16-8 for plants going outdoors that are inside, then 14 hrs when going out to adjust.

In 2020 I decided to try something new. As mo nature never gives 18 hrs of daylight. I give 16hrs light and didn't have any plants preflower on me, two weeks before going out I drop 1 hr. 1/2 every 3 days, around 14 1/2 at time of planting outside. June solstice is around 15hrs 20mins long. Has anyone else tried this? I live around the 43degree latitude. Also plant around 20 of may, give or take a week dependant on weather. Put in shaded place to harden off. Less herming this way. So I've found.

Southernontariogrower said:

In 2020 I decided to try something new. As mo nature never gives 18 hrs of daylight. I give 16hrs light and didn't have any plants preflower on me, two weeks before going out I drop 1 hr. 1/2 every 3 days, around 14 1/2 at time of planting outside. June solstice is around 15hrs 20mins long. Has anyone else tried this? I live around the 43degree latitude. Also plant around 20 of may, give or take a week dependant on weather. Put in shaded place to harden off. Less herming this way. So I've found.

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I am in the same area that you are. I have grown for the last 2 seasons. Except for 2 plants that I grew last year that were White Widow all my plants have been unknown seed and I have never tried to sync my plants to the sun before setting them out. Of 12 plants that I started only 2 of them were males and had to be cut down. My plants start in the basement under t5 tubes then go to the greenhouse to harden off before planting in the ground. Of course I could have been very lucky.

You don't have to time them with the sun. Either gas-lantern them outside or give them 18-24 hours of light inside and take them out mid june. It has always worked out great for me and the others I have grown with for quite some time. To each there own though, everyone should grow however they feel comfortable doing so.
Good luck friends!

Southernontariogrower said:

In 2020 I decided to try something new. As mo nature never gives 18 hrs of daylight. I give 16hrs light and didn't have any plants preflower on me, two weeks before going out I drop 1 hr. 1/2 every 3 days, around 14 1/2 at time of planting outside. June solstice is around 15hrs 20mins long. Has anyone else tried this? I live around the 43degree latitude. Also plant around 20 of may, give or take a week dependant on weather. Put in shaded place to harden off. Less herming this way. So I've found.

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That 15hr 20 mins dont forget twilight at least another hr, iam at 43 also mine go out mid may to harden of in a hoop house no extra lights. I run 18-6 indoor

JimmiP said:

You don't have to time them with the sun. Either gas-lantern them outside or give them 18-24 hours of light inside and take them out mid june. It has always worked out great for me and the others I have grown with for quite some time. To each there own though, everyone should grow however they feel comfortable doing so.
Good luck friends!

Click to expand...

I should clarify, that when I say take them out mid June, I have already been taking them out daily (weather dependent) since May. They would go out in the morning when I got up. Then they would go back inside under the lights. I would also employ the light from our laundry room window by setting them near it. Then if I was gone later into the evening it wasn't a big deal.
This spring I will put them out in the hoop house with lighting coming on at dusk. I would rather not have to go to the trouble of moving them as much as I used to, anymore. And seeing last season, that the hoop house could handle the weather, I feel confident that everything should work out fine.

I am also at 43. My plants usually start at end of March under regular grow lights in the basement. Then into the unheated greenhouse during the day starting at the end of April. By May 15 I am watching the weather but the sacrificial first plant usually goes into the ground about then. This year will be different though because I have Auto's that I want to start. I am still working on the timing for them. I ordered bags for planting this year and 1 auto is going to be in a bag and spend it's entire life in the green house. A second one will live on the back deck. My last two plants will be fem. Northern Lights and one of these will go in the ground and the second in a large planter. (See attachment) That was an unknown seed that I planted last year.