13 hrs dark/ 11 hrs light

meangreen45

Well-Known Member
Hello to all! I was wondering if I were to increase the dark period (13/11) if that would help my girls to finish. They are close to having 50% of their pistils turn red/brown. I am running in to time probs. Does anyone know if this would work? Thank you to everyone in advance!
 

smutpeddler

Well-Known Member
i think i seen a vid on youtube where a guy says that he had great results doing exactly what your talking about.
 

meangreen45

Well-Known Member
I read this from one source but I have alway heard when come to growing you should verify with at least three different sources.
 

meangreen45

Well-Known Member
It would be great to know for sure as I am coming up on the 11th hour for today. Do you happen to know the link?
 

MrFishy

Well-Known Member
I don't think anyone here knows for sure whether buds growth-rate is greater during light or dark . . . so you could be doing the exact opposite of what would increase the growth rate. I should know this answer in a couple of months, as I'm flowering at 13:40 on/ 10:20 off right now. I'm doing this because 13:40 is when they started on their own and I want to know if plants NEED to bottom out at 12 for fastest, heaviest harvest or if minimum darkness for flowering might result in increased production and decreased overall grow time.
Good luck.
 

gizanoz

Well-Known Member
hey dude after reading this post a friend totally randomly said that i should put my plants onto 11 hour light, he said it makes the plant think that its autumn n forces it to grow faster/bud rapidly, i dont know if its true but he's been growing a while..
 

firstgrowth

Active Member
yeh i think it would defo work, as it gets to the end and you sound like your nearly there go from 12/12 to 11/13- 10/14 even down to 6 hourse light 18 darkness until you get the last two days in complete darkness it will defo get them budding extra. think about it the plant soaks in as much light as it can an then during its darkness cycle its growing and budding so the longer its in darkness the more it will grow and as you are already nearly there go for it :)
 

techhead420

Well-Known Member
Some old research has shown that you'll get twice the THC at 12 hours of light vs 10 hours of light.

Source: Marijuana Botany pg 146 Valle et al 1978
 

MrFishy

Well-Known Member
Some old research has shown that you'll get twice the THC at 12 hours of light vs 10 hours of light.

Source: Marijuana Botany pg 146 Valle et al 1978
So theoretically, the max light that would allow the plant to fully flower, be it 12 or 11, OR 13+ could easily result in highest thc production? Cool.
:blsmoke:

Maybe this partly accounts for the almost always heavier outside harvest?
 

firstgrowth

Active Member
i've just thought what would happen if you gave it a 12hr cycle of light and dark during the flowering stage? would that make the plant think that two days passed in 24 hours?
so in the flowering stage you give it 4-5 hours of light then 7-8 hours of darkness and then repeat that cycle or maybe even cycles of 6hrs on 6hrs off.......i wonder if it does strongest and best flowering production in its first few hours of darkness? (a bit like a solar powered battery as the duration continues it looses its power)


any ideas?? i dont have lights just an experiment in the back garden so cant even experiment lol
 

gizanoz

Well-Known Member
i've just thought what would happen if you gave it a 12hr cycle of light and dark during the flowering stage? would that make the plant think that two days passed in 24 hours?
so in the flowering stage you give it 4-5 hours of light then 7-8 hours of darkness and then repeat that cycle or maybe even cycles of 6hrs on 6hrs off.......i wonder if it does strongest and best flowering production in its first few hours of darkness? (a bit like a solar powered battery as the duration continues it looses its power)


any ideas?? i dont have lights just an experiment in the back garden so cant even experiment lol
i dont think it quite works like that lol, more like the plant would think ooh less light time to bud, oh no hang on more light i should still be growing, bud, grow, bud, die! lol

Peace :joint:
 

techhead420

Well-Known Member
i've just thought what would happen if you gave it a 12hr cycle of light and dark during the flowering stage? would that make the plant think that two days passed in 24 hours?
so in the flowering stage you give it 4-5 hours of light then 7-8 hours of darkness and then repeat that cycle or maybe even cycles of 6hrs on 6hrs off.......i wonder if it does strongest and best flowering production in its first few hours of darkness? (a bit like a solar powered battery as the duration continues it looses its power)


any ideas?? i dont have lights just an experiment in the back garden so cant even experiment lol
Won't work. Light period is controlled by phytochrome and the molecule needs time to go back to it's lower energy state. Photoperiod is controlled by darkness, not light.

Phytochrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

misshestermoffitt

New Member
What if you started them on 12/12 then added one more minute of darkness each day? In 60 days you'd be finishing at 11 day / 13 night.

That is how it happens in nature. Might be a worthy experiment.
 

techhead420

Well-Known Member
What if you started them on 12/12 then added one more minute of darkness each day? In 60 days you'd be finishing at 11 day / 13 night.

That is how it happens in nature. Might be a worthy experiment.
It's an interesting idea and certainly a worthy experiment. My thought though is that by cutting the hours you are reducing the amount of total photosynthesis. By reducing the amount of photosynthesis then you'll reduce your yield.
 

meangreen45

Well-Known Member
Well folks I am going to give it a shot. I started today with a 13 dark/ 11 light. This is my first grow and I am using some dank bag seed so I don't know how long these ladies would typically take to flower. This has also been a 12/12 from seed. Today was day 67. I guess the only way I will be able to tell if its working is to watch for an acceleration of pistils turning red/brown. I don't even know if that's right but it sounds logical to a stoned mind. Oh yea I checked the trichs last night and had about 10% clear, 10% amber and 80% cloudy. Anyhow thanks to everyone for replying! I will let you guys know what happens.
 

misshestermoffitt

New Member
I'm trying it, only instead of changing by 1 minute each day (pain in the ass), I'm going to change buy 15 min every 2 to 3 weeks where I end up at 13 night and 11 day by the end of 60 days,
 
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