Opinions welcome

Posted a similar thread in newbie probably should have been here. I am a newbie to outdoor and slightly faceplanted this past spring. Somehow I was elected to start plants indoors for friends' outdoor grows. Sprouted late March/early April. Did the normal 18/6 lighting. Plants went out early/mid May. All was well but within a few weeks, a few started flowering. Looking at day length charts, I saw why. Less than 14 hr days plus chilly nights (mid 40s ish F). Subsequent longer days mostly arrested bud production and those affected appear to be on track to do ok. I do like the idea of getting a good head start but wish to avoid this issue in the future. Advice on best practices going forward would be much appreciated. My feeble mind leads me to consider a combination of solutions: 1-start plants a month later (early to mid April). 2-reduced lighting schedule for seedlings to 14 or 15 hours or so or whatever mimics the expected day length of outdoor transition. 3-attempt cooler nighttime grow space temps. The main unknown for me is how the sproutlings would react to the shorter lighting schedule regarding triggering flower tendencies. Obviously going from 18/6 to 14/10 isn't a preferred recipe but only saw issues in less than 1/4 of cases so perhaps this light/temp threshold dipped below a red line of sorts. Would love to hear opinions. Thanks

If you just put your plants out later in the season, you can avoid this exact issue of early-flowering and revegging. The plants sense the shorter days, and it triggers flowering.

The other option that outdoor growers used to do it to expose the plants to light for a few moments during the night time. They do this to interrupt the dark cycle and prevent flowering. You can set up a spotlight on a timer, or even go out there with a handheld lantern if you need to. They do this until the days are “long enough”, and it keeps the plant in veg mode, even if you’re light hours are “too low”.

Yup, just put them out in early June, almost always fine that way!