How big of a deal is a minor light leak really

So I have my flower and veg areas seperated in my grow room with a tarp..There is a 8 inch gap at the top of the tarp - The room is 9ft tall and the lights are much below this gap..Do you guys think this will be too much of a leak? I mean the plants should be effectively shrouded in darkness its not like the light would be making contact but it will dimly light the other side...

Idk. any light leak can cause a plant to stress and go hermie on you. its a natural survival instinct. It try to patch it up.

anyone else got some comments please , I am reading so many conflicting opinions on this...the reason this gap exists is for ventilation

get a light meter (only $30) and check the ammount of light if under 2000 lumens you should be fine, IMO the whole light leaks cause hermies is bullsh*t, I have never sealed my room and never had a hermie

granted some people use it as an excuse for poor growing skills. but If you put a plant through constant light stress (say 20 min a day) then it can cause it to hermie. but yes, if it is under 2000 Lumens then you should be fine

Lights leaks are easy to fix. Why take the risk of having a hermaphrodite destroy your sinsemilla?

Just get another tarp, or thick black drop plastic and patch up the gap. You can even patch it with multiple overlapping strips of duct tape.

yea I will prolly just get another tarp like dirty harry suggest but I did not really want to do that untill I install an additional exausht, the intake and exaust are both on the VEG side, just this one tarp I can definitly tell a difference the flower side is hotter and thicker air, I kind of doubt its anything near 2000 lumens btw...it is dimly lit but again its not direct light and this takes place for the first 6.5 hours of the dark period and then it goes pitch black for 5.5 hours. hmm yeah I guees I will just go ahead and add the additional tarp for extra protection at lights on tonite

Its all about perspective, If an outdoor plant gets light all day then gets hit by a street lamp, it's probably not going to notice the little light thats put out by that lamp EVERY night, or the moon for that matter. If an indoor grow room is EXTREMELY bright for 12 then dark for 12, a little bit of leaking light in the same place EVERY night , the plant will never know what full darkness was, perspective, and it probably wouldn't be enough to make the plant flip out. If you turn on the main lights on accident when they were supposed to be off, and leave them on for a LONG period of time, that may be another story.

BTW love the no pest strip in the avatar=D

Actually, in the Grower's Bible, there's a photo of a plant that received light from a street lamp on one side (due to a house blocking the other half) and only half of the plant went into flower.

quietguy420 said:

Its all about perspective, If an outdoor plant gets light all day then gets hit by a street lamp, it's probably not going to notice the little light thats put out by that lamp EVERY night, or the moon for that matter. If an indoor grow room is EXTREMELY bright for 12 then dark for 12, a little bit of leaking light in the same place EVERY night , the plant will never know what full darkness was, perspective, and it probably wouldn't be enough to make the plant flip out. If you turn on the main lights on accident when they were supposed to be off, and leave them on for a LONG period of time, that may be another story.

BTW love the no pest strip in the avatar=D

Click to expand...

yeh if they are used to 100% black from day 1 i think any shock in light will fuck with them, but keep a tiny amount all the way thru and youll be ok

i think......... lol

quietguy420 said:

Its all about perspective, If an outdoor plant gets light all day then gets hit by a street lamp, it's probably not going to notice the little light thats put out by that lamp EVERY night, or the moon for that matter. If an indoor grow room is EXTREMELY bright for 12 then dark for 12, a little bit of leaking light in the same place EVERY night , the plant will never know what full darkness was, perspective, and it probably wouldn't be enough to make the plant flip out. If you turn on the main lights on accident when they were supposed to be off, and leave them on for a LONG period of time, that may be another story.

BTW love the no pest strip in the avatar=D

Click to expand...

yea this really touches on some things I am reading...some people say if the light is consistent in the dark period that the plant will never know the difference basically like your saying that low light will be the dark period to the plant..I read one experiment a guy actually ran some low watt LEDS during his dark period for his entire grow(many runs) and then at day he was running like 4000W of HID - he claims he notices no ill effects from before he was using these LEDS - the main reason he runs them is so he can see to work - these arent green lights or something either they are actuall grow lights...Oh well I will be putting up another tarp to block more light in about 40 minutes so should be okay - It will likely still be a little illuminated cause it is a 1000W MH running on the other side but like a said its low to the ground and facing the other direction with a full hood that directs it all the opposite direction of the flowering room so it is very minor illumination...

I have minor light leaks in the closet I grow in and my plants don't hermie.....knock on wood!

Ok well here is a pic of the gap in the tarp - GAPS rather...notice where the light is hanging, well its about the same on the other side...this is a 9ft ceiling..room is 21ftx7ft and its about right in the middle. - Notice my only air exausht is to one side so thats the main reason we have the upper gap..additonaly the only air intake is also on that same side.

That may be a tad more than a minor light leak =P

quietguy420 said:

That may be a tad more than a minor light leak =P

Click to expand...

agreed, tighten it up

haha yeah okay guys thanks I was thinking the same thing... I am keeping it tight btw in the pic its when its opened up to walk thru but still there is some major gaps

so I basically redid the whole ventilation system today and made tight fitting tarp double layered in the middle

deprave said:

so I basically redid the whole ventilation system today and made tight fitting tarp double layered in the middle

Click to expand...

Sweet nice work pics coming?

quietguy420 said:

Sweet nice work pics coming?

Click to expand...

Yea I will have some in my growlog prolly tommorow....we did a Y bracket and got a better exausht fan and used the old intake fan for an additional intake so each side has an intake and exausht of its own...velcrod the tarp tightly to the walls and adding another tarp glued to ceiling and the walls we then cut holes in tarp for exausht and intake ducting and duct taped around it..(only like half this job is done so we finish the rest tommorow.

Just got only the flowering light running right now all plants are under it while finish this job of making sure its sealed good....We are going to go ahead and flower all the adult plants and take clones tommorow also before they REALLY start flowering..