24-Hour Day Cycle Reduced to a 22 Hour Day Cycle (Experiment)

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Absorber

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January 2024
When I first heard of hydroponics years and years ago I assumed that they changed from the 24hr day we all live by to a 22hr day or some something similar, depriving every day of 2 hrs so over a week(7days) you have shortend the overall grow time by 14hrs .
So in vegetation you might have lights on for 17hrs and off for 5hrs .
And in flower on for 12hrs and off for 10hrs .
You see this was how I originally thought they grew marijuana hydroponically all those many many many years ago by having a shorter cycle.
So I've decided im going to give it a try after my Canuk comparative grow with the Bell Syphon finishes up and see if I can shave a few days off the grow .
The one thing that's held me back from trying it was getting a timer that was capable of running a light inside a shorter night day cycle.
This timer below should do the trick it has a repeat function settings that will accommodate the experiment.
I thought I'd start this thread to get everyone up to speed on the idea I have and have a conversation on the possibilities it could present.
I won't tag anyone but all are welcome 🙂

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My guess would be that it would work as long as the 12hr dark period was uninterrupted, so maybe 12/8 veg to 8/12 flower in a 20hr cycle
 
Roy Growin said:
My guess would be that it would work as long as the 12hr dark period was uninterrupted, so maybe 12/8 veg to 8/12 flower in a 20hr cycle
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Well here's the dilemma is it the 12hrs of light or the 12hrs of darkness that's the trigger or is it just the shortening of light hours thats the trigger because i don't get 18hr days outside 🤔
 
Lerugged said:
I recon its the hours of uninterrupted darkness.
Some have their lights come on for an hour in the middle of the dark period to prevent flowering which is what makes me go with uninterrupted darkness. Cool experiment
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Thanks for dropping in and your input, I'm surprised this hasn't been attempted already
 
Absorber said:
So I've decided im going to give it a try after my Canuk comparative grow with the Bell Syphon finishes up and see if I can shave a few days off the grow .
Click to expand...
Absorber said:
Thanks for dropping in and your input, I'm surprised this hasn't been attempted already
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There have been a couple of similar experiments talked about over the years. I am not sure what happened but the threads died out after awhile. One possible reason was finding the right timer to handle a non-24 hour cycle but you have the timer now so that is a good start.

What might have caused a problem in the previous threads is that the plant will need a recommended 12 hours of dark with no interruptions. That leaves decreasing the amount of hours of light as the way to shave a few days off by the end of the grow. And, that shaves off available time for photosynthesis which I felt would result in a weaker or less productive plant.

I do not remember the names of the earlier threads otherwise I would have tried to post a link to them.

Absorber said:
The one thing that's held me back from trying it was getting a timer that was capable of running a light inside a shorter night day cycle.
This timer below should do the trick it has a repeat function settings that will accommodate the experiment.
Click to expand...
Reminds me of the digital timer I found for working with my cloning bucket. In the photo it is set up for 28 seconds on and 4 1/2 minutes off.

 
SmokingWings said:
There have been a couple of similar experiments talked about over the years. I am not sure what happened but the threads died out after awhile. One possible reason was finding the right timer to handle a non-24 hour cycle but you have the timer now so that is a good start.

What might have caused a problem in the previous threads is that the plant will need a recommended 12 hours of dark with no interruptions. That leaves decreasing the amount of hours of light as the way to shave a few days off by the end of the grow. And, that shaves off available time for photosynthesis which I felt would result in a weaker or less productive plant.

I do not remember the names of the earlier threads otherwise I would have tried to post a link to them.


Reminds me of the digital timer I found for working with my cloning bucket. In the photo it is set up for 28 seconds on and 4 1/2 minutes off.

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I was also starting to wonder if the decreased hours for photosynthesis would mean a longer flowing time 🤔
Yes that's why I originally brought this timer it was for my clone bubbler and noticed I could use it for this experiment
 
Absorber said:
Well here's the dilemma is it the 12hrs of light or the 12hrs of darkness that's the trigger or is it just the shortening of light hours thats the trigger because i don't get 18hr days outside 🤔
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The dark period I think - reverse engineering the other way though, would a plant flower on 16/12 ..?
 
I feel like its the amount of light and not the length of darkness that's the trigger🤔.
And when you look at Auto's they can still flower with short dark periods or none , so it would possibly suggest it mightn't be darkness or the amount of it.
Its going to be an interesting thing to trial
 
Photoperiods are triggered to start flowering by the continued length of dark for day after day. That is why they can stay in a vegetative stage for years with 14 or more hours of light.

