Vegging indoor and continuing veg outdoor

M

M.Organics

Member
Hey all,

I’m sure this question has been answered a million times, so I apologize ahead of time.


Already began vegging indoors (obviously it’s very early ahead of time, but this wasn’t the plan) and have a couple questions to continue growth outdoors in mid may/early June.

My plants are on a 17/7 light schedule.

Would it be better to slowly drop the light schedule down by about 15 mins maybe more a week until I hit 14/10 light schedule and throw them out when the sun is out longer?

Or could I just drop the light schedule to 14/10 immediately (to slow veg growth as my plants are getting too big) and in the middle of the night phase have the lights on for 15 mins to cancel out any chance of flowering? Eventually the plants would become used to a 14/10 schedule and I would turn off the 30 minute light interval in the middle of night.

I’m thinking the first suggestion would be best as it would be less stressful to plants. Only reason I suggested the other option is because they are already 1.5 feet tall and growing like crazy. (Less light=less growth obviously).

All feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!
 
too larry

too larry

Well-Known Member
M.Organics said:
Hey all,

I’m sure this question has been answered a million times, so I apologize ahead of time.


Already began vegging indoors (obviously it’s very early ahead of time, but this wasn’t the plan) and have a couple questions to continue growth outdoors in mid may/early June.

My plants are on a 17/7 light schedule.

Would it be better to slowly drop the light schedule down by about 15 mins maybe more a week until I hit 14/10 light schedule and throw them out when the sun is out longer?

Or could I just drop the light schedule to 14/10 immediately (to slow veg growth as my plants are getting too big) and in the middle of the night phase have the lights on for 15 mins to cancel out any chance of flowering? Eventually the plants would become used to a 14/10 schedule and I would turn off the 30 minute light interval in the middle of night.

I’m thinking the first suggestion would be best as it would be less stressful to plants. Only reason I suggested the other option is because they are already 1.5 feet tall and growing like crazy. (Less light=less growth obviously).

All feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!
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It's always a good idea to gradually drop light hours to match the natural light hours of when you plan to go outside. This is going to be the less stressful way of doing it. Big changes can cause flowering, even with 10 hours of darkness.

Turning on lights at midnight (gas lantern routine) breaks up the dark period into two shorter periods, fooling the plant into thinking it is summertime. Most will have lights on for at least an hour, but two is better just to make sure. If size is a problem, run the lights for less hours in the day. As long as your dark periods are 10 hours or less, you shouldn't flower.

Good luck.
 
W

waterproof808

Well-Known Member
@too larry has the right idea.

In Hawaii, the longest day of the year is ~13hrs 18 minutes and shortest is 10hrs 15 minutes, most knowledgeable outdoor growers use some variation of gas lamp routine to veg outside.

You simply put a cheap light over your plants on a timer to extend the daylight hours. You can have it on for 1-2 hours at midnight or just have your timer turn on at sunset, which is probably easier for you to coordinate tapering off your daylight hours. Either will work and you dont need a high wattage bulb. I use 10w-12w LED Bulbs and they work fine, you can use regular house bulbs as well.

I now veg 100% outdoor this way which helps save me alot of money on electricity costs and you will have less size restraints vs vegging indoor.
 
M

M.Organics

Member
waterproof808 said:
@too larry has the right idea.

In Hawaii, the longest day of the year is ~13hrs 18 minutes and shortest is 10hrs 15 minutes, most knowledgeable outdoor growers use some variation of gas lamp routine to veg outside.

You simply put a cheap light over your plants on a timer to extend the daylight hours. You can have it on for 1-2 hours at midnight or just have your timer turn on at sunset, which is probably easier for you to coordinate tapering off your daylight hours. Either will work and you dont need a high wattage bulb. I use 10w-12w LED Bulbs and they work fine, you can use regular house bulbs as well.

I now veg 100% outdoor this way which helps save me alot of money on electricity costs and you will have less size restraints vs vegging indoor.
Click to expand...
I like this idea but I’m located in California and during the winter/spring the temps drop to 35-43 outdoors. During summer I get a good 15+ hours of daylight. I enjoy babying them when they’re little.
 
M

M.Organics

Member
waterproof808 said:
@too larry has the right idea.

In Hawaii, the longest day of the year is ~13hrs 18 minutes and shortest is 10hrs 15 minutes, most knowledgeable outdoor growers use some variation of gas lamp routine to veg outside.

