lighting experiment results

I have often wondered why in indoor growing we go from 18/6 of light to BANG 12/12. I know flowering is triggered at 12/12 but that is not really what I mean. In nature, during springtime (vegitative growth period) in the Northern Hemisphere, daylight hours last in spring and summer from the
equinox "equal night" 12 hours of sun and 12 hours of dark. then it gradually increases during the later spring and summer. Around the equator the maximum sun is around 13-14 hours.
I have always heard and been told that in indoor growing, you are trying to reproduce nature. So in my opinion going from 18/6 to 12/12 is unnatural and has an unatural effect on the plants. So I decided to try something with my latest crop.
I always take my plants to about 8 weeks in vegitation or until the pre-sex flowers start showing.( a sign the plant is mature enough to produce large flowers)
2 weeks before I flowered I turned the light down to 16/8 for one week, then 14/10 for another week. All the while giving the plants very little nitrogen.Just enough to keep them green.
The results were outstanding! The plants were focussing all of their energy on making budding sites and preflowers, not height.(as though they knew the time to reproduce was upon them) I already had the height I wanted at 6 weeks, but the extra 2 weeks of the decreased time periods seemed to prepair the plants for reproduction. My plants have been flowering for only a week and a few days and they look like they've been flowering for 2-3 weeks already!
I highly recommend this technique if you have the luxury of time. I'll post pictures soon and follow up during the next 6 weeks. peace

interestin post cannaboss, ive heard of people switchin to 14/10 before before 12/12 but not with any noticeable results. would be interestin to see pics. roll on!

Here is one of my Sour Diesels at 6 weeks. Then in the picture on the right, the left plant is the same one at 8 weeks.
I know it's hard to see the nodes but they are really close at the top and
the preflowers are the bud sites are thick.

I'll keep posting during flowering

i thought about this once and never thought about it again. You say it seemed like it looks like they have been on flower for 2-3 weeks, well in theory they have but not intirely because by switching to 12/12 the same 1 - 2 weeks your plant "prepared" itself for are induced.

to a bigger grower this wont work well. i have 2 dedicated rooms providing a steady supply. my plants recieve 18 h till the day of the change.

i would love to spend the first few weeks cutting the flowering time down but it 23-35 days from clone these are ready. if i veg the new seedlings down to 12 this will flop the cycle.


i did i flowering experement using mh to flower for 3 weeks. this resulted in very low plants. however they lacked volume in the yeild.

i see the plants EXPLODE going from 2x 400 halide to 2x 1000hps this not only triggers the plant to reproductive phase but causes a strech and massive stem development. this is essentail for supporting huge bud sets.
the mh stems will be brittle and more flexible. this explosion causes your plants into a growth spurt you NEED. so if you do this and feed it correctly your yeilds will triple.