Lights On: Ramp up over time or Full?

Relic79

Well-Known Member
I like to tinker, and was thinking it might be fun to play with the dimming on my new lamp.

I know what I'm about to write could (should?) be classified as bro-science, but speaking in generalities, everything typically does better with a warm up before pushing to full potential, could that apply to Cannabis? Knowing nothing just applies across the board, it has at least given me an idea to present here for confirmation or ridicule.

I was considering that rather then acclimating my plants to 100% output of my LED lamp, and then once acclimated, flipping it on every day at full blast, I might experiment with a raspberry pi/arduino, and using PWM to slowly bring the light up to 100% over a reasonable amount of time. I'm not sure I need to consider dimming off for night as going from bright to dark seems much less stressful, but was thinking of easing the transition from night to day?

Does anyone think or know if plants getting hammered at lights on go through a daily stress and re-acclimation to intense light?
Does anyone think or know if "warming" the plants up over some period of time would lower stress and help transition from night to day?

I still want to play with the dimming contacts on my HLG driver, but was curious if the above is a worthwhile experiment once I get it working?
 
Last edited:

J232

Well-Known Member
Magic happens in the first few hours of lights on, myself, wouldn’t mess with it. Maybe the led world is different, I’m not sure.
 

J232

Well-Known Member
Will also add, I don’t think at any time, less light will benefit anything, if there are no problems to begin with.
 

Relic79

Well-Known Member
Magic happens in the first few hours of lights on, myself, wouldn’t mess with it. Maybe the led world is different, I’m not sure.
I was reading this article: https://www.ledtonic.com/blogs/guides/sunlight-ppfd-measured-over-an-afternoon

It talks about peak PPFD for the afternoon being 1400+, but doesn't mention the day starting that way. I know we want to mimic and improve on nature, so of course not all things apply.

My hypothesis was that if going from pitch black to full intensity stresses the plant daily, this might give it more time to "wake up" and become fully active. I'm not really talking about a ramp up from morning to noon, more like even 10 to 20 minutes just so it isn't an initial blast.

The only reason I am thinking of this, is because an outdoor plant would experience a sunrise/ramp up each day until peak at noon, and i recognize this line of thinking as a bit silly, but the idea was interesting to me.

I wonder if anyone has tried to observe this at lights on in anyway?

Side Note: I will probably never try this regardless, I am just looking for a reason to hook up an arduino or rpi to the dimmer on the HLG driverm, and it got me curious.
 

Relic79

Well-Known Member
Magic happens in the first few hours of lights on, myself, wouldn’t mess with it. Maybe the led world is different, I’m not sure.
Anecdotally, what is the magic you observe?

Do you also grow outdoors at all, and if so, do you see less of the "magic" happening outdoors before the sun peaks?

I'm honestly just curious, putting "magic" in quotes might sound dick-head-ish, but I'm honestly not sure to what you are refering, and by extension what outdoor plants might alternatively experience, or lack?

Thanks for replying!
 

J232

Well-Known Member
Was more referring to a co2 enriched environment as far as “magic”, I won’t gas a room prior to lights on just to keep them dim. Yes I grow outdoors too and it not comparable to indoor, being less light and a uncontrollable environment. It’s all more work then it’s worth imo. But I get what your saying. You would have to run a control with identical environments and clones to see I guess. Plants usually start preaching in anticipation for the light the same they droop before the lights shut off. The biggest thing we are trying to improve on over nature, is hours of light and intensity. Proper placement and power of led won’t stress a plant and won’t require a staged on % imo. Maybe someone here’s doing it, someone else might chime in. If I was bringing a outdoor plant inside, it would make more sense to help transition the plant, but I still wouldn’t do that, I would just dim.
 
Top