# The Importance of Darkness



## smhsmichael (Jan 6, 2012)

Just a quick question for all the experienced growers.

How important is it to maintain total darkness in the grow room when lights are off?

And is it equally important during veg and flower, or more so while the plant is in flower?


Will failure to maintain total darkness really increase the chance of a plant going hermie?

Does it affect yield?


----------



## KushDog (Jan 6, 2012)

Flower room needs complete darkness, veg room should be dark, but not as important as the flower room being 100% dark for 12 hours.

Yes it can make you ladies grow balls. it could afect yeaild by herming out and pollanating it's self along with other plants in the flower room, than they will focas on produceing SEED's insted of build stick buds


----------



## Guile (Jan 6, 2012)

Absolute darkness rarely occurs in the natural environment of these plants. 
Shoot for darker than a full moon night outside of town. Make sure that whatever light there may be isn't focused on a plant (what light that might fall on the plants is defused as much as possible)


----------



## KushDog (Jan 6, 2012)

Guile said:


> Absolute darkness rarely occurs in the natural environment of these plants.
> Shoot for darker than a full moon night outside of town.



but it is important to MAINTAIN darkness/ as in no flashes of light . dont disturb the night cycle with Light


----------



## cowell (Jan 6, 2012)

What will happen if you do?


----------



## smhsmichael (Jan 6, 2012)

Guile said:


> Absolute darkness rarely occurs in the natural environment of these plants.
> Shoot for darker than a full moon night outside of town. Make sure that whatever light there may be isn't focused on a plant (what light that might fall on the plants is defused as much as possible)


good point. thats what I figured: nature isnt 100% dark at night, so why does the grow have to be? 

Don't get me wrong, I try my best to avoid opening my grow tent when lights are off. 

But last week I had to open my tent during dark period for a second to grab something out .

And my plants havent seemed to grow much since then, so I thought I may have stunted them with the brief light


----------



## Matt Rize (Jan 6, 2012)

darknesses! you cold as ice...
[video=youtube;ROlWRHkBMKU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROlWRHkBMKU[/video]

but seriously, dont interrupt your dark cycle. you could cause all sorts of issues from re-vegging to straight up hermaphrodites.


----------



## Wetdog (Jan 6, 2012)

cowell said:


> What will happen if you do?


Simon will out you on his show and all your friends will snigger and point fingers at you and your hermi's.

Wet


----------



## Grumpy' (Jan 6, 2012)

A quick light during the dark cycle once or twice won't cause harm. It's extended time, or excessive short periods that will stunt or potentially hermie them. Of course trying to avoid any light during dark period is best.


----------



## KidneyStoner420 (Jan 6, 2012)

Matt Rize said:


> darknesses! you cold as ice...
> [video=youtube;ROlWRHkBMKU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROlWRHkBMKU


Fuck yo couch, nigga


----------



## cowell (Jan 6, 2012)

Wetdog said:


> Simon will out you on his show and all your friends will snigger and point fingers at you and your hermi's.
> 
> Wet


 Why is it always jokes about a very talented _person......_View attachment 1978255


----------



## Guile (Jan 6, 2012)

smhsmichael said:


> good point. thats what I figured: nature isnt 100% dark at night, so why does the grow have to be?
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I try my best to avoid opening my grow tent when lights are off.
> 
> ...


Opening the tent momentarily once has not disrupted your plants cycle enough to cause any kind of concern.

Different strains grow differently. Maybe after the initial stretch your strain takes a little while to start putting on the bud weight (I have a strain that does exactly that, but the 5th-7th week the bud growth is impressive before it stalls again to ripen)

How do your leafs look (color/curl)?


----------



## wheels619 (Jan 6, 2012)

smhsmichael said:


> good point. thats what I figured: nature isnt 100% dark at night, so why does the grow have to be?
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I try my best to avoid opening my grow tent when lights are off.
> 
> ...


 brief light happens. but try to keep it to an overall minimum during flower. veg gives u more sway.


----------



## wheels619 (Jan 6, 2012)

Guile said:


> Absolute darkness rarely occurs in the natural environment of these plants.
> Shoot for darker than a full moon night outside of town. Make sure that whatever light there may be isn't focused on a plant (what light that might fall on the plants is defused as much as possible)


once the sun goes down in the middle of no where it is still dark. not enough light outside to effect the plants anymore. and in the natural environment they dont get random light in the middle of the night. even one shitty 13 watt cfl can keep a big ass plant in veg and screw up flower cycles if left on too long.


----------



## bentley (Jan 6, 2012)

In nature it's never completely dark but it also takes a longer time for the plants to mature to harvest. 
Growing indoors your cutting the cycle down by more than half that's the reason for complete darkness and plus too much light stress causes Hermes


----------



## Guile (Jan 6, 2012)

wheels619 said:


> once the sun goes down in the middle of no where it is still dark. not enough light outside to effect the plants anymore. and in the natural environment they dont get random light in the middle of the night. even one shitty 13 watt cfl can keep a big ass plant in veg and screw up flower cycles if left on too long.


