I may have asked this question before but I can't remember what the answer was when I asked but here goes: I was wondering if just a little bit of light could be tollerated during a plants 12 hours of darkness in flowering. I've heard someone say that the little orange light from a power strip caused enough stress to hermie a female, but I was kind of skeptical because if that were really true it would be impossible to grow outdoors because the light of the moon on some nights would hermie a female plant in every single case. That just didn't sound right to me. I have the abilty to make my grow cabinet completely dark but the fact that it's Summer in the South means that in the place that I'm growing, which is the same as my living quarters, it tends to be relatively warm; even at night most nights. I've read that there needs to be at least a 3 to 4 degree difference in the temperature when the lights are on and when they are off with the lower temperature needing to be during the dark hours. I have to run my A/C at night to achieve this in my grow cabinet which is appx. 13 feet away and around the corner from my A/C and when the door to my closet is closed I can barely make the temperature requirement and I heard that the bigger the temperature gap between the light and dark hours the better for potency and for overall flowering. The light is on the wall all the way around the corner from the closet so there is almost no light at all. It's so dark in the room and in the closet that houses the plant that you can't see the plant at all so I'm inclined to think that it's dark enough but I'd just like to confer with some experts on this matter just in case. The plant is a feminized AK-48 from Nirvana whose mother was most definately in a controlled environment where there probably was no light during flowering. Is there a chance that the need for complete and total darkness during the dark 12 of flowering was passed down in a generation or two, at least, of controlled breeding?
If you wait till they are really banging in flower I dont think light is that big of deal if its of short duration. IM talking about say 5 or 6 weeks. I have fluro ceiling lights four of them containing four bulbs each in my grow room and have turned them on when the lights were out for a short duration and have never had them hermy on me. Yet!! Knock on wood! t6
Oh yeah she's about to hit week 3 of flowering on Monday. I forgot to mention that. So T6 what you're saying is that at this point the complete and total darkness during the dark 12 is a bit more important than the temperature difference?
Yes...think of a full moon...But yes my set up was not perfect I mean , shit right next to the fs was the vs and it ran for 6 hours while the fs was off. all i did was put cardboard around it but the cracks where the cb met the wood were not light proof nor was the getto cardboard roof. So I have never kept mine totally in the dark, as IN NO light at all but i used this as a rule.....if i could stick my hand in the fs and not see it when arm was outstreched i was fine....and i always have been good luck
Hey BP! Nice to see you here again I asked this same question a while back, and the response I got was as long as it wasn't strong, direct light, and only for brief periods, your ladies will be fine. ie a small light way in the back, that doesn't shine directly into your tent/room isn't going to mess with your plants if you briefly open the door... GTWT :XXhippylove:
I have a small hole the size of a half dollar for my ballast to mogule wires in the cieling of my flower room which is inside my barn. So there is not light beaming in, but you can see light when it's dark in there. I have never had a prob. When I first started growing my son would look in on them reguardless of light cycle. I got some hermies then. I moved them to the barn put a lock on the door and have not had a prob since.
Thanx guys and gal! I'll take your advice into account and maybe leave the door cracked a bit instead of wide open so that the heat from the lights being on all day can dissipate better and sooner so that I can extend the time that the plant is at the proper lights off temperature. Hopefully that will help her flower as good as she possibly can. Being a perfectionist can be so difficult sometimes, but hey I just gotta be me! Peace!
So your lights are on during the day? run them at night, when the temps are normally lower ambient....
