I am running a 28 hour light cycle for flowering for an experiment. It has extended the flowering time quite a bit. The first 10 weeks, they were at a 16/12 light cycle. I recently switched to a 14/14 cycle to try to hurry them along, as its been almost 11 weeks for a 9 week strain. Has anyone else tried this?
28 hour light cycle
- Thread starter labweed
- Start date
Im running into a hard deadline soon, and im afraid i will have to pull them early. I knew there were 3 possibilities with this. Either it would shorten the flowering time, as you get 12 hours more light per week than 12/12. Or it would just finish the same amount of time with hopefully a higher yield. Or it would extend the flowering period due to the fact that a week is only 6 "days" to the plants, but give an even higher yield (hopefully). I think the last one is true. But we will have to see what the final yield is.
speedwell68
Well-Known Member
How do you know it is a 9 week strain? I have seen seed vendors quote all sorts of flowering figures, that are all complete fantasy.
Well according to the breeder. But these are clones that i ran before, and they were harvested at 5-10% amber at 9 1/2 weeks.
Ive kept the grow room fairly cool (about 71°). And with the extended flower period, it seems to have kept the trichomes from degrading to CBN. I cannot find any amber trichomes on the buds. However, they all seem milky. I cannot find any clear trichomes either. Im going to have to get these tested, but maybe its possible that since the flowers wont mature, yet there has been overwhelming increase of daylight, maybe it allows to have almost 100% milky trichomes. Would this highly increase potency? Im eager to find out.
FirstCavApache64
Well-Known Member
It's cool to run your own tests and side by sides for learning, but in the long run I'm going to say if it was more productive or greatly increased THC production commercial farms all over would be doing it. I'm still very interested in how it turns out for you.
speedwell68
Well-Known Member
I could do it with a smart switch and a Google Assistant or Home Assistant routine.
Tolerance Break
Well-Known Member
I respect the scientific approach. Best of luck.
PJ Diaz
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking I would go old school and plug a mechanical timer into another mechanical timer.
speedwell68
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't have thought of that in a month of Sunday's. TBH the thought of mechanical timers gives me nightmares.
Its a Togoal T319 timer or something like that. It allows you to set up recurring cycles. Its asks you on time, then off time, and voila! You dont even have to set up a clock. Best of all, you can buy 2 on Amazon for like 25 bucks. Easy peasy.
This is actually a clone, so i have experience with this strain already. I ran it 12/12 the first time, and i can tell you i was nowhere close to this size before. This bud is about the size of a 24 oz beer can, and this plant has about 14 buds of similar size to this. As far as thc production, it will require a lab test, which i may have to do. This is grape ape. It tested at about 17% last time, which is on the higher end of the strains expectation. These are grown under less watts than the first time.
This is most of my grow tent. 700 grams would be 1 gram per watt. I have about 40 top colas that should weigh out to at least 10 grams apiece. There are about 200 colas in the tent. If the rest of them average 3 grams apiece, then that is 2 pounds. That is almost 1.4 grams per watt. So if i added 33% more light hours, that amounts to a linear increase that is almost exactly proportional to the old goal of 1 gram per watt.
FirstCavApache64
Well-Known Member
My second run with a clone or strain is almost always better than the first as I know kind of what it wants. Having said that, I still love the idea of always trying to improve your grow and the light schedule could be responsible for the increase. Running a third cycle of the 12/12 now that you have this experience with the strain might give you a better idea if it was you or the schedule. So many variables to take into account with this stuff , I love the challenge of it.
This is a digital timer that has an internal rechargable battery. It never loses its place, so if a power outage happens during dark hours, as long as the power comes up before light hours, no problem.
My first run was with more light, using aeroponics. It should have been a better haul last time. This grow was with walmart soil, less light, worse nutes, and an aquarium ph tester. Not exactly a pro outfit.