Alternative lighting schedule idea

[bobmarley1986]

Hi, so we know about the 'gas lantern routine' which works wonderfully for veg and I was having a think about it , the plants love the extra dark period ,they grow very strong and as long as you insert the hour of light they stay veg ... got me thinking . What about breaking up the light cycle during the flowering cycle. Like 5 on 2 off 5 on 12 off.
The theory could be the plants may enjoy a rest during 'the day' and could actually optimize growth / budding.
Of course the counter argument is that less light equals less weight.
I might be tempted just to experiment... anyone ever tried such a thing?

 

[SmokingWings]

What about breaking up the light cycle during the flowering cycle. Like 5 on 2 off 5 on 12 off.
The theory could be the plants may enjoy a rest during 'the day' and could actually optimize growth / budding.
Of course the counter argument is that less light equals less weight.

I am thinking that your mention of "less light equals less weight" is a reason why it is not going to be helpful. Also less light can produce buds which will not produce as much of a "high" as you might be looking for or not produce as much of an effect if you are looking for something to help with major aches or pain.

When looking for bigger, healthier and more productive plants the number one thing that comes up in the discussions is "more light and more light", not less.

The theory could be the plants may enjoy a rest during 'the day'

No central nervous system so kind of hard for plants to enjoy anything. .

 

[013]

Hey a what’s up Marley86?

weed plants need 12 hours of continuous dark every night to begin flower cycle,… once a plant is in flower cycle if you monkey with light hours to less than 12 hours or try to break up the 12 hours continuous dark with lights coming on in the middle of the night- then you risk stress hermie or going into reveg.

if/when you hit reveg all the buds stop growing…. the plant converts back to veg cycle. It is a slow process, so a ton of time is lost. The plant will stall for what seems like forever but then it will eventually come back, evidence of reveg is funky new leaf patterns. First single bladed fan leaves will grow out of the top of your plant, then a few weeks later it will change to 3 bladed fan leaves, next after even more time elapses it will grow out 5 bladed fan leaves and then finally resume growing normally from there.

to sum it up… you can’t break up the 12 hours of continuous dark….

I’ve read where once a plant is fully in flower - light hours can slowly, gradually be reduced to less than 12 hours dark. However most growers are not willing to spend all the time and energy costs of growing only to risk their harvest on a bad idea.… the threat of stress hermie or reveg are real so yeah

in fact most of us veer in the other direction. we start at 12/12, and later move up to 11 on 13 off schedule. Anyway hope this helps….

 

[bobmarley1986]

Hey a what’s up Marley86?

weed plants need 12 hours of continuous dark every night to begin flower cycle,… once a plant is in flower cycle if you monkey with light hours to less than 12 hours or try to break up the 12 hours continuous dark with lights coming on in the middle of the night- then you risk stress hermie or going into reveg.

if/when you hit reveg all the buds stop growing…. the plant converts back to veg cycle. It is a slow process, so a ton of time is lost. The plant will stall for what seems like forever but then it will eventually come back, evidence of reveg is funky new leaf patterns. First single bladed fan leaves will grow out of the top of your plant, then a few weeks later it will change to 3 bladed fan leaves, next after even more time elapses it will grow out 5 bladed fan leaves and then finally resume growing normally from there.

to sum it up… you can’t break up the 12 hours of continuous dark….

I’ve read where once a plant is fully in flower - light hours can slowly, gradually be reduced to less than 12 hours dark. However most growers are not willing to spend all the time and energy costs of growing only to risk their harvest on a bad idea.… the threat of stress hermie or reveg are real so yeah

in fact most of us veer in the other direction. we start at 12/12, and later move up to 11 on 13 off schedule. Anyway hope this helps….

