So I woke up this morning to a power outage. My plants are in veg and on 24-0 right now and I'm just wondering what are the odds of them going herm. Pretty sure the powers only been out about a hour but I'm not sure how long it will remain out for.
Just leave the light off until the beginning of the next cycle. A little extra dark time wont kill anything. If you miss several light cycles in a row it may be a different story.
They can't hermie up if they aren't flowering. In veg anything more than 16 hours of light is fine. So a few hours here and there won't cause any problems
Yes it would, switching back would stop flowers from growing out but why put it in flower mode to begin with?
You're not going to see enough hormonal change from a few hours of dark for it to begin flowering. That is why plants do not immediately begin to flower the day you switch to 12/12. Again, one dark cycle isn't going to create a problem. If the op wants to be all paranoid then so be it, but the plant will be just fine.
Just because buds don't start developing for a few days doesn't mean the hormones aren't going fuckin crazy as soon as they get twelve hours of darkness.
I wouldn't say "going crazy". All that happens is that after switching to a long dark cycle the plant switches from making an inactive form of the hormone (Pfr) to making an active form (Pr). Flowering is not triggered the second the plant begins to make the active hormone, nor does the inactive hormone automatically. It takes a few days before the plant has produced high enough levels of the active hormone to actually trigger flowering. Transitioning from veg to flower doesn't happen like flipping a switch, regardless of what you do with your lights. Obviously it isn't ideal, but its no reason to evoke hermie paranoia.
It's true you won't SEE it but that doesn't mean it won't be happening. Flowers take time to grow out and show themselves. But you still haven't answered my question. You recommended that he gave the plant even more hours of darkness in response to his worry of the plant being in darkness for an hour or so. Why give them a flower period day when you could just leave the light on and carry on as normal?
Once the plant has had enough hours of darkness then that's it, it is in full flower mode and inside the plant changes will be made. These changes will show as flowers once enough time has past for them to grow out. To counteract a worry of an hour of darkness by saying give it more hours of darkness makes no sense at all
I've had power outages even in flower and been fine. I don't even stress about veg. I use analog controllers so they'll just start back up when the power comes back on. Just your times will be off. Just switch them back to normal times for the next cycle. No need for extra darkness or anything special, just switch them. Since your running 24/0 just leave them run and don't worry at all. I live in the sticks, power outages aren't daily or anything, but we have them on occasions. Haven't had a problem yet. Having light leak in during the lights out of flower is more worrisome. Have that covered and your good
A mj plant is fine for a few hours, even 12 or perhaps more can stress a plant but it wont die/flower. as long as its in veg mode and you get light on it as soon as you can it shouldn't be an issue. it is said that you can sex a young plant by using a flowering schedule of 12/12 for days.. once identified, females are put back into 24/0 and continue veg. i have seen veg plants come back from 18 hours or so of darkness. you shouldnt worry too much however changes in the flowering schedule and lack of complete darkness can turn plants hermie.