13/11 light schedule during flowering
- Thread starter Sealion
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CSI Stickyicky
Well-Known Member
I realized one day that my timer was on 12.5 on 11.5 off and set it back to 12/12 i didnt notice a difference in rate of growth or anything, but i wondered if that was why they took forever to flower. I do wonder if it makes a difference and what that diff is, so ill be checking back on this thread, hopefully someone who actually knows chimes in.
jawbrodt
Well-Known Member
I've read that increasing the light period during flowering will delay the harvest time a little, but i also read that it'll increase your yield a little, due to the extra light. I alwaya wanted to try switching to like 15 hours a day during the last 3 weeks of bloom, but i have 2 generations(30 days apart) in the same room, so i can't. It would be interesting to test.
I havn't done it myself, but i'm familiar with the theory!
Within the plants "Comfort Zone" of operation, there is a difference between "Switching Gears" into flowering mode and simply "Maintaining the Status Quo" of flowering mode.
A cannabis plant requires a threshold of about 12 hours of uninterupted darkness per day to produce the concentration of a certain hormone (please don't ask!) that will "Trigger the Change" into Flowering Mode. Once this change has been made, the plant will stay in Flowering Mode untill the hours of uninterupted darkness diminish below a certain threshold that will cause the plant to "Switch Gears" again and go back into Vegitative Mode. The threshold to switch "back" into Vegitative Mode is said to be about 10 hours (or so) of uninterupted darkness.
So, in theory, once your plant has started flowering; you could increase the photoperiod back up to about 14 hours a day - resulting in a lot of extra photosynthesis! Without any stress!
I just wish I could remember where I ran across this bit of wisdom. I read it somewhere a long time ago and haven't been able to find it again since.
Within the plants "Comfort Zone" of operation, there is a difference between "Switching Gears" into flowering mode and simply "Maintaining the Status Quo" of flowering mode.
A cannabis plant requires a threshold of about 12 hours of uninterupted darkness per day to produce the concentration of a certain hormone (please don't ask!) that will "Trigger the Change" into Flowering Mode. Once this change has been made, the plant will stay in Flowering Mode untill the hours of uninterupted darkness diminish below a certain threshold that will cause the plant to "Switch Gears" again and go back into Vegitative Mode. The threshold to switch "back" into Vegitative Mode is said to be about 10 hours (or so) of uninterupted darkness.
So, in theory, once your plant has started flowering; you could increase the photoperiod back up to about 14 hours a day - resulting in a lot of extra photosynthesis! Without any stress!
I just wish I could remember where I ran across this bit of wisdom. I read it somewhere a long time ago and haven't been able to find it again since.
chronchron
Member
Hey awesome man!
Do you think that a plant on 10 hours of dark will continue to flower forever?
Is there a trigger/hormone to tell the plant, "hey season is over and you successfully produced fertile seeds! time to die so your kiddie seeds will have lots of sunlight and water next season!"
My theory is that since a chemical messenger is the cause of changing from veg to flower that there is also a messenger telling the plant when its been fertilized. Preventing this unknown messenger from interacting with the plant, in my opinion, will promote new flower growth!!! Do plants have more bud growth when they are fertilized or unfertilized? Unfertilized!!!!
Assuming your statement is true, and mine also, one could theoretically manipulate a plant to continuously produce buds.
What happens to a plant when it reaches maturity and no pollination has occured? It goes hermie!
BUT WHY? Does the plant somehow know it has made it through a season without reproducing? Is it a survival technique to produce last minute seeds so her kids can try again next season? Whatever the reason for going hermie it probably is a mechanism for producing the same chemical response as fetilization from a male plant, which is, "hey seasons over!!! Time to die!". haha
Whether there is sufficient evidence to prove this is all true is debatable. More experimentation is needed, but my hypothesis is that: preventing seed maturation will keep a plant in its flowering cycle.