Hi, thanks for the input ,but I know this and I'm not suggesting interrupting the dark period , but inserting a period of 1 to 2 hours of dark into the light period.
Do plants in nature receive 12 hours uninterrupted full sun every day? Nope. So just as they seem to love the gas lantern veg cycle...maybe... they would like the few hours down time during lights on. In nature they would get at least a few hours per day minimal photosynthesis/ shade .. I believe its maybe worth investigating ,having a go at and see..I can't see it really hurting at all tbh

 

[013]

Ahh crap my bad - I reread your question and I see what you are getting on about. Gas light during flower. Hmm dunno but give it a whirl and let us know what you discover. Bear in mind the only way to make head to head comparison is to run clones, starting from seed will never tell ya anything due to different phenos

 

[bobmarley1986]

Ahh crap my bad - I reread your question and I see what you are getting on about. Gas light during flower. Hmm dunno but give it a whirl and let us know what you discover. Bear in mind the only way to make head to head comparison is to run clones, starting from seed will never tell ya anything due to different phenos

Ah yes that's true

 

[Sativa1970]

I always support experimenting. Leaves are like a factory production line. When photosynthesis stops, it cleans, organizes and restocks. Glucose is exported, O2 expelled, co2 restocked, minerals restocked. Leaves are the most productive in the first 6 hours under full light. Balancing no production to create higher efficiency production has so many factors that there is no one right answer. Heavy feeding, lights and co2 levels would show the best response to this rest in theory.

90% of what I grow is land strain sativa but I always experiment with Jack Herer because it is a 50/50 strain that I have had in perpetual clone for the last 5 years. I ran 25wat/square foot, DWC normal feed, no added co2 just fans and venting. 1/2 hour of dark, 6 hours into the day. No significant change in yield or number of days to harvest. I did save a half hour of power each day. For my conditions and strain that appeared to be the balance point of productivity. More or less rest showed a minor negative impact. Adding CO2 may have made a difference. Hope this helps you figure out a starting point.

Plants need 12 hours of dark to trigger and maintain the "hormones" responsible for flowering. Yet, plants native to the equator get near 12/12 year round and grow nearly year round. They all flower together around the world at the same time once a year. How they do this, is still a mystery. Point is, every strain is different. You may stumble onto something that works for your strain and grow room only. You never know until you try. Good luck.

 

[bluter]

gas lantern is ok but you can stress the hell out of them if not careful. if you have weak genetics or a predisposed plant it can hermie on you easier. never give them a full 12hs of dark if you do until flip.

with led lighting the practice has pretty much ended. the main reason to use it was to save on power and the cost.

 

[Roy Growin]

Interesting - many plants do benefit shady periods and dull days but I would agree with others that a period of total darkness could easily cause problems

 

[Sparkey224]

One thing to keep in mind to NOT manipulating the light schedule unless you know your way around the garden.
Either 24 or 18/6 or 12/12 or 11/13.. that's it.
Always make sure your veg "on time" is the same "on time" for flower..
Veg longer= big roots = big fruits

 

[Mayne]

what about 24 on, 12 off cycle, would they still stay in flower mode?

 

[bluter]

kinda think it'll get stuck between wanting to flower and reveg.

edit : also you save nothing on that over a regular schedule lol

 

[Sparkey224]

kinda think it'll get stuck between wanting to flower and reveg.

edit : also you save nothing on that over a regular schedule lol

Well if you are not careful, you can flower the reveg too quick spitting out 3 blades that would definitely hurt your yield, but waiting couple more weeks she will get her regular set back.
Reveg can be big plants

 

[Sativa1970]

what about 24 on, 12 off cycle, would they still stay in flower mode?

Without getting too technical; Plants produce two photochrome proteins in the leaves that regulate flowering. One during photosynthesis PR and one during the dark PFR. PFR is used to create flower cells. PR is used to make all other cells. The plant can slowly convert PFR into PR during photosynthesis.

8 hours of PFR (dark) then 16 hours of PR and converting all PFR to PR (light)= veg
12 hours of PFR then 12 hours of PR and PFR converting to PR still leaves some PFR surplus to create flower cells.
12 hours of PFR then 24 hours of PR and PFR converting to PR would would leave no flower proteins, so reveg.

