i was hearing that the plants would grow a little faster under the 12/12. but it might flower more under more darkness. like the 10/14. just wondering if that is true. if anybody can help it would be great thanks.
Conventional wisdom is that 12/12 is the optimal balance of giving as much light as possible for plant energy/growth vs. giving enough dark to trigger and maintain flowering.
Not so. Cycle variations have been proven very beneficial in quite a few grows here. Certain cycles including 2-4 weeks of 11 hrs at specific stages especially.
Is there some type of research written about this on the city, i havent seen it and i would be VERY interested to take a look if you have a link LBH, thanks
I know a few people that flip to 12/12 till they are in full flower for about 2 weeks... then they go to 13/11 for about 4 weeks and then back to 12/12 to finish The idea behind this is that once they are in fullflower the extra hour of light isn't enough to put back into veg or cause any stress.... but they get an extra hour of light to soak up and take advantage of... and think going back to 12/12, at the end, is so that they get increased trich development
Like was mentioned, and this is VERY important to flowering, the plant responds to the dark cycle and not the light cycle for inducing certain hormones. That is why keeping the plant with full light on for 18 hours or more up to 24/7 will keep it vegging, and turning it down to 12/12 will induce flowering. I guess I could see the 12/12 for a couple of weeks 13/11 for a couple weeks 12/12 for a couple of weeks wouldn't be a bad thing. The more chance of having light the more the plant can break down nutrients and photosynthesize. Whether or not it's really beneficial, some tests would have to be done .
something else to mention is the type of plant. some extreme sativas (hazes, equatorial varieties, etc) will either vegetate, or very slowly flower in 12/12. For them to develop flowers at a faster pace, many growers will roll them back to 11/13, 10/14. for a majority of plants, though, 12/12 is going to work pretty well.
Read the thread by DJ Short. He maintains that if you follow what the plants genetics are predisposed for you'll do better. That usually means a slightly higher or lower number and altering it through the grow (to mimic the change of the seasons). Having not played with my light times (yet) I can't answer from personal experience... but clearly THAT man knows what he is doing.
I have a super lemon haze that is showing strong sativa phenoms and I am getting ready to push the light cycle back to 10/14 to help it ripen at 11 weeks. I usually keep them on 12/12 until the flowers stop growing and start ripening, and then shorten the day cycles. I think the best thing to do would be to use the alamac and follow the day lengths from where you strain orginated. So if you start at 12/12 and hem move 15 min. from you light cycle to you dark cycle every 6 days you would be following the plant more natural life cycle. You need 12 hours of dark to get them to flower, but the more dark they think it's later in the season and they will ripen faster, however the less light they get the less energy they have to produce big strong flowers. One thisg I have seen a little research on useing an advanced timeclock and doing an 18 hour day cycle and a 12 hour dark cycle, this would result in a plant that take 9 weeks to flower would be done in 6 weeks.