Additional hours of light during flower, 16/12?

[Commander in Chief]

Can you make a plant think there are 28 hours in a day? 16 hours of light with 12 hours of night?

[PigSquishy]

I am going to answer you but in doing so I would strongly suggest in the nicest of ways that you take a bit of time to go and do some reading on the basics of growing, this is the best website I've found out there and believe me plenty of others will sell you the same information with a huge less detail and information for a lot of money, so read up and become educated to help yourself. If you are looking to get the most growth potential from a plant you would run it for 6-hours of light, followed by 2-hours of absolute darkness, and then repeat that schedule for the Veg Cycle according to the cannabis industry of commercial growers is what they are claiming is working the best for them. The point of it is like this, are 6-hours of light the plants ability to make the best highest efficiency of the light starts to serious drop off, and a 2-hour break from all spectral colors of light gives it enough time to do it again, giving you the best growth rates.

During the plants life it makes a chemical that is destroyed when the plant is exposed to light, so only when the plant is exposed to a long enough dark period will the plant actually go into flower, so instead of doing the 12/12... you could try a 14-10 cycle of light to darkness, but as you get into the last couple of weeks of flower, go to 12-12 to make sure the plants ripen sooner. When switching from Veg to Flower you can put the plant into 2-3 days of darkness to really force the change into flower and you can do it again at the very end before you cut it down to get the plant to push all of its life into making the buds in a last ditch effort of survival.

[ZigZag]

Thats interesting_ the 6 on, two off photoperiod for veg...never heard of that but it makes sense in a way. For the first time at the begging of this grow I noticed that my young plants were drooping a bit towards the last few hours of 20 on 4 off. Changed it to 18/6 and it seemed to help a bit. Regardless they'd look great in the morning after time in the dark. Then when I switched to flowering (as an experiment) I brought the lights down an hour a day for a week. Then turned the lights off for 1 day. Then back to 12/12. By the end of the first week pistils were beginning to show and now at two weeks small buds have formed and are growing very day. I think I might try the dark photoperiod at the end too. Thanks for the information!

[PigSquishy]

A 6/2 Light Schedule Could Increase Plant Growth

http://blog.surna.com/a-62-light-schedule-could-increase-plant-growth

[Commander in Chief]

Hahaha thank you, i should have stayed off the internet last night. I will continue the research. I have stayed to the basics as this website recommends for first time growers, only using LST, and appreciate all the information this website and the people in this forum provide.

[PigSquishy]

The reasoning they say to stick to the basics is simply because there is a lot learn, I've been growing plants all of my life and every day/night I am reading something new about plants and always learning something new, especially now thats to the legal cannabis industry which is turning BIG AG and even the hobbyist growers on their heads with the new advances and improvements in everything from the hydro systems to the lighting and everything else. Before I came here I was helping people such as yourself learn the basics for a few hundred $$$ and all you got was some online reading for it, if you had a question me or others like me would try to help you as "expert advice". Buy a book by Ed Rosenthal like "The Marijuana Growers Handbook" and read what this website teaches you and seriously spend $20 for the book and $10 for some munches to enjoy reading the book with... and for your $30 you will get more out of it than you would have the various places online you will pay out at least $100+ to go learn from where you would learn more from my notes reading that book, than you would have there at those websites.

When it comes to growing cannabis there is facts, myths and new information.. Facts are harder to find at times, so I prefer to stick to well known trusted authors of books, verses just anyone who sits there typing on a keyboard. The internet is full of Myths about cannabis growing and such, you will always find plenty of it in every Forum out there... and the New Information, well that is the latest tech breakthroughs of the commercial cannabis industry and I scour the internet for companies like Surna (Hydro Innovations) because they are a commercial/hobby cannabis engineering company specifically for making cannabis growing equipment, so yes I want to hear what they say as they are bringing the new information to the market for us all... Now I wanted you to get a better understanding of that by showing you their article on the lighting schedule I made mention of before:

6/2 Lighting Schedule Could Increase Plant Growth

http://blog.surna.com/a-62-light-schedule-could-increase-plant-growth

[DrPhoton]

This is quite interesting. Seen any one trial this before ?

[ZigZag]

I think I will stick to the basics for now_ maybe once I get two grow rooms I could try something....adventurous like messing with the photoperiods. But for now_ just stay with what I know_ don't want to take a chance when I don't have the time to recover before harvest. Thanks to all!

[DrPhoton]

I find a deal of cannabis horticulture books dont include enough science and feel more like a how to guide. I recommend any grower to start with a basic book on plant biology to understand how plant life works in the first place. Just understanding the basic principles on photosynthesis goes a long way. Further understanding will only open the door to greater oppurtunitys as you progress to new levels that enable you to work out problems that you couldnt without experience.

Ed rosenthal's book is the best for added plant biology and science. Id also recommend what a plant knows which goes into detail about the perspective of a plant and how its functions relate somewhat to human sensory.

But again before all that, read plant biology. It may appear daunting but its really quite simple. It just takes time.