Why not save money?

[CocoJoe]

Hi all,

I just want to break the box, and save some money.

The vegatative light cycle for cannabis is 18/6 to 24/0 for most of us.
So what if you can veg your plants with less run time on the electric meter?

Do I have your attention? Good, let's save some money.

What makes your plants flower is 12 hours of continuous dark.
So set your timer for 12 hours on, 5 1/2 hours off, 1 hour on, 5 1/2 hours off.
This breaks up the dark period, you use less electricity, and your plants will thank you.

This light cycle will give you the same results as 18/6 or 24/0.

cocoJoe

 

[Blue Sky]

What makes your plants flower is 12 hours of continuous dark.
So set your timer for 12 hours on, 5 1/2 hours off, 1 hour on, 5 1/2 hours off.
This breaks up the dark period, you use less electricity, and your plants will thank you.

This light cycle will give you the same results as 18/6 or 24/0.

Hay Joe
I love the idea of giving my gurlys a break (and my pocket But will it truly give the same results? If you R adding co2 and go to a dark period you should shut it off because photosynthesis stops when the lights go out, correct? So to stop the process or slow it down would be the same as going 12/12 without the flowers? I don't know but would love to find out.

 

[NCDude]

The same? Cool

Thanks

 

[medme]

i think i'll stick to "old school".......... good luck to ya......

don't wanna confuse my ladies.........

 

[CocoJoe]

Being afraid of new ideas is not an option.

Those of you who are interested in going GREENER, try this, the plants love it!

cocoJoe

 

[medme]

Being afraid of new ideas is not an option.

Those of you who are interested in going GREENER, try this, the plants love it!

cocoJoe

by saying "the plants love it!" do you mean they grow faster? because stems grow in the dark, if you have more darkness the plant will be taller..

 

[Droopy Dog]

I think I'll stick to old school also.

DD

 

[CocoJoe]

They grow just as well as 18/6 and better than 24/0.

Fear is not an option. Break the box.

cocoJoe

 

[Wild Heart]

Gonna stay with 24/0 and 12/12

 

[CocoJoe]

Gonna stay with 24/0 and 12/12

24/0 is not as good as 18/6!

cocoJoe

 

[Wild Heart]

Yeah I might do that on the next grow but my ladies are in flowering now so it's all 12/12

 

[SteveHman]

I'll have to find the thread that talks about "light poisoning" your plants to make them go hermie to develop fem seeds. This sounds vaguely familiar to the same light schedule. Has anyone actually tried this and have the journal/pictures/results to show?

Before I try this out on some pretty expensive seeds I would want an iron-clad proof of concept study/grow to base my decision off of other than random speculation. Just my 2 cents.

 

[YardDog35]

by saying "the plants love it!" do you mean they grow faster? because stems grow in the dark, if you have more darkness the plant will be taller..

Stems grow in light as well. If they didn't 24/0 cycle would not work. Plants "sleep" (for a lack of better terms) daily. Dark or light this process still takes place and growth occurs, whether it's roots, fan leaves, stems, stalk, flowers, etc.




This is an interesting theory, CocoJoe. Only 13 total hours of daylight...I like seeing new ideas and trying new things if they make sense. This does make sense seeing how cannabis really only needs 5 hours of direct light to grow.

For someone like myself, that is using a small number of cfl's to veg the savings would be minimal. A watt is a watt though, and it's not getting cheaper.

I use small veg chamber, I might try this with my next clone or seed. I'm not interested in monster growth due to lack of space so this should be a win-win for me. I am curious to see the growth rate though.

 

[medme]

yep,,, should have said,,, stems grow FASTER in the dark.....

 

[Blue Sky]

As you can see by my GJ i have quite a few plants to play with so I'll do another GJ with this being the topic. I'll use LEDs because i put some money into them lately. I think that by the time i start to put them out for the season they should be extremely strong and prime for a test. Ill hold a male a female in the light cycle of 12/5.5/1/5.5 and use my mothers as a control at 24/0. I hope the program is favorable. We would all love to save CHING.

 

[MSmith420]

There have been years of trial and error. I woudnt be prepared to change from the standard 18/6 and 12/12... I wouldnt want to muck my own grow.. Why confuse your ladies?

 

[AcesFull]

Electricity in California is priced out of this world. When presented with an opportunity to save, I jumped on it. Thanks CocoJoe. I've modified your schedule a bit just because I'm paranoid, but not afraid to break from 'standards'.

I go: 12.5 on and break up the remaining 11.5 off period in the middle with 1.5 hours of light.

I posted a separate thread about my issue, but on second thought would probably be better in this thread.

I have 24 mothers under this schedule. They've seemed happy for a couple months now. 2 of the God's Gift, however, have started to flower. Yikes!!

I have 8 other God's Gift that are responding like the other strains. Apparently happy as can be.

Have you ever had this problem? I'd like to keep the light schedule, but if this is the problem, well.......

Thing is, 22 other plants are responding well...ok, I'm starting to repeat myself.

Thanks.

 

[Jango]

Yeah im gonna stay old school as well, though i can see the logic in it especially if your using 400 to 1000w lights but i grow with cfl's so the electric bill isnt an issue anyway and i just figure stick with more of mother nature's type of schedule, she seems to know what she's doing lol

 

[Steve McStoferson]

just want to share my experience with this, I used to do 24/0 in veg, but I've switched to 18/6 and haven't noticed any difference in plant growth at all to be honest. I even switched back to 24/0 to give some extra heat, but then back to 18/6 when it got warmer, still no noticeable visual difference.

 

[CocoJoe]

just want to share my experience with this, I used to do 24/0 in veg, but I've switched to 18/6 and haven't noticed any difference in plant growth at all to be honest. I even switched back to 24/0 to give some extra heat, but then back to 18/6 when it got warmer, still no noticeable visual difference.

12/5.5/1/5.5 This works very well for vegatative cycles!

cocoJoe