Varying light cycles

[Mox]

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone has any experience with varying the light cycles. One of the books I have read said that this would help a lot but didn't go into it..
I was thinking along the lines of buying a cheap laptop and have it control the lighting timers. Have the whole lighting cycle time grow in the beginning and then taper off down to 11 hrs or so. Have the UVC reptile lights vary according to the total light time and only be on during the peak of the light cycle.
If I ever get the cash I may try this, and was just wondering if anyone else had experience that might help with this kind of setup, or anything similar.

 

[Jalisco Kid]

you want uvb not c

 

[BlueSuedeShoes]

You can also sit there with a digital ballast and a dimmer and mimic the intensity of the sun manually all day, starting off cooler in the morning, peaking at midday, and gradually decreasing the light toward sunset. But who has time for that? The rule of thumb is simple. 18-6 for veg, and 12-12 for bloom. Period.

 

[bestgrow]

16-8 has been shown to promote root growth, which directly correlates to plant size. Although this may or may not be true, don't be so quick to say period.

 

[Rolln J]

yeah - this reminded me of a buddy who "read" after 2-3 weeks of the plants being on 12/12 he could bump up to 14 hours and it would increase his yield by 25%. Im not sure what book that was but it wasnt till after his shit all hermyed he told me what he had done.

I agree with BSS, the only time I use 24 hours on is during rooting.

 

[sensei13]

Drastically raising light periods during flower is a good way to produce a hermaphrodite. However, an old school grower told me flowering with 10-14, greatly reduced any possibility to morph out, as well as less stress on the plant. I have tried a batch with 11-13 through out flowering with 400w HPS @ 70 degrees & got wonderful results. I actually have a project now @ day 36 using a 600w HPS, 2 - 65w 10,000K T5s, and a 54w 4700K. It is really pretty simple & cost effective to setup with multiple timers. Originally I took this route because I had lots of lighting lying around, and did not have money at the time for a light mover; but then I noticed different spectrum affected the bloom at different stages of flower more so than what time of day produced very interesting results. Maybe I will post with pics when I get more time.
So in summation, sorry I can't definitively answer your question as to whether it will do much difference (changing spectrum during the day), however I will have more on changing spectrum throughout the budding cycle here in a few weeks.

Also, I truly believe not all strains will shine their best with a generic 12/12 & 18/6 life cycle. These plants come from all over the world which definitely covers a wider variety of ideal daylight times & spectrum than what traditional methods cover. Plants usually grow best in an environment closest suited to their natural habitat, sunlight, nutrients, pH, ect..

** Please note though use first what is tried and true until you have experience, and you can very well predict weaknesses, tendencies, nutritional needs of your plants.
Also, some research into regional climate of the strains the dominant heritage wouldn't hurt. -good luck!

 

[Mox]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have always used 12/12 and 18/6 previously. I have gotten a strain recently that looks like it might benefit from changing light cycles is all. And I wouldn't increase the time much and only for a short period in , trying to mimic the natural light cycles. I was thinking of starting at 12/12 on/off then going to 12.5/11.5 then to 12/12 again then going down in times 11.5/12.5, 11/13, 10.5/13.5.. something like that.

 

[Cibin]

I was thinking of starting at 12/12 on/off then going to 12.5/11.5 then to 12/12 again then going down in times 11.5/12.5, 11/13, 10.5/13.5.. something like that.

I would do this only with indicas or indica-dominant hybrids, not hazes :big_boss:
On the other hand i remember reading a thread on this subject somewhere and 12/12 - 13/11 - 12/12 - 11/13 was said to work very well for certain strains.
Yet another member somewhere adviced to do experiments with clones in 20 minutes steps and find which photoperiod suit the given strain best. For me it was interesting because of the 20min intervals, not half-hour i would expect..

Anyway best of luck whatever you do!!

 

[sgt. schultz]

Why?