Light Timing?

[AndyOakie]

Ok, so Currently have one start of week 2 veg and 2 others week 1 would it be ok to do a 17/7 or 16/8 lighting schedule during the veg stage? trying to get peak growth, but save energy costs...

current system, 800w hps and 1000w MH running in a 8x8x4 so plenty of lumen for what i have going.. still waiting for some blueberry kush seeds to arrive. will have pics uploaded later..

 

[iwltfum]

Ok, so Currently have one start of week 2 veg and 2 others week 1 would it be ok to do a 17/7 or 16/8 lighting schedule during the veg stage? trying to get peak growth, but save energy costs...

current system, 800w hps and 1000w MH running in a 8x8x4 so plenty of lumen for what i have going.. still waiting for some blueberry kush seeds to arrive. will have pics uploaded later..

I doubt that will save you much money. Lets call it an even 2000 watts of light. At 15cents per kilowatt hour (which is about average from what I've seen), you will save 9 dollars per month if you run 16/8 versus 18/6 - 4.5 dollars if you run 17/7. Your plants probably won't grow as vigorously either.

 

[AKgramma]

You can save money if you need to reduce your electrical usage. 18/6 for veg is standard, but you CAN use the gaslight method, which drop you down to 13/11, which, if programmed correctly keeps your ladies from flowering.

1) first set your timer to 12/12
2) Push down the 2 buttons (the on position) on the hour in the middle on the night. This breaks up the dark cycle, and interrupts the hormones that switch them to flower.

So your timer will be 12 on, 5.5 off, 1 on, 5.5 off.

The advantage of this method is that your ladies will come to flower much quicker when you eliminate that 1 hour in the middle of the night.

 

[davetherave00]

You can save money if you need to reduce your electrical usage. 18/6 for veg is standard, but you CAN use the gaslight method, which drop you down to 13/11, which, if programmed correctly keeps your ladies from flowering.

1) first set your timer to 12/12
2) Push down the 2 buttons (the on position) on the hour in the middle on the night. This breaks up the dark cycle, and interrupts the hormones that switch them to flower.

So your timer will be 12 on, 5.5 off, 1 on, 5.5 off.

The advantage of this method is that your ladies will come to flower much quicker when you eliminate that 1 hour in the middle of the night.

Do you use the gaslight method yourself? Does it lower your yields?

 

[AKgramma]

Do you use the gaslight method yourself? Does it lower your yields?

I used it with my last harvest (1 plant) and I noticed that the lady went right to flower when I eliminated that one hour. As for yield, I don't think it made any difference. I'm getting more buds by letting the plants veg a lot longer before the switch. Plus I've upped the wattage to 1000 output/230 draw in all 4 grow areas. I need sunglasses to work with them! :icon_cool

Since I added the fourth grow area and need to lower my electric bill, I'm switching to gaslight schedule on my 4 month old plants. If they should decide to flower anyway, no problem. I'll let them do their thing and work around their gender. (looking for one good male for seeds).

 

[aknoob]

I also switched to the gas lantern routine with the plants I am growing right now. It helps lower my light bill which is crazy expensive in some parts of Alaska.

If you add a CFL light next to your MH/HPS and keep it on a different timer for the 1 hour on it can possibly help with the stress on your ballast from turning on and off multiple times a day. But I am only using one timer with my LED grow light.

I copied this from another post here on 420
SlowToke Mystery Bean Grow Journal - 1st Grow - Soil - HID/LED - 2016 - Page 4 :

"The GasLantern Routine for Growing Cannabis
By Daniel Boughen

Observing Natural Cycles

During the course of my observations growing cannabis, I have noticed that factors such as clone burn-out seem to suggest that overexposure to light is adversely affecting the hormonal balance of the growing plants and causing the genetics of the cuts and seedlings to degrade over the course of several generations. Cannabis seems quite happy when the hormones are allowed to properly build up more during a natural outdoor vegetative cycle, and this may contribute to more balanced levels of THC and CBD, resulting in a more positive response to triggering, and better-quality medicinal cannabis being grown.

I turn to the conditions of nature to find the solution, and in a natural model, I can see that from the point of view of the plants, the sun gradually moves past, casting sunbeams and shadows of objects and trees in front, beside, and behind the plant successively across photo surfaces during the course of the day. This clearly shows that in the natural environment, the play of light and shadow are significant to the natural progress of the plant.

Even in a northern climate, there is no such thing as 18 hours of direct and intense lighting anywhere to be found, and most areas where the summer is short, the lighting is no longer than 16 hours in total.

