12/1 lighting--Any truth or banana in the tail pipe?

[Krshna]

just switched my veg tent today... wasnt going to, but i bumped my timer and messed it up so i decided to switch it and see.... does anybody think switching from 20/4 to this in the middle of veg (some plants are ~30 days) is a bad idea? interested to see how it works out... might try shortening my flower tent light cycle as well!

 

[Weezard]

I'm waiting to hear if anyone is finding "hermies" from the interrupted darkness.
Always thought midnight bright light was a stress thing.

That's the only reason I'm not playing with the "exploding moon method" here.

Aloha,
Weezard

EDIT:
Been a couple years now and it's looking like vegging plants have no problem with dormus interruptus.
Could not afford to test this method with my tiny med. garden, so I lurked here.
Major mahalos for all the reports.
Just reset my timer.

(Cautious ain't he? )

That's why I stay IC.

Aloha, Wee

 

[Limonene420]

I had my clones under 24/0 for 2+ weeks before switching them to 12 + 1, they all continued to veg without interruption, it is possible that it is strain dependent.

as for the light interruption increasing "hermies", I dont believe it will be an issue as you are not flashing the light during flower, the flashing only occurs during the vegetative state.

 

[edisonzmedicine]

Ed Rosenthal also said it works. This is the best info I've received in a long time. Its odd we didn't have this sooner. I have some genetics that will not hermie under any circumstances.

 

[trichrider]

far out.

 

[OrganicOzarks]

I will post pictures tomorrow of my plants at two weeks of flower. They are looking great. Beside the fact that I wasn't paying attention, and my SFV OG KUSH BX2 male busted some pollen out. Looks like there will be some server beans coming in.

 

[Rondelia]

guys this schedule worked for me greatly. I vegged for 7 weeks under 12-1
and im flowering for 2.5 , wht i really loved about it is that the plant was so full of flowering hormones that since i stopped the 1 hour light they started flowering immediately and they seem to flower faster than the other grows i did ! I highly recommend this method . No hermies found so far . No growth differences just LESS MONEY

 

[OrganicOzarks]

These are two weeks today.


These are way more full than usual at two weeks. I would say they are double what they normally are. I have experienced next to no stretch. So I have learned that I must veg longer than normal. They still have a week or two to fill in, but i don't think they are going to fill in much more. With this lighting schedule I have noticed that over all the plant has large buds everywhere. The lower buds are in proportion to the upper buds. If this continues it looks like these plants will be almost all bud, and not much leaf.

I chop the lower part of the plant at two weeks, but this time I did not chop off as much as usual due to the already larger size of the lower buds. Where there should be fluff there is already bud.

We will see how things end up, but I don't know why all of us have not been doing this from the beginning. This should just be common practice.

With the price of indoor dropping as legalization comes this will be a good way to cut costs to stay competitive.

 

[Rondelia]

i expierienced nearly no stretch too,they stressed no more than 5 cm. Maybe the floral hormones buildup does the job...

 

[ran outta love]

I'm gonna switch to this after I finish typing this post. Hope it works.

It makes sense to me because the plants really do look tired after 18 hours of light. Always had a bit of a bad feeling about it.

But reducing daylight hours during flowering is only practical if you are growing plants that all take as long to mature and were all started at the same time so I don't think I'll be doing that.

 

[catman]

I haven't tried this out for myself, but I'm sold that it does work. However, is it really better than traditional lighting cycles?

I've placed many immature plants in 12/12 and then reverted to 24/0 as soon as they are sexed. Ultimately, these plants have more flowers and the plant takes on a bushier structure. Forcing 12/12 for 2 weeks saves ya 1 week of 24/0 time while getting the accelerated stretch growth, but it usually takes around a month before the plants look mature enough to flower again for real.

I've read on forums for years that for example 10/14 (on/off), will shorten the length of flowering at the expense of yield per individual plant. So obviously using such a lighting schedule with greater plant numbers produces more yield per time, but what if the plant count is fixed?

