Greenhouse light pollution: Design with blackout shades -- or just use auto-flowering strains?

My friend is setting up a legal grow in an area that is surrounded by parking lots and condos. He wants to do both outdoor and greenhouse.

As an experienced grower, I realized this could not work easily, due to the light pollution of the spot. Therefore he would need to have all flowering plants in a light-deprivation blackout greenhouse (such as a glass one with retractable curtains) or hoop house with blackout shades that unroll by motors.

However, is there another solution here which might be easier? Should he consider using auto-flower strains to avoid harmful effect of light pollution during the night while blooming?

If doing so, will they in fact be fine? Or might tend to herm-out or re-veg or stress or be messed up etc?

Greenhouse footprint and help may get you correct answers. Serious greenhouse guys around.

Sorry, what you mean "Greenhouse footprint and help"? I didnt find this forum section....

Overgrowtho said:

Sorry, what you mean "Greenhouse footprint and help"? I didnt find this forum section....

Click to expand...

My bad typo. Length x Width x Height. would help. LOL.

I'm not too sure why that matters. But it will be a big space with multiple greenhouses. Approximately need 640 sqm of greenhouse and 640 of hoop house under light deprivation.

However I was just reading about autos and can see that they will still be healthy despite light pollution! They can even flower in 20 hours of light. So I think that is good to know, and it might be a way that we can avoid the damn light dep complications of building so many shades.

Overgrowtho said:

I'm not too sure why that matters. But it will be a big space with multiple greenhouses. Approximately need 640 sqm of greenhouse and 640 of hoop house under light deprivation.

However I was just reading about autos and can see that they will still be healthy despite light pollution! They can even flower in 20 hours of light. So I think that is good to know, and it might be a way that we can avoid the damn light dep complications of building so many shades.

Click to expand...

Is this mostly for making concentrates? Or are you selling this commercially? Just curious. Because autos typically have half the THC of photoperiod flowers.

So if growing as much THC as possible I don't think autos are the answer. Also you will always be buying seed and you are at the mercy of the phenotype of each individual seed. Or you have to pollinate your own snd collect the seeds.

but if you are just doing concentrates or your actual aim is 10-15% weed then ya auto flowers may be an inexpensive solution to controlling your photoperiod.

Overgrowtho said:

I'm not too sure why that matters. But it will be a big space with multiple greenhouses. Approximately need 640 sqm of greenhouse and 640 of hoop house under light deprivation.

However I was just reading about autos and can see that they will still be healthy despite light pollution! They can even flower in 20 hours of light. So I think that is good to know, and it might be a way that we can avoid the damn light dep complications of building so many shades.

Click to expand...

Well something to remember is that autos are not like photo periods. I mean, the quality of the product will not be the same.

Autos are nice, but depending on what will be your finally product will be, that dictates what type of plant you should grow. If you're just making concentrates, then autos might not be a bad idea. However if you're selling it as flower, it may be worth it to do some extra shit to be able to grow photo periods.