A plants main goal is to have sex, and spread its DNA with others. There are various mechanisms that a plant uses to do this which depend on its indigenous environment. Cannabis uses chemical messengers to sense environmental light cycles in order to increase its chance of flowering during a time when pollen is in the air. If this does not happen for whatever reason (aka someone removing males), then the female realizes a harsh winter is coming and it is more likely to continue as a member of the gene pool if goes hermie and grows from seed again next season.
So hey whats worse than not being able to have kids? Not being able to have kids even when you are trying to is pretty shitty compared to just not being able to. right?
The plant knows this too. AND it knows for a fact (when it is a female), that it has the genetic codes to make seeds. But at the end of the season when its mature buds start dieing without being fertilized the plant probably does a little something like this. "OMG I know the season is changing because my buds are reaching maturity. I have had these beautiful bud-breasts out for a while I know I should be preggy! what am I gonna do?!?!?!??! I will just make myself preggers lolololol!!!1!!! hee hee..."
Some questions still left in my mind are:
Do females that become pollinated by other males exhibit hermaphroditism?
If no, then maybe it is because the plant knows it needs not panic at the end of the season cause it is already fertilized. If yes then it could be that hermie is an indicator of light cycle thresholds and does not depend on whether fertilization took place.
Do mature seeds play a part in chemical messages?
If yes then the removal of maturing seeds would influence chemical changes in the plant such as... hermie in absence of matured seeds, death in the presence of matured seeds.
Is there a threshold limit towards this unknown chemical messenger?
It would make sense that there would be as light-cycle hormones also have a threshold concentration.
What factors determine the threshold limit?
Many factors may play parts in degredation and generation of certain hormones. Including specific hormones that may signal for continued flower growth.
Ask yourself this, "What are logical factors and conditions that would promote a plant to stay in its flowering cycle?". Then go experiment to see if your idea works!!!! who knows you may make a remarkable discovery
Post any of your guys' ideas, thoughts, or even experiences that may relate here. Even if you know I'm completely wrong please share your opposing evidence or hypotheses. I know this whole chemical-hormone-messenger-system-thingy is pretty difficult to grasp on the first go around, and even science experts don't understand the complete chemical pathways and signals involved...(otherwise we would cure cancer). so if this is interesting to you and you like experimenting, then by all means do not let a lack of understanding intimidate you from listening to your intuition.
JN811
Well-Known Member
Yo man, i just woke up so I dont feel like reading all this but I used 12/12 for the first month and a half of flowering, then I switched to 11/13.. When I had only a few weeks left I switched to 10/14.. I think it more closely replicates fall going into winter. I had good results with it..
Pipe Dream
Well-Known Member
yes there is romm for experimentation and I'm sure theire are different thresholds for different strains. I have heard from one of the breeders I forget which ones that they always bump the light schedule up to 2 hours more a day during the last 2 weeks of the plants life to increase bud density tremendously.
chronchron
Member
Do the breeders know the mechanism of action for increasing the bud density? (what directly caused the increase?)
Obviously some sort of chemical action within the plant took place. but what??? haha........ could be that the increase in light also increased photosynthesis and made the buds grow more.... this is not what i believe tho. I think that increasing the light period up 2 hours would be enough to confuse the plant. I say confused because a plant in nature is not used to an increase in light period time before it has fully matured. What the plant doesnt know is we are humans and can control how long the light stays on for........ sneaky humans going about playing tricks on plants haha......
this 2 hour increase in light period means one thing to an immature budding plant: it has made it through winter and spring has started.
what would you do if you were this plant who has made it through winter and into the next growing season?
shoot guys! I will tell you what I would do if I were that plant! (pretend i am a plant now)... I would hurry up and make the buds Ive got on me mature as quick as possible. As a plant I know that I grow way faster in veg cycle and there is no use growing more buds cause the males arent putting out pollen yet. Soooo I sense spring by an increase in light period and decrease in dark, then I mature all my buds as quick as possible. By the time they are all matured and gone I will be in veg cycle and ready to rock and roll with the summer sun!