This is how the 24 hour dark to kick in flower and 24 hours light to revege works. After producing the PFR proteins you still need the glucose from photosynthesis to actually build the new cells, so it is a fine balance.

 

[Sativa1970]

Looks like the OP use of the term "gas lantern" technique confused several people with his wording. He is not proposing interrupting the 12 hour night cycle. He is interrupting the day cycle. Several people, including myself, have experimented with the 12off/ 6on/ 2off /8on lighting cycling he is referring to.

Some swear it reduces the flower/grow time by weeks. The plant sees days pass in less than 24 hours in theory. I harvested 1 day earlier than average and yield was average. Well within margin of insignificant. I believe the chaos of planning when to enter the room and placebo effect of anticipation lead to people thinking it was faster. That was compounded in every claim by the first and second growing being from seed. Genetic variance and gained experience with the strain had more to do with faster grow than the light schedule. Maybe it works for some strains under the right conditions but I couldn't reproduce it. The world was obviously flat until we proved it was round.

 

[bobmarley1986]

Thanks all the replies guys. I actually think I will stick to gas lantern for veg only and keep the 12 12 undisturbed during flowering.

 

[SmokingWings]

what about 24 on, 12 off cycle, would they still stay in flower mode?

Seems to me there was a long thread on a long "Lights On" cycle and the usual "12 Hours of Lights Off" cycle. This sort of light cycle for flowering plants was recommended as a way to shorten the flowering stage by a week or so. Only thing was that the original article was someone's plug for his book on growing weed and without a customer to tell us we never could get the answers to questions like how many more hours of electricity is used for this method or just how much shorter the flowering cycle or was there an increase or decrease in harvest weight.

There was a thread started here sometime in the last several years where a member was experimenting with some of the basic or more commonly mentioned alternative light cycles to see what would happen. I lost track of the thread so no idea what the name was, the results were, or if the person who started it was able to follow through with one or more light cycle all the way to harvest.

 

[Fenderbender]

I observe most grow after lights out.. I've also measured it once the growth of a leaf when lights come on and go off and when they come on again and most growing happens in the dark.
So I think the question is, is there a way to pulse this more regularly by a different lighting schedule???

 

[Sativa1970]

Smokingwings, There were several people playing with crazy lighting schedules. No members that you had ever talk to before? Coincidentally they were all using the same digital timer system that had just came out. They all went into great detail on how they could adjust there cycle to the minute from a phone app for the next week? There journal read like an infomercial. Non of them I saw ever completed a grow. Kind of sus. It did trigger some legit growers to experiment. Everyone I saw abandoned it due to no noticeable improvement during the grow and the scheduling is a PITA.​

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Fenderbender, Roots grow 24 hours no matter the light schedule. During the day the stems grow to push the leaves up towards the light. At night stems grow vertically to spread the canopy searching for new light. Leaves produce and store glucose during the day with minimal growth. At night the leaves use surplus glucose to expand there "solar panel". As long as you are producing enough glucose and the correct balance of PFR and PR you can definitely use light schedules to manipulate growth.

 

[Wastei]

Hi, so we know about the 'gas lantern routine' which works wonderfully for veg and I was having a think about it , the plants love the extra dark period ,they grow very strong and as long as you insert the hour of light they stay veg ... got me thinking . What about breaking up the light cycle during the flowering cycle. Like 5 on 2 off 5 on 12 off.
The theory could be the plants may enjoy a rest during 'the day' and could actually optimize growth / budding.
Of course the counter argument is that less light equals less weight.
I might be tempted just to experiment... anyone ever tried such a thing?

Been tested, doesn't work. The other way around is typically called a gas lantern cycle.

Plants have adapted for thousands of years to the sun's light cycle. We try to replicate optimal environmental measures indoors. Let's not change that!

More light doesn't necessarily equate to more growth. The plants only has a set amount of photons it can synthesize and tolerate in 24h. It's measured in something called "DLI" Daily light integral. Each crop has an optimal DLI range but it's only a reference range and not a set rule IMO! Cheers!