I know that you need 12 hours of uninteruppted light to force flowering, but has anyone tried and 18/12 cycle instead of 12/12? I know that the plants need light for photosynthesis, so I was thinking that the extra 6 hours would make for a bigger yield. Besides the obvious of a longer wait for my goodies, does anyone know of any downsides to this? I was thinking that the extra 50% light would maybe make some bigger buds at the expense of time, but I am not sure. Anyone have any thoughts on this or know anyone that has tried it? I would like to try it on my next go around, but not if it would waste my time. Thanks
wouldnt work for flowering if thats what your asking.. the plants need equal or nearly equal light to dark ratio to flower.
It might increase your yeald slightly, but not by the 5O% of extra power you would use, not very efficent. Don't forget time is money. Also flowering is forced by 12h of uninteruped darkness, not light. Also an 18/12 light cycle seems like it would be complicated to keep track of. Any interruption to the dark cycle can fuck your crop hard, causeing reverision to veg, or hermies.
im sorry but i think your wrong,the shortening of the daylight combined with longer hours of dark is what causes the flowering,not the 12 hours of darkness alone.. the 18 hours of light would be to much light time for them to begin to flower even with 12 hours of darkness... nature it self shows you that..
i thought that it was the shorter days that made the plant bud eg the simulation of winter coming so in lengthening the days it jus would not bud even though thers 12 hours dark
it does make me wonder if you were to go to a 48 hour cycle ,could you do a 36/12 veg cycle and then a 24/24 flower cycle?? or 36 hour cycle and do 27/9 for veg,then 18/18 for flower... but like i said,i see no way a 18/12 would flower. of course im just using nature as a guide.
this only backs up my theory and is not 100% conclusive. http://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/18280-hours-light-needed-flower.html
Not to be a stickler but it is the dark that triggers flowering is most commercial (hybred) strains. This is pot growing 101 and doesn't need debateing. That said the indica strians are much more photo sensitive then the tropical sativas, some of which auto-flower. Recentaly there has been a lot of hype about Lowryder which is an auto-flowering ruderalis hybred strain. One of the traits that has been selected for by beeders for indoor strains is the photosensitivity(sp?).
i was kinda wondering that. I know that I would be getting 50% more light (12+6) by adding at least 6 hours to the total cycle for an additional 25% time (24+6). So if that would increase my flower time by 25%, that would add two weeks onto my schedule. But if i can get that extra 25% back in weight, then i would be breaking even, if not ahead, because that added time will only add to the flowering stage, not the veg. That would only add 16% onto my total time! I know it sounds iffy, but maybe one day i will try a small experiment. Thanks for all the help
