Help! Is it ok to reverse flowering lighting schedule?

[Hardgraf]

Hi everyone.

I have 2 plants in my indoor garden under 275w of CFLs. They have been flowering on 12/12 for nearly 2 weeks.

Foolishly when I initiated flowering I decided to have lights on during the day (8am- 8pm) and lights off at night (8pm- 8am). This was intially fine, the garden is well ventilated and temperature was a constant 24 degrees celcius (76).

Then a heatwave started here in the UK and the garden got extremely hot during lights on in the daytime (35 degrees celcius, 94). Consequently the heat from outside and the bulbs started to damage the plants

I have temporarily moved the plants out of the garden today and onto the window sill as a temporary measure due to the heat.

Can I reverse the light schedule so lights are on during the cooler nights and off during the hot days? This would mean 24 hours of light today/tomorrow then 12 hrs darkness from tomorrow morning.

Any advice would be great, don't want to end up with hermies!

Thanks

 

[Hosebomber]

Yes. The easiest way to do this is just leave the lights off completely until 8pm and then turn them back on. DO NOT leave the lights on for 24 hours straight. Make sure that you have AT LEAST 12 hours of darkness.

 

[fish cake]

hosebomber has right better to leave the lights off

 

[Hardgraf]

nice one, cheers guys

Lights going off tonight for nearly 24 hrs

 

[medMUser]

Hardgraf, did you try putting a small fan in your room & have it blow gently across your plants? A gentle breeze on your ladies will keep much of the heat from 'settling' into your grow.

I had the same situation & used a fan to dissipate heat before it 'invaded' the plants. I have my lights on ID only at night. In winter the days are warmer & it gets cold at night, so the lights keep the temp at a manageable level. In summer the days are to hot to have the lights on during the day, so I have a thermostat controlled fan going all the time [in summer].

I do have a small heater on a thermostat for winter days as it can get cold enough to be a problem. Hope this helps. I don't think you need to switch your light schedule, but if you do follow the above advice. IMO I would say just add a small fan.

And it does get hot where I live. Temps in my ID rooms get well over 90' but I have few heat problems. Some growers use a small air conditioner, the best way to cool your room. But I can't afford an AC unit & the higher elect. bill. I have found that a small fan on a thermostat works very well.

Hope this helps!

mM

 

[Hardgraf]

Hey Nm, thanks. I have a fan in the garden and there is an inlet fan, high quality carbon filter and exhaust fan so I have all bases covered.

I climbed to the end of the exhaust ducting today and it's really pumping the air out of the garden, just that the air entering from outside is at least 27 degrees during the day so compounded by the lights, it's impossible to cool the garden without air conditioning.

Now I've got the lights set to come on during the night I should be able to constantly keep the temp under 28 degrees (85). Here they are as of today, still looking a bit sorry for themselves after the heat exposure, but recovering well

 

[medMUser]

Glad ya got the heat problem fixed. Looks like yer gals are going to be fine. Another help for heat is to keep the soil moist. I forgot to mention that one.

Hope this thread helps others with the same problem. Good luck & I hope ya get big sticky buds that glue yer fingers together.

mM