My 8hr flowering experiment

[torontoke]

My yields and potency have both gone up since I went 10/14. Maybe 15%-20% heavier on almost all strains so far. I never would have thunk it but flower times and yield and potency are all improved on shorter lighted period. My plants do get a lot of photons at about 50 watts a sq/ft. All high end led and COBs.

I was hoping to just maintain quality and yield with shorter hours. Win,win,win,win!

Glad to hear that the "gamble" has paid off for you and that you are happy with the results. Somewhere on this forum is a pissed off old mod that won't believe a word of your post but as more n more of these reports surface the more sane I seem.

Do you think the benefits come from the extra hours of dark? Or could they still produce the same with only 10/12. Saves 2hrs a day and still allows enough of a dark period to maintain flowering?
I'm dying to know if we can shorten the flowering cycles!

I don't believe it's from the extra dark but less of the over saturation that occurs after the plants have had enough light.
I think a shortened overall day would yield the same results imo but would make keeping track of days etc much more difficult.
Trickiest part would be setting up a timer to run it.

interesting..i have done 10/14..never checked increase in weight..but it did grow em well..i use c obs/leds too

thanks

I didn't know you were trying different cycles!
Did it speed up those long running sativas that you love?

 

[zoic]

Thanks z
But time and enough plants can make anyone look like they know what they are doing.
Still learning and getting better everyday hopefully

Well maybe there is a sign there for me. I really felt my tent was to jammed with 5 or 6 plants. Now that there are only two I have to keep propping then up because branches would bend way over or even right to the floor. I can see how jamming more plants in there would help since that was not an issue when I had 4-5, propping one another up.

 

[torontoke]

Well maybe there is a sign there for me. I really felt my tent was to jammed with 5 or 6 plants. Now that there are only two I have to keep propping then up because branches would bend way over or even right to the floor. I can see how jamming more plants in there would help since that was not an issue when I had 4-5, propping one another up.

Like everything else in life it's finding a happy balance.
Lots of pros n cons to consider.
I'm limited most by space so I try to maximize how many are under the light while not having to many to make shadows n dark spots.
Probably more of an issue during flower then veg but I'm sure every situation/room/tent is different.

 

[OLD MOTHER SATIVA]

[QUOTE="torontoke, post: 13822298, member: 880303

I didn't know you were trying different cycles!
Did it speed up those long running sativas that you love?[/QUOTE]

some long flower sativas will break flower at 12 hrs on..

i never write down flowering times..

you are onto something!

 

[ttystikk]

Well maybe there is a sign there for me. I really felt my tent was to jammed with 5 or 6 plants. Now that there are only two I have to keep propping then up because branches would bend way over or even right to the floor. I can see how jamming more plants in there would help since that was not an issue when I had 4-5, propping one another up.

Using a SCRoG screen will help your situation a great deal.

 

[ttystikk]

My yields and potency have both gone up since I went 10/14. Maybe 15%-20% heavier on almost all strains so far. I never would have thunk it but flower times and yield and potency are all improved on shorter lighted period. My plants do get a lot of photons at about 50 watts a sq/ft. All high end led and COBs.

I was hoping to just maintain quality and yield with shorter hours. Win,win,win,win!

50W/ft² of COB LED is a lot of light. I think that @torontoke is onto something about the amount of light being more important than duration, and I also think that running high light intensity is the key to good results with shortened light cycles.

The study that unnamed mod keeps referring to did not use high light intensity and as such I think the study did not accurately measure what the designer of the experiment thought it did.

 

[torontoke]

I'm only currently running 30ish watts a sqft
My lowest grams per watt was when I had the driver cranked up to the max around 40watts per sq with 8 plants.
For my tiny cab the sweet spot is probably somewhere in that area. Will be interesting to see how the tent does with only 22w per

 

[hillbill]

I expected some aspect of the final results to be lacking but it just did not happen. Buds are bigger than same strains under 12/12 and potency and terps are the best part of the switch to 10/14. I won't go back any time soon. i won't argue that a lot of light is needed to make it work. All LEDs and COBs.

 

[GroErr]

I'm only currently running 30ish watts a sqft
My lowest grams per watt was when I had the driver cranked up to the max around 40watts per sq with 8 plants.
For my tiny cab the sweet spot is probably somewhere in that area. Will be interesting to see how the tent does with only 22w per

I'll be interested to see what you get in that 22w/sq./ft. config. I run at 30w/sq./ft. but did a run when I first got the COBs at one end of the room at ~22w/sq./ft. Great yields but took forever to finish, that was with clones, they went 7-10 days longer than normal.

 

[ttystikk]

My vertical grows with my water cooled COB LED modules were 37.5W/ft². I'm thinking that the next time I run them, I'll go 10/14. See if my results jibe with that of others here.

 

[torontoke]

I'll be interested to see what you get in that 22w/sq./ft. config. I run at 30w/sq./ft. but did a run when I first got the COBs at one end of the room at ~22w/sq./ft. Great yields but took forever to finish, that was with clones, they went 7-10 days longer than normal.

