You should still be right around 15 hours of daylight light in mass, anyway. You should ease the plants into the sunlight for about a week. Starting with a couple hours in shaded sun adding more sunlight each day. If you just throw them out into direct sun you’ll stand a good chance of burning them. I have a cheap green house that I now use for this purpose and it works well. I just put them in there for a week and they are good to go.
im lucky, i can just plant them (repot) and throw them outside.. but we get wet wether at end of season, so not so good, lots of bud rot if not kept in check. i now have a small green house too, there great, plants finnish off
I think if you put them outside after being on 18hrs of light they will prob start budding, your idea of reducing the light is right, to have them close to the same number of hours that there is out doors. That may take some time.
Leave them in the shade/cloudy for a good 3-5 days before direct high intensity sun . for planfs of fear of under 14hr/floweer trigger buy some flood lights/led’s and have them on a timer so ur outdoor light for the plants is long enough . Easy