Moving Plants Outside in the Spring and Early Summer
Many outdoor growers start their crop indoors under lights – whether from seed or cutting, there are many benefits to this. You get a jump on the growing season and have bigger, more resilient plants ready to move outside once the weather permits. Growing from seed, you’ll get much better germination rates inside (especially with a heating mat and thermostat), if you’re growing from a cutting you could really create a giant (veg time being virtually unlimited). But there are a few tricks you’ll need to keep in mind or else you may get tripped up.
Cannabis growth is regulated by daylength – lengthening spring and long summer days stimulate vegetative growth, while the shorter days of late summer and fall signal the plant to start flowering. Most cannabis plants are put outside (at least here in the Northeast) in May and June, when days are close to their longest. The thing to remember is that even the longest days (again, in the Northeast) is just shy of 16 hours long. If your indoor light cycle had a daylength of 18 to 20 hours, you could ‘photoshock’ a transplant into starting to flower. Usually this will only last for a few weeks, but it’s unlikely the plant will completely revert to the vegetative state before it needs to start flowering again - squirrely. Even if it does revert, it will be stressed and set back unnecessarily.
So how do we avoid this? A few tips along with strong fundamentals:
- Keep your plants health and happy before transplant. Avoid letting them become rootbound, nutrient stressed, or bug infested. A happy plant is much more likely to thrive in a new environment.
- Prior to transplanting outside, keep your Indoor light cycle at 15-16 hours of light.
- Wait to move plants outside. The days will only get longer and warmer, so if you can keep plants inside until late May to early June that’s ideal. Plants that have to deal with cold soil and bad weather are more likely to go into transplant shock, and again stress is a big factor in ‘photoshock’.
- If you can, move plants into a greenhouse or cold frame as way to ‘harden them off’. This allows them to acclimate to their new environment more slowly. You can also artificially extend the daylength by hanging a light and having it come on just before dusk. Do not extend the daylength beyond that of the summer solstice, unless you plan on having it on all summer.
- Plant into a well-prepared site, already amended with everything the plants will need (except what you plan to feed). Transplant in the late afternoon or evening of a warm, dry day. Water with a root stimulating feed – Aloe, Kelp, and Ful-Power is what we use (see below).
You don’t have to be perfect, but the more you do right the better your chances of success. Plants grown from seed under say 2 months old are usually very resilient; older plants and clones generally can be more difficult. Different varieties are also more or less prone to ‘photoshock’. By understanding these basics, even Northern growers with limited plant counts can achieve staggering yields of very potent medicine!
Transplant Recipe
Per gallon of Water: 1/4t Aloe powder, 1/4t Kelp powder, 25 ml Ful-Power
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