Anything I've ever seen written on the recommended watts per sq/ft were for hps/mh and in the 50-60w range and I think modern efficient led in the 30-40 range would be easily comparable if not brighter.
But as they say the only way to find out yourself is to try it and see. The best part of trying things is that most of these changes make noticeable difference whether positive or negative.
So we shall see soon enough.

 

[zoic]

This is very interesting. I calculated 33.75 watts/ft² for my tent (2x4x5). This round I did 12/12 for the first 28 days, then reduced to 10/14 for the next 28 days, the dropped it to 9/15 to finish (pushing Day 70 now). I was expecting to finish in 60 days or less.
Good news is that the buds just keep getting fatter and fatter and my yield has more than doubled in Round 3. I expect I will continue this in Round 4 as well.

 

[torontoke]

More cowbell day31

Field trip day31

 

[GroErr]

This is very interesting. I calculated 33.75 watts/ft² for my tent (2x4x5). This round I did 12/12 for the first 28 days, then reduced to 10/14 for the next 28 days, the dropped it to 9/15 to finish (pushing Day 70 now). I was expecting to finish in 60 days or less.
Good news is that the buds just keep getting fatter and fatter and my yield has more than doubled in Round 3. I expect I will continue this in Round 4 as well.

Blurples diode based panels (think you're running those right?) are a little different than COBs or QB's due to their efficiency. 40-50w/sq./ft. would be closer to the 30w/sq./ft. using COBs or QB's.

 

[Rolla J]

My cob little rig flowers really nicely. Im testing a unit farm ufo80 led in a 2x2 175w. And i tell ya with the ufo80 i have to water more freqently and the plant seem happy but deficiencies occur more often and sooner, than when using the cob rig. I stilll dont know and been super curious what the diy pulls from the wall, will get a meter today. The ufo80 seems almost overkill tho. Yall ever think that about your lights.. Overkill?

 

[Rolla J]

Reducing light hours on high intensity led fixture sounds pretty interesting!

 

[torontoke]

My cob little rig flowers really nicely. Im testing a unit farm ufo80 led in a 2x2 175w. And i tell ya with the ufo80 i have to water more freqently and the plant seem happy but deficiencies occur more often and sooner, than when using the cob rig. I stilll dont know and been super curious what the diy pulls from the wall, will get a meter today. The ufo80 seems almost overkill tho. Yall ever think that about your lights.. Overkill?

I'm in the minority usually but I'd suggest that 75% of the grows on this and other forums are ran at overkill light levels. Not surprising really, most people live under the idea or mindset that more is always more.
Wanna double your yield double your wattage, Seems like the sort of theory that would be to easy to be true if you ask me.
But still we see people wanting 9 qbs or 2 600w or 1000watters in a 4x4 then complaining bout heat or unhappy looking plants.
I guess I'm now on the opposite type of journey. Starting with as little wattage per sq and working my way back up to find the line of diminished return.
I have a hunch where it is but I've heard you need pics or it didn't happen

 

[Rolla J]

I'm in the minority usually but I'd suggest that 75% of the grows on this and other forums are ran at overkill light levels. Not surprising really, most people live under the idea or mindset that more is always more.
Wanna double your yield double your wattage, Seems like the sort of theory that would be to easy to be true if you ask me.
But still we see people wanting 9 qbs or 2 600w or 1000watters in a 4x4 then complaining bout heat or unhappy looking plants.
I guess I'm now on the opposite type of journey. Starting with as little wattage per sq and working my way back up to find the line of diminished return.
I have a hunch where it is but I've heard you need pics or it didn't happen

Thats not a bad way to grow. Use the minimal about of light work your way up. Like a newbie with his cfls lol. start with one maybe 2 and end up with 20 of em during flower lol
Made a lil clip on the diy light. I ended up putting her under the ufo80 led to test out the rest of flower.

 

[torontoke]

Thats not a bad way to grow. Use the minimal about of light work your way up. Like a newbie with his cfls lol. start with one maybe 2 and end up with 20 of em during flower lol
Made a lil clip on the diy light. I ended up putting her under the ufo80 led to test out the rest of flower.

I so wish that were the case.... I've got a stack of old ballasts hoods and other obsolete junk stacked up in my shed taller then me.
I too drank the kool aid
Now I'm just trying to maximize and become as efficient per sq ft as possible.
One day I'll simply scale up and have no speed bumps or obstacles.
I do consider myself a newbie everyday tho because if I didn't learn something today then it was an inefficient use of time

Video looks good
How high are those lights above the plant looks like 3' in the video.
What strain and how many days ?

 

[Rolla J]

Did you drink the cherry or the grape kool aid? Lol could make a colossal size grow roow with all them lights!

3".. Naw i could bring it to about 8 inches away fine. But in the vid I'd say it was about maybe 16" away from canopy. Afghani #1 was about 18 days from flip. This what she turned out to be finished under the ufo80. Heat stressed and shitty leaves lol Was15" away and never above 82°
55 days flower