My plants were changed from 24/0 to 20/4 to 16/8 and finally to 12/12, and they've been 12/12 for a week now. Could I go back to 20/4 tonight? I slept in this morning and instead of light on at 6 AM and light off at 6 PM, I woke up at 9:00 AM so they got an extra 3 hours. I can't turn the lights on at 9:00 tomorrow because i'll be in school. I'd also like to let them grow more before flowering so that I get more bud from it all and possibly get a job in that time and pick up a HPS light system for them.
In a word? No. Once flowering period (12/12) has started, messing with light times WILL produce hermies, so unless you wish to produce seeds i would suggest the purchase of a timer, 250W HPS can be run on normal 24hr timers, however you will need a contact timer for lights with more power. good luck.
you can seriously stress out MJ plants with such huge flucuations in your light schedule. i dunno why youd do that to begin with. but actually you CAN go back to say 18/6 after having turned to 12/12 but it will most likely take a couple weeks for your plant to revert back to vegative growth from flowering. and of course reverting that way and changing light schedules in general can stress you plant/make them go hermie. you really need a timer
Hey man just wanted to let you know you can get a timer almost anywhere. Mine came from Wal-Mart and was under $5. Its cheap, but for me it works just fine.