12/12 outdoors, level of darkness

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vic777

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I'm pondering the 12/12 photoperiod and cannabis plants in nature, outdoors. I know it's stressed that you should have COMPLETE darkness indoors for the dark cycle and I understand that light will trigger a hormonal change in the plant that inhibits flowering. But surely in nature it's never completely dark? I mean even during the nigths when flowering occurs naturally when the nights become longer there must still be moonlight, starlight, etc.



Does this mean that outdoors is less ideal in terms of the dark cycle not being completely dark?
 
Not all strains need 12/12 to flower. I usually run 13/11. The light of the moon or stars are not significant enough to affect flowering (but a street light would).

Complete darkness indoors is required to ensure proper floral development. It will give you the best results.
 
Starlight and moonlight is simply not bright enough to disrupt flowering hormones. Streetlights, however, have been known to disrupt flowering.

The bottom line is though that plants grown outside and plants grown inside are quite different. Outside mother nature makes the calls. Most outdoor plants take more than 4 months to fully finish. Indoors, we manipulate the light to control vegging and flowering. Because we don not have that option outside does not mean that it is not as good. The light from the sun is much stronger than we generally have inside and it goes from one horizon to the other, giving the plant light from all sides.
 

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