Are you Adjusting your Grow Light Schedule for Winter/Summer Time?

[flexy123]

I know, silly question...because common sense says just to leave the timers, plants don't care about "hours".

But, I have my greenhouse LEDs at 18/6 (which is 4am to 10pm) ....and haven't done anything after we switched winter hours back...except it started to bother me a little that now the lights already turn on at 3am.

I adjusted (set back) my timers now for an hour...so it's again 4am to 10pm....just wondering whether it would confuse the plants?

 

[OlderGrower]

I think it would be more of a convince issue for you as opposed to will it confuse the plants. I doubt the plant kingdom uses the daylight saving time but I could be wrong

I did the same thing to my girls and i saw no ill effect as of yet. Though it is funny you started a thread on light schedules because I was just talking about that subject on a different thread then saw yours. By chance have you ever played around with different bloom schedules other then minor changes like 12/12 or 11.5/12/.5 or 11/13 I was thinking that it may be beneficial to go a little crazy say the last 2 weeks of flower and try 10/14 or even 9/15. Really put the girls into a tail spin that the cycle is ending. I would think if you held out till like either the last week or 2 you shouldn't shock them into hermi just not sure if the benefit of shorter days would out weigh the benefit of a little longer day of sunlight.

Any thoughts?

 

[Major PITA]

Doing it once = no biggie
Confusing plants by changing their photoperiod often = no so good

Since I like to grow outside when I can, I set my outdoor-girls-to-be's photoperiod for the hours of sunrise to sunset as of June 1st. Even though they start inside in April, I look at the times for June and take into consideration the "spring forward" time change.

Somebody has got to put a stop to this stupid daylight savings time. Let's face it everything in USA politics is about $$$. Who the hell makes extra $$$ because of us changing our clocks back and forth?

Neither I nor the plants care what the clock says.

 

[Rifleman]

I set my timers...once. Just a zig in my schedule where it was a zag.

 

[flexy123]

I think it would be more of a convince issue for you as opposed to will it confuse the plants. I doubt the plant kingdom uses the daylight saving time but I could be wrong

I did the same thing to my girls and i saw no ill effect as of yet. Though it is funny you started a thread on light schedules because I was just talking about that subject on a different thread then saw yours. By chance have you ever played around with different bloom schedules other then minor changes like 12/12 or 11.5/12/.5 or 11/13 I was thinking that it may be beneficial to go a little crazy say the last 2 weeks of flower and try 10/14 or even 9/15. Really put the girls into a tail spin that the cycle is ending. I would think if you held out till like either the last week or 2 you shouldn't shock them into hermi just not sure if the benefit of shorter days would out weigh the benefit of a little longer day of sunlight.

Any thoughts?

No, I haven't played with any light schedules since I flower on the roof, in the sun. (Even now in "fall" or "winter" or how they call this season here in Spain
So I use the greenhouse at a constant 18/6 for vegging only...which seems to be what everyone else does/recommends and even works for my peppers.

 

[Spitz]

I grew one outside one time during long summer hrs. The only thing I held constant were the dark hours. She slept 12 hrs every time she went into the dark room. She had anywhere between 6 and 16 hrs of light (depending when I was home). It turned out remarkably well. I don't reccomend it, but it was a pretty neat project. Now, that my environment is perfect, I find seeds now and then. Ugh. Lol

 

[flexy123]

I also have to say the "flowering on the sun roof" idea turned out really well. We already harvested three or four times and it surpassed my expectations. At first I was hesitant to put them up on the roof, but it just works so well. There's in fact so much sun up there (don't want to think about actual spring or summer, then it'll be scorching again) that we use a shade-thing. Even now in fall there is plenty of sun/light, definitely more than what the LEDs in the greenhouse give. And at night it's also extremely dark

If I look at a schedule with daylight times, right now we have 10 daylight hours from dawn to sunset, shortest would be 9:40hrs on Dec 23.

