Multiple light cycles a day possible?

Every so often, I get the idea that I read about setting the timer for 2 on/off light cycles a day during flowering, but I cannot seem to find it again.

So, I figured I'd pose the questions here... Have you tried it? Would you post pics? Wanna tell me how lame this idea is or how it affected your grow?

Did the growing time increase or decrease?

etc.

Thanks for humoring me with this.

I've read that the dark period is all that matters, and the plants don't really care too much about how long the lights are on. If that's true then this seems like a bad idea since you normally want to maximize the light period since that's how they get energy.

aeafafwe said:

I've read that the dark period is all that matters, and the plants don't really care too much about how long the lights are on. If that's true then this seems like a bad idea since you normally want to maximize the light period since that's how they get energy.

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Yea, thanks. I "like" your answer.
How long the lights are on OR off would make a difference, but whether you could basically have good light for so long, then darkness, then another period of light, then darkness, and keep it steadily set on a timer, what would happen?

I would hope a hermie would be prevented by keeping the times consistent, just shorter and more of them. Yes this is unnatural for a normal plant, but this is indoor and grown a little abnormally to start with.

mmjmon I am still loving your Avatar if you change it I think I would not recognize you

are you perhaps looking for the Gas Lantern Routine

https://www.rollitup.org/t/gas-lantern-routine.442509/

Commander Strax said:

mmjmon I am still loving your Avatar if you change it I think I would not recognize you

are you perhaps looking for the Gas Lantern Routine

https://www.rollitup.org/t/gas-lantern-routine.442509/

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yea, the avatar grew on me.

Thanks for the link. I'll read through it. I don't remember the name or title of what I read before, but it was at least similar. I'm not sure I'll actually try it, but it crosses my mind sometimes.

Thanks again.

mmjmon said:

How long the lights are on OR off would make a difference, but whether you could basically have good light for so long, then darkness, then another period of light, then darkness, and keep it steadily set on a timer, what would happen?

I would hope a hermie would be prevented by keeping the times consistent, just shorter and more of them. Yes this is unnatural for a normal plant, but this is indoor and grown a little abnormally to start with.

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I'm not sure what you mean... I also don't think they'd start flowering if you squeezed two cycles into one. Six hours of light (assuming you normally do 12/12) isn't enough to trigger flowering AFAIK. It might help saving money during veg, but I don't see how it could help flowering.

I read a heath robinson thread at breedbay.
He had 2 600w'ers over their own tray.
He did 2on, 2 off.
I believe this approach has merit.
Good luck

aeafafwe said:

I'm not sure what you mean... I also don't think they'd start flowering if you squeezed two cycles into one. Six hours of light (assuming you normally do 12/12) isn't enough to trigger flowering AFAIK. It might help saving money during veg, but I don't see how it could help flowering.

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Thanks for the reply. Does seem odd huh?

killemsoftly said:

I read a heath robinson thread at breedbay.
He had 2 600w'ers over their own tray.
He did 2on, 2 off.
I believe this approach has merit.
Good luck

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Wow. 2/2. That seems hard to believe. Thank you for this. I'll try and find it.

I didn't explain it well so I quoted the source.
Heath robinson is a legend. He may have invented rdwc; he certainly expounded on it's effectiveness. He documented and pioneered doing 'trees' vertically which was, imho, a real game changer.
I encourage you to google him and check out his many threads. A very accomplished grower and very generous with his knowledge. I understand he's retired from forums.
I learned a ton from reading his stuff.

Good luck. I would love to see whatever you do.

Greetings,I have tried 6/12 for the entire flowering period.Lighter harvest but quality was spot on at a sooner chop date. I did a thread on it back in the day.My yield was light for reasons beyond the light cycle,many important ingredients were not used but i did in fact do ok quality wise.

