How bad is light at night during flowering?

I have a clone that I've been growing in my window. It seems to have just entered the flowering stage, as its starting to get white hairs (pistils?) at the joints and on the tips of some branches.

Since this time of year coincidentally has 12 hours between sunrise and sunset the natural light cycle is just right for it. However, this plan is in my bedroom so I often have lights on after the sun has gone down.

I keep reading that the plants need complete darkness during their night period during flowering, but I'm wondering how necessary it is.

If I really have to, I can keep it in my closet most nights, however I don't want to have to deal with that since I'm sleeping when the sun comes up, and wouldn't be able to take it out in the morning.

Any info would be much appreciated, thanks.

maybe thumb tack a towel up over the window so its blacked out. depending on the light you use to read by your prolly not going to get them enough lumens to effect your flowering. outside plants still get moonlight at night with verry little lumen and they grow fine. just my oppinion tho.

that is true i didn't think about hermy problems. like i said you might want to maybe get some curtains or something up you can sheild it with.

Is there really any risk of the plant becoming hermaphroditic, as it came from a clone. And it already looks pretty female to my untrained eye. I'll post some pictures in a bit.

Yes, there is a risk. Lights in your room are going to be a lot more than a little moonlight. A 12/12 schedule causes a chemical change in the plant, which triggers flowering. When you change the light to more than that - it can trigger vegging hormones, instead - causing stress to the plant. Which can cause it to show hermie traits. Showing a pic of how female it is now, doesn't change that.

Just as a note, I hadn't intended to trigger the flowering, I just noticed the white hairs forming on it. It has already been dealing with irregular lighting, and many nights in which lights were on in my room for most of the night.

Aside from the hermie risk, will it do any other harm as long as it stays female?

If the schedule is that irratic, you're almost guaranteed a hermie. If nothing else it'll take forever to finish flowering.

I'm guessing if it keeps getting light it may confuse the plant and start to reveg then back 2 flower....until you get the 12/12 down you won't have much to smoke

Ah, thanks DoeEyed. I guess I'll have to find a way to keep it dark at night. I guess if I shield it from my room that'll keep it at daylight only, plus maybe it'll help reflect more light onto it during the day.

theSinned said:

Is there really any risk of the plant becoming hermaphroditic, as it came from a clone. And it already looks pretty female to my untrained eye. I'll post some pictures in a bit.

Click to expand...

i turned my plants into hermi's on my first grow because of light leaks. and they were 2 weeks away from being done. so that means that they had been blooming for 10 weeks and i only had the light leaks for a week in the 8th week. 9th week......BAM ballzino's!!!!!!!!!!


why do you even want to grow weed if you don't want to do it right? you ask questions that don't make sense. i want good weed but i don't want to put in any work.....

So I guess I'll just move it into the closet after the sun goes down, and try to take it out before I fall asleep but after all my lights are off.
This is my first grow and I was trying to keep it as simple as possible. Its not that I'm unwilling to put in the work, I just have an erratic schedule that makes keeping consistent light difficult.
I was hoping to not have to go for a fully enclosed grow space, as I like using sunlight. Hopefully for future grows I can figure out a good system other than just moving it at night.