When to add nutrients, prevent outdoor flowering

Grow Cycle Seedling
1

From a fellow grower:

I am a first time grower that has done as much research as possible.
I have had 100% success with soil germination and they appear to be going well so far (approx 2 weeks now, third set of leaves just starting to develop).

My main queries are :

  • When will I need to start adding nutrients to my plants? (I am using a mix of soil, compost and perlite. One of the soils does have a fertiliser in it so there should be … some… NPK currently available.)

  • How do I prevent them going to flower when I move them outside?
    I am currently growing on an 18/6 schedule under CFL, until they are a bit bigger and ready to go outside. We are placing them outside here and there to get them used to the outside suns light spectrum and UV.
    We will do this more and more to harden them off before the final transfer.
    However our longest summers day is 14.5 hours. Will this not make them flower when we do move them?
    What are some ways to stop this? Is it true that there are different rules for clones and seedlings? Will slowly reducing the artificial light to match the 14 they would receive outside work… or?
    I would prefer methods that dont involve supplemental lighting if possible as we would be running out of room at some point inside.

Any other advice regarding this all you think I may not have read about already would be appreciated.

2

Anyone with some advice please?

3

almost any light schedule over 12/12 will suffice to keep a plant in veg until it is mature Auto flower excluded of course

4

As for feeding this is best done in 1/4-1/2 doses after plant has reached around 4-5 true nodes and slowly increased to stronger full dose as plant gets bigger and shows no signs of nute burns. If your plant starts to show deficiencies dial up the nutrients, invest in PH and Tds meter they will be absolutely indispensible to you through out the plants life.

5

So it doesnt matter that it might suddenly change from 18/6 to 14/10?

Or should they gradually be transitioned to the natural light schedule?

6

in vegative growth plants are less intollerant of light changes though fluctuating constantly will stress plant consistancy is key. A quick change in light schedule is fine so long as they are not in flower.

7

Ok thanks for your help donald

Any other opinions/suggestions are appreciated