moving indoor plants outdoors

I recently started my first grow a couple weeks ago from clones my friend gave me. Right now they are inside under fluorescent lighting on a 24/0 schedule. However, due to my current situation I will need to put them outdoors by April 1st. This will not be a problem temperature-wise since I live in Nor Cal. So my question is should I cut back the light schedule until then to simulate the daylight hours (maybe an 18/6 or something similar) or will they be alright going from 24/0 to the daylight schedule? Has anyone had any experience with this? I'm a newbie so any info is great info to me.

Keep2rolled said:

I recently started my first grow a couple weeks ago from clones my friend gave me. Right now they are inside under fluorescent lighting on a 24/0 schedule. However, due to my current situation I will need to put them outdoors by April 1st. This will not be a problem temperature-wise since I live in Nor Cal. So my question is should I cut back the light schedule until then to simulate the daylight hours (maybe an 18/6 or something similar) or will they be alright going from 24/0 to the daylight schedule? Has anyone had any experience with this? I'm a newbie so any info is great info to me.

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You can put them out straight out of your 24 hr cycle.....but what I like to do is take them out and give them some sun during the day....a few hrs at a time as to start aclimating them.....obviously direct sun light is mega light for plants coming out from under T5s.....do this for a few days then just leave them out all day and night till your ready to place them in thier permenant location.....it might be a good idea to have a place to shade them a little from the direct sun a couple of times during the day for the first few days....I have taken some out directly into the sunlight and left them out with no problems and other times my girls have become a little upset over it.....I would say its strain related...some strains are a little more finiky then others.....but you come this far....why take a chance and piss them off.....but overall your gonna be fine! I do it every year and I am in a much colder climate then you.....but mine dont go out till mid may or end of may, depending on what weather is doing.

Ok sweet! So when I begin to bring them outdoors and they're out there for lets say 6 hours, do I bring them right back under the fluorescent lights after being outside or do they need some dark time to "recover" from being outdoors? They're Green Crack and Jack Herer strains btw

Keep2rolled said:

Ok sweet! So when I begin to bring them outdoors and they're out there for lets say 6 hours, do I bring them right back under the fluorescent lights after being outside or do they need some dark time to "recover" from being outdoors? They're Green Crack and Jack Herer strains btw

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Right back into the light. Too short a "day" and they will flower.

hotrodharley said:

Right back into the light. Too short a "day" and they will flower.

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Precisly.....all your doing for the first few days is preping them for the MEGA NATURAL HPS your gonna put them under......I love sun power!!!

Alright guys thank you so much for the help!

Also, be careful actually putting plants out to early. You'd be surprised how many plants flower under 13 hours of light. I threw out some plants (Jack Herer being one) around 4/20 last year, thinking they would be fine vegging outdoors; they then proceeded to flower on me, stall out, and finally re-veg about a month later. Watch those plants with sativa leanings, they can flower under longer light. You may want to tone your current light cycle back to reflect your outdoor light cycle when you intend to put them out.

very good chance they may flower going out that early. if there's any way to put some kind of light out there for a few hours at night to prevent this, do it. if not, you might be slowed down with a reveg as kp described.

i put about a dozen strains outside in mid april last year up here in portland, and 2 or 3 of them did start to flower.

I won't be able to put a light outdoors so I'll just tone back the light schedule. How much should I tone it back? And should I do it slowly, like maybe start out at 20/4 then slowly work down to 14/10?

I was suggesting it so you could get an idea if they will start flowering on you. Find out what your hours of daylight will be here:http://www.sunrisesunset.com For where I am in Nor Cal, it will not even be 13 hours of light by then. When you factor in the times when you're not really getting any light to your plants during sunrise and sunset, I'm probably looking at a max of 12 hours effective light.

kpmarine said:

I was suggesting it so you could get an idea if they will start flowering on you. Find out what your hours of daylight will be here:http://www.sunrisesunset.com For where I am in Nor Cal, it will not even be 13 hours of light by then. When you factor in the times when you're not really getting any light to your plants during sunrise and sunset, I'm probably looking at a max of 12 hours effective light.

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This is an interesting link, thanks man!