2 of 24 plants in mother room are flowering

[AcesFull]

Hi,

I have 24 mothers in my 'mother' room and 2 of them are starting to flower. I have several different strains. 10 of them are God's Gift and 2 of those are the plants in question.

I am using a different light schedule that has seemed to work for a couple months now. I found the suggestion here somewhere, but its basically a modified 12/12 to save electricity.

The 12 on is stretched to 12.5. The 12 off (actually 11.5) is broken up in the middle with 1.5 hours of light. All plants have responded well I guess. Is this the reason for the 2 that decided to start flowering.

While I'm asking questions, is my lighting schedule reducing plant growth? My goal is to cut as many clones as possible from these 24 plants as often as possible while at the same time trying to control energy cost. If faster growth switching back to an 18/6 schedule offsets the cost of growing them to take clones then I can switch back.

Thanks for any help. Seeing 2 of these plants flowering is heart breaking because I have no place to put them to continue the process. I'd hate to have to see them go to the compost bin.

 

[jtdglf]

Your on a flowering schedule bro. You need to increase light hours to keep them in veg.

 

[AcesFull]

Your on a flowering schedule bro. You need to increase light hours to keep them in veg.

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it. Here's where I got the light schedule from:

Why not save money?

It seems reasonable to me, but what do I know.

 

[Jango]

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it. Here's where I got the light schedule from:

Why not save money?

It seems reasonable to me, but what do I know.

Yeah i just read that thread too, im sticking with 18/6. My thinking is that your plants know that its time to start flowering if they are only getting 12 hrs of light. So even though you turn the lights back on for 1 or 1.5 hrs in the middle, for the first 5 hrs your plants are thinking its time to start flowering. Just seems like it could be very confusing for plants and perhaps 2 of your plants just got too confused! lol Plus it seems to me that though you may be saving money on power you are also taking power away from the plants to grow by only giving them about 2/3rds the amount of lighting they want thus 2/3rds growth potential. Makes sense in my head anyways hahaha

 

[medme]

i said in that thread,,,"i don't want to confuse my ladies".... can i say "told ya so"?????

 

[CocoJoe]

Hi,
The 12 on is stretched to 12.5. The 12 off (actually 11.5) is broken up in the middle with 1.5 hours of light. All plants have responded well I guess. Is this the reason for the 2 that decided to start flowering.

NO!

Plants flower because of the length of the dark period!

By interuptting the dark cycle with 1 hour of light, you keep plants from flowering.

Are your plants showing sex, or are they flowering?
Mature plants show sex regardless of the light cycle.
After 5-6 weeks most plants are mature and show sex.

Some plants are not geneticly stable. They should be disgarded.

cocoJoe

 

[AcesFull]

They were definitely flowering. I reluctantly switched back to 18/6, but would love to go back to my previous schedule. I thought I was playing it safe by adding a half hour to the 12 on and increasing the hour of light in the middle of the dark period to 1.5 hours.

I moved the majority of the plants outside on the patio and 9 of them into an 8x8 greenhouse in the backyard since plants won't flower outdoors until mid August.

It is very important to me to keep plants from flowering. I provide clones to other medical patients and dispensaries. These are all mothers so they're at the minimum three months old and all are from clones except the AK48.

The problem with 18/6 is the electrical cost. I simply can't afford to donate clones at the price I do AND run 1000w lamps 18 hours a day. I will if I have to and eat the cost, but your way would be much better.

I also need growth to happen as fast as possible for obvious reasons and understand 18/6 grows faster than 24/0. If that's correct (and I do not know that it is) then your schedule means better growth.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[medme]

if you can't afford to do it right, find a backer, or get a partner you really trust,, but don't try to fool mother nature...... there is 24 hours in a day, one light period, and one dark period.... yes, 18/6 will grow a bit faster, because the stem grows faster in the dark... good luck to ya....