What time of the day do you run your lights?

ttystikk said:

Your guy is hurting your yield. DLI, or Daily Light Interval, can be thought of as the total tally of photons your plants get in a given 24 hour period, which takes into account both duration and intensity.

Simply put, the more light, the better, up to the point of saturation- which isn't happening in too many indoor grows because it's extremely expensive. Therefore, a grower wants to get every minute of lights on time s/he can.

Running a schedule of less than 12 hours of light through early and mid bloom is unnecessary and counterproductive in terms of encouraging plant growth. Only in the last weeks does it make much sense to shorten overall day length.

Many people run 13 hours on, knowing their plants will flower with 11 hours of darkness. Still others are experimenting with far red LED lighting at lights out to encourage the night response, all to add another hour of daylight.

And this goes for abnormally long periods of darkness at the beginning or the end of bloom, as well.

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Gquebed said:

So how is it that some are claiming bigger yields on lighting schedules with far less light?

I believe RM3 has a grow or two on here doing 9 on and 15 off...i think it was... and said he has plans to cut to as low as 6 hours of lights on...

After i read an article in HT i think it was about some gas latern routine i tried 10/14 for flower and found no loss of yield at all on a strain i do regularly. In fact, there was a slight gain in yield.... although it was a small enough gain that i cant fairly claim it was due to the lighting change.

But what was very clear to me was that 2 less hours of light did not have any adverse effect at all...

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ttystikk said:

You have a point, and I'd say there are likely other factors at work we haven't teased out yet as growers.

I've noticed that those I talk to who run short day schedules talk about better yield per kilowatt, not overall. @RM3 is by no means the only one doing this.

Gas lantern is not a flowering technique, though using it before flower seems to make a difference.

Final suggestion; few serious growers here treat anything found in HT with any more credibility than The Onion. We do our own fuckin research here, firsthand and we share what WE'VE found. IF articles are discussed at all, they're either informational (what's VPD?) or they're actually research papers written by scientists.

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Gquebed said:

Fair enough...

As for HT.... for the record...i mostly just look at the porn...lol

As for my lighting shed.... i realize that one crop is hardly something to base a conclusion on, but what i found was exactly what you said... i saved a few bucks on electicity on that run so i am trying the same sched on this run with a different strain that i know very well just see what happens....

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ttystikk said:

My friend, I mean this in the nicest way possible; the commercial scale mmj growing business is not a settled science, and size of op is no guarantee of best practices.

In addition, it's important to understand that the very difference of scale means that what works for each of you is likely to be very different.

Best of luck.

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ttystikk said:

I run a flip schedule (NOT the silly box, though); things flip around 1am and 1pm. I highly recommend this sort of schedule for larger growers, as it means you can reduce your design cooling capacity by half and run it 24/7. The best way to do this is with water cooling, which is also efficient enough to pay for itself on its own merits.

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NVGrower said:

I'm just growing for myself. I'll tell you though, they're getting frosty quick after a 36 hour dark period 6 weeks in before 11-13 and the buds are developing quicker. I also read this will bring out more resin.

I have a chronic bladder pain condition, really seeking out how to get the most potency over yield, any tips on that my friend? I appreciate you jumping in the thread.

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ttystikk said:

If resin production is your goal, start rounding up some UVB T5 lighting. That's going to get you a lot further than darkness.

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NVGrower said:

Wait, tell me more. Flip schedule?

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NVGrower said:

Switch out those instead of the 1000 watt cooled hood?

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ttystikk said:

Small growers won't benefit as much. The idea is to have two sets of bloom spaces, as equally sized as feasible. Run one during the day and the other at night. This way, the electrical system isn't overtaxed and your HVAC load remains steady.

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tyke1973 said:

Flowering room through the night,summer it's colder at night so helps with temps,bringing in cooler air at nights, plus electric is a tad cheaper at night,for some strange reason

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NVGrower said:

It may have to do with how energy trading works. Less trading at night can cause prices to stay low. Maybe that's the mystery of cheaper night power.

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ttystikk said:

And the best tips in the business are an open mind, diligent observation and good notes.

BTW, I was born in Edson. I live in Colorado now, but a visit is definitely on the bucket list.

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