Revolutionising the traditional light cycles and photo periods

[cerealkilla]

I have been using a 32 hour flower cycle for some time, since i was able to buy a cheap enough digital timer and throw the old 24 hr timers with there nasty contacts in the bin. my digital timer now only around 30 bucks dosnt care how many hours there are in one day neither do my greens and neither do i. my 32 hr period consists of 20 hours of perfect hps light and 12 hr perfect dark my grow is 20/4 so my 20hr light period never changes only my dark period. this increases yield, decreases dramatically your flower period and gives the green what it wants more light during flower not less. Anyone else using this method if not why?

 

[rzza]

im concidering it. you lose money on electric when opposed to running at off peak hours. does a 65 day finisher still take 65 days?

 

[rzza]

bump...

im having a hard time finding info on this. ive read a some on it before but id like more info. any search tips?

 

[riddleme]

From Cannabis Culture #56 Aug/Sep 05

Ask Ed Rosenthal:

What would happen if I gave my plants a 27 or 30-hour day instead of 24? I would use a seven-day timer to turn the lights on for 15 to 18 hours and then give the plants a 12-hour dark period. Would this lighting make the plant grow faster or have a larger harvest?

Doctor James,
Internet


I think the plants would accept a longer cycle of 27-hour days and continue to flower. The next question is, "Is it worthwhile doing this?"

The idea of long cycling is to increase the percentage of time the plants receive light to increase growth. Under normal flowering conditions plants receive 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness each day. If a day were increased from 24 to 27 hours and the plants were lit 15 hours and in darkness 12 hours, they would be lit 55% of the time, an increase of 10%.

Let's say the plants had a 70-day cycle. For plants cycled to 27-hour days, it would take an additional nine days to complete the cycle. The plants under the normal 12-12 cycle would receive a total of 840 hours of light during flowering and the plants under the 27-hour cycle would receive 1,050 hours. Would the extra nine days, almost 13% more time, induce harvests more than 13% more bountiful? I think they would. Also, the buds would grow larger, resulting in higher quality produce.

I must admit that I have not tried this experiment. If altered cycles intrigue you, try it on only a small portion of your crop. Experiment first, before incorporating the plan into your entire program.

Another way of increasing the percentage of time the plants spend under lights is to find their critical forcing period. Outdoor growers may have noticed that some of their plants begin flowering long before September 22, when the day and night length is each 12 hours. Plants that begin to flower in August or early September are obviously triggered by fewer than 12 hours of darkness. Finding a variety's critical day length takes either observation of outdoor growth or some experimentation indoors. If a plant were to flower under a regimen of 13 hours of light and 11 hours darkness, it would be lit 54% of the time and under a 14-10 hour regimen it would be photosynthesizing 58% of the time.

There is also the possibility of finding the plant's critical light period and using longer days. Under the 27-hour regimen, with a critical time factor of 10 hours, the plants would be lit 17 hours of each day, or about 65% of the time.

this came up when I googled EXTENDED PHOTOPERIOD FOR PLANTS

 

[rzza]

hey thanks alot riddleme. that shhould get me started.

 

[jesus of Cannabis]

if mother nature is what you are trying to mimic than I say your stuff is BS, but if it works for you than go for it.

 

[quillo]

this came up when I googled EXTENDED PHOTOPERIOD FOR PLANTS

That is really interesting, especially the notion of using longer days on a plant variety with a lower critical time factor. But I have never heard of any variety bred to have a shorter critical light period. Wonder why not?

 

[quillo]

if mother nature is what you are trying to mimic than I say your stuff is BS, but if it works for you than go for it.

LOL, my plants have their roots in perlite/vermiculite, are fed nutrients from a bottle, are lighted from an hps lamp, and as isolated as I can make them from non-me life forms. They may as well be orbiting Neptune in a space capsule for all Mother Nature has to do with them.

 

[cerealkilla]

Well i hope this has ya thinkin yes it does shorten your flower period, more is goin on during flower and the 20hrs of light is welcomed by my geens as you can see in my avatar pic bubba kush as long as the cycles stay constant this cant be done with your old 24hr pin timer but can be easily programmed with a digital 24 hr timer. this will not fail!!

 

[deflator]

LOL, my plants have their roots in perlite/vermiculite, are fed nutrients from a bottle, are lighted from an hps lamp, and as isolated as I can make them from non-me life forms. They may as well be orbiting Neptune in a space capsule for all Mother Nature has to do with them.

