I'm moving to flower...is absolute darkness absolutely necessary?

Hello good people. Actually I personally flowered years ago, and am pretty much in veg right now...
Hopefully someone will have a definitive answer to my question:
My girls are ready to move to flowering. They're in a small grow room (6'x6'x6') which contains a Mini Cool Cab that I'm using for seedlings, clones and vegging. I've moved 5 ladies (2 White Widow, 2 Himalaya Gold and one GigaBud)out of the cabinet and into the room, under a 400w HPS bulb on a 12/12 timer. At night, when it's time for them to go to sleep, they're getting a slight amount of light spilling from the two fan openings in the cabinet that provide fresh air for the babies.
My question is whether a slight amount of light is going to effect my flowering ladies. Will it delay the flowering? Will it negatively effect flower/bud production?
Any and all help would be truly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
BTW: I'll post some pix tomorrow. They are truly beautiful...

small light leaks are almost never a problem. i have a box that the door is left open 2-3'' 24 hours a day. it does get light in the darkness, but not enough to inhibit flowering. the plants i run are proven hardy and don't reverse, and i have no issues with hermies.

most will tell you absolute darkness is absolutely necessary. that is not really true, but preferred.

I have always been strict on what lights sneak in and would suggest covering them when it's off

Its really up to you. You can try and see what happens. There are a few things that will happen depending on how much light get though. You will probally see a longer peroid of time for the bud sites to really show up. You run the risk of they herming out. However, all of my grows have had some light leaking in, or atleast i have had to turn a light on to go in. Its called weed for a reason. They are hard to kill, however just as hard to grow properly. If you are able to keep all light out do it.

MrKushman said:

Its really up to you. You can try and see what happens. There are a few things that will happen depending on how much light get though. You will probally see a longer peroid of time for the bud sites to really show up. You run the risk of they herming out. However, all of my grows have had some light leaking in, or atleast i have had to turn a light on to go in. Its called weed for a reason. They are hard to kill, however just as hard to grow properly. If you are able to keep all light out do it.

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Thanks all, and thanks MrKushman. I appreciate the feedback. It sounds to me that there is a common understanding that 'absolute' darkness is best, and it also appears that the 'reality' rule would be to keep the light to the minimum amount possible, given ones own personal situation. Am I right there?
I wonder if anyone has done a definitive study on amount of light infiltration VS. amount of bud degredation, hermie production, etc...
Just a ramble.....
Thanks all...

well my story is that i grow outdoor and when i moved my babys from inside veg to outdoor grow/bloom i first put them in a mostly shadey area so they could get use to the sun and heat well they started to flower so even though they were in light for 15 hours they were in shade for 3 of those hours. 15 daylight hours - 3 hours of shade = 12 hours of darkness thus caused them to flower. so in my opinon if its indirect light your good if its direct light (from the source of light) then bad

IMAGINE THAT! NO LIGHT LEAKS AND 1 OF 4 FLOWERING NORTHERN LIGHTS SPECIAL (btw. regular seeds) GOES HERMIE!!! FUCK THAT!!! IN WEEK 5 OF FLOWERING! (KCbrains seed bank!)

Yo i've had 4 different strains herm due to light leaks!! 1 was NLxShiva, 1 mazar al sharif, 1 ghani, and an indica hybrid. Indica are the least likely to herm out due to light leaks, that's why breeders take sativas and cross them with a strong indica as to increase resistance to herming from light. SOOOO....if ur growing sativas make sure you don't have any light leaking in. My indica's hermed due to light leaks as well, but we think we had some weak genetics from GYPSY Nirvana. The best advice i can give is get rid of any and all leaks. Most of the herms won't happen until weak 8 and if 1 herms, then all can potentially herm. It's not worth the risk to put all your plants in jeopardy. Chicks with dicks suck!!!!

Well, keep in mind that it's never "absolutely" dark outdoors.

my room has a little bit of light leakage but they started showed sex within two days of flower and i got 7 for 7 female!! its my current grow

420tintin said:

my room has a little bit of light leakage but they started showed sex within two days of flower and i got 7 for 7 female!! its my current grow

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Thanks, good people. I truly appreciate the responses and the advice. This is only my third grow and I know that I have a lot to learn. This place is so freaking valuable for those seeking knowledge. And the best knowledge comes from those that grow. To hear about each growers experiences is priceless when it comes to figuring out all the nuances and balances of growing and nurturing our girls.
My first grow was a total herm-out with six out of six supposedly female seeds either herming out or turning out to be male. Second grow was the total opposite with six females blessing me with some (about 4.5 oz.) fat, indica/sativa buds... CH9 Flower and CH9 Jack. Both very cereberal and creative. For grow #3 I'm getting a bit more daring...the five in hydro that I descibed above, plus some KC Brains Cyber Cristal and G13 Labs Thai Super Skunk, White Widow and Himalaya Gold in soil, and one Thai Super Skunk in a Hempy Grow perlite bucket (reps to AZGROW) that has turned into a gorgeously bushy lady with mucho buds. That Hempy Grow method is definately something to check out. Check it out, good people, if you haven't yet. The results are pretty amazing.
Anyway, balancing all of the above is keeping me on my toes and I'm getting a lot of knowledge from the experience and a lot more knowledge from the advice from you all.
I promised pix, but I haven't had the time as of yet. Tomorrow, hopefully I'll get some posted. If I don't get toasted, I'll get the posted...
Thanks again for all your comments.
-Saul-

if it was me i'd have no light gettin in atall its gotta be total darkkness. you dont want no hermie or smaller buds due to light stress.

