Don't switch straight to 12/12 according to new study

I just read an interesting article about a study that found that plants "remember" how long "night time" is and change how quickly they're using starches so they don't run out before "day time". If the length of their "night time" changes quickly they will run out of starch too early. I'm not sure how bad that is for the plant, obviously it's not a huge problem since everyone does it, but it seems like it'd be a lot healthier for the plant if you increased the dark cycle by 15-30 minutes a day.http://phys.org/news/2013-06-sums-night.html

nice article. Food for though

I've often wondered about shortly changing the cycle over a week...Just seems more natural..less stress maybe?

now i wonder if theres a product out there (or if it would be possible to rig up something) that would do this slight change of light schedule over a period of time automatically?

I read the article again and they say the plant stops growing when it runs out of starches. It sounds like switching from 20/4 to 12/12 will make your plant stop growing for about 8 hours a day for a few days. I'm going to start tapering to 12/12, adjusting 15 minutes a day. The article also said they try to have an extra 5% of starches at the end of the night, which sounds like they can handle every night being 5% longer than the last. If your dark cycle is 6 hours, adjusting 15 minutes a day will stay within 5% (5% of 6 hours is 18 minutes). I'm assuming they can handle a change every night, but I have no real reason to think they can adjust that quickly.

Considering the rather small time frame we are dealing with, Would it really make that big a difference, or slow the overall process down in the long run...hhhhmmmmmm
I have done the temp drop while finishing flowering and had decent results, but tis only 1 grow, I am afraid much more is required for a solid baseline.

You just never know if you don't go

Peace

Asmallvoice

I don't think it'd make a big difference, but it could easily add up to a few days, especially if you veg with 24/0. If you're trying to get everything dialed in perfectly, this seems like it could potentially shave a few days off your grow and/or slightly increase yields. This is the "advanced" section, after all.

Small voice I assume the temp drop was for color?? I'm guilty of it too as plants are more aesthetically pleasing. Supposedly helps with aroma as well. But in Reality that stresses the plants as well. I only do it here and there for the purple craze peeps have. Seems like a cool article.

But I wouldn't bother with it really. It will take longer to harvest I believe. Also cost slightly more for lighting indoor. I don't think the trade off is worth it. Also most strains have been bred under 12/12 time cycle so would assume genetics let them handle the light cycle transition fine.

Right, the plant can sense the dark cycle, so it adjusts after the first night. So there might be a very miniscule gain... But not worth the effort in my opinion...

15 minutes a night and you'd have to drop say 8 hours total to get to 12 / 12 if your run 20/4 or 6 total if you run 18/ 6.. let's do some quick math here.. every four days would be a total of one hour as 15 x 4 equals 60 minutes, so you'd have to do that 8x's which would be 32 days in order to drop from 20 to 12 at 15 minutes a day.. or 24 days to drop from 18 a day to 12.
imvho, wouldn't this really slow down flowering times as i do believe cannabis won't even start to flower until it reaches a good 10 or so hours of darkness a night in order to build up flowering hormones.. i don't really see the the upsides out weighing the negatives, and not like people haven't been flowering cannabis under 12 / 12 for decades now indoors and not having issues with lack of starches..
and who's to say that stopping growing for a few hours is a bad thing?? maybe it would cut down on the stretch experienced when inducing flowering if the plants can't grow as much??
idk, i'm just thinking out loud, and like i said, the trade off of much longer flowering times doesn't seem to out weigh any small benefits from added starches imvho..

I have been doing this for a year now and have noticed that the flowering is more vigorous during the first 2 weeks of flowering if during the last week of veg you decrease the light by an hour each day until you are on a 12/12 light schedule. To do this I simply bought a 7 day battery supported timer and programed the week into it. A week before flowering swap out your timers from the 18/6 program and replace them with the programed ones. I thought it had to deal with stress or the fact that it takes time for the plant to realize that is time to start flowering. This has also reduced my harvest time by almost 5 days. This allowed me to get in an additional harvest a year and increased the amount of buds per plant by 20% no joke.

really bad advice, sorry OP, but this takes the cake for the day.....so far. getting the whole MJ community to switch from 12/12 to anything else is straight insane. its been proven to work so dont change a thing. 12/12 for flower. the plants will make its own starches as needed.

Situation420 said:

I have been doing this for a year now and have noticed that the flowering is more vigorous during the first 2 weeks of flowering if during the last week of veg you decrease the light by an hour each day until you are on a 12/12 light schedule. To do this I simply bought a 7 day battery supported timer and programed the week into it. A week before flowering swap out your timers from the 18/6 program and replace them with the programed ones. I thought it had to deal with stress or the fact that it takes time for the plant to realize that is time to start flowering. This has also reduced my harvest time by almost 5 days. This allowed me to get in an additional harvest a year and increased the amount of buds per plant by 20% no joke.

Click to expand...

Any Links or any journals to help us naysayers believe??

Good info- worth looking into furtheer- however-
One article is not enough for me to go on and change what We've been doing for many years without a problem....
If it would speed things up and stress the plants less.. it would be worth the hassle--
but there would need to be more studies out there by several reputable breeders on this for me to do it.

Don't waste ur time on this! It matters so little u can't weigh it. Meaning?? U don't need to worry about something that weighs nothing. Get it??? Never have I done that though I have thought it. Never have my plants not done what they should have and that is finish on time with tons of sticky bud. By the way, if they stop growing for a short time it does not mean they are not retooling to budding. What that could mean is a little less stretch and we could all use less legs under the bud babes... Waste of time and energy to even think about this.. Trust me..

This might require more investigations, due to the fact that people don't like to change what has already worked for them.

I also believe that 20% increase in yield is due to being in veg before flowering eventually gets triggered.

heres a link to the begining of week 6 of flowering for me. Right now they are on day 42 and have thickened even more
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/676886-day-42-flowering.html#post9253992

I would say situation420 is prolly right. I just started doing this as well on my own but a bit differently, I think dropping the time by a hour a day for a week is ok. I'm noticing my fastest growing plants and earliest buds ever this run and while today is only the first day of week 2 nearly every bud on every plant is larger then my thumbnail.

Also plants start flowering before 12/12 assuming the days are getting shorter and its 16 hours or less and decreasing of light for many indica strains. Tell me what month daylight reaches 12/12 in nature then 2 months past that... I think where I live that's January but obviously we harvest in the fall. The typical 12/12 is not law it's just the standard

even at an abrupt 12/12 switch there isnt any flower(ing) hormone present.

that takes 7 to 14 days easy. & the plants are still in veg mode.

? plants aint people ?

fuck they're simple organisms. you supercrop them, you clone them. you toss them into flower.

however, i strongly agree that plants have "memory" & environment plays a HUGE roll.

inducing fall like weather into the schedule imo triggers the flip faster. not just the light cycle.

think bigger more connected variables.
since reducing the idea to a common denominator seems not so biological.

this concept of plant intelligence cant be proven in a human sense with human terms.

its cellular imo.
plants are storing data in their cells about temp, humidity, light, hormones, etc.

its when these triggers accumulate, the plant flips.


smoke em if u got em