24 hour darkness

Jon448 · Mar 1, 2009

Why does it seem that my two plants get a good growth spurt when they receive a 24 hour darkness period. I have done this twice already, once a few weeks ago when I forgot to turn on the lights at night and I so I just left it off for 24 hours and it grew good that time. The second time was yesterday but this time I did it on purpose to see if it would have a growth spurt again and it did. Does anyone know why this happened and also is it ok to do this like once a week or should u not do it at all? by the way my plants are about 4 months old and about a month and a half in flower.

smoke and coke · Mar 1, 2009

wow you really shouldnt be messing with the lights. your 6 weeks into flower.
if you insist on doing it then please do and keep us posted if your plants go hermie.
its common for a plant to stretch a little during the dark period.

motoracer110 · Mar 1, 2009

ya your plants are stressing and stretching trying to find more light. I would totally stop doing that or you will get a hermi like SMOKE said.

GoldenGanja13 · Mar 1, 2009

I would say "enough said".

Jon448 · Mar 2, 2009

smoke and coke said:
wow you really shouldnt be messing with the lights. your 6 weeks into flower.
if you insist on doing it then please do and keep us posted if your plants go hermie.
its common for a plant to stretch a little during the dark period.

motoracer110 said:
ya your plants are stressing and stretching trying to find more light. I would totally stop doing that or you will get a hermi like SMOKE said.

GoldenGanja13 said:
I would say "enough said".

Ok cool thanks guys for the info. I am gonna totally stop doing that for sure. I get now why they grew a little. I just hope they are gonna stay normal and not go hermie on me.

CasteR · Mar 2, 2009

just hit the hardware store and get a timer man, its like ten bucks. better to spend ten than to lose your babies right?

juststartin · Mar 2, 2009

^ defo, u need a timer bro

SOGrowing · Mar 2, 2009

Okay, no one has actually answered the question of the original post. Homeboy here, was asking a very specific question. Why does the plant grow at night.

To tell you the truth, I don't have the answer. Although, I may have an explanation. I do know as a fact, that during the night cycle, the plant expels excess CO2 molecules through the roots, which was built up in the leaves, during photosynthesis. This is why you should not use a 24/0 light cycle. As the plant does not have the opportunity to expel these excess CO2 molecules. Maybe the process of this natural biological function, causes the plant to have a growth spurt. As I heard, from many testimonials and from personal experiences, that a 18/6 light cycles versus a 24/0 life cycle, that the plant seems to grow overnight. In fact it does! Why it does this, I really don't know. This fact alone, proves the fact that you should use an 18/6 light cycle, and not a 24/0 light cycle.

I'm just attempting to try to answer your original question.

mannurse801 · Mar 2, 2009

The longer darker period shouldn't hermie your plants, it is the lgihting that will herm them, constant light leaks during dark and such. There are many growers that will initiat 24-36 hrs of dark at
1. End of veg - it boosts the flowering hormones in the plants)
2. Middle of the flowering process - again a boost of flowering hormones is induced by the extended dark time
3. Before harvest - It forces the plant to draw as much enery from the plant to the buds as possible, as there is now no more light for photosynthesis.
I have only done th 36hrs before flower and before harvest tho, never the one in the middle..... Theories are theories until you try them... let us know how they turn out...

Jon448 · Mar 3, 2009

CasteR said:
just hit the hardware store and get a timer man, its like ten bucks. better to spend ten than to lose your babies right?

juststartin said:
^ defo, u need a timer bro

now u guys are both definitely right but now my plants are in my closet with a little bit of light leaks. So when I turn off the lights I have to put of plastic bags on my closet door and my lights get to hot and will burn the plastic bags so I can't leave them up when the lights are on. So I can't get a timer because the timer might come on and I might not remember or be asleep to take the bags down.

Jon448 · Mar 3, 2009

SOGrowing said:
Okay, no one has actually answered the question of the original post. Homeboy here, was asking a very specific question. Why does the plant grow at night.

To tell you the truth, I don't have the answer. Although, I may have an explanation. I do know as a fact, that during the night cycle, the plant expels excess CO2 molecules through the roots, which was built up in the leaves, during photosynthesis. This is why you should not use a 24/0 light cycle. As the plant does not have the opportunity to expel these excess CO2 molecules. Maybe the process of this natural biological function, causes the plant to have a growth spurt. As I heard, from many testimonials and from personal experiences, that a 18/6 light cycles versus a 24/0 life cycle, that the plant seems to grow overnight. In fact it does! Why it does this, I really don't know. This fact alone, proves the fact that you should use an 18/6 light cycle, and not a 24/0 light cycle.