all the best .

have a look https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/202162-guanoklong-rocklock-fim-top-biobizz.html

how long can it take to show sex of plants. i'm 5 day into 12/12 and they sill haven't showed

how could you ever prove or know that a plant went hermie because of a light leak? I seriously doubt anyone has proper testing conditions setup to make that judgement. With all the light pollution,moon and stars, all outdoor plants would be hermies by now if this were true

Hassan said:

how could you ever prove or know that a plant went hermie because of a light leak? I seriously doubt anyone has proper testing conditions setup to make that judgement. With all the light pollution,moon and stars, all outdoor plants would be hermies by now if this were true

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I can see where that would be true....although I have always heard and read to make sure there are no light leaks.

I have heard that someones plant went hermie due to a light leak but like you said, maybe that was not the cause.

I would still make it my practice to make it completely dark when it comes to "lights out". Most light leaks are easy to find and take care of if a little thought is put into it. But we may all just be high and it don't actually make a difference either way lol

yea I mean if you can keep leaks out then thats definitely the better way to go. Just seems to be one of those subjects where people just repeat what they've read without any real science to back it up. IMO hermies happen and if you're looking for a cause you'll find one but its all just speculation really. Only thing to worry about is whether its getting enough light to revert back to veg IMO

Hassan said:

how could you ever prove or know that a plant went hermie because of a light leak? I seriously doubt anyone has proper testing conditions setup to make that judgement. With all the light pollution,moon and stars, all outdoor plants would be hermies by now if this were true

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without me being a dick about it...lighten up!

i'm only passing on GOOD advice that has been passed on to me from the pro's. so if they're wrong then i'm wrong and i still stand by it.

and i'm pretty sure all OUTDOOR plants will adapt to the lights and darkness they recieve, which includes stars and moonlight.

think about how much light an outdoor plant will recieve compared to an indoor plant. and think about how much darkness each would recieve.

while thinking about that, once the sun goes down for the outdoor plant its going to feel pretty EFFING dark compared to what its been like all day.... so a little moonlight or stars wont be waking her up!

indoor plants recieve much less light and much more stronger dark period than an outdoor plant. hence the more reason not to allow light leaks into the very dark indoor room which i'm sure the plant would notice in the pitch black. But you are right i don't have anything to PROVE this but to me it's just plain old common sense when u think about it....

Hassan said:

yea I mean if you can keep leaks out then thats definitely the better way to go. Just seems to be one of those subjects where people just repeat what they've read without any real science to back it up. IMO hermies happen and if you're looking for a cause you'll find one but its all just speculation really. Only thing to worry about is whether its getting enough light to revert back to veg IMO

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hermies happen for a reason m8... stress and there so many ways to stress a plant i'm sure you know.

why not avoid the whole situation by blocking out the stress all together. no light leaks, no interuptions in the dark and no worry about reverting back to veg.

how could u prevent it once its started reveging or hermie??

Crystal Intake said:

hermies happen for a reason m8... stress and there so many ways to stress a plant i'm sure you know.

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Thats exactly what I'm sayin. Lots of possible causes but no definites. For my own reasons I'd love to have some hermies and if it was such a big risk to get them, I'd be rolling in hermies by now but I've never gotten a plant to hermie despite leaks and stress.

I'm not worked up about this or anything, just seem to be an awful lot of pot growers with their minds closed on various aspects of growing just because thats the way they always thought about something

Again, thanks you all of you good people for your input. What I've gleaned from thisa so far, is that overall, and in pretty much all situations, if you have the ability to provide 'absolute' darkness for your ladies during their sleepy time, that absolute darkness is what you should provide. On the other hand, the general consensus seems to be that a wee bit of light leakage ("Wee" being a relative term) isn't going to turn the whole room gay.
But, back on the OTHER hand, it appears that the most one can do to eliminate light leakage during sleep period is going to provide nothing but a more positive environment for our girls.

My plan is to e-run and adjust some duct work (intake and outflow) to get my light infiltration to the absolute best that my current situation allows, while still providing the maximum fresh air in and hot (and wonderfully smelly) exhaust air out...
If anyone is interested, I'm going to be posting some pix of my current situation and a half-assed grow journal either tonight or tomorrow.
For now, I'll put up some half-assed pix of where I am now.

Good luck to everyone and remember to think positive thoughts...

-Saul-

P.S.: Just got an error msg. when I tried to post pix. Probably nee to reformat them. Manana.....