Thoughts on slowly reducing light in veg for flowering

Peace111

Member
I've heard from a licensed medicinal grower that he uses 18/6 throughout all veg because doing 24/7 causes the plant to take a week to begin flowering after switching to 12/12. I was wondering others opinion on this. Does anyone here have any experience with that happening? What are your thoughts on it being worth doing a slow reduction of lighting for the final week or two of veg before moving to 12/12 (IE 24/7 to 20/4 for a couple days, then 18/6 another couple days before going 12/12)?

Cheers
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
I'm a believer in transitioning any sort of change, lights, air, feeds, whatever. I just think it makes sense and gives the plants a chance to adjust with little or no shock. That's just my preference, not preaching it, just my opinion.

Interesting test I just did and unless in the end I see some issues, will continue to do this going forward. I went from 24/0 until about week 3 to get them well rooted, transplanted and moved to my veg cabinet @ 20/4 for about week, then 18/6 for 4 weeks, then out of necessity because I needed some time to work on my flower room, went to 16/8 for about 10 days, then 14/10 for a week, and finally 12/12 for the last 2 weeks.

2 strains, 2x PBK indica dominant, and 1x JTR sativa dominant. Both are at normal bud development for the time period, and the JTR saliva's are ahead of what I'd normally see after 2 weeks of 12/12 with a saliva dominant strain.

Sounds complicated but I'm in there 2-3 times a week for something or other and changing the timers for me is super easy, digital direct-wired timers control the outlets, not the devices, they turn the outlet on/off according to the schedule and take about 45 seconds now for the light timer, so no significant amount of work and they're rock solid/reliable.

If this holds and doesn't delay the flowering times (improvement with that saliva as far as I'm concerned) I'll be using it next round to see if it holds, as a bonus I save a couple of $ on energy consumption...
 

kagecog

Well-Known Member
I have seen hardly any difference in plants when slowly reducing the light cycle versus switching straight to 12/12. But I always prefer growing with a 18/6 light cycle over 24/0. Plants need their rest.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
I have seen hardly any difference in plants when slowly reducing the light cycle versus switching straight to 12/12. But I always prefer growing with a 18/6 light cycle over 24/0. Plants need their rest.
Definitely, I think that's the biggest point for this thread, some rest, even if you prefer to run 20/4, I think it's better than 24/0 for the full veg run and cheaper to boot, win-win.
 
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