Thanks for the reps! I appreciate it. (Sorry 'bout that, Papa! I know a good cure for that...
)
Loaded for bear...excellent! I might play around with that at some point, for now I like to keep it simple. The 1x/day on/off sunset IR trick is pretty easy to implement without worrying about exact timing and multiple cycles like PAD.
Yep. Here's the way I look at it:
I like to tinker. I want to teach my girls to sit up, roll over, beg, shake my hand, and fetch. (insert off-color joke here
) In some ways, we're trying to outsmart our plants doing that. Great if and when it works. Not necessary for most folks - and how much advantage that confers is sometimes questionable, or at least debatable.
Once you've maxed out all other factors,
then one can worry about the incremental ones.
The plants, though, have had
tens of millions of years to adjust to certain conditions so that
those are the ones they like now.
Our 12/12 flowering schedule philosophy for mj is more of a
general rule of thumb, and somewhat arbitrary. It's a concept we use because it works
most of the time. And for what most people grow (indica and indica/sativa hybrids), plants respond well enough.
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Different species, strains, and the phenotypes within strains can, and do, respond differently to their environment. Outside of true autoflowering varieties, there's a range of ~8/16 - ~16/8 day/night cycles that some plants are perfectly comfortable flowering under. Get close to a true sativa, and they tend to be more towards the first end of that range, when left to their own devices. I've gone to 11/13 a few times that way; most of what I normally grow are mixes and they're happy at 12/12. Just depends what ya got cookin'...
Every now and then it's good to be reminded that our assumptions are just that - and sometimes, they keep us from being flexible and adaptable.
In some ways,
plants are smarter than us. They know where they're happiest, and will tell us as much if we pay enough attention. If a plant
wants to flower under 10/14 -
let it flower under 10/14! I like to keep the womenfolk happy myself - it's less stressful for both.
------
If I listen hard enough, sometimes I can almost hear what they're thinking. (sound a bit like Sun there, don't it? There I go anthropomorphising objects again...)
...If I've had enough Thai stick, I can guarantee it--!
Good question. If you're going from 10/14 to 12/12, that's 20% more light per day. (Going from 12/12 to 10/14 is a loss of ~16.7%, compared to the 'original' time)
Dude (sorry b, I know you've trademarked that term), you've got a pretty nice density in your plant canopy as it is (yay! cool). Here's the real question:
How much denser will the plants allow themselves to get under any conditions, at this point?
Plants can tell when they're crowded. They brush up against their sisters, and compete for the same light (and nutrients, and everything else). One way they respond is by reducing the total yield they produce per plant.
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I think that under normal flowering conditions, without resorting to tricks like the IR thing, a (mj) plant is going to produce the
vast majority of its yield using the first 8-9 hrs of high-intensity light during the 'day'. After that, you're going to reach a point of diminishing returns on your 'light investment' - as b pointed out. Meaning that adding ~20% more lighting time won't produce anywhere near 20% more bud - especially when your plant density is already high.
If anything, my
guess is that your total yield, in terms of both weight
and time factor (fewer days to finish), will probably only increase
~9-10%+ over (say) a 10/14 schedule, when trying to add more hours to the clock.
Those plants will only beef up so much before the girls say 'It's too crowded in here, I want a larger apartment!', and stop putting out (married guys, I know you understand
)
And how much will be largely dependent on the strain you're runnin', too. Only way to know for sure is to try it!
If you think another ~10%+ or so is worth it for spending maybe 20%+ more juice, something you may want to consider. Otherwise, you can probably skip it without hurting your overall yield all that much.
Nah, jus' one o' the many files I got on my HD b. My slidemaking prowess falls under the stick-figure and Hempy Flowchart stuff ('Do You Want Algae?'
), usually...well, almost. I'm a little rusty...
Any yahoo can make a slide complicated, it takes a genius to make it simple, to paraphrase someone I know...
(Cool chart, that from your 4th ed. plant physiology book?)
Exactly...see above. Also why I told Irish just to stick with the 10/14 at this point. Plants're happy with it, why change it? No need to tinker on this run. And yep - there is such a thing as 'too much of a good thing.'
I would note that in studies of
quantitative(facultative) short-day plants (as opposed to
qualitative(absolute/obligate) ones), increasing light levels in general also increased flowering/seed mass
up to a point - before leaf/vegetative production started to increase and (eventually) overtake that of seed/shoot mass.
Perhaps a little judicious radiation and photoperiod manipulation will keep the leaves at bay, and still allow for increases in seed/flower ratios, methinks. It'll be interesting to play with the above using various strains and see if we can increase the harvest index while keeping relatively short-stature plants, eh?
I tend to call that 'fun'.
Ahh, looking to play with Q-10 and DIF/GA production in the garden, are ya? Good man! Nice and practical as always. Going to get an AC and drop temps in the mornin', or something more elaborate?
Cool! I noticed HD has range charcoal replacement filters like one from Amazon for cheap (3-pack/$7.99); a couple o' those are no doubt easier to work with than using loose bags of the stuff.
Also check out the Vornado pre-sorb filters, 12" x 18" in a 4-pack from
Amazon or
Venting Direct[ for $20. Cut 'em down to size and double 'em up!
I'm all for saving a couple hundred $$$ when I can. Amazing how much stuff you can find available in other areas without all the markup if ya look hard enough.
The margins are in the marketing, my friend...
-TL
