I got a buddy who is trying 18 hours dark for flower.the idea is that plants can only use around 6 hours of light, the other 6 hours is essentialy wasted. I am pretty sceptical. It would be awesome if it worked, you could flip flop 4 rooms.anyone else hear about this. There is a video of a botanist explaning it on the interwebs. I may try it in a small tent with a couple plants.
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Anyone tried 18 hours dark 6 hours light during flower?
- Thread starter packerfan79
- Start date
Hey Packersfan, I have dicked around with every light cycle you can imagine. I tried em all. The only two that work well are 12/12 or 11/13. Anything else yielded unfavorable results in my experience.
11/13 sounds good to me 
The fastest inition of flowering period you get with 8 hours of light. It is a fact out of a book from Robert C. Clarke. Beneath and above 8 hours hemp needs a longer period to flower while beneath you can't reach long flowering periods like above. I don't have the book where I am. There is a Chart which compares the amount of days over the light cycle. Will have a look for you this days. If I remeber right it was like 40 days with 8 h of light instead of 60 days. Greetings Snuicide
I will let you know how it goes. I will let him be the guinea pig.
Spectrum matters when it comes to using the light.
Intensity matters when utilizing light.
At 1600 umol of full spectrum the plant can use less than ten hours of the light before needing a break
Reduce the light to 800 umol and the plant will happily grow for eighteen hours.
If using tri color fluorescent lights it does not matter how long the lights are on, it will remain less than what the plant wants.
LED growlights vary so much it comes down to the specs on each individual light brand.
13/10 with Far Red at twilight and full spectrum during the day is closest to nature and gives best yield with the least stress.
Without the Far Red 11/13 appears to be the best average.
The light intensity should be adjusted to the length of the light's on period. The maximum DLI (Daily Light Integral) for a 24 hour period is the goal for maximum plant growth.
Research and record keeping, there is no simple answer for maximizing growth. Simple keeps the harvest average, science and hard thinking give a superior product.
Intensity matters when utilizing light.
At 1600 umol of full spectrum the plant can use less than ten hours of the light before needing a break
Reduce the light to 800 umol and the plant will happily grow for eighteen hours.
If using tri color fluorescent lights it does not matter how long the lights are on, it will remain less than what the plant wants.
LED growlights vary so much it comes down to the specs on each individual light brand.
13/10 with Far Red at twilight and full spectrum during the day is closest to nature and gives best yield with the least stress.
Without the Far Red 11/13 appears to be the best average.
The light intensity should be adjusted to the length of the light's on period. The maximum DLI (Daily Light Integral) for a 24 hour period is the goal for maximum plant growth.
Research and record keeping, there is no simple answer for maximizing growth. Simple keeps the harvest average, science and hard thinking give a superior product.
I tried 14/10....but lemme tell you 10/14 was NOOOO bueno...14/10 seemed to add at least a week to the flower time... 14h dark just hurt yield and finished normal time.
11/13 light/dark or the other way around? i some times reduce light phase to 11 in the last 2 weeks of flowering, but i never really noticed a visible difference with the end result.
mule420
Member
I've used 11 on 13 off when growing sativas. The dude who showed it to me based it off the sativas being from equatorial places that have 12/12 all the time so shortening the light cycle would make them finish faster.
He also planted sativas in smaller buckets to induce faster flowering he believed that environmental changes caused them to flower, like a dry season, wet season etc...
He also planted sativas in smaller buckets to induce faster flowering he believed that environmental changes caused them to flower, like a dry season, wet season etc...
What OPś buddy is getting close to is the idea of putting 2 sets of lights illuminating different parts of the garden which I think is an unarguably good idea ... While keeping it all to a 12/12
Moving away from a total of 12/12 (or 11/13 for Sativas) is insanity, pure and simple
Moving away from a total of 12/12 (or 11/13 for Sativas) is insanity, pure and simple
There is that old adage to the effect that nothing is truly foolproof, as fools are just too damned ingenious. Never discount the added impetus of their unrelentingly stubborn refusal to accept even the most basic precepts of common sense, and complete confidence in their own calculations despite all indications and experiences in contradiction.
Brilliant, so true...........
There are only 2 infinite things, the Universe and Human stupidity, but I am not yet sure about the Universe.
Albert Einstein
So the bud is pretty good, not amazing. I won't be trying it myself, but you can get bud this way, at least with blue dream.
emeraldcityog
Member
I sometimes flip to 18/6 light/dark for the last couple weeks of flower. Any longer than a couple weeks and the tops might start turning greener but you're passed the point of seed risk. I'll do this, so I can start vegging the next round in the big room sooner, or to let the flowering go an extra couple weeks. The extra weeks are always better than chopping at exactly 8. I just like to keep things moving. Done it 15+ times, still top shelf. Probably not a bad idea to drop the temps a bit for the terps though.
AppliedScience
Member
Thats pretty interesting. I cant imagine there being no negative side effects, have you done a side-by-side? Are there any other noticable effects?
I wouldn't say plants can only take in 6 hours of light if you will , but I know what your saying.
My setup is 2 stacked 600's with some plants ont he floor and some haingign from hangign baskets, bottem light one comes on for 6 hours, then the top one comes on , there both on for about 2 hours then the bottem on goes off and the top one stays on the rest of the cycle.
Can't say the buds suffer from it.
My setup is 2 stacked 600's with some plants ont he floor and some haingign from hangign baskets, bottem light one comes on for 6 hours, then the top one comes on , there both on for about 2 hours then the bottem on goes off and the top one stays on the rest of the cycle.
Can't say the buds suffer from it.
SkyHighWormGuy
Member
Packerfan,
Kinda interesting. You should see if your buddy wants to try it with even less daylight in a future cycle.
Is it on par with his buds normally? (Is he happy with the experiment?)
My first thought was "less hours of daylight in flower indoors... screw that I want more hours of daylight... The lamp is the engine of my garden"
Which we all know is a bad idea... I think.
Lol, come to think of it someone could experiment with an increased or gradually increasing period of daylight in the indoor flower room. That isn't a very good idea though, although I haven't seen any one purposely try it out.
Kinda interesting. You should see if your buddy wants to try it with even less daylight in a future cycle.
Is it on par with his buds normally? (Is he happy with the experiment?)
My first thought was "less hours of daylight in flower indoors... screw that I want more hours of daylight... The lamp is the engine of my garden"
Which we all know is a bad idea... I think.
Lol, come to think of it someone could experiment with an increased or gradually increasing period of daylight in the indoor flower room. That isn't a very good idea though, although I haven't seen any one purposely try it out.
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