Growing Outdoor In Southern US

This season marks my first outdoor grow. Here in socal, the weather and sunlight is perfect, however the day lengths aren't as long as up north, and I have had trouble vegging my plants to a larger size before they flower. Which strains are best suited for growing down here? Right now I have OG Kush and Sour Deisel/OG, the OG is almost done. Any strain recommends or techniques that don't require indoor vegging? I'd love to take advantage of the sun and grow more productive plants...

I am also a socal grower with some plants that have already begun to flower.

awaiting a response.

were they small clones from a club or did you attempt to veg inside? what size now and what strains?

Heres a link to my grow started april 1st from seed indoors under the t5, put outside june 1st.
the top left is supergirl, its the one starting to flower already,, and the rest out master kush and ca orange.
https://www.rollitup.org/outdoor-growing/89259-first-timer-pics.html

looks great!
Heres is my plot a few weeks ago...
Marijuana Growing - GanjaGrande's Album: Outdoor Garden 7/2/08

two out of four are ready this week.I put these ladies outside first week of may and they started flowering almost immediatley! I now realize that waiting a few more weeks until end of may/early june is necessary.

I would still love to hear from some experienced soc cal outdoor gardeners and see what they're capable of producing compared to the monsters they turn out in norcal.

For Dirt & GG. I've seen both set of pics, great looking plants. Here is where I get confused. (Usually when I wake up). Living where I do, I should have the same amount of sunlight as you guys. About a month ago was the longest day of the year, meaning that the Sun has stopped traveling North and is now heading back South. I've got Master Kush crossed with Cali Orange & Afghan, plus a few others. But what I do know is that unless I move them to a less lit area, they will not even think about flowering until around Oct. First question, why Veg. inside with all that great sunshine. Also, being outside does not mean they are getting enough allotted sunlight to stay in Vegging state. Shade trees, privacy fences, etc. will cause early Vegging, which is the case I believe. A rule for tomatoes also applies for your plants. "If there is a tree in the horizon, then you have too much shade." It's too late to clone flowering plants, but with a LOT more sunlight to come, you may be able to harvest, rejuvenate, and get another harvest before the first hard frost. Until then, for the Flowering plants, make sure that after 12 hours of pure light, they are placed in an area that WILL NOT get any light more than a full moon. Total darkness, or they will get off-balanced & fucked up. In short, it may not be the strain at all. Hope this helped.

Thanks for the response South Texas. You brought up some interesting points. The reason i started indoors was to get a headstart, lights 24/7 and get them growing tight nodes and to get me quicker to sexing. Is it necessary? probably not. is it beneficial? I thoght it was, but now i have to wonder if maybe going from 24/7 lights for 2 months and then putting them outside, maybe the darkness has confused some of them into a flowering stage and maybe if i just went outdoors from the beggining they would not be flowering and continue to veg. (does that make sense).

Another point is, these plants receive 8-9 hrs of direct sunlight per day and another 3-4 of indirect light before the darkness of the night sets in. It is only one strain that is starting to go into heavy flowering (supergirl) My master kush and CA orange are still vegging nicely and getting big as hell.

Here in SOCAL we dont have a frost so that is not a problem,, what is a problem is staying within my limits as a med card holder. Legally i cannot start any new plants until these are done. (but an interesting point that i could do another crop this late in the year)
so what i have is what i get.

I am still confused about these couple of supergirls that are already flowering. Yes they are flowering, but isnt that ok? how will they get messed up? beacuse they are floweing already, i think that just means that the yield will not be as big as if they continued to veg until say oct?

From what I have read, it appears that what flowers and when has a great deal to do with genetics. For instance, near pure sativas, which are equatorial plants, will be more likely to veg even during shorter days of say 14 hrs, and flowere when they are physically mature. Near the equator, there is minimal fluctuation in length of days, unlike the indicas, that veg during longer days and begin to flower when days begin to approach 12 hours.

From my experience, the idea that plants will veg if there is not 12 hours of total darkness is simply not true. I have three different strains, and they have all reacted differently to the changing light cycles. Each was flowering in may, in 14 hrs of light, not 12. In June, my snowcap reverted 100%, and was extremely sensitive to the slight change in day length. The sour OG slowed bud growth and for a few weeks seemed to produce more leaves out of the buds. But my OG kush was just fine and powered through even in 15 hr days. I have a hunch its because it was bred in LA.

Same length of days as in so cal but.......a hell of a lot hotter.

Started my plants indoors in feb and didnt realize when i put

them outside [to get some free light] i was screwing up the

budding time table...\

i hear that happens when the days get shorter........well now

a whole damn 60 seconds longer........so i watch and wait


also got the plants in 80& sun at 110 plus degrees

talk about putting em to the test.


Be nice to hear from some one in similar location