Plants pray from 10pm - 2am

All day the leaves stay nuetral/flat, then the last 4 hours of every night the plants start reaching up to the light.

Is this a learned mechanism from nature, where the plants are expecting a dimming sun at the end of day?

p.s. im running these 1 week old photos on a 18/6 schedule, is that normal?

#FirstTimeGrower

From my experience plants pray towards good light. Or if lights too much before burning. Your plants look good so far besides getting them off the ground I wouldn't change a thing. Ground is colder not so much during warmer months but its always good to keep pots off floor. Roots benefit from it.

GroBud said:

From my experience plants pray towards good light. Or if lights too much before burning. Your plants look good so far besides getting them off the ground I wouldn't change a thing. Ground is colder not so much during warmer months but its always good to keep pots off floor. Roots benefit from it.

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Hey thanks GB, For sure, plan to get some stands for the 5-gallon fabric pots I will transplant into. It's next on my list, Of course not sure what kind of stands, or where i'll get them from yet.

That's what I put my seedlings on in a seedling tray. Once plant has established roots they can go on the floor or in a saucer to catch runoff. If using organic amendments wont need to put established plants on pot elevators. Sprouts roots like to be warm it's not a make or break just helps set sprouts up for success . If you use a strong led you cant leave dome on after seeds sprout they'll dampen off. I veg under florescent with eye hortilux tubes, alot weaker than leds.

Saucers I use for 5 gallons. When I used liquid nutrients I used the same pot elevators for established plants as seedlings
.

Those saucers are too small for 7 gallons with cloth pots they are almost exactly the same size and wont really catch water coming from sides of pot.

Sorry that's my caddies these are the saucers https://smile.amazon.com/Bleuhome-Plastic-Durable-Indoors-Saucers/dp/B09QGF5QWX/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=LE8T4LJK5DLP&keywords=pot+saucers+15+inch&qid=1653881322&sprefix=pot+saucers+15inch,aps,204&sr=8-3

Nothing i do is a necessity besides having moist medium. Just catering to plants giving them the best chance of success in my environment

as this thread seems to describe best what i have, so i ask here.
my plants are also praying quite heavy at night.

at least 3 of the 4 do it, which puzzles me.
pic is taken at night.

there is no light leak, temp of the pots should be about 70F all the time, Plants seeing a good 70F max too.
its winter, i would like to have them a little warmer but i have no probs growing in a 21C enviroment, even under leds.
Soil is a organic mix, lots of EWC, bat guano, organic fert pellets.
900ppfd at the tops, using my LED rig i use since years.
i do use EOD this run, but i think i had it without 730nm EOD also, not sure, i normally dont watch them at night.
i have no real problems, just finetuning the soil mix, but am curious if thats normal.
do you have this too, end of the their night?

When they start to flower they will be praying lights on and off ,, they’re in production mode … in veg my light comes on at 5 am but praying at 3 am …lol

cobshopgrow said:

as this thread seems to describe best what i have, so i ask here.
my plants are also praying quite heavy at night.
View attachment 5267122
at least 3 of the 4 do it, which puzzles me.
pic is taken at night.

there is no light leak, temp of the pots should be about 70F all the time, Plants seeing a good 70F max too.
its winter, i would like to have them a little warmer but i have no probs growing in a 21C enviroment, even under leds.
Soil is a organic mix, lots of EWC, bat guano, organic fert pellets.
900ppfd at the tops, using my LED rig i use since years.
i do use EOD this run, but i think i had it without 730nm EOD also, not sure, i normally dont watch them at night.
i have no real problems, just finetuning the soil mix, but am curious if thats normal.
do you have this too, end of the their night?

Click to expand...

There's an argument that high light intensity causes leaves to pray which reduces their surface are directly to the light, looking at yours you'll see it's the highest leaves are praying the hardest.

Question is is are they setting themselves up that way toward the end of lights on when they've reached their dli or are they shifting position after lights out?

