Evaluating Sunshine potential in your plot

[BACKCOUNTRY]

redlevels-First, welcome to IC!

This thread is more about evaluating sunshine available in your plot, rather than a discussion about blooming times and such. My point with explaining the change of seasons was more to help explain why the sun gets higher and lower in the sky.

Problems with premature flowering are usually found with clones, or other very mature cannabis plants(2 months or older) that have been placed outdoors into a length of day shorter than they had indoors.
Most cannabis will actually start blooming with day lengths shorter than 15 hours, most indoor growers use a artificial day length of 18-24 hours, when these plants go outside to a shorter day length, they believe that Autumn is comming and start blooming.
Click on the blue link in my sig labeled "Find your grow season here!", this should help answer your question.

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

I added a short compass tutorial near the begining, for those who have not used them before. Hope this helps.

 

[Guest]

thanks this is exactly what i've been looking for.

check out Lunabar: http://infra-azure.org/lunabar/downloads.html
it has a daily sun almanac that's pretty useful.

 

[scrappy2]

This is one thread that need's to stay at the top as it is a critical element to our success!

 

[acidfire]

*bump*

Another great thread that needs to be stickied.

 

[LORD BENIS]

^
Agreed, indeed.

 

[Stoner133]

Awesome thread BC, nice job of presenting clear and concise information.

 

[glock23]

I agree. Very useful info!

 

[Guest]

BC,
You are so helpful for all of us..Thx much and I'm looking forward to adding some more grow reports into your outdoor strain guide.thx again man really nice work.

 

[ReeferDan]

Nice thread BC, in the pictures that you drew on the computer, can you post up which direction you are facing. I am assuming the one showing the plant on the right is facing w/e and the other one is n/s, but could you confirm this? It kind of gives me the idea that you should always plant near the top of a southern facing hill to get the most light correct? If this is right then my backyard is proper!

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Hey RefferDan!

Keep in mind that these pictures were made by a guy who lives in the N.Hemisphere, so directions would be oposite for those in the S.Hemisphere, also keep in mind I am writing this as a northerner and southerners should be advised to reverse directions and dates.

In the paint pics showing sun direction in relation to the plants-

Top pic:In this pic the viewer is facing west, although this picture was meant more to show the concept that you can maximize cover for you plot and still recieve plenty of light by using the sunchart/inclinomter so as to leave clear only the parts of the sky that supply light, ths maximizing your cover.

lower pic: In this pic the viewer is facing south, and shows how the sun rises, travels to its peak at noon, and then sets, all the time traveling across the sky, the pic shows how the ideal horizen would be shaped roughly.

Hill tops, and south facing hillsides are the best places to plant for maximum sunlight. But sometimes it can be hard to find ideal spots like this. This is why the inclinometer/sunchart can be handy when you are not sure if the horizen is low enough, especially if you are planting on a hill that is facing more north, or in a area with tall trees around.

 

[ReeferDan]

cool, thanks for clearing that up. Yeah im in Cali in the bay area so ive always had the perspective of norcal/northern hemisphere and have heard from fellow growers that they always want to be on a nice sunny southern facing hill with a natural sandy loam.

 

[Horus]

This has been *incredibly* helpful in planning my guerilla grow. It's allowed me to find spots that, while well-covered, will provide more than enough direct sunlight per-day. Before I was looking for large sunny areas, hard to find in dense Appalachian woods (and thorns . . . sooo many thorns I had to crawl on the ground under them because that was easy than cutting through), but now I have the perfect spot; it's surrounded on all sides but fairly large and I can find exactly where to plant so that the sun can shine through.

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Well thankyou! This is why I took the trouble to post this info, good deal!

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Making sure your sunshine is good gives you buds like this-

Making sure your sunshine is good gives you buds like this-

If there is one bit of advice I could give seekers of big buds: Make sure your location is a good one for sun before you spend lots of money on fancy fertilisers, they ain't shit(pun intended) if your plant doesn't have the sun they need to process them.

 

[smokeymacpot]

if you planted where you got direct sunlight from morning untill say 6pm and then trees blocked the evening light, would the plants flower any sooner?

 

[PazVerdeRadical]

a lot of water as well cannot be forgotten when aiming at maximun yields. in the tropics, if you have a plant getting 12 hours of direct sun light per day, it will need a lot more water than a plant planted near a place where the shade allows for a moister soil and thus less irrigation needed, you can also sucessfully grow under those conditions and less hours of direct sun light, the plant will keep doing photosynthesis until the sun is set, even in the shade radiation of the sun affects the plants' metabolism.

under normal circunstances one would be able to irrigate all one needed for maximun yields under maximum ammunt of direct sun light received; however, considering the persecution of the plant and its cultivation/tors, in certain gorila spots sometimes it can be necessary to sacrifice a few hours of light for the sake of moister soil.

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

The pictures shown above come from a plant that recieved more direct sunshine than any of my other plants this year. She had sun on her from early in the morning until late in the evening all season long. She actually is showing signs she will be the first to harvest of all my plants, and she was the first to set buds.
I do have a plot that has what you described, blocked sunshine from early evening on, with lots of sunshine all day long otherwise(for those who are following my grow this year, this is my big plot), some of these plants were not far behind starting bloom, but none(including a plant of the same seed batch) were as early as the long sun plot.

My conclusion on the subject for this season, is that more hours of sunshine in the day may actually be the key to early bloom and finish.

In the past I believed that more shade at the end of the day was slightly earlier, but not as much anymore.
I think that even though a plant may recieve shade earlier than another, I do not believe that the shaded plant would be shaded enough to fool the light sensing cells in the plants leaves into thinking the day was shorter, I don't believe it would eliminate enough light to reach the plants threshold between day and night.

In my opinion at this point(until I see or experience better soild evidence), planting your crops where they get evening shade on purpose, when you could put them somewhere with more sun does pretty much nothing but shrink your bud yield and quality.

I would love to see a test done with clones of the same mom, planted in many different locations, and see how different light schemes affected the finish, that would be a awesome thread!

 

[WAMEN]

Agreed BC
Infact this year i was able to compare some plants that received 100% of the sunlight (kept at my house) with some that were getting nearly 60% of the daylight (in guerrilla)
Even though the "home plants" were planted at end of july/begin of august instead of early in the season, i noticed they are flowering and are about 5 days later than the main ones. I dont think that abbundance of nutes is the only cause that made the home-girls flower quickly.. i think light amount influenced the plant metabolism and told them to speed up and flower since the day was sortening up dramatically.

 

[PazVerdeRadical]

bongiorno Wamen,

how was the needed water and watering frequencies of the ladies at home getting 100% sun as opposed the away-from-home plot getting only 60%?