speed up autoflower cycle - shorten days to 12 from 24 ?

hey, I was wondering.... if you put an autoflower into alternating light/dark at 6 hours each, would it behave as if the days were shorter? it won't reveg since its an autoflower so would it think 2 weeks had passed after a week of half length day/nights?
enquiring minds want to know.... and yes I assume this would impact yield greatly, but still...

bobhamm said:

hey, I was wondering.... if you put an autoflower into alternating light/dark at 6 hours each, would it behave as if the days were shorter? it won't reveg since its an autoflower so would it think 2 weeks had passed after a week of half length day/nights?
enquiring minds want to know.... and yes I assume this would impact yield greatly, but still...

Click to expand...

I put 20 easy bud autos from seed into a 12/12 lighting schedule with some Matser Kush and it merely produced stretchy plants with greatly reduced yield as you assumed correctly. I don't see how putting them into 6 hour cycles would change anything or cause it to grow quicker, what exactly are you trying to discover with this?

well think of it this way.... you were still using 24 hour days, not shortened days(as opposed to shortened lighting hours)
every 3 "standard" days(24 hour periods) the plant would live thru 4 days (combined light/dark cycles)... so, would it finish in 1/4 less time?

Ok it is kinda common sense. Autos flower according to age not light cycle yet they only grow vigorously in the light so how would reducing hours and giving them a screwed up cycle do anything but possibly herm the plant?

bigv1976 said:

Ok it is kinda common sense. Autos flower according to age not light cycle yet they only grow vigorously in the light so how would reducing hours and giving them a screwed up cycle do anything but possibly herm the plant?

Click to expand...

well, I don't know, thats why IO was wondering what other people thought... since sutoflowers can(from what Ive read) be grown 24/0 light period, how does it "Know" how old it is? the light and dark cycles have no effect on the plant? what about non-autos? if you gave them 10 hours of dark(I've heard its possible, havent seen it yet) and 8 hours light in flowering and kept it on that schedule, would it finsih in 6 weeks as opposed to 8 in flower?

I'll throw this into the melting pot......

1. Does an autoflower determine it's age by light cycle or is it in another form, say genetics?

2. To my knowledge most breeders recommend 20/4 light cycle so just how important is the dark period for any plant including autos?
PS. What breeders and seed sellers say are two different things. Who's the authority on their product?

3. Surely a plant needs a prolonged time frame of light to produce photosynthesis effectively, would 2x 6 hour light cycles during a 24/0 period be enough?

4. I have to ask, why would you want to finish plants quicker by 2 weeks only to have significantly lower yields for the effort?

5. You mention 10 hours of dark then 8 hours of light.....what have you done with the extra 6 hours?

Won't make any difference, you cannot change the plant's genetic code with less light intervals. You will have a bigger harvest by using as much light as you can. Plants grow because of food, co2 and light, not dark.

autos have their genetics so fucked up that changing light cycles wont make a bit of difference. they grow and do what they are supposed to do without the need for light.

The fact of the matter is the authority in this case is previous grows and growers. Everything I have ever read has said that marijuana needs a regular light cycle and that it needs 12 hours of darkness regularly to trigger the hormones in the plant to flower. I also know that the single easiest way to hermie a plant is to start screwing with its light cycle. In this case we are talking about autos. You guys are acting like autos came out last week. They flower by age meaning that it doesn't matter what light/dark cycle you give it the life of the plant will be the same give or take a small margin I am sure. With that being said it is still an MJ plant and you can still hermie the plant if you dont give it a regular light cycle. As far as what makes the plants know when to flower I have no idea but the fact is it does. You can try anything you want with an auto but it has probably been tried and the standard accepted theory is that an auto is going to be most productive with a 20/4 light cycle. That is not a guess. That is the accepted standard by thousands of growers. It's your seed dude. Give it a go.

newworldicon said:

I'll throw this into the melting pot......

...

5. You mention 10 hours of dark then 8 hours of light.....what have you done with the extra 6 hours?

Click to expand...

good questions, IDK at the end of the dark period you turn the lights on ... seriously, so lights on monday at noon, off at 8pm, then 10 hours after that, 6 am tuesday,the lights come on for 8 hours till 2 pm then 10 hours dark etc etc etc

if I could change the thread title I'd take out the autoflower part

perhaps we need to ask ourselves not what the plant is doing in the light, but what it is doing in the dark

i don't know the science behind any of it, but isn't it possible that a ripening process is taking place during the dark period?

just rocking the boat

Best cycle to get a great auto yield and speed it up is 20/4 like the guy said I ended with this with the 20/4 cycle an man it came out nice ..blue kush auto by dinafe