^just my theory. whats urs
Obviously some sort of chemical action within the plant took place. but what??? haha........ could be that the increase in light also increased photosynthesis and made the buds grow more.... this is not what i believe tho. I think that increasing the light period up 2 hours would be enough to confuse the plant. I say confused because a plant in nature is not used to an increase in light period time before it has fully matured. What the plant doesnt know is we are humans and can control how long the light stays on for........ sneaky humans going about playing tricks on plants haha......
this 2 hour increase in light period means one thing to an immature budding plant: it has made it through winter and spring has started.
what would you do if you were this plant who has made it through winter and into the next growing season?
shoot guys! I will tell you what I would do if I were that plant! (pretend i am a plant now)... I would hurry up and make the buds Ive got on me mature as quick as possible. As a plant I know that I grow way faster in veg cycle and there is no use growing more buds cause the males arent putting out pollen yet. Soooo I sense spring by an increase in light period and decrease in dark, then I mature all my buds as quick as possible. By the time they are all matured and gone I will be in veg cycle and ready to rock and roll with the summer sun!
^just my theory. whats urs
2010iron883
Member
Not saying anybody is wrong, but i have flowered all the way thru before using 13/11 and it took about 3 to 4 weeks longer , but i got about a qp outta one plant using cheap drop lights with coil type cfls and 7 or 8 of those 4 ft shop lights with the double t12 cheap daylight bulbs. i done it because of the crappy lights i was using. i had great results. now i have a ezcool 6 and a 600 watt dimmable. ive started out on the 13/11 schdule and now im on 12/12 to finish out. Well see what happens. sorry if this is an old post. im bringing it back to life.
PetFlora
Well-Known Member
If you know where your strain originated you can follow that lighting schedule for veg & bloom, BUT, if you are growing a strain well outside it's geographic zone it is harder to identify.
I follow the sunrise -sunset where I live. If the plant is taking too long to finish, I drop the light schedule as needed. My feeling is the pull where I live is more important than where the strain originated
I follow the sunrise -sunset where I live. If the plant is taking too long to finish, I drop the light schedule as needed. My feeling is the pull where I live is more important than where the strain originated
HygroSolutionz
Member
OK was reading this and thought I would chime in with a little info even though its over a year since last post. To start off it all depends on genetics, some parts of world go from having light periods of 11/13 vice versa depending on season while others can get to around 9/15 vice versa. These genes also affect flowering time, inside the plant there is a hormone called photoperiodism which works closely with phytochrome. This hormone is released once the lights have been off for around 2 hours, once plant is loaded with this hormone (takes around 12 hr of complete darkness) it then signals for phytochrome to release initiating flower. Thats why they tend to flower quicker with a longer dark period (more photoperiodism), at week 3 some strains can be bought back to 13-14 hr light for slightly bigger yeild but flowering will be longer. Increasing light period may also make the plant want to revert to veg growth but as I said genetics play a major roll in this.
purplehays1
Well-Known Member
i had a friend that flowered 8 hours of light 12 hours of dark because that was as long as he could run the lights. He grew very good product but it greatly effected his yield. The plants only really care that they get 12 hrs of darkness or they will freak or reveg and just need the hrs of light to produce..
bl4ze:20
Well-Known Member
this makes 0 sense, theres 24 hours in a day not 20. 8+12 = 20. at 24 hours a day that means he had 8 light and 16 off.
purplehays1
Well-Known Member
does your plant care? i think not.
purplehays1
Well-Known Member
this isnt a human being, it doesnt know there are 24 hrs in a day. It has a few instincts one of them is that once it gets 12 hrs of darkness straight without light it is about to need to reproduce, so it does. Once it is reproducing (flowering) it gives it everything it can even if its only getting a few hrs of light a day.
smokey dragon
Member
Ok so does the 11/13 lighting schedule work to force plants to bud more quickly? Those posts are too long! If anyone has any info please post comments. First time grower need all the info I can get!!!!