on the US/Canada border and it's 0 degrees this morning. Need to start inside and get a decent plant started before I finally set outside in my 15 gal. SmartPots. I will germ in some regular nursery pots that are 6" dia. X 7" deep. Will I be able to get a foot tall plant in this size pot ? From the time it germs to the end of the first month, how tall will the plant get (grow rate). Once they "pop" I will take outside in the day and bring in at night until the fear of frost is gone (sometime towards the end of May). If it's too cold, I will leave inside in the window. I am trying some 100% Indica, it's a hearty, mold resistant, shorter grow period type strain that is supposed to be bread for this latitude.....Given this info, am thinking of starting in mid April ???
I'm relatively close to the US/ Canada border too-- It's best to plant late April, beginning of May. Strands for cold, wet climates, are most likely to resist Mold and survive up here: Dutch Passion Hollands Hope Green House Seeds A.M.S. (Anti-Mold System) Northern Soul (Skunk x Northern Lights) Dutch Passion Purple #1 etc... Also, any kind of Lowryder or Auto-flowering plants will do.. you will be able to harvest a little over 90 days from seed. The possibilities are endless with Auto-flowers and Early finishers.. you don't really have to worry about the mold so much (more about what strand you want, SELECTION!!) If you plan well, you can harvest the Lowryders sometime in the middle of the summer when they are ready, and harvest again in the fall (Hopefully by Early October, so you don't run into a Mold issue.) That way you can enjoy fresh bud this summer and this fall! Hope this helps- I read a lot so you dont have too!!
This wisdom is true IMHO. That is why I am growing in stages. The plants that I have in vegetative growth right now are all auto flowering or semi auto flowering strains, meaning they flower based upon age not photoperiod. So, these guys will give me a good harvest in July. However, I have some pure Sativa fem beans that will not be germinated until mid April.
Good Plan!! You can't go wrong with stages. Once you harvest in July and have a taste of it, you are going to be SOO pumped for the big harvest in the fall. Who says Cannabis takes away your motivation?!! ERRONEOUS!
wrong. where you put the plants they must have stretched. the sun is not weak in september, bro. in december, january, february = yes, september, no. I put my first plants out may 20th, they are finishing right now, nice and fat, the sativa dom hybrids are coming right along, and the haze don's are barely budding right now, won't be done till november. but they too will be nice and firm. its the genetics that make it start flowering. if you put the plant out later you will get less yield period, because the plant has less time to grow. put it this way, the strength of your grow light doesn't change from 18 hours to 12 hours the strength of the light stays constant - its when you raise and lower the light that the strength changes. From peak to peak, there is a big change but on a sliding scale its slow and steady, until it reaches its lowest point (weakest, or sun furthest away from us - in frigging november december, january - come on people, use your common sense). Simple rule of nature, fellas.
april 1st is too early for anywhere unless you are running supplemental lighting, otherwise you will be revegging for sure. hell, even may 20th was too early for a couple of my plants.