When's the earliest that you can put a plant outside to veg?

yea, I figure it's easier to take care of bigger but less plants. I want to grow 10x10x10 ft bushes this time.

The thing about the last frost is that in socal we don't get frost. I think there's only been one frost in the past 20-30 years.
So with that in mind how much earlier can they begin to go outside to veg?
I forgot to mention that they will be in pots, and I will have a roof over them if it rains or gets bad.

Well I just looked up last frost date for LA (don't know if it's current), but first frost is 12/8. Last frost is 2/11. I don't really know what this means, because the only visible frost is way up in the mountains, 3 hours away (which isn't really LA anymore). Also the temp forecast for next week is in the 80-90s. I remember last year was pretty warm too.

btw TGA is pretty accurate with the harvest time, assuming that you let the plants flower outdoor during the right time. I don't really keep track of how long they've been flowering anyway, like you said, it's better to go by visual cue.

No they cant LMFAO, the frost dates and times ARE SEVERE COLD FROST/FREEZE WARNINGS You might not get the frost or freeze but the weather itself will be very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very damaging to the plants.If you wanna waste seed money then go ahead and plant them and watch them freeze to death. We have been over this over and over again its not gonna work how you want it to work and as I said before to the ppl in this thread your not gonna stop till you hear the answer you want which your proving me right so go ahead and plant the damn seeds already and kill em. Nuff said theres your comfirmation you want

PLANT THE SEEDS GO AHEAD DO IT LET THEM TRY TO SURVIVE IN THE WINTERS COLD...................

This is just gonna have to be a lesson you learn yourself. Just hope its not gonna be to expecsive for ya since your gonna be wasting money on nutes/grow medium, the seeds your time and effort and w/e you contribute to the grow.

Holy shit. Unbelievable. Of what relevance are this weeks temps in LA? Sure, go ahead. You can plant seeds as early as December 1st. They will veg for 8 - 9 months then start to flower. Be sure to post a journal so we can follow along.

they are already in veg and I have clones of them so I don't care if they die. If it seriously gets cold (below 40F), which I doubt, I'll cover them or bring them in but since I'm getting so many different answers I'll just have to try it myself.

It's not that I don't want to listen, but like I said I'm getting a lot of different answers. Trying to reach a consensus by balancing all of the information I'm getting.
Someone else told me their plants survived 3 frosts so what? Now someone says you can plant seeds in December what??? (they won't flower when light hours are less than 12?)

I heard in Hawaii/Florida they do 2 outdoor crops a year, you must live in some really cold place but you're assuming I live where you live.

PS there's no reason to get mad, you know how hard it is to get scientific, concrete, answers in this hobby cus there are so many misconceptions. (i.e. my friend who doesn't even grow was trying to telling me that photosynthesis continues after you cut the plant).
Just trying to separate the BS from fact.

seeds are fine in jan/feb because they have to go through the seedling stage before they can flower, where-as if you put clones out in january they might start flowering and then reveg because they are geneticaly ready to flower. either way it will work but you will lose a lot of growth to the re-veg time.

I start my seeds in jan/feb every year.

oh I should have clarified in opening post that I'll be putting full size plants out to veg, not seeds. Sorry.
I guess I'll have to do late Feb then?

+rep for the guy above me for correct response format which is: opinion + anecdote.

instead of opinion opinion opinion.

anomolies said:

oh I should have clarified in opening post that I'll be putting full size plants out to veg, not seeds. Sorry.
I guess I'll have to do late Feb then?

+rep for the guy above me for correct response format which is: opinion + anecdote.

instead of opinion opinion opinion.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that info would have been helpful - it's been like pulling teeth with you. Of course there's a difference between putting a mature plant outdoors as opposed to planting a seed - but I told you I started growing outdoors in SoCal in late February and saw no reason why you couldn't start earlier. Remember?

I'm not sure if you're being intentionally obtuse, or if you're just trying to add to your post count. Glad you got it figured out now.

In Norcal I throw vegging plants into a cold frame in November and they flower through the winter.

if your legal, put a light out there, that will keep the plants from going into flowering in january. you only need enough light, to prevent them from flowering. then when the days get longer, you wont need the light.

phyzix said:

In Norcal I throw vegging plants into a cold frame in November and they flower through the winter.

Click to expand...

I see, do the buds form like normal / get as big? and do they ripen faster since there's less light?

pabloesqobar said:

Yeah, that info would have been helpful - it's been like pulling teeth with you. Of course there's a difference between putting a mature plant outdoors as opposed to planting a seed - but I told you I started growing outdoors in SoCal in late February and saw no reason why you couldn't start earlier. Remember?

I'm not sure if you're being intentionally obtuse, or if you're just trying to add to your post count. Glad you got it figured out now.

Click to expand...

Thought it was obvious I wasn't starting from seed cus I said "put them outside,"

and yes you did, but I was wondering how much earlier. Not trying to increase my post count, I actually wish I had less cus it makes it seem like i know more than I actually do.

Oh wow, thanks for the good idea Pineapple. Don't know why I didn't think of that. -.-

ya, just put an HID light on em, and they will stay in veg. you could probably get away with some flood lights though. you really only need enough to keep em in veg.

anomolies said:

I see, do the buds form like normal / get as big? and do they ripen faster since there's less light?