During a recent discussion with other growers, we rediscovered a rumored century-old technique that proves that the direct and intense application of light for longer than necessary can be more stressful to the plant than previously known, and could even degrade the plant's genetic strength.

Now that cannabis growers are starting to grow specifically for medicines, the health of the plant needs to be properly considered so that the full natural potential of the plant can be realized and the fullest expression of the plant's medicines be produced. The margin for error is becoming smaller as the mistakes of the past are revealed and medicinally specific growing is gaining importance.

The Old Cash Cropping Method

The commonly used cash cropping method of cannabis cultivation wastes energy. People use this method by rote, since they simply don't know what the real requirements of the plants are. It is stressful to the hormonal systems of cannabis, and not necessary to produce fully healthy and productive plants. It does not recognize that overexposure to light is harmful to the plants, and so they underperform in terms of taste, yield, quality, and potency of the medicine, or require supercharged fertilizers to reach their potential. It is surprising that these techniques are used with profits in mind, since they are clearly expensive and counterproductive.

The Gas Lantern Routine

This information will seem quite revolutionary to growers who have been using the standard cycles to produce cannabis, seemingly with little or no trouble at all. Actually, in a grow that more closely mimics the outdoor growing environment under indoor lighting conditions, the plants may be maintained in vegetative cycle using only a total of 13 hours of light daily, which dramatically reduces the cost of production.

The less is more approach of the Gas Lantern Routine provides the growing plant with adequate darkness to promote health, and by inserting a full hour of light in the center of the dark period, the plants are tricked, and neither flower nor express hermaphrodites. The growing plants get more than the average amount of rest, thus reducing stress, and improving plant yield, overall performance, and medicinal quality.

Seedlings and Cuttings

The Gas Lantern Routine is applicable in seedling phases of plant growth. As stated before, nowhere in nature does the springtime ever provide an 18-hour photosynthesis length; rather, the growing spring light may in fact be 12 hours or less. Lighting for seedlings and cuttings needs to be bright, but compact fluorescent or T5 lighting may be used while in the seedling phase. Rooted mature cuttings can immediately light with HID lighting.

The Vegetative Schedule

This method is quite simple: 12 hours of light, followed by five and one half hours of darkness, a single hour of light exactly, and then a second period of five and one half hours of darkness. Placing a full hour of light in the very center of a 12-hour dark period tricks the plant and interrupts the buildup up of sensitive floral hormones, which would normally trigger flowering by destroying them. The grower simply raises the plants to the desired size before switching to the fall schedule to bloom.

Using this method, vegetative duration may be also reduced, and with a shorter growth cycle comes more frequent and better production. Vegetative cycles can be shortened by one to two weeks, and flowering may also be shortened a week or more using this method in con- junction with a diminishing light schedule.

For patients growing their own medicine or for compassionate cannabis providers, production turnover may be increased from four to five crops per year or more using rotation, and power consumption can be reduced even further by the use of high-intensity fluorescent lighting during vegetation, and overall, power consumption savings can be 50 percent or more.

The Flowering Schedule

Plants that have been grown up using the Gas Lantern Routine are now supercharged with floral hormones, and ready to go into flower with the slightest provocation. The interruption of the dark period has been destroying enough of the naturally building hormones to keep the plant from expressing sex, and the well-rested plant now has plenty of stored nutrients and energy to finish its life cycle and flower. Triggering the plants is essentially just a matter of removing the interrupting light period, so the plants may now experience the full buildup of hormones that will trigger blooming.

In keeping with providing all the correct organic biological and environmental needs of the plant, the diminishing fall schedule should be employed to take full advantage of the hormonal preparation created by using the Gas Lantern Routine. The diminishing hours of light in nature trigger acceleration in the production of hormones in the plant, making it flower with increasing speed and power.

The Diminishing Lighting Schedule

The diminishing fall schedule begins with an evenly halved light schedule, using 12 hours for the first two weeks to trigger the plant into bloom, and then further reducing the lighting for increasing darkness time by one half hour every week.

The final week of flowering will provide the plants with a mere nine hours of light, with 15 hours of darkness, forcing a resulting final explosive hormonal buildup. This sends the plant into blooming overdrive and produces resin far beyond the normal plant's limits.
When the Gas Lantern Routine and Diminishing Light Schedule are used together, they create healthier, more naturally robust plants. These important and historical botanical techniques are soon going to become very important techniques in the coming years as medicinal cannabis research continues to advance. When viewed from cost of production, organics, and medicinal needs, the methods currently being promoted can be seen counter to the interests of growing healthy plants. Understanding your plants is the best way to grow the best medicine, and looking for solutions to growing problems by observing nature always provides the right answers."