Cannabis plants are referred to as long night or short day plants, because they require a long period of darkness to trigger the hormones that tell the plant to switch from vegetative growth to flowering. These light receptors are color pigments in the leaves called Phytochrome Red (PR) and Phytochrome Far Red (PFR). These pigments get their names from the types of light they absorb. PR absorbs red light between 660 and 760 nm and PFR absorbs far red light between 760 and 800 nm. These two pigments chemically react to the light, and trigger the plant to flower or not.
In cannabis plants, the normal presence of PFRswitches off the flowering signal. The level of PFR is what you can manipulate by adjusting the photoperiod. PFR is quickly produced when plants are exposed to light that contains far red wavelengths. When there is light, the PFR and PR maintain a balance. When the sun goes down or the lights go out, the darkness gradually switches the PFR to PR. Because of this, PR levels gradually increase and the PFRgradually decrease during the dark period. The presence of PR is a neutral condition to the plants and essentially tells them nothing. When the light returns, or if a small amount of far red light interrupts the dark period, the PRimmediately switches back to PFR. If the plant is without light long enough, the PFR will decrease past a tipping point. This decreased level of PFR signals the plants that Fall is approaching; and the plant begins flowering.

In short, the presence of PFR due to long hours of light and short hours of darkness keep the plants in the vegetative phase. If the plant experiences enough hours of darkness, most of the PFR turns to PR ; and the low level of PFRsignals the plant hormones to begin flowering.

http://www.marijuanagrowershq.com/light-cycles-and-flowering-cannabis/

you can do any light cycle you want as long as the dark cycle is 12 hours the plants will bloom. You can run 6 hrs on 12 hrs off and have your plants finish quicker but the major drawback is the plants will be smaller due to less light.

killemsoftly said:

I didn't explain it well so I quoted the source.
Heath robinson is a legend. He may have invented rdwc; he certainly expounded on it's effectiveness. He documented and pioneered doing 'trees' vertically which was, imho, a real game changer.
I encourage you to google him and check out his many threads. A very accomplished grower and very generous with his knowledge. I understand he's retired from forums.
I learned a ton from reading his stuff.

Good luck. I would love to see whatever you do.

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Thanks for that, sounds interesting. I will look him up when I am able.

headbandrocker said:

Greetings,I have tried 6/12 for the entire flowering period.Lighter harvest but quality was spot on at a sooner chop date. I did a thread on it back in the day.My yield was light for reasons beyond the light cycle,many important ingredients were not used but i did in fact do ok quality wise.

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Nice... thanks for the comment.

Shippey123 said:

Cannabis plants are referred to as long night or short day plants, because they require a long period of darkness to trigger the hormones that tell the plant to switch from vegetative growth to flowering....
...In short, the presence of PFR due to long hours of light and short hours of darkness keep the plants in the vegetative phase. If the plant experiences enough hours of darkness, most of the PFR turns to PR ; and the low level of PFRsignals the plant hormones to begin flowering.

http://www.marijuanagrowershq.com/light-cycles-and-flowering-cannabis/

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Great info. Thanks for that.

booms111 said:

you can do any light cycle you want as long as the dark cycle is 12 hours the plants will bloom. You can run 6 hrs on 12 hrs off and have your plants finish quicker but the major drawback is the plants will be smaller due to less light.

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cool. thanks.

i was wondering a similar question, if you could run on a non-24 hour day. so run 18 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness for a 30 hour day. how would that do? lol!

That is a good question, I wonder if anyone has tried it?

m3d1c1n3man said:

i was wondering a similar question, if you could run on a non-24 hour day. so run 18 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness for a 30 hour day. how would that do? lol!

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Yea, that is sort of what I was wondering about. If you are growing indoors, would the time constraints, whether it be shorter days or longer days be possible, and have some here possibly have some results from trying it. Imitation sun, imitation days... 4 hour periods, 8,14, 28, or even 36 + hour days etc. as you can control the imitation sun/darkness.

I still have some reading to do from prior posts, and I'm sure some long time growers will say it can't be done, and maybe it can't, but I figured it doesn't hurt to ask.

Getting the plants flipped and keeping them flowering would be the the most important consideration compared to the final product.

Thanks for the comment.