What date do outdoor plants go into flower in California?

I accidentally left my mothers outside too late in the season and they have gone into flower.
Trying to figure out how long they have been flowering. What date does flowering begin?

I'm asking for northern cali but it should be basically the same date for all of north america I would think.

Every strain is different. It would help if you said what strains they are and your latitude.

They shouldn't be flowering yet, they're either old mother clones or photo-sensitive. Right now in San Francisco day length is 14:07 hours, if you're further north the days will be a little longer, south a bit shorter. 14 hours is the trigger for most regular strains, once they drop below that they'll start to flower. But it takes a week or two for them to fully go into flower, by mid to late August they should by tufting up and ready for male pollen.

I'm asking for northern cali but it should be basically the same date for all of north america I would think.

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North America is so big, there's a lot of difference in sunrise and sunset time from Mexico to Canada. In Miami days are already only 13:21 hours long. In Washington state, Seattle, days are still 15 hours long. I just gave my girls a big shot of high nitrogen fish fertilizer, their last N before flowering. Everything starts flowering before the fall equinox, September 23, when day length hits 12 hours for the entire northern hemisphere. Well, south of Alaska and the Arctic Circle where their long summer day changes to a 6 month Arctic night. Most temperate long season strains will begin flowering in mid to late August.

This is why tropical strains take so long to flower, why Canadians and Scandinavians use Auto flowers. In Hawaii the day length never goes over 14 hours, most normal stuff for California works like Auto flowers there. This is also why Thai strains will never finish in California, the day length doesn't get short enough to force flowering until October.

therevverend said:

North America is so big, there's a lot of difference in sunrise and sunset time from Mexico to Canada.

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You're right, my bad. But, I think you are incorrect about flowering only occurring in less than 14 hours of light.

I just looked at a daylight chart for san francisco. I know that if you put your outdoor plants outside in mid-may everyone around here will tell you that they will go into flower if you don't add supplemental lighting. According to the chart there is 14:15 hours of light on May 15. And I've heard that you can't put plants out until at least May 26 which is when there is 14:30 hours of light. If I look at the chart for when there is less than 14:30 in July it is July 16 which is consistent with what I am now experiencing. My plants, and mothers, already have little buds as if they were 2 weeks in.

So, I think it is less than 14:30 that the chemical process begins.

Its July 20 in California, but Gavin Newsome is talking about changing it next year

Instead of putting a specific day on when the plant you have starts the flower process how about you just use a round about time frame ie. Start of August...

Each plant is different therefore will trigger flowering at a different light per day situation, maybe one will take 14 1/2 hrs and others 15hrs or 14hrs, we are so use to flipping 12/12 and calling it good since we know pretty much everything will trigger at that cycle...

Id also go even with if your plants are full sun or shaded to when they would trigger the flower process... No need to knit pick at the day!!! Let nature be and enjoy the show.

For most people it’s August 1st. Hang in there.

As for flowering in the spring when put outside, I believe that's because most people run 18/6 (or even more hours of light), and when put outside the sudden reduction in hours of light induces flowering. If a person ran closer to 15/9 and put the photoperiod plants out they'd likely keep vegging.

Well, it's assumed we're talking about August and the strains are temperate outdoor types that finish main run long season. Spring's different for a few reasons. The plants are young and the days are getting longer. It's colder, especially if they're in the ground. Even so if you start a seedling in late February/early March it'll be fine.

Clones are different because they're old plants, begging to flower. Much more photo-sensitive then seedlings. If you take a clone out from 24 or 20 or 18 hours of light and stick it outside around 14-15 hours of light in spring it may or may not flower. It knows the days are getting longer but the shock from the day length shortening all of a sudden sends a mixed message. I'd synch up with the season, set my timer inside at or close to the length of day outside. A couple weeks at least before they go out and gradually if possible. The closer to 15 hours the safer it'll be .

There isn't an advantage to getting clones out before late May, June 1st. Even if you acclimate your clone, getting it out before May 1st, most times it won't do better then a similar clone put out June 1st. There's a possibility it'll do worse. There's probably several factors working against it. Besides the short days that send mixed signals to the plant's growth regulators, it's much cooler and the sun isn't as high in the sky. In some places the ground is too cold.

I've had my best results with early clones when I took them from pre-sexed seedlings. I started the mothers in January, sexed them in February, took cuts in March, rooted them, pottted them and acclimated them in April. May 1 they were ready and they kicked ass.

Im 12 miles from norcal and my plants outdoor are definitely going into a stretch and showing sex

calisun said:

Every strain is different. It would help if you said what strains they are and your latitude.

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Strain dependent and other factors + amount of sun.

Just chiming in with my 2 cents.....


Pretty much what others have said.

I'm just east of the SF bay out in the valley...it is strain dependent but as a "rule of thumb" around August 1st is when I notice most of my plants are starting to stretch a bit and start to transition to flower.

Right now I can tell most of my plants are starting to transition and one is already definitely in the early stages of flowering. (out of 6 different strains)

Last year all of my plants were in the full swing of flowering by around Aug 10th.

A couple years ago there was a lot of smoke in the air, enough to dim the sun a little bit at times and change the spectrum of the light, I noticed the plants that year seemed to leap into flowering almost "over night" right at the beginning of Aug.



If your plants are in the shade and not getting direct sunlight for a portion of the day then they might start to flower a lil earlier.



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2 years ago mid August. Last year anywhere from mid July to start of August. This year I think most mine will flip next week.

I’m just east of SF

Early evening or early morning shade is mentioned quite a bit, as a catalyst for early flowering. I'm on an east facing hill with thick brush and trees both to the west and the east. My eastern-most plants don't get sunlight until almost 11AM and my west-most plants get their light blocked off by 2-2:30 PM. Despite all the shadows and shade I haven't noticed an early start to flowering on the shadiest plants. It doesn't take a lot of light to have an effect on plants, you hear about porch lights and street lights messing with outdoor plants There's a lot of reflective light, bouncing off trees, buildings, etc. which might be enough to keep plants from triggering. I'm curious if anyone has documented this effect, noticed the same strain in a dark shady forest spot flowering earlier then a sister plant in an open field. We've all been places it's almost pitch black then walked into an open area that's still lit up twilight.

I can confidently say that most regular long season strains in the northern temperate zone will begin flowering in August, as the day length nears and drops below 14 hours. Things have changed since the 90s. I remember seeing a lot more variety in both flowering times and the start of flowering. Growers tended to each have their own selection of stuff. I'd always have outliers, plants that finished in August or early September, or not start flowering until September and finish in November.

A couple years back I grew a Sinai plant. It was interesting because it started flowering around July 20th. When day length was over 15 hours. I thought it would finish early but it took an extra few weeks to finish. Harvested it in early October. You don't see that much, most strains take 8-10 weeks to flower. The modern cannabis world has adjusted to an Emerald Triangle light and flowering schedule. If Hawaii or Jamaica or Columbia were the centers of breeding instead we'd see a different start and flowering time. Of course indoor growing has a huge influence and it's probably not a coincidence it synchs up with northern Cali time. The old tropical pre-Afghani influence in the 1970s at the start of indoor growing is still evident in the 12 hour light schedule. It might be 13 if indoor lighting was discovered today.