I'm just attempting to try to answer your original question.

cool thanks man for answering my question, I was wandering why.

darkdestruction420 · Mar 3, 2009

mannurse801 said:
The longer darker period shouldn't hermie your plants, it is the lgihting that will herm them, constant light leaks during dark and such. There are many growers that will initiat 24-36 hrs of dark at
1. End of veg - it boosts the flowering hormones in the plants)
2. Middle of the flowering process - again a boost of flowering hormones is induced by the extended dark time
3. Before harvest - It forces the plant to draw as much enery from the plant to the buds as possible, as there is now no more light for photosynthesis.
I have only done th 36hrs before flower and before harvest tho, never the one in the middle..... Theories are theories until you try them... let us know how they turn out...

omg, i never heard of doing one in the middle of flowering but that makes me very happy to hear, my lights didnt turn on for 2 days cuz of a human error and i was just gonna post asking if im fucked.

Jon448 · Mar 3, 2009

mannurse801 said:
The longer darker period shouldn't hermie your plants, it is the lgihting that will herm them, constant light leaks during dark and such. There are many growers that will initiat 24-36 hrs of dark at
1. End of veg - it boosts the flowering hormones in the plants)
2. Middle of the flowering process - again a boost of flowering hormones is induced by the extended dark time
3. Before harvest - It forces the plant to draw as much enery from the plant to the buds as possible, as there is now no more light for photosynthesis.
I have only done th 36hrs before flower and before harvest tho, never the one in the middle..... Theories are theories until you try them... let us know how they turn out...

Well this is nice to know so doing this was a good thing I did. It's funny because the first time I did it was on accident and I saw the growth it did. So I did it a second time and then I thought I better find out if this is ok to do. I probably got around another six weeks of flowering, im not sure if im gonna do it again until harvest but I might. If I do it again I probably wait a week or two, but I will see how they are doing and if I remember I will let you guys know. I actually probably won't do it again because this plant is growing seeds for me and I really need those sees to continue on and so I don't want to take any chances and mess those up u know.

Jon448 · Mar 5, 2009

darkdestruction420 said:
omg, i never heard of doing one in the middle of flowering but that makes me very happy to hear, my lights didnt turn on for 2 days cuz of a human error and i was just gonna post asking if im fucked.

Ya man same to me when I first did it on accident, I'm glad were both not fucked. :weed:

mannurse801 · Mar 5, 2009

Well, again, I have never tried the 36/24 hours of darkness in the middle of a grow, but I ahve seen the thepry about it. It makes sense, but again, I have not tried it personally, so I can't say what the results are like for sure.

howhi · Mar 5, 2009

Jon448 said:
now u guys are both definitely right but now my plants are in my closet with a little bit of light leaks. So when I turn off the lights I have to put of plastic bags on my closet door and my lights get to hot and will burn the plastic bags so I can't leave them up when the lights are on. So I can't get a timer because the timer might come on and I might not remember or be asleep to take the bags down.

Just thought I would give a comment on the bag thing. If the bags are causing a problem with melting etc buy a cheap curtain or material (old duvet etc) double it over and hang it over the areas that should stop the leaking light.

Then it means you can get a timer its so much easier that way man. Do you have a fan in there too??

Jon448 · Mar 7, 2009

howhi said:
Just thought I would give a comment on the bag thing. If the bags are causing a problem with melting etc buy a cheap curtain or material (old duvet etc) double it over and hang it over the areas that should stop the leaking light.

Then it means you can get a timer its so much easier that way man. Do you have a fan in there too??

ill look into the curtain thing and try to find something. I don't have a fan but i read if u are doing it in a closet and at least open it once a day, then u don't need a fan. I open my closet at least twice a day so I'm pretty sure im ok with the air circulation.

Jon448 · Mar 7, 2009

mannurse801 said:
Well, again, I have never tried the 36/24 hours of darkness in the middle of a grow, but I ahve seen the thepry about it. It makes sense, but again, I have not tried it personally, so I can't say what the results are like for sure.

So far I'm pretty sure I did not mess up the plants, but I just hope I did not cause to much stress to where they mess up the seeds.

howhi · Mar 7, 2009

Jon448 said:
ill look into the curtain thing and try to find something. I don't have a fan but i read if u are doing it in a closet and at least open it once a day, then u don't need a fan. I open my closet at least twice a day so I'm pretty sure im ok with the air circulation.

Kl man the curtain thing was the best i could come up with just with my setup... Even though you are opening the cupboard for fresh air the most common thing ive found when reading up on growing etc it that the fan not only circulates the air whether fresh or not, is that it also helps to mimic an outdoor enviroment and help strengthen your little baby.

But obv if you dont find a problem with heat and circulation of air etc then thats cool.

Obv everything i say is I.M.O hope your grow goes well dude.

Jon448 · Mar 13, 2009

howhi said:
Kl man the curtain thing was the best i could come up with just with my setup... Even though you are opening the cupboard for fresh air the most common thing ive found when reading up on growing etc it that the fan not only circulates the air whether fresh or not, is that it also helps to mimic an outdoor enviroment and help strengthen your little baby.

But obv if you dont find a problem with heat and circulation of air etc then thats cool.

Obv everything i say is I.M.O hope your grow goes well dude.

Ya cool man thanks, I just started getting red or brown hairs on the buds. I probably will get like a pc fan for future grows. I think I might just put a huge blanket over my closet or something like that.

24 hour darkness

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