How many hours of dark are TRULY needed to induce flowering?

[DanKiller]

What I want to know is : how much light is needed to be called night time. Because if I put the plants on the east side of the house and they don’t get sun in the evening for many hours, how does that affect the number of hours. Will they flower sooner

They get indirect sun, which is powerful enough.
I put my plants once outdoors at almost 7 days flower, they were gonna show sex but my dad installed a led light to light up the yard...
I think it's a 30-50w led, 8 meters away, even that low watt led delayed my flowering, had to find a really dark spot.
The thing is, the graduation in sunset or sunrise is a big factor for plants, they adapt to their surroundings, people think plants has no "eyes", they do, and they follow the light.
Constant light even low can disrupt the flowering cycle, they handle pretty well with occasional light hitting them if it's low enough.
Best rule of thumb, avoid constant light being directed at your plants at dark hours, no matter low or far.

 

[conor c]

It really depends on genetics and how photosensitive it is some stuff will go into bloom faster than others

 

[decrepit digits]

I always use 14 hours daylight ten of darkness, that matches my outdoor conditions. Sometimes with seeds that have been bred at 12 12 it takes them a while to flower but after the first breeding they are good to go out.

 

[CarolinaPotheadsNew]

Outdours in the northern hemerspher in most areas plants start flowering in about august. The dark hours were i am around that time are only about 9 hours maybe a touch longer towards the end. Most comercial strains can trigger on about 9 hours darkness. But in the outdoors the dark hours gradualy get longer which builds up more and more of the flowering hormone and less and less of the hormone that will cause the fast stretching. After much trial and error with indoor growing it was worked out that 12-12 indoors will trigger a good fast flower response with sufficent stretch the first third and pust out a good amount of flowering hormone to get a good finish with good yield and decent bud stacking, quality and look. If your not too fussed with that you can experiment but be prepered for the plant to express and fish with some diffrences eg continual stretch and shoot growth, elongated buds, losser buds, tighter buds, less yield, more yield, shorter finish time, longer finish time, changes in how fast the plant starts showing pistols ect ect and all sorts of other possibilities. Indoors 12-12 is know as forced flowering as it pushes the plant to flower and get the best out of it ( refering to most commercialy avalible strains.)
Ther are afew threads about this question allready if you want to look them up.

Ps i used to grow more indica leaning typez on 13hrs lights on and 11hrs dark. The flower time will extend abit but those extra acumilated hours of light did give me a slight yield increase ( with the cost of electricity now its probably not worth it). But try 13hrs of light on in flower for a sativa and you will probably see leafier stretchier buds that take much much longer too finish. And sometimes on them they will just keep growing brand new long stretched shoots and new buds while the other buds that the plant grew earier will ripen

This. Makes perfect sense to me and also reflects what i have witnissed. Those Mexican bagseed plants i grew started changing when their dark period was 9ish hours and they kept stretching into mid October. A couple times there were still new buds forming while the rest of the plant was finished. Great explanation!

 

[CarolinaPotheadsNew]

They get indirect sun, which is powerful enough.
I put my plants once outdoors at almost 7 days flower, they were gonna show sex but my dad installed a led light to light up the yard...
I think it's a 30-50w led, 8 meters away, even that low watt led delayed my flowering, had to find a really dark spot.
The thing is, the graduation in sunset or sunrise is a big factor for plants, they adapt to their surroundings, people think plants has no "eyes", they do, and they follow the light.
Constant light even low can disrupt the flowering cycle, they handle pretty well with occasional light hitting them if it's low enough.
Best rule of thumb, avoid constant light being directed at your plants at dark hours, no matter low or far.

Yes! Exactly. Indirect light is still plenty to affect them. I started some clones before flipping to 12/12 in my growspace. I take them out each evening before dark cycle and sit them on a shelf in my closet. I have a small led desklamp that i shine on them. This is more than enough to keep them vegging not flowering. I know some folks who had some nice plants in there fenced back yard. They did great vegging but about August, their neighbor installed outdoor lights on his side of the fence. Even though some plants were pretty far away, there was enough indirect light to where it fkd up their plants. I whole-heartedly agree with your post. Lol, my neighbors all have these 1000w+ HPS street lights blazing at night. Id never be able to grow photos outdoors. Autos? I ,uh, no comment. Mankind will find a way.

