friends, stoners, countryfolk! lend me your ears--

i'm interested in experimenting with a quasi-'biodynamic' lighting schedule in addition to an all-organic soil grow and am wondering if anyone has any opinions as to its desirability/efficacy?

in biodynamic botany (one of anthroposophy's many weird little spin-offs), lunar phases play a key role in coordinating plant growth and development. i'm intrigued by this and, being of a tinkering disposition, am considering re-working my stealth-closet lighting from being the normal binary dark/light with hourly variances scheme, to one in which both light spectrum and intensity are redistributed in a four-fold 'lunar schedule' that would (at 12light/12dark flowering) go instead 6(t)light/6(t)dark/6(t)light/6(t)dark. the initial light period would be the 'solar' full spectrum [which in my situation for 2-3 flowering plants at a time is 1 3rd gen ufo led, 2 24w t-5ho (with either veg(6500k) or flower(3000k) spectrum bulbs), 2 32w cfls (150w equivalent), 1 10uvb lamp (around cycle noon, flowering only), and 1 50w ir ('twilight' supplement, max 2hrs total)]. the second 'lunar' light period would then only be partial spectrum, eliminating the ufo, the uvb, and the ir. with the 'lunar' period, the cfls would be used only during actual lunar quarter phases around the calendar full moon (solely for time-keeping purposes and without the presumption of any sort of strange 'sublunar' vibes). the (t) above is the time variable for variance around the plants life cycle/nutrient schedule (ie 18light/6dark during veg would give 9light(solar)/ 3dark(with 1hr ir supplemental at phase beginning)/9light(lunar, cfl schedule depending on phase)/3dark(with 1ht ir supplemental at end).

so, does this all sound like lunacy? a massive waste of time? something worth experimenting with?

your thoughts please!

-g

That's way more lights than i would ever need (or have!) but I'm interested in the theory behind it. So you're basically saying that you're adding some soft light to the dark cycle to account for moonlight? Do you do this every dark cycle or only part of the month? If you're experimenting with a control I'd love to see your results.

Wow! Sounds mind blowing. Lunar cycles are always interesting in terms of crops (food or otherwise). I'd love to follow this experiment of yours.

If you see s.c.mtn.hillbilly around the forums, he is big into biodynamics so you may want to ask him.

i've had thoughts about how to reconcile the lunar thing, especially indoors...my conclusion was that you can't duplicat or otherwise mess with the fundamental lunar aspect of gravity. that's the main influence.-like tides. I've actually come to disregard the lunar cycle; as it in no way corresponds to the conditions of daisy chain growing. my big thing with biodynamics is really the compost, and preps..."my shit don't stink!!!"- the fish bone meal and guano smell is gone in finished compost...that's great for indoor action!- the smell of clean dirt; and the very best thing you can give your plants. it's what I call innocuous redundancy...super nutriated compost that won't burn even one seedling. and the compost tea is like magic.

i like playing with light.

i'm trying with this to get a balanced full spectrum by breaking up the light/dark rotation, while at the same time attempting to account for the lunar radiance cycle. s.c.mtn.hillbilly's right of course about not replicating gravitational tides, but that's not really an issue so long as one is coordinating the indoor light cycle to the actual calendar lunar cycle... why not ride on nature's back as much as possible? gravitational tides are important of course, but the very "goethean" effect of light, whether direct or lunar-reflected, is what i'm trying to get after with this little experiment...

though the experiment is going to have to wait a little. i'm about to finish one harvest now (preharvest flush), and am then switching to two new-to-me pheno mothers, so i want to get them going and all dialed-in with their clones before i start any real tinkering...

cheers
-g