Flowering Period Light and Dark Times

well im wondering why we limit ourselves to strictly 24 hours rotations.

has anyone ever experimented with a 14/12 or 16/12 or even 18/12?

i have always heard that is a 12 hour dark period that induces flowering but never have seen anyone try anything other than a 12 hour light period. i would understand the issue with this b4 timers were easily available but now we can pretty much automate it all so i don't think that would be an issue.

anyways, has anyone tried this and can share there results b4 i do my experiment? my theory is that that more light = bigger tighter buds so if i can expose my plants to more light and still give them there 12 hours will they keep flowering or go back to veg?

It's been done many times. Don't bother.

lol ty for the quick reply.

complete failure i assume?

theres a few threads on it in here and they always turn into a large heated arguement. There are many good reasons for and many good reasons against, my main problem is the inconsistent times of day you could go in and look at them and assess things. Lights on would be at a different time every day. but look around at a couple of the other threads, couple of interesting points you could look at. I dont do it, but there are stories of success, and lots of criticism.

lol. I didn't mean to sound completely categorical about it; I haven't done it personally. Everything turns into a large heated argument on RIU eventually. My question for you, Justin, is are you bored growing 12/12 already? Because it works for the greatest growers on the planet.

shnkrmn said:

lol. I didn't mean to sound completely categorical about it; I haven't done it personally. Everything turns into a large heated argument on RIU eventually. My question for you, Justin, is are you bored growing 12/12 already? Because it works for the greatest growers on the planet.

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lol not at all, im an engineer, and trying to make things work better is what we are ingrained to do. i am at best a newbie grower. this is my second grow lol, first one just kinda happened and i didn't really start trying till about 3 weeks in. it turned out ok considering how much i fucked up but i had a blast so i tried to take it a little more serious this time around, i have 4 in soil that i topped using UBs method but it really really stunted there growth, but i got 4 good clones from the tops. another 5 are growing in a 18g tote DWC (first try at hydro) and have been LST'ed and supercropped and look absolutely amazing. at any rate im using 12 6500k 23 watt CFLs to veg these and will be adding 4 68 watt 2700k CFLs and 2 26 watt UV-B CFLs for flowering so im looking at nearly a 600 (true) watt CFL grow with both soil and DWC.

Haha. I see. If you like to tinker I wouldn't do it with your light cycle. It's not nice to fool mother nature.

Justin00 said:

lol not at all, im an engineer, and trying to make things work better is what we are ingrained to do. i am at best a newbie grower. this is my second grow lol, first one just kinda happened and i didn't really start trying till about 3 weeks in. it turned out ok considering how much i fucked up but i had a blast so i tried to take it a little more serious this time around, i have 4 in soil that i topped using UBs method but it really really stunted there growth, but i got 4 good clones from the tops. another 5 are growing in a 18g tote DWC (first try at hydro) and have been LST'ed and supercropped and look absolutely amazing. at any rate im using 12 6500k 23 watt CFLs to veg these and will be adding 4 68 watt 2700k CFLs and 2 26 watt UV-B CFLs for flowering so im looking at nearly a 600 (true) watt CFL grow with both soil and DWC.

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Usually in engeneering it is "discovered" that mimicing nature works best, whether in structural design or gardening, but i hear ya. I like to experiment hoping to unlock some hidden door , discover a new approach.
I've thought about screwing with light hours, but people have pretty well dialed it in and the middle path seems to work best.

I actually have my plants on an alternate light cycle but it is within the natural time frame. The plants are heading in to the tail end and I've reduced the light hours to 10hours on 14 off.
What I'm hoping to observe is that it finishes off a little quicker, and possibly the resin suffers less light degradation.

Another thing I've noticed regaurding vegging under less light hours was on an out door crop in hawaii.

For a lot of reasons out door plants grown in Hawaii's long season book. There are many environmental factors that exploit a plants potential to its fullest. But "long" days in Hawaii are relatively short and the time frame that they are at their longest is short but they are within the 14ish hours of light for most of the long season. One thing regaurding the light is that there is not alot of light exposure in the tropics, (as in leangth of exposure)so heavybuild up the growth horemone auxin during the long nights while the day light sun is intense with tropical rays.

Auxin also regulates ethyline production in plant leaves which is why I'm thinking it may hasten ripening time.

Anyway I think if you are vegging or in the middle of packing on flowers if you are going to extend the dark hours for the auxin levels you need to commpensate with more light intesity to make it worth while, otherwise you need to compensate with leangthening the duration of light exposure which would be pointless.

I have seen people do weird photo-period tricks that work. For instance having your lights controlled by a light sensor outside and bud the plants on natural seasonal light changes rather than hard 12/12 rules. It's difficult but if you were so inclined you could plot the seasonal shift in light hours where MJ grows best and use that schedule to control your lights.

Making days add up to 26 hours seems....weird.

Justin00 said:

well im wondering why we limit ourselves to strictly 24 hours rotations.

has anyone ever experimented with a 14/12 or 16/12 or even 18/12?

i have always heard that is a 12 hour dark period that induces flowering but never have seen anyone try anything other than a 12 hour light period. i would understand the issue with this b4 timers were easily available but now we can pretty much automate it all so i don't think that would be an issue.

anyways, has anyone tried this and can share there results b4 i do my experiment? my theory is that that more light = bigger tighter buds so if i can expose my plants to more light and still give them there 12 hours will they keep flowering or go back to veg?

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its about the ratio of light to dark times, not the absolute amount of darkness. you could do 6/6, 8/8, 12/12 or maybe even 24/24 or 1/1.