Changing Dark Hours Question

[JerseyFreshB]

Whats up everyone.

I just received my 400w HPS light today.

Right now my light is on from 5 AM to 5PM. I want to change that to 4 PM to 4AM. I want it to be on when I'm home not while I'm at work. I'm a little nervous cause its a little warm running. So I juust want to be able to keep an eye on it, and not worry about anyhting while I'm working.

I have one plant that is about 5 weeks into flower. Can I keep it in the dark until 4PM or would it throw it all out of whack, and possibly turn hermie. Would it be best to just leave it on the same 5AM-5PM hours.

I'd like to change it now, but if it will mess up my plant then I'll wait until next grow. and jsut continue to have them on while I'm at work for the remainder of my current grow.

 

[Growdude]

If you do it give it extra dark time.

 

[JerseyFreshB]

Thats what I was going to do...I was going to keep it in a different closet so it would stay in the dark until 4PM tomorrow, so it would have 19 straight hours of darkness. I'm wondering if the extra dark would cause stress to the plant.

 

[shuggy4105]

you can change it to what you want, IMO, just change it immediately and continue with the new timeings.
keep an eye on her closely for the next week, but it should be fine.
when my timer got messed up the lights were left on untill 1am, when they were supposed to be off at 10pm.the next day i just carried on with the schedule, no problems.
i`m not saying that you can change your schedule day-day, but once for an hour-will be cool.
BTW, congrats on the HPS, keep the ballast off the ground, incase of any water spillage. also, they tend to get pretty hot so watch the temps in the grow space-better yet,keep the ballast out of the grow space all together, and away from anything flamable.
i also have a 400w HPS, you can get them really close to the plant tops,if you can dissepate the heat that is,i.e fans and good ventilation.
i have my one about 8" from the tops of my gals, but then again mine are 5ft tall, with a 10" fan blowing directly onto the tops.
happy growing,
good luck man
after reading your post again i see that it`s 5am-5pm your wanting to change-i thought you meant 5am-4am. as Growdude said give her more dark.
i spent ages typing all that:doh: lol

 

[JerseyFreshB]

Thanks Shuggy. I need to get a air coolable reflector ASAP. Temps are at 86 inside the closet ... I have the ballast outide of the closet. I need to pick up a cheap fan to have blowing over the ballast cause it is hot...

 

[shuggy4105]

86 is a lil` high man, but mines sit at 80 lights on and go down to 60-65 at lights out-night time.
what size is your grow space?

 

[JerseyFreshB]

I'm using a closet that was setup to have a washer and a dryer in it I took the dryer out so I'm using that space to grow in....I'm going to say it probably 3x3 floor pace for growing....the closet is probably 6x3...Also wanna get some black and white poly to line the walls in there...

 

[shuggy4105]

white matt paint is the next best thing to mylar, just a tip...
closet grows are ace, if they`re big enough-yours sounds cool m8.
good luck