There's also the argument from other plants which pray to capture moisture, like prayer plants do, but are our plants doing it to help any moisture run off to avoid and sitting on the leaves as dew point changes?

coreywebster said:

There's an argument that high light intensity causes leaves to pray which reduces their surface are directly to the light, looking at yours you'll see it's the highest leaves are praying the hardest.

Question is is are they setting themselves up that way toward the end of lights on when they've reached their dli or are they shifting position after lights out?

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its a miracle to me an would bet there is no easy explanation.

yes, its true, leaves pointing up are the ones seeing the most light over day.
about 900ppfd, which should be okish (Spectromaster C7000 told me), always be a bit carefull there.

puzzling is, 2 front ones pray extreme at night, rear left one dont, same height plant top colas right behind the praying ones (normal posture, no drop).

important to note, they do this at night, at day they show normal "pray" posture.
after lights out theyre normal, at some point in the night they start to point upwards.

if one is having his plants at sleep for a few hours, he may can have a look and tell me.
could be complete normal, just, i watch them normally over day only.

Posture at day.

cobshopgrow said:

as this thread seems to describe best what i have, so i ask here.
my plants are also praying quite heavy at night.
View attachment 5267122
at least 3 of the 4 do it, which puzzles me.
pic is taken at night.

there is no light leak, temp of the pots should be about 70F all the time, Plants seeing a good 70F max too.
its winter, i would like to have them a little warmer but i have no probs growing in a 21C enviroment, even under leds.
Soil is a organic mix, lots of EWC, bat guano, organic fert pellets.
900ppfd at the tops, using my LED rig i use since years.
i do use EOD this run, but i think i had it without 730nm EOD also, not sure, i normally dont watch them at night.
i have no real problems, just finetuning the soil mix, but am curious if thats normal.
do you have this too, end of the their night?

Click to expand...

I've been told it can also be a sign of happy roots and a dialed in environment. I'm not sure how valid that is.

DrDukePHD said:

Hey thanks GB, For sure, plan to get some stands for the 5-gallon fabric pots I will transplant into. It's next on my list, Of course not sure what kind of stands, or where i'll get them from yet.

Click to expand...

I use these plant caddys off Amazon, super handy

i can only wildly speculate, @coreywebster yes light intensity could be it, as other stuff, or intensity with other stuff combined, haha.
you saw the pattern, posture is normal where there are only a 600ppfd or such.
it could be front ones are pointing up to much over day too (?).
but then we have the rear ones, seeing the same amount of light but are a tiny tad smaller may (its a crowded tent, ya know, its like rolling a dice how it goes), may collecting diff amounts of light over the day ??

rear left is having a top right in between the front 2, so one can compare well in the night and day pic, its clear to see.

rear left is normal posture, may even the most ahead of all, but had a few days slight white/yellow tips uring transisition.
rear right is, idk, some in between, but praying a lot also.
front 2 are working hard, i needed to feed them well to avoid a P def. (could be pH media related too, idk atm.)

Nice.

tree beard said:

I use these plant caddys off Amazon, super handy
View attachment 5267136

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cobshopgrow said:

Posture at day.
View attachment 5267133

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Those look like they are happy!

it‘s just thing that plants do as it metabolizes , makes sugar , respiration effects , etc.

For the nerds and arm chair scientists….

Multiple processes - chemical and otherwise during the dark phase of cycle.
Some strains actually become more fragrant in the dark.

I had it happen only in flower for a few weeks when first switching as an auto. I was looking all around here as to why.

Metabolism basically and the plant knowing when lights are about to go out.

Leaves were all limp, I was like what the heck, vpd? It stopped as buds were forming. Strain related I guess.

Just in case anyone sees that and freaks out.

Praying though, I do know in soil, leaves can perk when dryback sets in IME, limited expirience in soil.

If it acts weird in general in accordance to light schedule, strain related and metabolism.