Shortening the length of a day?

Hot Diggity Sog

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
Has anyone experimented with reducing the length of a day from 24 hours to say...22 hours when flowering? Seems reasonable to think that we can possibly get enough photosynthesis in 10 hours and preserve the 12 hour dark cycle. Just curious, really.
 
weedleg

weedleg

Active Member
I have never tried but mentioned something similar in a different thread. If you could shave a few hours off each day over a year it would really add up!
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
There is a whole method for this call the "gas lantern" method. You can google for lots of info on it, there are also a few threads here about it. From what I remember reading years ago, it had fairly inconclusive results.
 
torontoke

torontoke

Well-Known Member
Hot Diggity Sog said:
Has anyone experimented with reducing the length of a day from 24 hours to say...22 hours when flowering? Seems reasonable to think that we can possibly get enough photosynthesis in 10 hours and preserve the 12 hour dark cycle. Just curious, really.
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110% positive it would work.
But the logistics of such an endeavour make it tricky.
For one u would have a bitch of a time maintaining the grow because lights on and off time would fluctuate. Also difficult to keep track of what actual day you are on plus if your energy company has different rates day/night.
 
InTheValley

InTheValley

Well-Known Member
I started 3 plants on a 6 on, 10 off light scheadule. All the same genetics. They usually take 10 weeks to flower. For the first 30 days, they were on the 6/10, then i went to 12/12 after the 30th day from seed. They finished 3 weeks early. 65 days total, instead of the 90 usual days. They started slow, but when they hit the 30th day with 6 more hours of light, they grew really fast to finish. Now, have some that are on day 73, and still need 2+ weeks. Same genetics. Didnt do the 6/10 on these, and seem to be back to its usual time frame. AND BOTH seemed to equal the same weight at the end. SO i thought that was interesting.

So, from what ive personal seen, 6 on/ 10 off from the start, for 30 days, significantly reduced total time by almost a 3rd. This is using GrowMau5 night puck, so keep that in mind.
 
T macc

T macc

Well-Known Member
If you get a 36 hour relay timer, you can even do 24/12. Bigger yield but longer flower. What your thinking is opposite and will work fine. If you can find the relay timer for such hours.
 
caretak3r

caretak3r

Well-Known Member
InTheValley said:
I started 3 plants on a 6 on, 10 off light scheadule. All the same genetics. They usually take 10 weeks to flower. For the first 30 days, they were on the 6/10, then i went to 12/12 after the 30th day from seed. They finished 3 weeks early. 65 days total, instead of the 90 usual days. They started slow, but when they hit the 30th day with 6 more hours of light, they grew really fast to finish. Now, have some that are on day 73, and still need 2+ weeks. Same genetics. Didnt do the 6/10 on these, and seem to be back to its usual time frame. AND BOTH seemed to equal the same weight at the end. SO i thought that was interesting.

So, from what ive personal seen, 6 on/ 10 off from the start, for 30 days, significantly reduced total time by almost a 3rd. This is using GrowMau5 night puck, so keep that in mind.
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fascinating that veg cycle lighting made a difference on flowering finsh
 
iPerculate

iPerculate

Well-Known Member
Has anyone taken this further?

Something like 6 on 2 off for veg, 4 on 4 off for flower? Or much as 2 on 2 off for flower?
 
T macc

T macc

Well-Known Member
Plants need at least 10.5 hours of darkness to flower. A slim variety can flower out under 10 hours of dark. I personally wouldn't recommend less than 10 hours of light in a day for good bud development

I just switched my veg tent to 6/2, just to keep the heat in with the lights off. My plant is having issues right now so can't say how good it's working

Then there's gas light routine. Veg is 12/5.5/1/5.5. (On/off/on/off) makes some stretchy plants. Flower, IIRC, is 6/12 lighting. Like I posted earlier, would produce a faster harvest, but lower yield cause of the lack of light.
 
Skatch420

Skatch420

Active Member
I have tried many ways to replicate natural outdoor light patterns... triggering is really cool... In veg cycle, I Religously go from 18/6 to 17/7 16/8 in the 2 weeks before I move to flower. Seems to be a more natural way to start flowering while saving some power
 
S

Serverchris

Well-Known Member
I normally do 12/12 through stretch (2nd or 3rd week) then switch to 11/13. I find this knocks about a week off of the harvest time and have been told it helps the plant express itself better.
 
T macc

T macc

Well-Known Member
Serverchris said:
I normally do 12/12 through stretch (2nd or 3rd week) then switch to 11/13. I find this knocks about a week off of the harvest time and have been told it helps the plant express itself better.
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I read people do 10/14 the last 2 weeks for more frost
 
G

growingforfun

Well-Known Member
I've messed around with differant ways of flowering but always on a 24hour day. Just too hard to do a 20 hour day for example.
Generally I've found benifit of a slow transition to flower, but it's never been such a bug repeatable differance that I religiously do it every time. To me it's on the same level as 48 hours dark before harvest. I think it makes more frost, but not so much so that I do it every time.

Normal 12/12 works pretty good so meh
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
I just flipped to flower tonight and I thought I'd try something different. So I set it up at 13/11. I'm not worried about how fast it flowers. My genetics I'm running are mature so flower will happen fast enough. My thought is to give the plants the extra hour of light to reduce the stretch and maximize my light absorption. I was also thinking it was a bit closer to a natural transition.
 
T macc

T macc

Well-Known Member
Serverchris said:
I tried that last time and liked the results which I didnt really have a true fair comparison but they turned out good.
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I tried it once upon a time, but I just stick with 12/12 now and count the months lol. Don't have a way to compare either, unless I save bud from last harvest just to see
 
Pa-Nature

Pa-Nature

Well-Known Member
Thundercat said:
I just flipped to flower tonight and I thought I'd try something different. So I set it up at 13/11. I'm not worried about how fast it flowers. My genetics I'm running are mature so flower will happen fast enough. My thought is to give the plants the extra hour of light to reduce the stretch and maximize my light absorption. I was also thinking it was a bit closer to a natural transition.
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They stretch in the light too...try lowering lights to a safe but close zone also a pinched stem slows down strech on that stem for 3 -4 days .
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
Oh I keep my lights low. I don't have major stretch issues but my clones did end up a little bigger then planned this go around. I already pinched the tips a little when I put them in . I figured playing with the lights would just be something to play with this time.
 
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