Raising lights in late flower?

[getbuck]

Search didn't really yield any meaningful insights on this subject so here is a new thread:

What's your view on raising the lights in late flower? I'm running some OG genetics that I'm planning on blooming for ~10 weeks, currently ending week 8 of flower (week 9 of 12/12).

I'm doing organic soil + biobizz nutes with a 600W cooltubed HPS.
Started to feed just ph'd water today.

Since we mimic the depletion of nutrients in the soil late in the cycle and the redness of the sun, wouldn't it be a good idea to mimic the lessening of lumens also? I'm thinking about raising the light up gradually during these last weeks as to signal the plants that their time is up. I'm also increasing the dark period gradually to 13-14h.

Am I doing harm or actually boosting the total yield / potency this way? Any experiences? I would imagine that the terpenes would come out better this way atleast...

 

[packerfan79]

I have done this before, lower the light and temperature to simulate fall. Some strains react more than others. Ogs don't tend to purple due to cooler Temps. The plants do push out more resins, as you flush.lower light levels should elicit a similar reactions.

 

[getbuck]

I think the 24h-48h darkness before chop is based on the same idea (I do this and seem to notice a difference in the resin production, not based on science though, just my eye)

 

[Dog Star]

First you need to go out of cool tubes,such a unefficient light cause of glass parts,
like they are already dimmed by defoult.


You are right in time to raise your light,i do it in week 8,but i dont raise but dimm
Gavita from 1150W to 750W,and in that way finishing ciclus till a end.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

It is particularly useful in summer, as temps getting over 30C are costing you quality, terpenes

The theory goes that by week 8 you have the flowers "made" .. they are (hopefully) not going to grow any more calyxs, so you are just fattening up what you already have.... Not loosing anything really.

Using less hours light cycle speeds the finish up, but costs yield, however, if you do it in the last 2 weeks then surely it will not cost you a lot, for the same reasons as above. However, it may provoke hermies, especially with an OG which has that possibility already, so keep an eye on them.

 

[Phaeton]

I run a perpetual and the plants are on adjustable stands so they can be moved up and down instead of moving the lights.

Plants that are almost done get moved further from the light, this makes more room under the lights for the next plant in line. The extra week or two makes the room more efficient.

Growing plants are kept 1' to 2' from the lights, finishing plants are 2' to 3'. This works out to about a 25% reduction. So far this millennium there have been no problems. Sativa plants slow down on adding fresh growth to the top. Hard light seems to cause new hairs to continually appear on top of the sativa dominate plants, reduced intensity helps these plants finish.

 

[getbuck]

dude

First you need to go out of cool tubes,such a unefficient light cause of glass parts,
like they are already dimmed by defoult.

Yeah its definately not the optimal solution, but I live in a country with draconian laws towards weed and it's growers so I tend to ride all my shit till the wheels fall of before risking ordering special equipment online.. Dudes getting jacked over here for buying stuff like fertilizer etc nazism....

 

[getbuck]

It is particularly useful in summer, as temps getting over 30C are costing you quality, terpenes

The theory goes that by week 8 you have the flowers "made" .. they are (hopefully) not going to grow any more calyxs, so you are just fattening up what you already have.... Not loosing anything really.

Using less hours light cycle speeds the finish up, but costs yield, however, if you do it in the last 2 weeks then surely it will not cost you a lot, for the same reasons as above. However, it may provoke hermies, especially with an OG which has that possibility already, so keep an eye on them.

Sounds good! Not too worried about herms, all the plants in the room are on the same schedule so I'd think that getting a nanner at this stage doesnt really do much harm since they are getting chopped in a few weeks = not enough time to develop them hermiebeans...

 

[w3rds]

From your OP and comments, Im going to assume a PAR meter isnt a tool you have lying around, but an easy tip i picked up early on is to ignore the actual distance from lights to canopy and focus on the Light Intensity. If you also dont have a lux meter(which is relatively cheap) but do have a phone from the last 2 years, you can download a lux meter app and just use that. Again, PAR is optimal over Lux, but if you keep the Lux at the canopy top around 60-70k lux you should get the optimal amount of light, giving you those dense buds

 

[one.sixoneeight]

the fall sun still puts out more light then any indoor bulb. Raising the bulbs higher then they were with optimum growth will only hurt yield.