Ramp down or just go dark

Quick question pertaining to lighting. Right now my plants are going 20/4 under 400w mh. Plant is two weeks old. The advice that I am seeking is do I begin ramping down number of light time say a couple of hours a week or do I just keep vegging and go abruptly 12/12 under hps at say 5 weeks or so. Also, should I 'shock' the plants by going dark for 24 or 48 hours. Thanks ahead for any good info.

i do think the leaving them in the dark for say 48 hours or so does make them flower faster, but that's just my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions i'm sure..
and i usually just take them from veg cycle to flower cycle and don't ramp it down or anything...

i was however just recently talking to a grow friend of mine, and she had mentioned that if you slowly take the hours down to 12 / 12 the way you're talking about doing, then it will decrease the amount of stretch the plants will go through like what normally happens when you go to 12 / 12..
i've never heard that before and am only repeating what she just mentioned to me the other day..

IMO i would switch to 18 /6 for a week then 16/8 then 12/12 or you could just go 12/12 trying to mimic seasonal light periods is what i do i usally go 18/6 for 2 weeks then 16/8 for a week then 12 /12 also making your room cooler on both lights on and off will trigger flowering fast
some ppl believe leaving lights off for 48 hrs makes them flower faster i think imo you waste plant growth goin that route
do it like mother nature intended is my belief

DrFever said:

IMO i would switch to 18 /6 for a week then 16/8 then 12/12 or you could just go 12/12 trying to mimic seasonal light periods is what i do i usally go 18/6 for 2 weeks then 16/8 for a week then 12 /12

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have you noticed if this helps to cut down on the stretch like my friend was saying dr fever or not really??

No, but in theory it makes perfect sense...although, if you want to be painstaking about it, I would decrease light time by just a minute of two every day or every other day. I'm pretty sure, thus would be great for her. I have absolutely zero evidence or research to support this, but its just an opinion, not a claim.

I'm thinking it would be best to mimic nature but the human dynamic will always be to improve on nature. I think I'll drop light time two hours every week until I reach 12/12 at five weeks depending on how she looks. It's the nute feed now that I'm worried about. I'm using (sigh) MG with 6 months slow release feed and I'm worried about burn. It was suggested in another thread to wait five weeks before feeding. Should I do this and then hit her with bloom booster?

U can go 12/12 whenever u want rite away

allmyne69 said:

I'm thinking it would be best to mimic nature but the human dynamic will always be to improve on nature. I think I'll drop light time two hours every week until I reach 12/12 at five weeks depending on how she looks. It's the nute feed now that I'm worried about. I'm using (sigh) MG with 6 months slow release feed and I'm worried about burn. It was suggested in another thread to wait five weeks before feeding. Should I do this and then hit her with bloom booster?

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I'm using the same soil and I waited for 5 weeks, and then added nuts at 1/4 strength. No burn yet, but I just fed for the first time two days ago.

I kind of like that idea of ramping daylight hours down...I may try it next grow...thanks.

Thanks to tokenbrownguy; I've heard bad (really) and I've heard good about MG. Thanks for the word. SpaaaceCowboy I will continue to post eventhough I have no idea what I'm doing. I do like the way my plant looks though. I will follow through with the unknown strain and then using that experience plow on thru to a new experience with AK-48.