Indoor Grow and Loadshedding

[TitanEntity]

Good day Peeps, its been awhile since i've lat been active here the itch to grow again has hit hard and this time i would like to look into using the proper equipment. my only concern is how much of an affect loadshedding has on the plants.

Are people having to make use of back up power solutions as an necessity or is it still viable to proceed as i won't have the type of finances to purchase a proper backup power solution.

My main concern not having back up power would be any stress that loss of power to the indoor grow may cause, particularly the females turning hermie.

Someone at a local grow shop pointed out that auto flowers don't tend to hermie from disruptions to the photo periods, I'm assuming the dark period never has light interruptions but during light periods there will be these intermittent 2 hour stretches of darkness .

Are people with indoor grows having any notable issues caused by Loadshedding?

Is it still worth proceeding on to grow if no backup power is secured for the grow.

Thank you

 

[Phytoplankton]

How often do you have interuptions? Unless they are fairly regular, I wouldn't sweat it. Or if you know when the outages will be, adjust your timers acccordinly to be a dark period anyway. A few extra hours of dark, every once in a while won't do irreparable harm. We're having a pretty brutal storm right now and my power went out late last night, still out, when it comes back on, I'll just reset the timers and move forward, not worth setting up a generator.

 

[TitanEntity]

I live in SA, we have 2 hours a day 2x a day lol

 

[Phytoplankton]

I live in SA, we have 2 hours a day 2x a day lol

That would be an issue!

 

[Phytoplankton]

I live in SA, we have 2 hours a day 2x a day lol

Given that schedule, I would agree that Auto's are about your only option, without spending a lot on Solar w/batteries or a generator.

 

[HashGirl]

@Carmen Ray and @Table Mountain Sativa Co both live in Africa, maybe they could weigh in?

 

[Phytoplankton]

I live in SA, we have 2 hours a day 2x a day lol

Are these outages at the same time each day and how far apart are they? You mght be able to program your lights to be off during the outages and run 16/8 or even 14/10.

 

[Table Mountain Sativa Co]

Hello from Cape Town.

There are a few options for you. At the moment its stage 6 (I am sure you know this though) so it can be off for 11 and a half hours a day. Luckily its sunny.

Here is what I do. I don't grow Autos so this if for photos.

For veg: Set your timer to 24 hours on. Then you get one or two of those 'loadshedding' LED lamps that come on when the power is off. That will prevent them from going into flower. Just hang a couple inside your tent. You can also put them outside in the sun if you have space. Maybe not direct sun at first , rather somewhere bright. When they are acclimated, you can pop them in the sun. Obviously, you might not have space or be able to put them out. The gas lantern routine is your best bet here.
For flowering, I set the timer to 12/12 and then there are some days that they will get less than 12 hours of light but that is what it is. Luckily the strains I work with are stable and don't hermie from light cycles. I've revegged them multiple times and had them on a balcony with just a normal light on them at night. Was not ideal but I had to do it for a bit until I got settled.
Those are your options without back up power. Not great. Good luck and hopefully you get through a decent harvest.