The Importance of Darkness

smhsmichael

smhsmichael

Active Member
Just a quick question for all the experienced growers.

How important is it to maintain total darkness in the grow room when lights are off?

And is it equally important during veg and flower, or more so while the plant is in flower?


Will failure to maintain total darkness really increase the chance of a plant going hermie?

Does it affect yield?
 
K

KushDog

Active Member
Flower room needs complete darkness, veg room should be dark, but not as important as the flower room being 100% dark for 12 hours.

Yes it can make you ladies grow balls. it could afect yeaild by herming out and pollanating it's self along with other plants in the flower room, than they will focas on produceing SEED's insted of build stick buds
 
Guile

Guile

Active Member
Absolute darkness rarely occurs in the natural environment of these plants.
Shoot for darker than a full moon night outside of town. Make sure that whatever light there may be isn't focused on a plant (what light that might fall on the plants is defused as much as possible)
 
K

KushDog

Active Member
Guile said:
Absolute darkness rarely occurs in the natural environment of these plants.
Shoot for darker than a full moon night outside of town.
Click to expand...

but it is important to MAINTAIN darkness/ as in no flashes of light . dont disturb the night cycle with Light
 
smhsmichael

smhsmichael

Active Member
Guile said:
Absolute darkness rarely occurs in the natural environment of these plants.
Shoot for darker than a full moon night outside of town. Make sure that whatever light there may be isn't focused on a plant (what light that might fall on the plants is defused as much as possible)
Click to expand...
good point. thats what I figured: nature isnt 100% dark at night, so why does the grow have to be?

Don't get me wrong, I try my best to avoid opening my grow tent when lights are off.

But last week I had to open my tent during dark period for a second to grab something out .

And my plants havent seemed to grow much since then, so I thought I may have stunted them with the brief light
 
Matt Rize

Matt Rize

Hashmaster
darknesses! you cold as ice...
[video=youtube;ROlWRHkBMKU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROlWRHkBMKU[/video]

but seriously, dont interrupt your dark cycle. you could cause all sorts of issues from re-vegging to straight up hermaphrodites.
 
Grumpy'

Grumpy'

Active Member
A quick light during the dark cycle once or twice won't cause harm. It's extended time, or excessive short periods that will stunt or potentially hermie them. Of course trying to avoid any light during dark period is best.
 
Guile

Guile

Active Member
smhsmichael said:
good point. thats what I figured: nature isnt 100% dark at night, so why does the grow have to be?

Don't get me wrong, I try my best to avoid opening my grow tent when lights are off.

But last week I had to open my tent during dark period for a second to grab something out .

And my plants havent seemed to grow much since then, so I thought I may have stunted them with the brief light
Click to expand...
Opening the tent momentarily once has not disrupted your plants cycle enough to cause any kind of concern.

Different strains grow differently. Maybe after the initial stretch your strain takes a little while to start putting on the bud weight (I have a strain that does exactly that, but the 5th-7th week the bud growth is impressive before it stalls again to ripen)

How do your leafs look (color/curl)?
 
wheels619

wheels619

Well-Known Member
smhsmichael said:
good point. thats what I figured: nature isnt 100% dark at night, so why does the grow have to be?

Don't get me wrong, I try my best to avoid opening my grow tent when lights are off.

But last week I had to open my tent during dark period for a second to grab something out .

And my plants havent seemed to grow much since then, so I thought I may have stunted them with the brief light
Click to expand...
brief light happens. but try to keep it to an overall minimum during flower. veg gives u more sway.
 
wheels619

wheels619

Well-Known Member
Guile said:
Absolute darkness rarely occurs in the natural environment of these plants.
Shoot for darker than a full moon night outside of town. Make sure that whatever light there may be isn't focused on a plant (what light that might fall on the plants is defused as much as possible)
Click to expand...
once the sun goes down in the middle of no where it is still dark. not enough light outside to effect the plants anymore. and in the natural environment they dont get random light in the middle of the night. even one shitty 13 watt cfl can keep a big ass plant in veg and screw up flower cycles if left on too long.
 
