switching entire light schedule

[greenthumberish]

Question....if i wanted to switch the lighting schedule as it is now, and reverse it so the lights are on at night instead of during day, what's the best way to go about doing that without freaking out my plants. The thought I was having, was turning the lights out for 48 hours, then switching the timers back on so the lights come on in the evening versus the morning, since that would probably cut down temps quite a bit. Any suggestions? Or should I just leave well enough alone? Also, a buddy of mine gave me a plant he had flowering on 10/14 instead of 12/12..if I leave it in my 12/12 cycle, since the extra two hours of light is more than it's used to, would it re-veg on me? Anyway, just wonderin

 

[astrobud]

kinda the same thing here, temps are cooler at night. i would leave them in dark that extra cycle if your 7 am to 7 pm now for example lights on then just dont turn on your lights untill 7 pm and back off again at 7 am. hope that helps

 

[PencilHead]

Can't run over 12 hours light, right,so double up on dark like AstroBud says.

I've done it and it won't hurt them one bit. It didn't really do squat for my temps--I'm way down in the sub-tropics--and I missed being able to visit during my waking hours. I'm back to running daylight hours because the joy of growing is as important as being in control of my stash box.

Luck and peace.

 

[greenthumberish]

so, that answers one question...and as to the plant that's been 5 weeks into flower on 10/14 instead of 12/12...y'all suppose the extra 2 hours of light will cause it to re-veg or would it still be fine? He's had problems with it already, and made it form single pronged fan leaves having it in flower, and then revegging it by leaving the lights on (no timer) late regularly.

 

[PencilHead]

I'd go for it on the 10/14. If not, your bud's gonna suffer from lack of lumens at harvest time. You could keep up that regimen and have scanty buds with questionable potency or you could have nice fat, gooey buds--your choice.

I'm no horticulturist, but I do like to act like I know everything.

 

[dirtyolsouth]

I've done it and it won't hurt them one bit. It didn't really do squat for my temps--I'm way down in the sub-tropics--and I missed being able to visit during my waking hours. I'm back to running daylight hours because the joy of growing is as important as being in control of my stash box.

Luck and peace.

Heck... I never let that get in my way... I just stay up all night partying with the girls! But I'm a night owl, single and in the music biz so I never have a normal schedule... I run my lights from 8pm til 8am and it helps with my temps quite a bit. It's in the 70's at night and it's much easier to battle than the daytime temps in the mid 90's with the humidity around here in the dirty ol south but it sounds like Pencilhead has even stickier weather to deal with...

Is the plant that's been on 10/14 your only plant or is this an addition to other plants already on 12/12 in your garden? If it's your only plant I'd stick with the 10/14 in your room and not mess with night length. If you have other plants you'd like to keep on 12/12 I'd deal with on a custom basis and move it into another 2 hours of darkness each day for the last couple of weeks if you can. I just tried 10.5/13.5 for the last two weeks of a bloom but I won't have a comparison until I grow these strains 12/12 all the way in my garden. I got into a situation where I put a new plant into the bloom room a couple weeks before my current bloom was finished to get started for my next bloom and then I realized that I wanted the new plant to get 12/12 so I was moving the plant into my veg space for another 90 min when the lights would go out in the bloom room and move it back to the dark bloom room for 12 hrs of dark. Oh boy was that ever a PITA but I got through it.... And that may be your best option if you have most of your plants on 12/12 and this new plant from your buddy on the 5th week of 10/14...

From my understanding what determines flowering auxins and cues in the plant is their dark time, ie giving them any less than 12 hours (or 14 hrs in the case of the plant from your bud) uninterrupted darkness will confuse them. Since it's the amount of darkness that seems to set the plant's internal mechanism to begin and maintain flowering I think it may be better to be consistent and give them the same amount of darkness and give them a longer day to reset the schedule and then start the new 14 hour dark cycle and repeat 10/14.

Whenever I've had a timer go on the fritz and stay on I've dealt with it by leaving the lights on until the next dark cycle and I've never noticed a skip in the beat but I think unless things are really inconsistent with photocycles and they veg it's very hard to tell how things are affected.

I haven't tried it but I've heard of guys experimenting with 24/12 bloom schedules as the 12 hours of darkness reportedly maintains flowering.

Peace!

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I switch light cycles every spring and every fall with no problems whatsoever. Just do a 24 hour dark period. I would recommend doing a 12/12 light schedule. The plant will not reveg and 10 hours of light just slows bud production.

Why did he think that 10/14 was a good idea?

It is always a really good idea to keep a gifted plant in quarantine for several days to make sure that you are not bringing any pests or disease into your growroom.

 

[greenthumberish]

I switch light cycles every spring and every fall with no problems whatsoever. Just do a 24 hour dark period. I would recommend doing a 12/12 light schedule. The plant will not reveg and 10 hours of light just slows bud production.

Why did he think that 10/14 was a good idea?

It is always a really good idea to keep a gifted plant in quarantine for several days to make sure that you are not bringing any pests or disease into your growroom.

Oddly enough, i've noticed it seems to be stretching at the tips of the colas after being in my 12/12 for a week, instead of getting denser - it's way past the stretch stage too. And the guy lived in a trailor - not like a trailor park, but like a camper...in a trailor park lol...he was gonna burn down his place i'm sure. I guess he had it that way to cut down heat??? don't ask me, i dunno. Anyway - he moved, wasn't the smartest person in the world...and i figured hey! what the heck, a free plant in flowering. and yeah - i did quarentine it for 4 days before it joined my other ladies. It was getting moved around for the light schedule. Now it's just in the flower room and looking sad