Question on total darkness for flower, in versus out

[pointer80]

Hello all, I have a question about when a plant goes into flower, Everyone says that your grow space has to be completely dark with no light leaks at all or it will mess the flowering up but what I don't understand is when plants are grown outside they do not have total darkness for 12 hours. What about when there's a full moon or the occasional headlights or flashlights etc? Can someone explain this in a little more detail? Thanks all.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

The plant lives in the outdoors environment, adjusts to ambient light over it's life span

Inside we control that light, so any added light will cornfuse the plant since it's been in light....then dark

Make sense

 

[TorturedSoul]

What about when there's a full moon

In practical terms, you'd get more light from a cheap flashlight.

The intensity of moonlight varies greatly depending on its phase, but even the full Moon typically provides only about 0.05–0.1 lux illumination. When the full Moon is at perigee and viewed around upper culmination from the tropics, the illuminance can reach up to 0.32 lux.

Brief - and dim - flashes of light aren't a huge factor, but if you happened to have a cannabis plant growing in your front yard - and someone didn't come along and take it - you'd probably notice issues due to headlights and street lights (assuming it's a fairly well-traveled road and has streetlights).

With indoor grows, we tend to "baby" our plants to one degree or another. We can generally control the environment - so we do. Outdoors... we're at the mercy of the universe and things in it, lol. Sometimes a plant is a bit leafier due to that slow change from long days to long nights, and sometimes one of our plants gets pollinated by stray pollen from another plant somewhere in the area. But who can say for sure that none of the "leafiness" is caused by the occasional bit of light-pollution, or that the odd seed or two one sometimes finds in a bud wasn't caused by the plant producing an opposite-sex flower (or two) due to light-pollution?

 

[pointer80]

Makes total sense. Thanks guy's.

 

[pontiacman]

Light shock can hermie your plants indoors. Not saying it will happen, but take caution.
I have timers in my flower room that have red switches on them and I don't bother to cover up. No problems with mine at all.
Last harvest was 2lbs on 10 2' plants.