For the most part, flowering outdoors will require no input from the grower. Most plants will start adjusting to the changes in the daylight hours and begin the flowering process on their own. The days will naturally start to get shorter, which will trigger the plants into flowering organically. Click here for the Outdoor Grow calendar.
For some growers, however, this will not be the ideal circumstance. Sometimes you don’t want the plants to enter flowering, and sometimes you want them to enter it earlier. For instance, if the weather is still nice and you want to eke out all the vegetative growth you can in your plants, you’ll want to delay flowering as long as possible.
By that same token, if you know that the weather will soon become exceptionally cold or at least too cold for the plants to survive, then try to make sure that they start flowering sooner than they naturally would.
For growers that have access to their plants, both of these options are possible. If you want to delay the onset of flowering, it merely takes a little light during the night.
You can accomplish this with a high powered flashlight shining on the plants once every couple of hours or so for about 10 minutes during the night. This will adequately mess with the plants’ natural inclination to start flowering and they will stay in vegetative growth for the time being.
Obviously, if the weather starts to get cold early where you live, try to ensure that your plants start flowering as soon as possible. But outdoor plants offer certain challenges to this goal. If the light to darkness period isn’t yet 12 hours to 12 hours then you’ll need to make that happen on your own. Using a polyethylene sheet will help block out any sunrise or sunset light so that you can get the required 12 hours of darkness.
For instance, if you know that your area is going to get exactly 13 hours of sunlight during the day and that sunset is at 7 PM, then place the sheet over the plants at 6 PM and remove it at 6 AM when the sun rises. After doing this for about 1 to 2 weeks, the plants should start to flower, and you can begin harvesting. For more information and lighting schedule
When it comes to manipulating the flowering period, guerrilla farmers are kind of out of luck. They will be at the mercy of the local weather in the area and won’t have a lot of say in the matter. Just trust that nature will work its magic and find a way to give you some excellent smoke
