This season I put my plants outside to early in spring and they started to flower prematurely. I searched all over the internet but could not find any good information about this.

Eventually I stumbled across monster cropping which is a method of enforcing Re-Veg to get a bushier plant. Still this seems taboo and there is not many documented grows out there for reference. In a search to figure out what to expect I came across some important information.

When to Plant Outside
You need to consider your latitude and minimum low temperatures before you decide to move outside. I reside in Zone 8a , latitude 36 degrees so when it was warm enough I put them outside but I needed to wait until May 15th for 14hrs of sunlight. If you put your plants outside when there is less then 14 hours of sunlight they will begin to flower. More importantly its about NOT having a dark period longer then 10 hrs.

Since the latitude determines how many hours of sunlight you will get, you need to know what's specific to your location. The further north or closer to the earths poles the longer your days/nights will be based on the season. As you approach the equator its always 12/12 hours of daylight/darkness. So just because its warm enough in the south to plant outside you still need to wait for the correct hours of sunlight.

You need to find the date where your overnight lows are over 55 f and when there is enough sunlight to determine the earliest you can plant outside.
https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/ (used to find daylight hours based on latitude ).
https://weatherspark.com/ (used to find when temp. is consistently over 55 f ).

Stages of Re-Veg
STAGE 1 - Early Re-Veg. Bud sites produce many small shoots but still clumped together.

STAGE 2 - Mid Cycle Re-Veg. Many small shoots grow a few inches and are moveable but are still hard to separate from the main cola. Training may help to bend the shoot out away from the main branch.

STAGE 3 - Late Re-Veg. Many of the shoots have now turned into many small top colas and are growing away from each other naturally.

CONTROL - For comparison this plant never went into flower and has the traditional growing structure.

Conclusion
Giving enough time the main colas will explode with new shoots. Its hard to notice at first because they stay clumped tot he main branch like bud to a stem. It is beneficial to start bending out the shoots to encourage lateral growth. Hopefully this helps because I had no idea what to look for and the internet seems to hat on "monster cropped plants" but some time you have no choice =)

STAGE 1 - Early Re-Veg.

STAGE 1 - Early Re-Veg.

STAGE 2 - Mid Cycle Re-Veg.

STAGE 2 - Mid Cycle Re-Veg.

STAGE 3 - Late Re-Veg.

STAGE 3 - Late Re-Veg.

CONTROL

CONTROL