Understanding light schedules/adjusting light schedules

[sonygarden]

Hey all, and thank you in advance as always. I had a few questions about light schedules, and some help adjusting a light schedule.
I recieved my clones back in early march, and the guy that gave them to me said they were under lights 24/7. I slowly reduced them to 18 hours on / 6 off, but turning my timer back by one hour, ever 3 days. So they are now currently vegging at 18 hours. lights go out at 3 am and come on at 9 am. Im sure this was a mistake, but alas, this is where im at. Soon they are getting ready to go out into the greenhouses, and will be light depped. Im in southern oregon, and currently the sun is coming up between 6-7 and goes down around 7-8, so im roughly at 14 hours natural day light. I overlooked the fact that the plants will have to adjust to this new light schedule, and wanted to know whats my best course of action? My partner seems really upset and peeved at this issue, and insists that if i drop the hours of light too quick to match the outside light, it will stress or flip them. My thought is this.. Since the greenhouse wont be up for another week or 2, im thinking about dropping an hour off of "on" time in my veg room, every 3 days, until they are down to 14 hours from 18 hours...which would take about 2 weeks if i cut back an hour every 3 days. Im just wondering your advice on how to most safely do this with out stressing the plants. Furthermore, since im running out of room in my veg room, id like to bring them outside since weve had good weather, and just throw a few t5's or regular bulbs out there to make sure they dont slip into 12 hours of darkness at any point. Thanks for reading and thank you for any advice!!

--short version since i yap a lot
plants are vegging with 18 hours of light daily- lights off at 3am, on at 9 am
natural sun comes up roughly 6:30 am to 7:40 pm
Safest way to cut down to 14 hours of light, and any suggestions as for putting them outside with supplemental light.

 

[Newber]

maybe supplement with light outside by having the light turn on at like 3 am and cut off when sun comes out

 

[sonygarden]

Im just concerned about the timing of it, and dont want to stress them out with any dramatic change. I have another week or 2 in the veg room before its too packed in there. Im trying to figure out whats the best option... Do i move the timer back an hour, so the lights go off at 2am, and on at 9 am, which will bring the lights down to a 17 hours ON cycle, and continue doing this every 3 days until i get them down to 14 hours ON which would match the outside light. Or do i move BOTH the on and off times of the timer back an hour, and also cut an hour of light off, so they not only get an hour less of light, but also move towards the normal natural light cycle of waking up earlier, as they would with the sun?

Again, im indoors in a veg room currently, with 18 hours light, off at 3 am, on at 9am. Im trying to juggle both shortening the plants daily light, and also moving them over to the natural outside light timing which is approx. off at 8:30 pm and on at 7 am. If i need to add some small supplemental lights to keep them awake outside thats fine.. Just trying to learn what it is that stresses or confuses them. My partner is convinced that a sudden or major change of light schedule can send them into flower, or dramatically stress them

 

[Newber]

either wait to put them out, or add lights is what I would do. good luck

 

[sonygarden]

To answer a more specific inquiry.. What is a safe an acceptable time line of cutting hours of light from a plant. When i got the clones they were under 24 hour light, and i started cutting one hour out every 3 days. So for the sake of simplicity with my long winded questions, if i were to simply focus on cutting down the hours of light from 18 hours, whats the safest and low stress way to do so? Am i right with just cutting them down an hour every few days?

Im thinking along the lines of what you said earlier, put a few lights on them at 3 am until 6 am, that way they will get a total of 17-18 hours of light. Im just really overall trying to learn the ins and outs of the lighting schedule, and i shouldve thought more about this when i put them on their current schedule

 

[woodrick45]

I am currently putting black plastic bags on 4 plants in the greenhouse to create 12/12. All plants are flowering well now, but will they continue ok or does dark need to be really dark? I don't want hermies, etc.

 

[Madbud]

If you dig through

Im just concerned about the timing of it, and dont want to stress them out with any dramatic change. I have another week or 2 in the veg room before its too packed in there. Im trying to figure out whats the best option... Do i move the timer back an hour, so the lights go off at 2am, and on at 9 am, which will bring the lights down to a 17 hours ON cycle, and continue doing this every 3 days until i get them down to 14 hours ON which would match the outside light. Or do i move BOTH the on and off times of the timer back an hour, and also cut an hour of light off, so they not only get an hour less of light, but also move towards the normal natural light cycle of waking up earlier, as they would with the sun?

Again, im indoors in a veg room currently, with 18 hours light, off at 3 am, on at 9am. Im trying to juggle both shortening the plants daily light, and also moving them over to the natural outside light timing which is approx. off at 8:30 pm and on at 7 am. If i need to add some small supplemental lights to keep them awake outside thats fine.. Just trying to learn what it is that stresses or confuses them. My partner is convinced that a sudden or major change of light schedule can send them into flower, or dramatically stress them

forums here, there is a way to prevent flowering by breaking up the 12 hours of darkness. Run a light for half an hour around mignight.

 

[sonygarden]

i do know i can just break up the 12 hours of light.. I guess my "main" concern/thought is how to lower the plants light time without upsetting them.. This is moreso because the guy im growing for called me stressing that we are behind on the greenhouse build, and that the plants are soon to be overcrowded in their veg room. he asked me what light cycle they were on, i said 18 on and he got upset, because hed like to put the plants out side as soon as possible, but the light time difference would fuck them up.. So im trying to lower the hours of light, and then let them adjust.. Im probably over thinking this.. and just need to put some lights on them at night for a few hours.. I just want to figure this out so i can give him a proper response in the morning

 

[woodrick45]

I am currently putting black plastic bags on 4 plants in the greenhouse to create 12/12. All plants are flowering well now, but will they continue ok or does dark need to be really dark? I don't want hermies, etc.

In answer to w45; using 2 bags over each pant and covering of black plastic from peat moss bale. 7mp - 7am.