Lights off

[Green9]

Hi all

This is probably an ordinary question. Is it possible to turn the lights off for a week during veg?

 

[trichosaurus]

Is it possible? Yes.
Will it negatively effect your plants? Absolutely.

Why would you need thte lights off?

 

[Kcar]

going on a trip?

 

[Double Kindness]

Sure you can turn your lights off in veg for a week, as long as you want dead plants. Why would anyone do this? There is no reason.

Give them to someone who can take are of them, or throw them away if you can't take care of them. They will not survive being without sunlight or water for a week.

 

[Green9]

Sorry for asking?

And yes, going away for a week. Water won't be a problem. I've seen it mentioned elsewhere that people have had their light off for a period.
Will it kill them outright or just stunt growth? If this isn't an option I'll have lights on, of course..

PS: have a lot of other plants that haven't gotten any sunlight for a weeks, doesn't seem to bother them. It's like they slumber.

 

[old toby]

the light=food . why have them starve? run light 24/7 they will like it.

 

[reckon]

the reason your houseplants don't mind being dark for long periods, is because I'll bet NONE of them are flowering annuals, or dioecious (having male and female plants), like cannabis.

going seven days with no light will almost certainly TRIGGER FLOWERING

you are letting the flowering hormone rise to a critical level, and that hormone is DEACTIVATED BY LIGHT.

so, no light: hormone level rises, flowering is triggered, you get back, flip on the lights, and you have a giant softball sized yellow patch at the growing center mass of every single growing shoot on every single plant, and it'll be showing pre-flowering clusters forming.

if you WANT to flower now, no big deal, you'll lose the week that the lights were off, plus another week or two for shock, but they will develop just as they would have without the lights off period, save a small %, and the time you lose.

now if you DON'T want to flower, that will be trouble, because then you'll have to wait for them to revert back to veg (takes at LEAST 2 weeks, most times double that), plus you'll run into hermie/banana weirdness because of the crazy un-natural photoperiod

I would: shut down the BIG HPS light while you are away, BUT string up some CFL's to run in place of the big light so you don't screw your photoperiod all to hell.

CFL's put out enough light to prevent flowering, and run cool enough to give some peace of mind while your grow is unattended.

 

[trichosaurus]

Theres little doubt that your plants would survive. The concern is the long term effects it will cause. Stunted growth will undoubtely be an issue. Your plants will need time to readjust to the light intensity and cycle. The bigger issue though is the hermaphrodites that no light for a week will cause. Your plants will be confused and likely start throwing nanners. I would personally rather start over then flower hermies.

Leaving the light (floro,cfls) on is your best bet imho.
Dont know about no water for a week. Unless your soil holds/keeps a lot of moisture and/or your ambient temps are such that it can sustain little water loss, you WILL need to water. I would grab a 2 liter bottle and some rope and make a wick system for keeping your plants watered. 1 end of rope in the water, other end 1'' in soil. good luck.

 

[Green9]

Thanks for two very informative posts. The Flowering and hermie is obvious when you think about it a bit..

Guess the CFL's are on then. The rope trick used for plants is genius. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Zeltar]

Remember to think about water and nutes while the lights are out, a week without could hold back your crop several weeks due to the shock