You simply put a cheap light over your plants on a timer to extend the daylight hours. You can have it on for 1-2 hours at midnight or just have your timer turn on at sunset, which is probably easier for you to coordinate tapering off your daylight hours. Either will work and you dont need a high wattage bulb. I use 10w-12w LED Bulbs and they work fine, you can use regular house bulbs as well.

I now veg 100% outdoor this way which helps save me alot of money on electricity costs and you will have less size restraints vs vegging indoor.
Click to expand...
Forgot to ask.... how far away are your bulbs from the plants?
 
ganga gurl420

ganga gurl420

Well-Known Member
I start mine in feb most yrs and then in april I slowly start reducing the light til I hit about 16 hours...then throw them into the ground around the 3/4 mark of may.

The important thing is to remember to harden them off before just putting them into the sun. I stick them in a semi shady spot for about a week before they go into the ground. Going from artificial light then into the sun can burn them.

I usually transplant them into a large amounts of soil and they pull between 4 and 7 pounds a plant (dry)
 
P

paintnick

Well-Known Member
Waterproof is right, have a light outdoor over them maybe 16” on a timer either gas lamp style or right after sunset to extend light to about 16.5 hours. I veg them inside as seedlings clones until they are hearty enough to go outside.

I ease them into the 16.5 as well 20 min variation weekly.

aloha
Nick
 
M

M.Organics

Member
ganga gurl420 said:
I start mine in feb most yrs and then in april I slowly start reducing the light til I hit about 16 hours...then throw them into the ground around the 3/4 mark of may.

The important thing is to remember to harden them off before just putting them into the sun. I stick them in a semi shady spot for about a week before they go into the ground. Going from artificial light then into the sun can burn them.

I usually transplant them into a large amounts of soil and they pull between 4 and 7 pounds a plant (dry)
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You’re getting me excited. The plants are already 2 feet tall in 5 gallon pots. Will most likely transplant to 10 gallon by the time they are ready to toss outside. Then once more into a 100-150, I need this yield! Lol
 
NemoClones

NemoClones

Member
ganga gurl420 said:
I start mine in feb most yrs and then in april I slowly start reducing the light til I hit about 16 hours...then throw them into the ground around the 3/4 mark of may.

The important thing is to remember to harden them off before just putting them into the sun. I stick them in a semi shady spot for about a week before they go into the ground. Going from artificial light then into the sun can burn them.

I usually transplant them into a large amounts of soil and they pull between 4 and 7 pounds a plant (dry)
Click to expand...

How many gallons of soil do you use?
 
JoeBlow5823

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
14/10 and they will likely flower. Keep the lights at least 15/9. Just take your pruners to the plant and remove a good portion of it. The beautiful thing about a vegging plant is you can beat the living shit out of it and it will just regrow. You have to keep in mind when you put a plant outside, there is a lot of ambient light in the morning/night. Just because the sun isnt in the sky doesnt mean they arent getting any light. When you are inside in a tent or whatever, when the light is off, it is typically pitch black. Its typically only pitch black for a few hours out of the night outside.
 
M

M.Organics

Member
JoeBlow5823 said:
14/10 and they will likely flower. Keep the lights at least 15/9. Just take your pruners to the plant and remove a good portion of it. The beautiful thing about a vegging plant is you can beat the living shit out of it and it will just regrow. You have to keep in mind when you put a plant outside, there is a lot of ambient light in the morning/night. Just because the sun isnt in the sky doesnt mean they arent getting any light. When you are inside in a tent or whatever, when the light is off, it is typically pitch black. Its typically only pitch black for a few hours out of the night outside.
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15/9 sounds good to me. I’ve been topping pretty regularly and trimming to keep em contained. Thanks for the input.
 
JoeBlow5823

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
M.Organics said:
15/9 sounds good to me. I’ve been topping pretty regularly and trimming to keep em contained. Thanks for the input.
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I would slowly switch to 15/9 not all at once. Might even go 15.5/8.5 just to be safe. Topping alone might not be enough, dont be afraid to literally cut off 50-60% of the plant if you need to, depending where you live its going to be a while till you can put them outside.
 
M

M.Organics

Member
JoeBlow5823 said:
I would slowly switch to 15/9 not all at once. Might even go 15.5/8.5 just to be safe. Topping alone might not be enough, dont be afraid to literally cut off 50-60% of the plant if you need to, depending where you live its going to be a while till you can put them outside.
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You’re definitely right about that. They are way too happy in the grow tent and growing too fcking fast!! Where exactly would you cut? Top of the plant off?
 
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