How dark does my dark cycle have to be?

[coolguy122333]

Im asking because I think there are small cracks in my grow setup that let a little bit of light in.

[CaptainWiese91]

It needs to be Dark, As in really dark.
If you have light leaks, cover them up

[Farmbuck]

Totally agreed..! Dark is your friend when it comes to 12/12

[DW2]

Yes, I agree, dark as possible. I even cover over the small red indicator lights on the power strips in the grow room, and have 'black out' curtains over the window in the room where the grow space is located.

[FunkyButtLovin]

Dark as fu.. as dark as you can get it. Turn on all the lights and open curtains, etc. in the room the grow space is in to create the worst possible scenario that you could experience in your situation. Now get inside and have someone close you in and help to find/fix as many leak as you can. Have the other person mark the leaks and then fix them from the outside if possible. If they're simple enough like covering with tape then you can even get them to do all the work so by the time you get out, it's done!

[dphipps1020]

My flower tent has light leaks and I haven't run into problems yet. Not saying that nothing will happen but I've had leaks for months without problems. Unless you plan on watching them closely, I would recommend fixing the leaks. I decided to leave mine as kind of an experiment. My theory is that outdoor plants are used to getting moonlight at night while flowering but don't usually have issues because they're used to it and have adapted. So I figure a few little leaks shouldn't hurt, unless they're already used to complete darkness. I'm sure my light leak is probably worse than yours but it hasn't affected anything as far as I can tell. The picture is one of the Velcro intake air flaps. Puppies from the last litter got to it and decided it would be fun to rip it completely off while I was at work. I simply turned it upside down and used the Velcro to put it back on and it's been that way since. Picture is just to show how severe my leak is.

[MeEasy]

Lol DAMN RATS lol you should make a post about this and @ me then update on it so I can know what happens this has been a curiosity for me. I know with my grow area being a closet that I have to leave the door open for air circulation and I am constantly forgetting to close it before turning on the lights in the attached room, I've gotten one hermie in I think 6 grows in there. I would like to know 🤔

[dphipps1020]

It was puppies actually 😂 This is my big tent, my 8x8' flowering tent. It's been this way for months now and the only herms I've had I'm contributing to genetics, since I don't have a problem on the rest. Since then have decided to grow out the mother and have one final harvest of that strain. I had another that hermed on me but the last of that strain is flowering now. Ended up with a lot of seeds this last harvest because of those 2 strains and not getting the pollen sacs, even though I knew they were there. Got some White Widow I'll be harvesting in a few weeks that spent the first 5 weeks on the side with the leak and none of them have pollen sacs as far as I've seen. Been keeping a closer eye on them this time because I want some good WW and hopefully with minimal seeds this time. I have the mother WW jarred up and curing right now and it's good it just has seeds.

[MeEasy]

I had 2 ww in my last run and got like 10 seeds never saw sac or nanners and I had 4 other plants in my room not a single seed on any of them. It suprised me, I did get a herm but it was on the other side from the ww