reducing veg cycle to match outdoor light

i have always vegged and rooted under 24hr flourescents but i would like to slowly cut that time down to match the outdoor daylight hours by mid april or so. does anyone know how much you can reduce day length per week without inducing flowering? is one hour per week ok?

and where to stop? it seems that we just set the lights to 12/12 because it will definitely set em flowering, but when do they REALLY start?

what really flips the switch - is it a genetic timer that senses a 12 hour night, or is it environmental and senses a change in the ratio of night to day?

hmmmm. i guess ill have to do an experiment. was really hopin for an easy way...

you can adjust to 18/6 without inducing flowering but i would do it incrementally like you said.

do you know if i could push it past 18/6, to maybe 14/10 as long as i do it very gradually? i want to put my cuts out early this year, april if possible. i just dont know if its even worth it at this point. theyll immediately flower, then in a couple weeks realize they were wrong, start to revert back to veg, by the time theyre actually in veg again it will be almost time to flower again.
fuck it, i guess. veg em big indoors until late june then out they go. simplicity is good.