Veg timers with relation to putting plants outside

Mr.Marijuana420 said:

well I guess we have differing opinions. The 24-18 is theory, that I will soon test, so I cant say with certainty, but like I said, Ive had plants begin flower with a mere 2 hr drop from from 18-16. not all of them, many will resume veg after they realize days are steadily going up, but Ive also had plants begin full on flower, and never quite make the transition back to veg, and that makes for a pretty shitty plant, and I dnt feel an extra 2-3 hrs of artificial light for 4-6 weeks would be beneficial enough to assume the risk.

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Thanks for sharing the experience. With the amount of labor it takes to run outdoor plants well, it's not worth the risk in my opinion.

Humboldt14 said:

Thats silly, a plant will not go into flowering by going from 24hrs to 18hours. but you can flower a plant at 14hours. and the amount of hours of light the plant gets has everything to do with vegg and flowering. Not the decrease in light.

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Humboldt i'd like to hear your opinion on this as it seems you have some experience. If a person lives in Seattle, the days are 15 hours long at the start of August. In the spring the days are also 15 hours long on May 12. In mid May the plants would be vegging. In the start of August plants are transitioning to flower, or have already begun to flower.

Here is something to help figure your daylight hours with
src="http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/coordsmotion/daylighthoursexplorer.jpg" alt="Daylight Hours Explorer" title="Daylight Hours Explorer" style="border-style: none"/></a>

http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/coordsmotion/daylighthoursexplorer.swf Sorry I guess the first one was bad

smiley87 said:

Humboldt i'd like to hear your opinion on this as it seems you have some experience. If a person lives in Seattle, the days are 15 hours long at the start of August. In the spring the days are also 15 hours long on May 12. In mid May the plants would be vegging. In the start of August plants are transitioning to flower, or have already begun to flower.

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Summer Solstice is June 21 and thats the longest day of the year, after June 21 the days start to get shorter,

if there are 15 hours of light a day at the begining of august by september there is much less i.e. flowing much harder.

Mr.Marijuana420 said:

well I guess we have differing opinions. The 24-18 is theory, that I will soon test, so I cant say with certainty, but like I said, Ive had plants begin flower with a mere 2 hr drop from from 18-16. not all of them, many will resume veg after they realize days are steadily going up, but Ive also had plants begin full on flower, and never quite make the transition back to veg, and that makes for a pretty shitty plant, and I dnt feel an extra 2-3 hrs of artificial light for 4-6 weeks would be beneficial enough to assume the risk.

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the 24-18 not causing plants to flower is not a theory its a fact i am sorry to tell you. LoL.

I've started plants inside under 24/0, 22/2, 20/4, and 18/6 and never had a plant start flowering or become overly stressed as far as I was able to tell. I don't put plants out before May 7. Lately I've been waiting until the middle of the month. Every strain and location is different, but if there are 15 hours of daylight May 12 like you said, I would be surprised if plants started flowering if you put them out then. I think you will be ok with a standard 18/6

sonar said:

I've started plants inside under 24/0, 22/2, 20/4, and 18/6 and never had a plant start flowering or become overly stressed as far as I was able to tell. I don't put plants out before May 7. Lately I've been waiting until the middle of the month. Every strain and location is different, but if there are 15 hours of daylight May 12 like you said, I would be surprised if plants started flowering if you put them out then. I think you will be ok with a standard 18/6

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you are correct. you can also flower plants indoor at 14 hours, helps with weight.

All this talk about light times and flowering got me thinking time for my 2 cents of input. Flower initiation has nothing to so with light but is dependant on the dark and 2 hormones, cant remember the other but the main one is photoperiodism (this controls when the flowering hormone is released). For the plant to start producing photoperiodism two things need to happen, the plant being mature enough and the length of dark period reaching enough hours (thats also strain dependant). Once the plant has been bathed in 3 or so hours of total dark the deep-red turns to far-red and photoperiodism is released. After about 5-6 hours more dark the photoperiodism tells the plant to release flowering hormone. Thats why 12/12 has become the norm for indoor budding, also why longer dark periods speed flowering up (you can go as low as 6 hours light before the plant wont produce enough energy). As stated also depend on strain, a friend tried 16/8 for veg under hps and had flower formation around 7-8wk from seed under this light schedule.

For me, this is the most confusing part of growing. But, eventually one of my last few remaining brain cells may figure it out, maybe.
Keep talking, I'm listening.