 

[TheWholeTruth]

Yes! Exactly. Indirect light is still plenty to affect them. I started some clones before flipping to 12/12 in my growspace. I take them out each evening before dark cycle and sit them on a shelf in my closet. I have a small led desklamp that i shine on them. This is more than enough to keep them vegging not flowering. I know some folks who had some nice plants in there fenced back yard. They did great vegging but about August, their neighbor installed outdoor lights on his side of the fence. Even though some plants were pretty far away, there was enough indirect light to where it fkd up their plants. I whole-heartedly agree with your post. Lol, my neighbors all have these 1000w+ HPS street lights blazing at night. Id never be able to grow photos outdoors. Autos? I ,uh, no comment. Mankind will find a way.

If you havr a shed or garage, you can just put them out in the morning and 10-11 hours later just put them in the dark in the garage or shed. They call it light-dep'ing and the results when done right can be very good.
If your not a fan of autos, there are super autos as well, ive seen those grow to 7- 10 ft no problem.

 

[CarolinaPotheadsNew]

If you havr a shed or garage, you can just put them out in the morning and 10-11 hours later just put them in the dark in the garage or shed.
If your not a fan of autos, there are super autos as well, ive seen those grow to 7- 10 ft no problem.

I have nada. No shed, no garage. Even if i did, it is 100 degrees outside. Humidity over 90%. But, the heat. My friend has both and unless he leaves the door open to the garage, it gets hotter than outside. The tin out building gets even hotter. Its a good idea in a little milder climate. Alot of strains struggle to grow outdoors here, its so hot. Oh, I like Autos just fine. Ive been running Mephisto gear for almost 2 years. Just harvested 2 Fairy Cake freebies. Its just so much safer indoors. No monsoon rains, controlled temps. I change clothes and clean up before getting near my plants after bringing in Spider Mites last year. Mold is tough here too outdoors from the heat, humidity and lack of airflow. I got a 3 ft box fan inside. Mold was the year before....Ive wondered about those super autos.... Im just so pleased with most of Mephistos stuff.... Shit, dont matter now cause I cant afford to order anything. I have a bunch of good photo seeds gifted by a friend.

 

[TheWholeTruth]

I have nada. No shed, no garage. Even if i did, it is 100 degrees outside. Humidity over 90%. But, the heat. My friend has both and unless he leaves the door open to the garage, it gets hotter than outside. The tin out building gets even hotter. Its a good idea in a little milder climate. Alot of strains struggle to grow outdoors here, its so hot. Oh, I like Autos just fine. Ive been running Mephisto gear for almost 2 years. Just harvested 2 Fairy Cake freebies. Its just so much safer indoors. No monsoon rains, controlled temps. I change clothes and clean up before getting near my plants after bringing in Spider Mites last year. Mold is tough here too outdoors from the heat, humidity and lack of airflow. I got a 3 ft box fan inside. Mold was the year before....Ive wondered about those super autos.... Im just so pleased with most of Mephistos stuff.... Shit, dont matter now cause I cant afford to order anything. I have a bunch of good photo seeds gifted by a friend.

Hey wat ever works for you is good. Yeah some of those super autos ive seen huge big wide plants. Flash seems to have really good ones, im sure some of them are in regular male female seed versions so one can always make more and use them to make their own auto strains too.
I understand what you mean about not being able to aford luxuries like seeds. Things are tough were i am too, with the cost of living causing many of us a hard time, so i understand. I always look at seeds that i want to and look at prices and know its not happenong. Fortunatly not much i want now.
Any way Peace.

 

[CarolinaPotheadsNew]

Hey wat ever works for you is good. Yeah some of those super autos ive seen huge big wide plants. Flash seems to have really good ones, im sure some of them are in regular male female seed versions so one can always make more and use them to make their own auto strains too.
I understand what you mean about not being able to aford luxuries like seeds. Things are tough were i am too, with the cost of living causing many of us a hard time, so i understand. I always look at seeds that i want to and look at prices and know its not happenong. Fortunatly not much i want now.
Any way Peace.