This is a ridiculous statement. You are replacing soil with that media, organic compounds with chemical nutrients, and sunlight with a lamp...you're doing everything in your power to recreate the natural environment and now you want to go and change the most essential part of cannabis flowering, the photoperiod? LMAO good luck buddy. It will probably work, these plants will grow under most conditions, but not as well as using the natural rhythm of the planet.

 

[rzza]

hes not saying that hes trying this. this is what he does and it works. there is some info out there about it available, just hard to find. i just would like to find out how much sooner harvest comes.

 

[quillo]

This is a ridiculous statement. You are replacing soil with that media, organic compounds with chemical nutrients, and sunlight with a lamp...you're doing everything in your power to recreate the natural environment and now you want to go and change the most essential part of cannabis flowering, the photoperiod? LMAO good luck buddy. It will probably work, these plants will grow under most conditions, but not as well as using the natural rhythm of the planet.

Ridiculous? OK, to you the above described is a recreation of nature. To me, it looks more like a factory or industrial chicken production. It's striking to me to see this plant thrive even in the extremely artificial conditions in which we grow it. Mind you, I'm not putting this artificial culture down; my plants grow like gangbusters in this environment and I'm excited to find new ways to accelerate production even more. But given the extent of the artificiality that already exists in technified indoor grows, it seems silly to argue against altering the photoperiod because it's too unnatural.

 

[rzza]

Ridiculous? OK, to you the above described is a recreation of nature. To me, it looks more like a factory or industrial chicken production. It's striking to me to see this plant thrive even in the extremely artificial conditions in which we grow it. Mind you, I'm not putting this artificial culture down; my plants grow like gangbusters in this environment and I'm excited to find new ways to accelerate production even more. But given the extent of the artificiality that already exists in technified indoor grows, it seems silly to argue against altering the photoperiod because it's too unnatural.

it is silly. the guy probably just needs to get laid or something ...tell me your cycle for flower please? wouldnt it be 24/24 or alike? perhaps 22/24??

 

[cerealkilla]

Ok! my light cycle for flower is 20 on 12 off my grow 20 on 4 off i keep my on cycles the same the only thing that changes is my off period which tells my kush what to do. this method was taught to me by some dutch growers over ten years ago and was a closely guarded secret for some time, my thoughts are why not share my knowledge so everyone can benifit from what i like to call extended light hours, i can reasure you the kush knows little about light cycles or how many light ours their are in a day and is manipulated by the dark hours it receives not the light hours, many of you may be sceptical of new things for myself i have never been scared to try new things if they sound logical, this method sounded more than logical it sounded revolutionary. Any and all feed back will be welcomed!!

 

[cerealkilla]

Sorry for those of you who want to know this is a closet grow, coco, 400hps, dutchmaster nutes, bubbakush strain, pic taken at 24 days.

 

[rzza]

no pic!!!!!!! i wanna see it. and is it 24 real days LOL

so what would you say on average for time? typical 60 day strain would take how long with your method (which i like alot and im trying it out)?

 

[cerealkilla]

I cant say how many or how few days it would take, at this point i would say experiment and whats the worse that can happen? remember if you dont like disturbing their sleep like i dont then you need to write down or have a good memory because your light on times will be changing with every cycle 32 does not fit into 24!!

 

[Brick Top]

I have read about such light cycles a number of times over the years and one question always popped into my head more than any others. That is, since light degrades THC and most THC is produced during hours of darkness when plants run on stored energy and they shut down most plant functions and allocate increased amounts of energy for THC production and for growth, IF the additional amount of THC that is lost through light degradation during the increased length periods of light can be made up for in a normal 12-hour period of darkness on top of the amounts that can and would normally be made?

Someone might get increased growth and yields but they might also end up with a lower quality herb than they would otherwise have. In a normal light cycle they might end up with a lesser amount but what they have might be more potent.

Until someone other than someone doing this sort of thing in a basement says it is the bee's knees I will stick to the conventional light cycles.

 

[cerealkilla]

you are entirely right brick top and i have been told not to exceed 20hrs of light i dont think any one method is the beez neez as you put it, there are just too many growing methods around and technicalities can go on for ever, i guess we will see if anyone else tries this, i have friends who stick with the traditional methods even though they know my method works and has its advantages especially in a commercial sense, i guess some people dont like change and prefer to stick with what they know and what works for them.

 

[rzza]

i like the idea of 20/4 and increasing night to 20/12.