I did some calculations and read some blogs about outdoor growing and what I found is very interesting:

I can put out plants for flowering any time between August and mid March, assuming they need 8 weeks for flowering. If I put them outside, they will flower. Only in a short time from mid May to August, plants would reveg. (This is assuming that I put them outside for flower from a 18/6 light schedule in the greenhouse). So this is pretty cool.

Practically this means I can start seeds and veg pretty much the entire year, even in winter, in the greenhouse and have them flower outside. The lower temps are *likely* slowing growth somewhat, but it definitely works.

 

[malemansls]

concerning light schedules, I've often wondered if, given these two facts 1) cannabis flower phase is triggered by 12 hours of dark not 12 hours of light. 2) cannabis grows most during the light hours. why doesn't everyone grow on a 36 hour cycle, 12 hours of dark to keep in flower, followed by 24 hours of light for twice as long a growth period. got to thinking about this on my last visit outside the box, after reading that it was indeed the length of darkness that mattered. something to think about. But I agree that plants don't care. my indoor lights run at night (1 pm to 7 am to flatten out the temp. swings) on june 1 I move them outside. that's a way bigger schedule change an hour and they seem to not even notice. they are just happy to be outside and are ready to spread their roots and grow

 

[flexy123]

>>
36 hour cycle, 12 hours of dark to keep in flower, followed by 24 hours of light for twice as long a growth period
>>
It's my understanding that plants well grow at night, in fact when I look around on Google etc. some plants grow mostly at night. During the day they collect energy and "make food" (photosynthesis etc.)...and at night they're dividing their cells, actually growing.

Plants have a mission: Catch the sunlight, convert and store the energy when you can. Grow later. During photosynthesis the plants grab all the light, carbon dioxide and water passible. With those ingredients that plant makes sugars, starches and other vital compounds.

What about plant GROWTH? Not yet. Make FOOD while the sun shines. Save cell division and elongation(growth) for the night shift.

So one can assume that both of these phases need to be balanced. Shorter night could actually mean they grow less as I understand this. This is why I am also strongly believing that 18/6 is better than a 24hr light schedule.

 

[malemansls]

I'll try to use an analogy to explain my understanding of the light vs dark growth process simply because I type for shit and don't want to have to keep typing big words like photosynthesis and respiration(sp?). dayshift in a car repair shop, they work on cars (resp. or growth) but they also have to fuel the cars, order parts and supplies etc. (photo) because they have to multi-task they aren't as efficient at actually fixing cars. night shift comes in, gas and stores are all closed (no light no photo) all they have to do is fix cars (resp/grow) so they are more efficient and might get more cars done, BUT they can only fix cars till they run out of parts or supplies then they have to wait for day shift to gather more. Maybe if you ran 24/12 day shift could store twice as much energy and when nightshift came in, there would be enough stored parts (energy) to work the whole 12 hrs instead only half the night. I'm not saying I'm going to put my next grow (or the current one) on the line to test this out (maybe the one after that, who knows) just food for thought. Night time growth can also be somewhat attributed to stretching as the plant tries to find the light that is no longer there. A plant grown in little or no light for long periods may be extremely tall for the species but spindly and weak stemmed as it has spent all it's time and energy on trying to find light. a lot of people swear by 24/7 for the entire veg, so plants must grow okay without dark, cant say the reverse is true. I'm a 18/6 type of guy myself just because I don't want to pay for that extra 6 hrs for what I consider diminished returns. I've never seen or had a 24/7 operation that got 25% more growth even though you incur 25% more cost. I'm cheap what can I say. You know though, opinions are like buttholes everybody has one and they think theirs is best lol

one love

 

[Thehalobluntm]

I heard you should try and run your lights at night time as much as you can. It helps with the heat and makes sure it doesn't get too cold for them winter nights. I run mine 12/12 6pm to 6 am and sunset now is always around 5pm. It also helps my humidity stays right at 50