Hey its nearing the end of my flowering. so i put the light cycle down to 10/14. problem is i have 2 girls in there who just started flowering and they will be at this this timing for two weeks before their sisters go to the scissors. are there any adverse effects of going back to a 12 12 routine after they have spent some time in the 10/14. Cheerz.
Why go to 10/14? (I never vary from 12/12 during bud.) I would suggest you just turn back to 12/12 and all will do well
You'll hear or read a lot of shit that is just pure fucking bullshit. There are hundreds of journals on this board. How many have you seen run 10/14? There's a reason everyone just runs 12/12, and I think you're starting to figure it out. Switch to 12/12. A little skepticism, on the information super highway, goes a long way.
Many of the 'easy' and usually indica dominant plants will do best when blooming under a 12/12 light cycle, however there are many equatorial/landrace and usually sativa dominant plants which will not experience a good bloom by force, or trigger, until the light cycle is set closer to 10/14. This is because equatorial strains have very nearly a 12/12 light cycle for their entire life-cycle, they always receive roughly 12 hours and six to eight minutes of sunlight every day of the year while they sprout, veg and mature. This means their blooming phase is more sensitive to their age, and can be triggered more easily by changes in climate like a slight drop in temperature, and a further-reduced light cycle, in other words 10/14 or similar, to indicate that their light exposure is somehow being diminished (consider that the reason we can cover plants or even just branches on our plants early, to determine sex, is due to the fact that in the wild, if a plant becomes over-shadowed by other growth or a fallen tree, it can potentially die, and when this occurs most plants including cannabis, will trigger their respective reproductive cycles). Some plants just won't begin blooming at all under 12/12 even after several months, while all the plants around them are already finishing up, and other plants begin to bloom but just won't ripen, which can even extend to unnecessary non-genetic foxtailing and sometimes even revegging. These are not very common or popular strains, due to their finickiness, and where they have a stigma of 'incompatibility' with faster blooming 12/12/photo-period plants. A knowledge or familiarity with the above, is one of the primary reasons why many seedbanks provide growth difficulty ratings, and indoor/outdoor suggestions for the individual strains they carry. It's also why it's often recommend that, particularly newer growers, should only grow a single strain, or several strains with similar requirements in each grow room for the best results. Hope this helps clear things up... many growers who source out more unique and challenging strains DO use a 10/14 light cycle at some point or another during bloom! Anyhow, on to the OP's question... yes, this can potentially hinder the growth of plants that do better with 12/12 and it may speed up their ripening as well, but worse, reverting back to a 12/12 after several weeks with less light each day can sometimes hormonally make them react as though 'spring is coming', meaning it can run you the risk of revegging, or at the very least airy and loose buds as the nodes spacing increases (a sign of reveg), plus a longer re-ripening. If you've already done it, you're probably best just finishing up your grow at a reduced light cycle, but it's really up to you in the end. Good luck! :waves: