14/10 flower schedule?

hotrodharley said:

Having seen evidence on your grow I just switched my timer to your setting. Juice is expensive in Alaska.

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Cheers hotrod, I settled on the 11.5/12.5 last year, took nearly a year of testing. Along with 660nm and 730nm initiators (under COBs) I've been consistently trimming a good week off my finish times. And if there's any hits to yields, someone should tell my plants, pretty sure they missed the memo

Cobbyist said:

As I said earlier my work schedule is random. I work in film so to make it short, I can start at any time of the day/night and my work hours range from 8-16 a day.

There is no schedule I can set my lights to so basically the only way to better my chances is more light hours total.

And yes I mean 14 on 10 off

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It will start to flower at 14/10. They do outdoors. If they had to wait until 12/12 they wouldn't flower.

Thing is I don't know how well it will finish.

When I used one grow area and I flipped to flower I would start out at about 15/9 and work to 12/12 over a couple weeks.

Most strains will start flowering around 14.5/9.5 to 14/10. If it will finish right is the question.

Cobbyist said:

Would a far red light to help trigger flower possibly outweigh the decreased dark hours?

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Good question but based on what I've seen, they perform much better at reducing your flowering times when you use them at 12/12 or less, thereby why I landed and stayed at 11.5/12.5.

When I tested the different cycles last year in 1/2 hour increments, the whole time I was running initiators. What I saw was that above 12/12 they really didn't seem to do anything, all flowering times were 5-10 days longer until I hit 12/12. At 12/12 they reduced the times by 3-5 days, at 11.5/12.5 they reduced my times by 7-10 days (based on clones that I'd run through all the cycles for consistency).

whitebb2727 said:

It will start to flower at 14/10. They do outdoors. If they had to wait until 12/12 they wouldn't flower.

Thing is I don't know how well it will finish.

When I used one grow area and I flipped to flower I would start out at about 15/9 and work to 12/12 over a couple weeks.

Most strains will start flowering around 14.5/9.5 to 14/10. If it will finish right is the question.

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That's actually more accurate, they will trigger. But whether they actually go onto full-on flowering and finish, or finish but with extremely long finish times (this I'm pretty positive would happen) is the question.

I should try it, it's about the only cycle I haven't tried. Shit I may try it coming up, my stash is well stocked so even if they take 16 weeks to finish it wouldn't be a big deal... hmmm...

Not so sure the outdoor comparison is valid being the sun and all, plus a gradual start and finish to the day (dawn/dusk).

More than one way to initiate flowering besides light integral. Stress a plant long and hard enough and it doesn't matter what lighting schedule your on.

Cobbyist said:

Would a far red light to help trigger flower possibly outweigh the decreased dark hours?

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Light in the 760-800nm range converts Pfr to Pr, so theoretically adding that specific spectrum but no lower then 760nm you should be able to speed up flowering. Light in the 660-760nm converts Pr to Pfr much quicker then the reverse, which is why any light in the dark period effectively negates that night by coverting all the Pr back the Pfr. Not sure if it's worth testing as it seems like an easy way to create problems unless the light was designed specifically for it.

All that info is from "how to supercharge your garden" (which was written by the people that started maximum overdrive) from the mid 90's. It's old but has great info if you can find a copy, excellent for flushing out then info in the indoor bible or other basic guides.

There's a good thread discussing initiators that's been going for a while, that's a whole other subject in itself.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/the-far-red-thread.867665/

I've been using 660nm for 10 minutes before lights-on, and 730nm for 10 minutes at lights out for a couple of years. Combining the initiators with 11.5/12.5, I currently have 6 cuts that finish within 49-53 days from the flip. Nothing out of ~15 strains I'm cycling runs longer than 60 days, other than a Panama cut which typically takes 11-13 weeks, it finishes in 70 days.

I think I’m going to try the far red trigger + 14/10 flower schedule + a 36 hour dark period flip on my next go around.
My GG4 is 28 days in to flower so it’s too late for that. But I think I will order a UVB and add it in this weekend.

I am seeing reports on increased yield with 14/10...so with the increased flower time, the total yield per year could possibly level out?

GroErr did you try doing 14/10 without the initiator to have a comparison against 14/10 with it?

I like to experiment a bit, without ppl trying innovative ideas we would still be smoking seed filled, bad smelling/tasting weed.

Also the whole idea behind me trying this, is to get more light hours so I am able to take better care of my plants.

Cobbyist said:

I think I’m going to try the far red trigger + 14/10 flower schedule + a 36 hour dark period flip on my next go around.
My GG4 is 28 days in to flower so it’s too late for that. But I think I will order a UVB and add it in this weekend.

I am seeing reports on increased yield with 14/10...so with the increased flower time, the total yield per year could possibly level out?

GroErr did you try doing 14/10 without the initiator to have a comparison against 14/10 with it?

I like to experiment a bit, without ppl trying innovative ideas we would still be smoking seed filled, bad smelling/tasting weed.

Also the whole idea behind me trying this, is to get more light hours so I am able to take better care of my plants.

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Worth a try if you're not concerned about finish times, if you're seeing delays you can always reduce the cycle at any point. It's good to experiment a bit, the lower finish times for me equal about one extra cycle per year. For me that was worthwhile as I'm doing more breeding and it lets me cycle more testers.

The only thing I did with 14/10 was use it in my veg tent when I was waiting for the flower room to become available, just to get the plants triggered for flowering. Never used 14/10 for flowering a complete flowering cycle and I don't use the initiators in the veg areas.

Well thanks for the help guys. Especially you GroErr, I don’t often post on the forum for help but when I do you often come in with very relevant feedback vs “dude I wouldn’t try that” responses.

But now I have a sense of direction and I’m exited to see what results come of this.

Once again, thanks everybody for helping me out with this.

GroErr said:

There's a good thread discussing initiators that's been going for a while, that's a whole other subject in itself.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/the-far-red-thread.867665/

I've been using 660nm for 10 minutes before lights-on, and 730nm for 10 minutes at lights out for a couple of years. Combining the initiators with 11.5/12.5, I currently have 6 cuts that finish within 49-53 days from the flip. Nothing out of ~15 strains I'm cycling runs longer than 60 days, other than a Panama cut which typically takes 11-13 weeks, it finishes in 70 days.

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Thanks for sharing that thread, always nice to have more reading to better understand our hobby.

Cobbyist said:

Well thanks for the help guys. Especially you GroErr, I don’t often post on the forum for help but when I do you often come in with very relevant feedback vs “dude I wouldn’t try that” responses.

But now I have a sense of direction and I’m exited to see what results come of this.

Once again, thanks everybody for helping me out with this.

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I just realised that nobodies suggested the simple solution as we've all been focused on your specific question. You could always just stick with a 12/12 cycle & use a green light when you need to check the garden when the lights are out.

That's not as interesting as trying 14/10 with manipulating Pr/Pfr artificially.

Somatek said:

Thanks for sharing that thread, always nice to have more reading to better understand our hobby.



I just realised that nobodies suggested the simple solution as we've all been focused on your specific question. You could always just stick with a 12/12 cycle & use a green light when you need to check the garden when the lights are out.

That's not as interesting as trying 14/10 with manipulating Pr/Pfr artificially.

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Yes I’m not sure why I didn’t at least think about a green light. But I’ve heard mixed reviews about it. Although I’ve also heard mixed reviews about what I want to try..

Like you said, I think it will be more interesting to try the 14/10 cycle with the the other added elements.

I've used green lights in the past & haven't noticed a difference when used occasionally. Purely anecdotal though so take it for what it's worth.