i need expert advice

5th year growing outdoor and i want to get inventive;
1, doing the usual summer greenhouse grow in Ireland, the idea of cloning outside and flowering the clone outside is a new prospect for me though, can anybody tell me the best time of the year to chop? my strains are (sensi) mexican sativa and early pearl.
2, growing plants flush to the ground with tie-downs. not much of a security issue-rather to see what happens to the floral dovelopment. is it worth it?
3, (i know this is an indoor Q but im here now) is it true a 400wHPS can run off a 600w balast?
4, i had planned to sex the plants by bringing a clone off each into an indoor flowering room, whats the preceedure? should i veg them for a while or leave it?when should the sex clones be taken?
any other outdoor fun related input welcome.many thanks from the green feilds

I'm not sure what your asking in question 1 but it sounds like you want to take a bunch of clones by the time flowering seasons starts and just have the clones only exposed to the suns natural flowering lifecycle. That souds like a good idea and am interested in your results, the only thing I can suggest is make sure the clones are well rooted by the time the flowering season starts and i am sure the plants will produce buds if taken care of properly.

2. if you are talking about training plants to improve how the light hits the bud sites, yes it is very worth it. LST is very common practice in indoor growing and I dont see why it wouldnt be as effective outdoors but with small clones training has to be done very lightly and slowly to ensure no damage to the plant.

3.) the simple answer is no, if the bulb is not designed for the ballast you could cause fire but definitely damage your bulb or ballast by doing that.

4.) this can be done as soon as the plant is healthy enough to produce rooted clones. Just make sure to keep them labeled and you can flower the clones while the others are still vegging and when you see the results from the clones you can go back and kill the ones that are pollen producers

good luck