 

[AKgramma]

I doubt that will save you much money. Lets call it an even 2000 watts of light. At 15cents per kilowatt hour (which is about average from what I've seen), you will save 9 dollars per month if you run 16/8 versus 18/6 - 4.5 dollars if you run 17/7. Your plants probably won't grow as vigorously either.

On the Gas Lantern lighting schedule in my 3 veg areas, I am saving 3000 watts (3 KW) per hour for 5 hours a day for a total savings of 15,000 Watts (15 KW) per day. At 16 cents per KWH, that is a savings of $2.40 per day and $72 per month, over an 18/6 lighting schedule. That, my friends is a savings over the year of $864!

No small change over time in a perpetual grow.

EDIT: OK, I just realized I calculated that according to output, not the actual draw from the socket, which is about 1/4 of the output using CFLs.

So my actual savings will be $18 a month and $216 per year. Still not a bad chunk of change.

But this means I will still be putting out that much less heat over the day. The savings is not all monetary.

 

[aknoob]

Here we have a rate of 30 cents per hour for the first 700 kWhs. 20 cents per hour after the first 700. All kWhs have an additional fuel cost of 15 cents per hour on top of the usage rate. The GLR schedule helps me save a boat load of money not having to run the LEDs and fans for the 5 hours off compared to the 18/6 schedule.

 

[AKgramma]

Here we have a rate of 30 cents per hour for the first 700 kWhs. 20 cents per hour after the first 700. All kWhs have an additional fuel cost of 15 cents per hour on top of the usage rate. The GLR schedule helps me save a boat load of money not having to run the LEDs and fans for the 5 hours off compared to the 18/6 schedule.

Sounds like you live in the Interior. I used to live in Ester, and my electric bill was always between 150 and 200, and I wasn't growing back then!

 

[iwltfum]

Touche, Ak. I hadn't done any calculations on the gaslight method. Only on the difference between 18/6, 17/7, and 16/8.

These days I only use lights in the spring to get the starts going and my little 8-bar t5's barely put a dent in the electric bill running 19 hours a day - Thank Jah.

I'm sure the gaslight method saves electricity and I always (well except when I leave the seedling room) turn out the lights behind me, so I'm all about it if it means cannabis growers using less kw/hr's over all.

Cheers fellas.

 

[AKgramma]

Touche, Ak. I hadn't done any calculations on the gaslight method. Only on the difference between 18/6, 17/7, and 16/8.

These days I only use lights in the spring to get the starts going and my little 8-bar t5's barely put a dent in the electric bill running 19 hours a day - Thank Jah.

I'm sure the gaslight method saves electricity and I always (well except when I leave the seedling room) turn out the lights behind me, so I'm all about it if it means cannabis growers using less kw/hr's over all.

Cheers fellas.

It's worth a try, since it's the equipment I have on hand, and with the limitations I have on heat and space. What I've done differently this time around is add much more light to improve the quality of the buds. So I have to balance the extra wattage out with a creative schedule.

 

[aknoob]

I am in western Alaska and our monthly bill is usually 200 even before growing. I have noticed that the smell is stronger with GLR than 18/6 even my plants are still in Veg.


Sent from my iPhone using 420 Magazine Mobile App

 

[bobo1]

Would it be ok to switch from 18-6 to glr after two weeks of 18-6? I'm vegging with 600w mh.

 

[AKgramma]

Would it be ok to switch from 18-6 to glr after two weeks of 18-6? I'm vegging with 600w mh.

Sure. Both are veg schedules. But it WILL boost the flowering hormones, but they get cut off with that 1 hour of light in the middle of the night. What this does is put your plants on the brink, so when you DO switch to 12/12, they will flower rather quickly.

 

[bobo1]

Great thanks for the quick response I will start today.

 

[Ofis]

Nice post aknoob. I posted this in another thread but figured this thread could also benefit from the video. Here's a lecture Daniel Boughen gave about the GLR Dan Boughen Lecture - Growing Cannabis - YouTube

I did some calculating. If you run 24 hour veg lighting you'd save 45.83% by running 13 hours of light instead of 24/0. That'd be 11 hours a day saved. If running 18/6 the savings would be 27.78% at 5 hours less a day.