Tarpe' Diem

[Rooster]

Good Evening Herb Alumni,

As some of y'all know, I'm getting ready to start and outdoor grow come spring. While researching, I discovered that if a flowering plant is exposed to light during its required 12 hrs of darkness , no matter how indirect, could alter my plants gender.

Do I need to have a tarp ready to ensure that my crops are getting 12hrs of uninterrupted darkness?

[Weasel]

Are you trying to flower them in the spring?
Unless you have some setup that makes it easy- that whole tarp routine is very difficult - bordering on a nightmare if you have a lot of plants and any sort of life on the side

[Rooster]

I plan on germinating in the spring and harvesting towards end of summer/beginning of fall

[gbauto]

I'm a bit skeptical over the need for absolute darkness. The plant is exposed to light sources during the night in a natural setting-moonlight, lightning, supernova's...

OK, maybe a bit overboard but the point I'm trying to make is that it isn't 'dark' outside and the plant seems to survive just fine.,

[bobsakamoto]

gbauto could not agree more...when i first started researching to grow this seemed so OBVIOUS to me and i would see people over on, say, reddit arguing about this HARD... and yet neither side seemed to invoke ^^^ . it was all very inside grow/highest possible yield informed. meanwhile i'm over here thinking...wait..what about the moon? lol

[Rooster]

gbauto, you make a very valid point. The whole moonlight idea crossed my mind, but I still had some doubts

[Weasel]

So maybe you'll only have to put the tarp 99% of the way over every night and remove it 99% every morning...

[desertdan]

If you don't have a ballpark, mall parking lot, or car lot next door I wouldn't worry about it.

[Joker]

I agree with desertdan as long as the plant is not exposed to man made light during the dark period there is no need for a tarp. Moon light won't hurt. Just don't plant it under or near something like a pole light or street light. If u live I a city or heavily populated area where you can't get away from artificial light that could be a problem.

[Rooster]

Uhhhhhhh.... the flood lights are probably a good 30 to 45 feet away, but they're bright as all hell

[Joker]

I would just seal the gaps in the fence and that should do it. Good luck

[Rooster]

Thanks Joker

[Joker]

If you will have a problem with artificial light you could always go with an auto flower strain.

[Weasel]

Well- maybe I missed something here of what you guys are talking about?. I wasn't talking about stars or streetlights Unless you are talking about an auto (?) (in which case you don't need a tarp anyway) it won't flower properly outdoors in the late spring.
I don't know your latitude or what your pattern of daylight hours is- but it's a very common problem for people who put their plant out early. The plants get mature while still growing in conditions of less than 14 hours light, and then it starts budding.
But daylight hours continue to lengthen and the plants quit flowering and start to reveg. This is sometimes a long process. If things go well and they don't get too confused then they are vegging (again) by mid summer, and start to flower again in the fall when day/night gets under 14/10 again.
So the need for the tarp is through late spring and mid summer as you try to artificially keep the days shorter and the nights longer.
A photo plant won't keep flowering through long days/short nights. It will reveg.
It can be done I've had friends do it. It it took a very slick setup which was basically a greenhouse frame they covered with a black tarp every evening and removed in the morning.
It was horrendous amounts of work in the end and they could have just grown autos or bought some herb and had a life, instead of spending their summer at the mercy of the dreaded tarp schedule.

Not that it can't be done. You just have to be setup well and be prepared to put the work in. If you time things right it might only be for a month or even less. Depends on your latitude/growing season.
Im up north and by the time it's warm enough that things are really taking off we've already almost reached 24 hours daylight and are doing the midnight sun routine.

[dontknownuttin]

Tarp? My tent has 1,600 D fabric I did not get the require tarp!

[William and Sue Ashley]

Really sounds like a lot of work...If it is your full time job...go for it. If not and a hobby....Have Fun....Peace...

[gbauto]

Weasel-I was talking about his question of if he needed to cover his plant to prevent a possible hermaphrodite. I see the technique you are talking about-seen vids of growers out west doing it precisely because of the reasons you talked about.

[Weasel]

Oh I see. Yeah I just went back and read the OP so maybe I just read the question wrong. Still a bit confused about his flowering program.
The light cycle interruptions causing hermies issue is a huge discussion because lots of people have had different experiences.
Indoors I've always found a direct link between light leaks and hermies.
Outdoors sometimes people report hermies from irregular light interruptions like bright lights randomly coming in at night. But most regular predictable light sources don't seem to cause problems. Depends a lot on the strain.
Outdoors I'd just let it do its thing.Unless you're heading into veg conditions because of long daylight hours.

[South Sierra Dude]

I bought a fairly bright green light and flooded the area. Worked 5.0

[Rooster]

I absolutely love this forum!!! Thank you all for all of the input. Just to be clear, I was concerned about the indirect light my plants could possibly get while they're in the 12/12 portion of the flowering stage.

Honestly, I may just be over thinking this one. I just don't wanna plan for this great harvest and then have it all go down the toilet from something that could have been avoided.

Still, I'm diggin all of the attention this is getting!!!!

[desertdan]

yea overthinking unless you have an auto mall for a neighbor.

[Rooster]

lol nah, just regular ol' neighbors with a bright ass flood light in their backyard

[Rooster]

Really sounds like a lot of work...If it is your full time job...go for it. If not and a hobby....Have Fun....Peace...

This is just supposed to be a hobby.... so maybe I'll kick back and relax.

[Speedygreen]

If you're running bagseed no biggie. see what happens. if u bought seeds maybe put a tarp or something on ur side of the fence to cover the gaps and make sure the plants are in the dimmest light possible ? I'd try it but that's just me

[Rooster]

That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm going to turn my flood lights off when they start flowering, but we have quite a bit of time until that. Thanks Speedy!!