Peace! Yeah, not much i really want anymore either. Every day seems a blessing after getting a second chance being brought back after flatlining when a Semi flattened half my car. Cannabis has been the most all-purpose,reliable and affordable medicine ive had. It would be nice to have the luxury to buy and grow any strain you want. I was doing alright for my little space but having to buy a new car,phone and all the other things that come after all that really set me back. Luckily, a friend i met here that cared enough and was able, helped me alot. Shit! Im high and rambling. Fk it. Its after supper here. Im just taking my meds lol. Good talkin with ya!

 

[DanKiller]

All my outdoor plants are light dep until the season start, I live in a warm country so I can squeeze a few runs outside per year.
I have a tent outside just for this purpose.
Put them at 17:30 inside the tent, total darkness. take them out again at 22:00 to a nice dark spot
Or just wake up and take them out at sunrise if you don't have a dark spot.
It's hard work if you don't have a dark spot, I wouldn't wanna get up everyday at 5:30 am to take them out lol
But light dep works like a charm.

 

[CarolinaPotheadsNew]

All my outdoor plants are light dep until the season start, I live in a warm country so I can squeeze a few runs outside per year.
I have a tent outside just for this purpose.
Put them at 17:30 inside the tent, total darkness. take them out again at 22:00 to a nice dark spot
Or just wake up and take them out at sunrise if you don't have a dark spot.
It's hard work if you don't have a dark spot, I wouldn't wanna get up everyday at 5:30 am to take them out lol
But light dep works like a charm.

Dang man, you work hard for it! I give you triple points for figuring a way outside to alter the light hours so that you can get multiple harvests a year. Thats smart. Hard, but smart. Thanks for sharing that

 

[budman111]

Well....At the end of the rainbow, it's always going to boil down to the genetics. My guess is that, the 12/12 system is kind of foolproof when growing indoors. But, no matter what you do and how perfect you make the environment, again, the genetics will decide the final outcome, anyway. I've used the Gas Lantern Technique several times and the plants loved it. In case you're wondering....The Gas Lantern Technique is where you have the lights on for 12 hours, then off for 5.5 hours, then on again for 1 hour and then off again for 5.5 hours -FOR VEG

And then to induce flowering, you go 11 hours on and 13 hours off for the first 2 weeks. Then for weeks 3 and 4 you reduce the light to 10.5 hours on and 13.5 hours off. Then for weeks 5 and 6, you reduce it to 10 hours on and 14 off. Weeks 7 and 8 you reduce it to 9.5 on and 14.5 off. By the last week of flowering, you should be at 9 hours on and 15 hours off.

Sounds weird, but it works like a charm.

I do the GLR too and have saved a shit load on eleccy

 

[sktrrwn]

Well....At the end of the rainbow, it's always going to boil down to the genetics. My guess is that, the 12/12 system is kind of foolproof when growing indoors. But, no matter what you do and how perfect you make the environment, again, the genetics will decide the final outcome, anyway. I've used the Gas Lantern Technique several times and the plants loved it. In case you're wondering....The Gas Lantern Technique is where you have the lights on for 12 hours, then off for 5.5 hours, then on again for 1 hour and then off again for 5.5 hours -FOR VEG

And then to induce flowering, you go 11 hours on and 13 hours off for the first 2 weeks. Then for weeks 3 and 4 you reduce the light to 10.5 hours on and 13.5 hours off. Then for weeks 5 and 6, you reduce it to 10 hours on and 14 off. Weeks 7 and 8 you reduce it to 9.5 on and 14.5 off. By the last week of flowering, you should be at 9 hours on and 15 hours off.

Sounds weird, but it works like a charm.

holy hell man that sure was confusing but the light timer on my indoor will make short work of that! I will try it after the current plants are done! I never even heard of this, thank you

 

[tstick]

holy hell man that sure was confusing but the light timer on my indoor will make short work of that! I will try it after the current plants are done! I never even heard of this, thank you

LOL! Yeah, it's a little complex, but it's also very interesting that the plants can adapt to that schedule so easily. And, for all the OGs who still use inefficient (but awesome) HID lighting to grow, it is a real money saver. I'd bet that running an efficient LED light on an 18/6 schedule is about the same cost as running an equivalent HID light on the Gas Lantern schedule. I was skeptical at first and nervous that I was going to mess up my grow.But, in fact, the plants loved it! I'm a big fan of using it, now. And yeah lots of people have never heard of it, but it's a technique that goes waaaaaay back in history. It's not "bro science." It's legit.