Interrupted Light

I'm 70 years old and I'm going to try and grow a plant soon. I am home in my apartment maybe 95% of the time so if staff from the apartment knock I can just hit off button for fans and lights, I'm going to be raising in a 4' cabinet. Sometimes I'll be gone 3 or 4 hours at a time (very seldom), question is if I turn off everything for that long during a light cycle , how much is that going to screw with the plant? Thanks

PDU said:

I'm 70 years old and I'm going to try and grow a plant soon. I am home in my apartment maybe 95% of the time so if staff from the apartment knock I can just hit off button for fans and lights, I'm going to be raising in a 4' cabinet. Sometimes I'll be gone 3 or 4 hours at a time (very seldom), question is if I turn off everything for that long during a light cycle , how much is that going to screw with the plant? Thanks

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maybe consider growing auto's....that way you need not worry about the light schedule

ISK said:

maybe consider growing auto's....that way you need not worry about the light schedule

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Cool Thanks

You say 95% of the time you're home. So if you only mean like 7 days spread throughout say 4.5 months, than it's not any bit of a deal at all. Now if you mean 3-4 hours per day, every day or like every weekday. Then you have a problem and you should indeed look at autos. But otherwise your fine, maybe more specifics?

Most new growers think light interruptions are much more serious than they are. For example, you'll see posts every now and then worrying about power outtages. You could go days with the lights out or days with the light on and upon correcting see no negative effects. Seldom interuptions aren't to worry.

Plants realy don't count days they count nights.. their dark period is how they keep time..
You can mess with their days but don't mess with their nights..I think you have a doable plan..
Have you given any thought to odor control?

Hello PDU,

I say hell yes to growing at 70, congrats for considering.

On age/strength, if your setup will dictate lifting or moving pots, even a little, you'll probably want 3 gallon pots, as 5 gal and larger are quite heavy wet.

On turning things off, it's worth clarifying that brief interruptions are okay, but it sounds like your asking about turning fans off too. Plants need continuous refresh, exhaust needs to run, and circulation fans need to run. Lights as others have said may not be an issue; but keep in mind you're recreating an outdoor climate, temps, humidity, fresh air, and lights are all factors. Consider ways to keep things constant, it'll be better.

Cheers friend, this is great to see

are the apartment staff prone to entering your apartment when you're out? if you aren't home and they aren't coming in with you gone, why do you need to turn anything off?
the lights and fans don't need you there to run, as long as the staff isn't likely to enter when you aren't there leave everything running.
if they do enter when you aren't home, i'd get a lock on that cabinet. a good one.
odor control is an issue as well, a seedling or two don't smell at all, when you've got one or two plants in full flower, they're gonna stink. a lot.
there are low odor strains, dutch passion durban poison, paradise seeds auto jack, nirvana papaya, dutch passion think different. not that these have no odor, but compared to most they have a very light fragrance that would be much easier to deal with than a tent full of sour diesel.

PDU said:

I'm 70 years old and I'm going to try and grow a plant soon. I am home in my apartment maybe 95% of the time so if staff from the apartment knock I can just hit off button for fans and lights, I'm going to be raising in a 4' cabinet. Sometimes I'll be gone 3 or 4 hours at a time (very seldom), question is if I turn off everything for that long during a light cycle , how much is that going to screw with the plant? Thanks

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have you considered running your lights at night7;00PM to 7:00pm when you are most likely to be home and management is least likely to enter your apartment? as suggested earlier a good lock on your cabinet would be a good ideal too.I am a 60 year old MMJ patient and I run my lights at night to reduce heat in my grow room.good luck with your grow.

Thanks everyone, Thinking about it, I'll have to see if the two DC fans make too much noise,,, main thing I was worried about was being able to see the light. I haven't purchased everything yet, was waiting to see for sure I got the seeds from Nirvana. I live in USA. I'll let y'all know how it goes. I've got everything lined up as to what I need,,,,,,,Thanks again