I'm sure technical explanations for how this works is very complicated and maybe unknown, but it just seems to me like this an old tech and if it worked a crossed the boards better than traditional schedules, wouldn't more people be doing it? There are many different methods growers use that amount to small changes in results. A good grower in my books just uses many methods to produce great results. What I'm essentially saying is there are obvious pro's to this tech, but what are the cons?

If one was limited to 1 flowering plant for every 1 immature plant and say a flowering period is 60 days, which lighting schedule produces the biggest plants above all? If such a schedule is shorter than 24/0, how much sorter can it be while still outproducing 24/0?

 

[Habel]

im just starting a run of autos, was gona do 16/8 from seed to finish, any 1 see any point of trying 12/1 for the whole run see what affect it has on autos? so if they stil finish in 60 days.

 

[Limonene420]

im just starting a run of autos, was gona do 16/8 from seed to finish, any 1 see any point of trying 12/1 for the whole run see what affect it has on autos? so if they stil finish in 60 days.

Personally I would use caution flashing a plant during it's night cycle while it is in flower. 12/1 was intended for vegetative plants not flowering plants, I think this is were you may see an increase in "hermies."

 

[OrganicOzarks]

This shit works! I will update in a day or so, but my plants are about 3 weeks in flower, and they look like they are 5 weeks in. Hairs are starting to change to red, and they are very plump for only 3 weeks. I usually run these 10 weeks, but I am going to guess that they will go 8.5 weeks, and the yield will be more than usual. This shit is just awesome. Put a sold sign on it!

 

[tuinman]

I recently (about 10 days ago) switched from 20/4 lighting to 12/1 in my veg area and after a few days of no visible growth everything picked back up and starting pushing out fresh growth.

A couple of plants that were sluggish under 20/4 as well have perked up as well look much healthier when the lights are on. As OO mentioned pistils are starting to push out all over, I'll be taking cuts tonight from one and see how they do in regards to rooting.

 

[Lowman]

I ran the veg schedule of 12/1 for about 2 months. Things seem to work well, especially the lower electric bill. BUt then I noticed my napalms started showing three blade fan leaves at the top. I have never seen this in this strain. I then noticed my male clones in veg started flowering. I switched back.

I may try it again...and I think it works well. The plants seemed to trigger the flowering phase faster as well. But I fear some strains don't like it.

 

[InjectTruth]

An alternative to this method that avoids early flowering and leaf mutation, is to simply add some supplemental fluoros to run the full 18 hrs, and only run your HID for 6-12 hrs. This way, your plants are getting the full 18-20 hrs of veg time in terms of hormone production/flower trigger etc, but you are still saving on your electrical bill by reducing your HID usage by a 1/3rd.

 

[sprinkl]

I'm using this method, 12-2 actually. Plants are growing good!
I only let my 150W MH light the middle 10 of the 12 hours, while a 36W TL does the rest.

 

[Weezard]

I ran the veg schedule of 12/1 for about 2 months. Things seem to work well, especially the lower electric bill. BUt then I noticed my napalms started showing three blade fan leaves at the top. I have never seen this in this strain. I then noticed my male clones in veg started flowering. I switched back.

I may try it again...and I think it works well. The plants seemed to trigger the flowering phase faster as well. But I fear some strains don't like it.

Ah! Mahalo!
That's what I've been waiting for.
With our power costs, this is tempting.
With my plant count restrictions, I have to wait and see.

It's fun to fool mother nature.
But some strains just can't take a joke.

Aloha,
Weeze

 

[Phaeton]

I have been using the 12/1 for over six months now.
I do not use it to save electricity, I turn up the lights to make up for the lost time.
What this does is give slower growth. Slower and sturdier is what I was after because my veg table produces faster than the budroom.
12/1 does exactly that for me.

My test room ate all my spare clones last month and I needed more plants, veg table got behind for a change.
I turned the lights down and put the table back to 18/6 and now they're adding mass faster. When I'm caught up the light intensity will go up and 12/1 will be back. The DLI remains the same, how the plant grows changes.

This is just another technique available to the grower, not out of bounds for analysis. Different climates, different strains, all are factors. My indica likes more red in veg than my sativa, a lot more. I have a learning curve with every new plant.

I have to add, the man who originally came up with the one hour pulse at midnight experienced a genius moment and I am thankful to him.