Planting A Month Early?

[Ravenplume]

So, with warm days and cool but not cold nights ahead, and no freezes in sight, would it be safe to plant my babies a month early instead of waiting for June 1st like I usually do? Or is a month early really and truly too early and that will mess them up somehow?

 

[SmokingWings]

It is not the weather since the plant can handle cool nights, even light frost (but not a killing frost or one that drops below 32 for 4 or 5 hours) and it can handle snow on the leaves. If you plant early it can mean having to wait for the plants to start flowering and then go back to vegetating which might take until early June.

There was a short thread just a week or two ago started by a member who lives in North Carolina. Planted early and noticed his plants starting to flower. Here is that thread which is just several msgs long:
https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/premature-flowering-indoor-to-outdoor-advice.531366/#post-5765757

Same thing several years ago. Weather in southern California was nice so a member planted early. Within weeks their crop was flowering and it was only late April or early May. They ended up running lights out to their plants and giving them several hours of artificial light to prevent the flowering.

The problem with early planting is the length of quality daylight. It just is not there since the first and last hour of a day are weak light. It is no wheres near enough to match the quality of light that is available by mid morning through to late afternoon.

Even half way decent grow lights can produce a quality light level when they turn on that 12 hours is enough to keep the plants from flowering. Outdoors, it takes about 14 hours of natural light so sometime in late May should be OK.

This is the same reason that many first time outdoor growers ask why their plants are starting to flower by early to mid August when the length of day drops to 14 hours. Thinking about it, if we had to wait till mid September for a 12 hour night for flowering to start there is no way the plants could ripen until mid to late November.

Check out some of the outdoor light levels listed in this short article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight

 

[Ravenplume]

Thank you so much. This is info I have been trying to sus out for a long time, but just could not phrase the questions and thoughts on it coherently enough to be understood.

I was indeed suspecting that too early planting will often lead to premature flowering; after witnessing a couple Wildlings in previous seasons flowering way too early after planting like around mid May. But, those did end up being boys, so the early bird stuff at least gave me time to get replacements planted.

I'm still going to engage in an act of half assed mad science and volunteer one of my space Birthday Cake Lite2 plants to go into a 5 gallon bucket and do its thing on May the 4th...should come up with some Sith or Jedi sounding pet name for this subject). Then I will do another on 5/20, possibly one of my excess Feyleaf plants or one of the Wildling subjects from my 4/20 Challenge project and see how they fare. No harm in experimenting.

 

[SmokingWings]

The plants will flower early and then when the days get a bit longer they will revert back to a vegetating stage. I am not sure on the exact time frame but I have the feeling that waiting till the plant is back to an established vegetating level might cost about 2 to 3 weeks of grow time.

 

[Ravenplume]

So if I do go ahead with this experiment and the subject does flower early like that, would there be a decent time window to then perhaps apply some pollen from her brother plant to, say, the topmost nodes and get a batch of what I like to call "noble bred" seeds before reveg happens? (My term for inbred). Would be pretty cool to get a new generation of seeds early instead of during the normal time frame in the Fall...

 

[SmokingWings]

So if I do go ahead with this experiment and the subject does flower early like that, would there be a decent time window to then perhaps apply some pollen from her brother plant....

No, not worth it. There is couple of weeks when the plant will start to flower and then the plant starts to switch over about the time the first stigma/pistils start to show. Even if the first couple of pistils get pollen there is not enough time for the seed to develop, let along ripen. Wait a couple of weeks and put the plant out. It will not have to go back and forth so you will gain a couple of weeks of growth. Then in mid to late August try the pollinating experiment using the plant's natural schedule.

 

[bluter]

typically outdoor planting occurs in the last week of may here. if conditions are nice you can get them out a little earlier, but you are probably taking some chances. since you are a little further south than i am you might be able to get them out a wk or so earlier.

 

[Fenderbender]

yeah there is not much to gain, I've got a friend who gets antsy as soon as he notices a couple of good days, he tried all kinds of early but all the heavy growing occurs when the weather is ideal and when flowering time comes. So you just have a small plant that sits outside a bit longer until it's go time.

 

[Ravenplume]

Alright then. This project is scaled back significantly. Still planning on doing an outdoor early bird in a bucket, since I have plenty of subjects to work with, and at least get it sexed. Then if it is a girl, it will spend the season outside as part of my normal grow for the year (the three cage spots are currently spoken for).

So I am choosing Subject:02 from Plant:2 as my volunteer, to go in this bucket.

And she will be kept out back either somewhat concealed behind the cage or actually inside. I think we may have some heavy rains coming though, so may bring her in after sundown until she is nicely established in her bucket. Or, may put a smaller bucket over her at night and uncover as part of my morning routine just to protect her from the weather (especially the wind gusts) at this stage. Anyway, I will show her again here once the transfer is done, then will do a major update about this in the actual Birthday Cake Lite journal.

 

[Fenderbender]

Well now that I think about it and read that you usually start on the 1st.. It kind fully depends on which zone you are in and latitude and longitude as well, apparently spring travels at 2mph..
Like over here the general saying is after the frost saints? kings? which is 14 may..

My friend he was already trying end March, April as that one is sometimes pretty sunny & warm.. but still cold at night.. so not much progress.. or even pregrowing in February in the tent.. but then eventually the plants occupy their optimal space and the one he spent the most time on didn't turn out the biggest.
This year he is however going to try and restrain himself and plant outside at the end of the month..

 

[Ravenplume]

So I am choosing Subject:02 from Plant:2 as my volunteer, to go in this bucket.

Not that it matters here, but it is Subject:04, not :02. :02 is the boy that flowered real early indoors, and is being kept for breeding, slated to go into a larger planter tomorrow.

 

[cbdhemp808]

I grow outdoors here in Hawaii, in greenhouses. Plants flower here year round, as soon as they are mature. Unless...

All that's needed to prevent flowering is to flash your plants with some light in the middle of the night – early flowering worries gone, poof! Just one or more low-wattage, full spectrum LED bulbs do the trick, on a timer. The light needs to hit all over the plant, otherwise lower branches that are shaded from the light will go into flower, while the rest of the plant remains in veg. Some well-placed reflective material can help get the job done.

You don't even need a greenhouse to accomplish this. You can use waterproof outdoor hanging lights.