Click to expand...

They don't ripen faster, and buds less dense.

You should just put a couple floodlights on them to keep them slowly veggin all winter. You will have absolute trees come fall.

ya, look at these trees. he put them out in january with light on them. they were fricken oak trees.
https://www.rollitup.org/outdoor-growing/320747-carport-greenhouse-2010-a.html

I like the sound of that xD. I'm also going to keep them very low and train each "tree" into a 5x5 horizontal carpet of bud. Haven't seen anyone do that... every single branch LST'ed.

Well I think I see where some of the confusion lies. There are definately 2 separate issues here. How soon the plants can be put outside and not be harmed by frost; and second, whether or not the plants will flower in jan or feb due to hours of light.

--Question #1 is obvious. Don't put out in frost. wait until frost is no more. (REGARDLESS OF WHEN CHARTS SAY IT SHOULD BE). If you can't wait, use a cold frame as noted above.

--Question #2 It is true that after December 21 the hours of light will begin to rise. If you take a look at sun rise and set, the hours of light are acutally far less than 12 December 21st. (actually rises at 7:32am and sets at 4:55pm on CA coast-where I also live-)... so thats 9hrs and 23min of light. Yes the plant will notice a rise in hours of light, but the rise will not be enough to make it go into vegging. If you put them out in say Dec or Jan, they will do very little (due to little hours of light; for growth) and in Jan/Feb sometime you will see flowering. This flowering can be avoided if you use atificial light to avoid 12/12. But the whole point is that you are hoping to have a couple extra months so that the plants you are putting outside are "bigger" or "ahead". And as I just said, there is very few hours of good light to gain that time of year. So the point is that you should just use atificial light as noted by WILDSHIT to mimic outside hours of light in may or june (whichever month you plan to put plants outside). There are a couple of reasons. As I noted above, all of this EXTRA growth time you think you are getting, the light is weak enough in jan-march that there will be very little growth gained. And secondly you will be fighting the 12/12 that falls within those months.

I did not figure this out about plants flowering in jan/feb by reading online or looking at charts. I have tried to start seeds/clones to get "ahead" for summer grow for years. When trying to do without atificial light, I got either plants that would flower in Jan/Feb when I didn't want them to, or plants that were stunded and not "ahead" at all. Either do as Wildshit noted with artificial light and put them out in may/june, or start seeds in say March, once the 12/12 has passed.

But as you noted, you have clones already - so trying it yourself and learning first hand speaks far more than words can. If they are extra plants that you don't have a spot for inside, give it hell...goodluck!

Oh and just to correct myself the 12/12 has not passed in March. I just suggested starting seeds in March because they will be too new to go into Flowering By April, therefore not affected by 12/12. (same theory as noted by ODSMYDOG earlier in post)

Yea I understood that. Thanks for the very informative post. However, having them vegging outdoors from Jan-April (with artificial light to keep them from flowering), is surely gonna get me bigger plants than starting from seed in May, no? They're 1 ft now, so I don't see how the extra growth will be very little, even outdoors. Surely outdoors Jan-Mar would beat indoor CFL in veg.
I wouldn't complain if I only had 3 ft bushes outdoors by May,
since I can veg indoors and gain 1 ft a month, (haven't gone past 2 ft in veg so I don't know if there's an explosion in growth after that).

I want to save on the light bill too that's why I'm trying to squeeze in 2 outdoor harvests a year (don't have a flowering room).

btw, you mentioned you had plants accidently flower in Jan. Did they ever finish?
I've been wondering if Jan-Feb would be better than Nov-Dec for an attempt at a second outdoor flowering.

Ofcourse if you use atificial light from Jan-April you will have larger ladies to put outside.

But as I noted before, be sure that you are good with the timer, and do some research to compare the actual hours of light that there will be in socal in April when you put them out.

For example, you dont want to use say.. 24/0 JAN-APR because you think this will get them the biggest.... just to put them outside and keep on vegging in APRIL. (I have done just that). What happens is that they are used to 24 hours..and you put them out say APRIL 20th..thinking that the hours of light are only climbing so it will just continue to veg. Cause thats wrong. The plant will see that it just went from 24/0 to roughtly 13/11. This makes the plant think that it is coming up on 12/12 and it is time to flower. It will do this for a couple weeks...looking very weird...and you will have a hell of a time getting it back to veg. By the time it realizes that it is really spring...you will have lost all that EXTRA growth you thought you had.

So to make another long post conclude..make sure you use same hours of light inside..that you plan to have outside when you put them out.

*and yes plants will finish up in winter 12/12. It works, but the weaker light outdoors (and less of it) makes for far less than you would hope. Most times when it started to flower on me..i would bring them back under shop lights to stop them...

As far as taking ladies that you have cloned ready to flower indoor, I think you will be pretty disappointed with winter harvest if you move them out..if you are used to the indoor result. Just don't expect the same quality/quantity. Obviously not considering electricity/money factor. Putting them out might be worth a try though considering the ideal winter weather (warm), where you are.

so basically like a scrog without the screen. sounds like a good idea to me, but start early. those things will get BIG by the time the stop stretching. doublejj had had 14 foot plants by the time they got done stretching. also you will probably need more room than 5x5 because there will be LOTS of HUGE branches on those things