The Auto-flower plants are a short season and cool season and are a slower growing plant. They were supposed to have evolved or developed in the areas of far eastern Europe like Russia where the winters can be brutal with short and cloudy and cold summers good for growing cabbage and potatoes. These auto-flowers do not need several nights of 12 hours or more of dark to start the hormone flow that triggers flowering.

As far as I am concerned what really triggers the auto-flowers is some sort of magic. Probably an entire chapter on the type of magic can be found in your copy of the Necronomicon.
 
Absorber said:
Thanks for dropping in and your input, I'm surprised this hasn't been attempted already
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I think similar has been done or is done. I read somewhere about these wack light cycles.... something like 6 then 2 off then 6 on then 2 off. Something like that but not the exact cycles I just quoted. ( trying to stop my bull terrier from snatching my daughter's lunch.) Amongst two other critters that want to ve fed)

I'll try find it. I think that one was to save electricity.
 
Its the gibberelins build up. More darkness more builds up until it fires flower.

Gibberellins (GAs) are a group of plant hormones that regulate various aspects of plant growth, such as stem elongation, seed germination, and flowering. They are known to promote internode elongation and delay senescence in cannabis plants, potentially increasing overall plant height and biomass.
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(Btw you can detect senescence way better than by looking for trichs - if the plant is gonna die it don’t matter what the trichs say, dying plants are way more susceptible to disease)

Ruderalis doesn’t bother with one of the gibberellins for its trigger, there will be a different one - probably someone will shortly be able to use CRSPR gene editing to just insert it and get better at predicting the flip date.

For me not interested in Autos and its hard enough just getting my lights to go on and off at the right times with my stepson around and using Mars lights 🤣

If I was going to try anything it would be 8-n

8 on 8 off for flower. Some people cite some papers that the plants can’t really photosynthesise for more than 6 hours so 6-2 is popular with some growers (doesn't need to be hydro) I’d split the difference and give them a full 8 hour recovery. Be mad fun to try it. 16 hour days.

In our flower room its 12:15/11:45 btw. Two timers on different timer circuits. Sparkey set the time wrong so one actually comes on at 7:45 and the other at 8 - but its a big enough drop for 18/6 that the plants build the hormones. Faster to flower after flip? Shorten your days gradually.

Nick
 
NickHardy said:
Its the gibberelins build up. More darkness more builds up until it fires flower.



(Btw you can detect senescence way better than by looking for trichs - if the plant is gonna die it don’t matter what the trichs say, dying plants are way more susceptible to disease)

Ruderalis doesn’t bother with one of the gibberellins for its trigger, there will be a different one - probably someone will shorts be able to use CRSPR gene editing to just insert it and get better at predicting the flip date.

For me not interested in Autos and its hard enough just getting my lights to go on and off at the right times with my stepson around and using Mars lights 🤣

If I was going to try anything it would be 8-n

8 on 8 off for flower. Some people cite some papers that the plants can’t really photosynthesise for more than 6 hours so 6-2 is popular with some growers (doesn't need to be hydro) I’d split the difference and give them a full 8 hour recovery. Be mad fun to try it. 16 hour days.

Nick
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I like the idea of shortening the overall grow time by manipulating the time in a day , so long as yields don't suffer
 
I don’t know that its necessarily the day cycles that control it though. Lets say a 60 day flower at 12/12 - 60 cycles

24*60=1440 Total hours

8n schedule

16*60=960 Total hours - a 33% saving for just 40 days (but 60 nights!)

That would be a cool saving - if the plant develops/ages like for like.

You can use a timer with a day function to do 8/8/8 ? Only need two changes per day.

I have the 5x5 for the Canuk grow on a separate timer to everything else. Its not on the main box. I could try it there with them.
 
NickHardy said:
I don’t know that its necessarily the day cycles that control it though. Lets say a 60 day flower at 12/12 - 60 cycles

24*60=1440 Total hours

8n schedule

16*60=960 Total hours - a 33% saving for just 40 days (but 60 nights!)

That would be a cool saving - if the plant develops/ages like for like.

You can use a timer with a day function to do 8/8/8 ? Only need two changes per day.

I have the 5x5 for the Canuk grow on a separate timer to everything else. Its not on the main box. I could try it there with them.
Click to expand...
This timer can do it set it once for veg then set it again for flower
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