I agree on both fronts, I live in the woods of Maine and am familiar with the natural lighting conditions (year round including every phase of the lunar cycle) All I was getting at is that on a clear full moon night I can see quite well out here, and there is alot of pot growing out in the Maine woods that manage just fine..

Also couple-few 4ft florescent lights run a couple-few hours a day can keep an entire greenhouse full of plants from flowering, if you don't mind heating a greenhouse you can be productive all year. )

I was not trying to encourage anyone to light their plants during the "dark" part of their lighting cycle, only pointing out that an absolute lack of any light is not necessary. I have a vent from the adjacent hallway into my grow room. It lets in light from the living room windows all day long (when its supposed to be dark in my grow room). I made a baffle out of cardboard so that no direct light could reach my plants.. I have no issues what so ever.. And I run alot of different strains so it isn't just one lucky plant or crop...


----------



## wheels619 (Jan 7, 2012)

Guile said:


> I agree on both fronts, I live in the woods of Maine and am familiar with the natural lighting conditions (year round including every phase of the lunar cycle) All I was getting at is that on a clear full moon night I can see quite well out here, and there is alot of pot growing out in the Maine woods that manage just fine..
> 
> Also couple-few 4ft florescent lights run a couple-few hours a day can keep an entire greenhouse full of plants from flowering, if you don't mind heating a greenhouse you can be productive all year. )
> 
> I was not trying to encourage anyone to light their plants during the "dark" part of their lighting cycle, only pointing out that an absolute lack of any light is not necessary. I have a vent from the adjacent hallway into my grow room. It lets in light from the living room windows all day long (when its supposed to be dark in my grow room). I made a baffle out of cardboard so that no direct light could reach my plants.. I have no issues what so ever.. And I run alot of different strains so it isn't just one lucky plant or crop...


i know. i was just tossing my 2 cents in. lol. got a friend that has a plant in his living room under the window. keep telling him that even a light on all the way across the room or even the tv on is enought to keep it in veg. now the retard has a giant 6 foot tall super skinny piece of crap in his livingroom that he has no idea what to do with cuz it never went into flower like it should have. lol.


----------



## roberttorressjl (Jan 7, 2012)

Ok what about when The plants are about 7 weeks through flowering and a timer malfunction allows 15 hours of light/day for about 3 days. I know this can affect hermie production but can I do anything (give extended dark or will this make it worse?) to help?


----------



## smhsmichael (Jan 7, 2012)

wheels619 said:


> i know. i was just tossing my 2 cents in. lol. got a friend that has a plant in his living room under the window. keep telling him that even a light on all the way across the room or even the tv on is enought to keep it in veg. now the retard has a giant 6 foot tall super skinny piece of crap in his livingroom that he has no idea what to do with cuz it never went into flower like it should have. lol.


Lmao. I've heard of a few people who ended up with a 6 foot ganja plant and no bud


----------



## smhsmichael (Jan 7, 2012)

roberttorressjl said:


> Ok what about when The plants are about 7 weeks through flowering and a timer malfunction allows 15 hours of light/day for about 3 days. I know this can affect hermie production but can I do anything (give extended dark or will this make it worse?) to help?


Just put it back to 12\12 and ride out the last few weeks of flower


----------



## Guile (Jan 7, 2012)

roberttorressjl said:


> Ok what about when The plants are about 7 weeks through flowering and a timer malfunction allows 15 hours of light/day for about 3 days. I know this can affect hermie production but can I do anything (give extended dark or will this make it worse?) to help?


There is a light cycle that includes day long (24hr) periods of both light and darkness with intermittent hours in-between that I used once to induce hermaphrodites. (It was for an experiment dealing with female seeds). It was pretty involved, requiring daily reprogramming of my timer.

I point this out because I have never accidentally hermaphrodited (not trying to claim its all skill, probably a bit of luck in there too). The effort it took to ensure hermaphrodites through light manipulation was well, significant really.... 

My best advice would be to get it back on a 12/12 cycle. Try to land it in the difference of the mistake (remove 1 hour of light from each side of the light period). Other than that just keep an eye out for male flowers and isolate any plants that develop them. I doubt you will find any but if you do, finish flowering hermaphrodites under something like a compact florescent in the closet or garage you will get female seeds from it and if you provide enough light you will even get some pot too.. Seeds don't ruin pot, most the pot I had (other than what I've grown) has contained seeds and it still got me high.

Sites like this offer some pretty critical views and have people thinking that anything less than perfection is complete failure, leaving absolutely no room to learn from mistakes. 
The best educations are first hand, if you work to salvage something out of every bad situation the education you gain will be far superior to that of someone that has never "failed".


----------



## smhsmichael (Jan 7, 2012)

Thanks for all the great comments everyone.

Good discussion. Carry on


----------



## SFguy (Jan 13, 2012)

KushDog said:


> but it is important to MAINTAIN darkness/ as in no flashes of light . dont disturb the night cycle with Light


i take pic with light out all the time, the flash wont mess with it, but id say anything longer than 2-3 regularly is WAY too long, theyll still be there in a few more hours be patient, ya aint gotta check on them every 5 seconds


----------

