Increased Wattage During Flowering

I have a question...
With the sun naturally being less intense during fall/summer, or at least equally in some regions of the world. Does increasing your lighting during the flowering cycle of your plants cause un natural harm or possibly even hermaphrodites?

You obviously have some stress whenever you enter flowering as it is, but if you increase your lighting when you enter, can it be a deal breaker for some of our more sensitive hybrids?

good question. i don't increase wattage during flower, just color range.

Right, and the change in spectrum is natural due to the earth tilting on its axis during seasons and hitting earth through water molecules differently... or something? lol So that seems legit but it just doesn't seem right to increase intensity. Hmm . . . :/

i pour it on in veg any way, so no increase needed.

I sometimes use a 6x4' T5 for the first 4 weeks of flower then put them under 2 400w HPS till finished. Have seen no problems. The T% seems to ease them into flowering, I notice more crystals than starting them out under HPS. But the HPS bulks em up.

So are you saying that you only use a t5 until the 4th week of flower, then hps? What do you use to veg?

I added a 400w hps to my 1200watts 2 weeks into flower and it seems to have prolonged the flowering stage, I'm in week 5 and they aren't as far along as normal.
So I think it may make the plant grow more and produce a bit more but adds time.

when they flower they do get bigger so you may need more watts to cover a bigger footprint

Gaz, the prolonging that you are seeing could have been caused by stress?

Saldaw said:

when they flower they do get bigger so you may need more watts to cover a bigger footprint

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You're right, so maybe I should be more specific. If you were to dramatically increase your lumens/square foot during flower, would it cause significant stress?

Scrotie Mcboogerballs said:

Gaz, the prolonging that you are seeing could have been caused by stress?

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Nah Scrotie they havn't been stressed at all, unless you mean the extra lumens stressing them.
I think it's like you say about the earths angle etc, if they have more intense light it will seem closer to the summer so the plants won't be in such a hurry to mature the flowers and keeps growing them while it can?
They are spoiled girls though so no abnormal stress for them

Gaz, your situation sounds exactly like what I am talking about. I've been googling on it all morning and there doesn't seem to be any answers.

I think it has more to do with color spectrum from summer to fall. Used to veg under 400mh then go dark 72hrs and switch to 1000hps. Never had any kind of stress problems. I would even add some higher spectrum lights last 2 wks or so, as they are supposed to help with trich production.

you have to remember that even on a cloudy day outside the sun is more intense than a bunch of lights inside.

Scrotie Mcboogerballs said:

Gaz, your situation sounds exactly like what I am talking about. I've been googling on it all morning and there doesn't seem to be any answers.

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I'm finding they are wanting more nitrogen than normal, leaves yellowing lightly but they are fed as I normally would.
The flowers with greener leaves attached to the node are noticably bigger aswell, so some proof to the "keep your leaves on the plant and healthy during flower" theory.
I am definately getting more growth on the lower flowers which is good so the extra light seems to have it's ups and downs

superstoner1 said:

you have to remember that even on a cloudy day outside the sun is more intense than a bunch of lights inside.

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Are you sure? Cloudy day only gives off 1000 lumens per Square foot or 10000 lux, surely HID lamps would be stronger?
The sun definately gets more penetration in the foliage but is it more intense?

superstoner, you are absolutely correct. But assuming that you always use the same amount of grow space inside, and you go from using a 400 watt lamp to a 1,000 watt lamp . . . you are more than doubling the amount of sunlight that your plants become accustom to. That's a HUGE increase as compared to natural outdoor lighting.

I started with the 1000w higher than usual and would lower to normal height after bout a wk. It's amazing how much the intensity of light drops over just a span.

For sure. I actually have a digital lumens meter.