B

bentley

Active Member
In nature it's never completely dark but it also takes a longer time for the plants to mature to harvest.
Growing indoors your cutting the cycle down by more than half that's the reason for complete darkness and plus too much light stress causes Hermes
 
Guile

Guile

Active Member
wheels619 said:
once the sun goes down in the middle of no where it is still dark. not enough light outside to effect the plants anymore. and in the natural environment they dont get random light in the middle of the night. even one shitty 13 watt cfl can keep a big ass plant in veg and screw up flower cycles if left on too long.
Click to expand...
I agree on both fronts, I live in the woods of Maine and am familiar with the natural lighting conditions (year round including every phase of the lunar cycle) All I was getting at is that on a clear full moon night I can see quite well out here, and there is alot of pot growing out in the Maine woods that manage just fine..

Also couple-few 4ft florescent lights run a couple-few hours a day can keep an entire greenhouse full of plants from flowering, if you don't mind heating a greenhouse you can be productive all year. )

I was not trying to encourage anyone to light their plants during the "dark" part of their lighting cycle, only pointing out that an absolute lack of any light is not necessary. I have a vent from the adjacent hallway into my grow room. It lets in light from the living room windows all day long (when its supposed to be dark in my grow room). I made a baffle out of cardboard so that no direct light could reach my plants.. I have no issues what so ever.. And I run alot of different strains so it isn't just one lucky plant or crop...
 
wheels619

wheels619

Well-Known Member
Guile said:
I agree on both fronts, I live in the woods of Maine and am familiar with the natural lighting conditions (year round including every phase of the lunar cycle) All I was getting at is that on a clear full moon night I can see quite well out here, and there is alot of pot growing out in the Maine woods that manage just fine..

Also couple-few 4ft florescent lights run a couple-few hours a day can keep an entire greenhouse full of plants from flowering, if you don't mind heating a greenhouse you can be productive all year. )

I was not trying to encourage anyone to light their plants during the "dark" part of their lighting cycle, only pointing out that an absolute lack of any light is not necessary. I have a vent from the adjacent hallway into my grow room. It lets in light from the living room windows all day long (when its supposed to be dark in my grow room). I made a baffle out of cardboard so that no direct light could reach my plants.. I have no issues what so ever.. And I run alot of different strains so it isn't just one lucky plant or crop...
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i know. i was just tossing my 2 cents in. lol. got a friend that has a plant in his living room under the window. keep telling him that even a light on all the way across the room or even the tv on is enought to keep it in veg. now the retard has a giant 6 foot tall super skinny piece of crap in his livingroom that he has no idea what to do with cuz it never went into flower like it should have. lol.
 
R

roberttorressjl

Member
Ok what about when The plants are about 7 weeks through flowering and a timer malfunction allows 15 hours of light/day for about 3 days. I know this can affect hermie production but can I do anything (give extended dark or will this make it worse?) to help?
 
smhsmichael

smhsmichael

Active Member
wheels619 said:
i know. i was just tossing my 2 cents in. lol. got a friend that has a plant in his living room under the window. keep telling him that even a light on all the way across the room or even the tv on is enought to keep it in veg. now the retard has a giant 6 foot tall super skinny piece of crap in his livingroom that he has no idea what to do with cuz it never went into flower like it should have. lol.
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Lmao. I've heard of a few people who ended up with a 6 foot ganja plant and no bud
 
smhsmichael

smhsmichael

Active Member
roberttorressjl said:
Ok what about when The plants are about 7 weeks through flowering and a timer malfunction allows 15 hours of light/day for about 3 days. I know this can affect hermie production but can I do anything (give extended dark or will this make it worse?) to help?
Click to expand...
Just put it back to 12\12 and ride out the last few weeks of flower
 
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