Decreasing lights during flower.

zack66

Well-Known Member
Have heard some folks do it the last couple weeks of flower. It kind of makes sense trying to copy fall conditions but, not at the cost of less yield or potency. Anyone have any input?
 

bullwinkle60

Well-Known Member
In my opinion it's an urban legend. I've tried it with 48 hours of darkness before harvesting and without. Guess what the plants were the same.
 

growone

Well-Known Member
same here, have tried from 24-48 hours dark, seemed the same to me
but reduced light could be interesting, makes some sense, but kind of risky with fat femme's fate in the balance
 

zack66

Well-Known Member
I thought about backing the light up an inch every couple days. Until I was 2 ft away from my 600 hps. And as you said the loss of some bud would be a shame. Still curious though.
 

jondamon

Well-Known Member
I used to dim my 600w down to 400w during the last 10dats of ripening.

It saved a little electricity and yield was not affected.

I now use 400w and don't dim it.

I read somewhere about it helping to ripen quicker but I didn't notice much difference.


J
 

jondamon

Well-Known Member
Wow was that the matrix or am I tripping???


I saw a post from you zack that said you wished you had the setup to test.


But now its gone.


So I take it now dimming feature on your ballast then?



J
 

Herb Man

Well-Known Member
I used to dim my 600w down to 400w during the last 10dats of ripening.

It saved a little electricity and yield was not affected.

I now use 400w and don't dim it.

I read somewhere about it helping to ripen quicker but I didn't notice much difference.


J
May I ask why you swiched from a 600 to a 400 HPS?
 

zack66

Well-Known Member
I dropped the post because I do have the means to try it. Guess i'm selfish and don't want to lose any yield. I run 6 plants and like getting the most bang for the buck. I know in the fall outdoors they get much frostier than growing indoors. I think the light and cooler temps play a big part. Can easily adjust my temps to fall. The diminishing light makes sense to try and mimic mother nature. Sorry about the confusion.
 

jondamon

Well-Known Member
May I ask why you swiched from a 600 to a 400 HPS?
Yeah sure.

I got raided and the police took it.

So I had to buy new again and I wasn't air cooling this time. So 400w made sense. I pull 400g with my 400 so its adequate for my purposes.



J
 

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
I've never tried the diminished light because I can't see how it wouldn't hurt your yield even if it was only a small amount. I've seen a few auto flower runs where guys keep the lights on 20 hours a day and get huge yields, and that makes sense to me. I don't know just tossing in my 2 cents I havn't dont the experiment either. With regards to the dark period at the end. A very experienced grower here named Kitehigh has told me about his personal experiences and that he had his buds tested to get the answers. He reported between 10-30 % increase in THC by leaving the lights off between 24-72 hours respectively. There was no further increase with longer amounts of time with t the lights off. I believe the idea behind this is that the plant believes its time to finish its life and gives one last push. Also without the light being on the THC that is formed does not also slightly degrade and inturn builds up stronger. Again not a test I performed but Kite has shown some pretty impressive results and I have no reason to doubt his findings.
 

Herb Man

Well-Known Member
Have heard some folks do it the last couple weeks of flower. It kind of makes sense trying to copy fall conditions but, not at the cost of less yield or potency. Anyone have any input?
I have never heard of it and I don't think I'll be tryng it either.


Yeah sure.

I got raided and the police took it.

J
Brutal.

You know a female co-worker was telling me a story the other day.

A house she and her ex-partner were renting out had been turned into a Grow House.

The Police came and took the weed.

Then a scrap metal guy from across the road came over and asked the Police if he could take the lights for scrap, the Police apparently said sure and the scrap guy got all the lights and ballasts.

What are the chances that all that stuff was on ebay later that day, lol.
 

jondamon

Well-Known Member
I have never heard of it and I don't think I'll be tryng it either.




Brutal.

You know a female co-worker was telling me a story the other day.

A house she and her ex-partner were renting out had been turned into a Grow House.

The Police came and took the weed.

Then a scrap metal guy from across the road came over and asked the Police if he could take the lights for scrap, the Police apparently said sure and the scrap guy got all the lights and ballasts.

What are the chances that all that stuff was on ebay later that day, lol.

Chances are very good that he sold it all on as it was. Lol.

As for the lower light levels.

I've read it in a magazine.

And I only read the following mags

Urban garden magazine
Maximum yield
Rosebud
CANNATALK

So it had to be in one of those.


Like I said though I don't bother any more lol.



J
 

topfuel29

Well-Known Member
I've put my last 3 plants in total darkness for a week.
IMO there's no wow factor the buds are just as good as the buds that didn't get the extended darkness.
 

zack66

Well-Known Member
I've tried the darkness for 24 hrs not 48. Maybe this time i'll try a longer dark period.
 

Nullis

Moderator
Take the lights for scrap...:confused:? Scrap what? Aluminum and glass?

If that is for real some cops are pretty dumb, huh. "Scrap metal dude" probably has his own grow room.
 

Herb Man

Well-Known Member
Take the lights for scrap...:confused:? Scrap what? Aluminum and glass?

If that is for real some cops are pretty dumb, huh. "Scrap metal dude" probably has his own grow room.

I laughed my ass off when she told me that story, because obviously there aint that much metal in lighting, it's worth so much more to be sold as lighting.
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
I did exactly that last grow. In late flower now with those clones. This time I decided to keep all 8 bulbs going where last grow I reduced to 6 then 4

Not seeing any big improvement
 
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