Winter solstice. Look it up. This should be the time other than the 12/12 period to turn the lights off. This tells your plants that death is knocking on MJ's doors. 3 days of complete darkness. 72 hours. If you decide to save some change, do so then and get a return in return.
There is a reason SO MANY people agree on 12/12. Think about it. Most people disagree about everything, but almost everyone agrees that 12/12 is optimum for flowering. It's because it's the best for our precious plants to get the most bud out of them for the least money and time put into the crop. The best growers in the world wouldn't use 12/12 if there was a better way.
I accidentally gave my plant 13 hours of light today, and its weeks into flowering. So im wondering if i should start it on a new 12/12 cycle or what
Huh? Just keep giving it 12/12 till it finishes flowering. I'm not sure what you mean by a new 12/12 cycle. What was it on before?
lol, i can't believe this thread is still going. summer/winter solstice, halloween, who cares??? if you wanna use 8 hours or 6 or whatever, just do it. get back with us with your results. i don't understand why people always seem to think they're gonna stumble on to some great idea when it comes to flowering, lol. there's a reason why almost everyone uses a 12/12 schedule for flowering. IT WORKS LIKE A MOFO!!! something else that's funny, this thread has over 8000 hits, and what 20 something replies? gee, i wonder why, lol.........
This has been tried and proven to be successful. The basic formula is: 18/6 veg - 2-6 weeks 14/10 early flower - 2 weeks (this could count as one week as it flowers later, but bigger than 12/12) 12/12 mid flower - 4-6 weeks 10/14 late flower - 2 weeks (this could count as 3 weeks as it flowers faster), or until done
why ask the question? start a grow.. of 2 seeds or clones or whatever. keep one on your normal light schedule and go ape shit with your light switch on the other one. post your results when you're all said and done.
The answer is simple. Different weed comes from many different places on the planet where there are as many variations in light schedule as you can imagine. Its no surprise that comes with varied light schedules for the plants. Bottom line indoor growers try to use a constant good middle ground so they have best chances
please define "successful"... if you mean "didnt die" im sorry but that doesnt cut it plants do not think, only react. they dont know what light schedule they are on, only if they are flowering or not. more photosynthesis the better. its why autos on 24/0 give you so much bud. although no more than about 20/4 so there is probably a cut off point. put one on 12/12 and you see a drastic difference. if you had it on 8/16 it would get sickly for sure
When was the last time you spoke plant to ask if it thinks? Nowhere inside can you compare plant growth to outside now indoor is preferable in many aspects but we can't seem to beat those outside IF the conditions are right but no doubt regardless of this outside will always vary in light abundance and time. Storms lightning during night the whole 9 yards. And we dont see nearly the trouble keeping stress levels down from light changes. The only hole I see in your theory is that plants really do "know" what light schedule they're on otherwise it wouldn't "stress" them when they get lack of sleep during flowering. Every night during the last hour of light all the leaves on the plant droop and it gets tired. If you keep a human on a steady sleep schedule its happy and reduces stress. We know it. It may not go through the chemical and neurological exercises we go through to react to our environment but cause brings the effect regardless. That being said humans are strangely a wonderful reference. We have a more immediate and extreme response. Ask a meth head who's been up for 3 days how they're doing. Youre very right that just alive isn't cutting it. It will just never ever be that simple it seems less than 100years ago we wouldn't think any different about how animals work. That they didn't "think" or "know", but we got evidence now were not the only ones who are self aware. It goes to show we can't rule it out is all. What is it that makes autoflower able to survive a 24/0? Its different to say a plant will autoflower without a light schedule change than it would be to say that plant also doesn't stress from 24 hours. Seems like 2 traits working together to me?
I don't know where this thread has gone. Darkness during flowering is for hormone buildup, not for the plant to sleep. It's how the plant reproduces, and knows when to do so. Photosynthesis is when it grows, cut this down too much and your cheating yourself. Let's not even bother discussing autoflowers in this thread. When I read about a new theory about light schedule changes, or any grow method for that matter, the first thing I do is look for evidence that the theory is proven. 12/12 is proven, until someone posts evidence 8/16 is optimal then it's just a theory. To anyone who argues otherwise, start a journal and post up the results. This is how the thread should have ended.
Yea it can be done but the yield would be seriously diminished and the cost savings wouldn't be that much. Yea dude, I've been wanting to try this, makes perfect sense to me.
Sorry to make you angry. It was successful in the sense that it worked about equally to going from 20/4 straight to 12/12 (the usual method my gardeners use). Since it is more complicated to switch the timers constanty, and since electrical costs are far lower than product costs, the above situation is more often used. Makes it easier. If you're on a budget, or electricity is very expensive, or you have the time and efford to try, an 18/6 to 14/10 to 12/12 to 10/12 works pretty well. I'm not sure if that's because it's more 'natural' (for northern plants) or if the plants just don't care if they are kept on 12/12 forever (which may be the case because it grows fine near the equator. Should be noted that not all strains like the same things. Some like more cold, some need more nutrients, some like to be topped, some don't train well, some are prone to outdoor pests, some nearly immune to disease, etc.
To save £30 on electricity by reducing your bud production by £200 worth just seems daft to me. Almost as daft as using a human analogy to submit evidence of a plant's biological functions
Ok so without reinventing the wheel expecting more resin and bigger buds, can less light help speed up the ripening of the flowers? It is obvious flowers hit critical mass and harden up in the last few weeks so could giving a little more dark in the last week help to finish the ripening process? I think This may be more relevant because the extra thc production people claim from final dark days is unlikely to be matured trichomes anyway.......or would the cure correct this? Any thoughts? Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum
Each plant has its own timer when it comes to switching to flower. The amount of dark hours make no difference, if it's in flower, it's in flower, it will just run its course. Plants need physical building blocks to build the bud that we love. They get this in the form of carbohydrates. These are made by the plant by combining carbon dioxide, water and a spectrum of minerals. They use the light to combine these. The more light they get, the more carbohydrates they can make. Lowering the intensity or the duration of the light simply lowers production, but unfortunately in order to flower properly we have to give them 12 hours of darkness . Lowering the amount of hours can only slow production
A friend of mine has a very small personal grow. He veges at the usual 18/6 and then flowers for 12/12 until the 1-3 week stretch is up and done with. Then he sets his timer for 6 hours on and 6 off. He never had a Hermie and still yields his 13-17 ounces. He does this so he can harvest quicker. He finished Barney's pineapple chunk WITH about 10% amber trichs in 6 and a half weeks. That's a bloody achievement right there. He's always pushing it on me and he has more than proven that it works. I just think its unnatural. That doesn't happen in nature at all.