Light dep. Mad science. Questions answered and raised.
- Thread starter perplexus
- Start date
perplexus
Member
With my green house on it. And a really big garage. ... Wait mow thats a good idea. Sorta. What if yiu build a small hoop hut on a raft trailer. It coukd hold a nice little (legal) colorado gro and if you wanna blackbox, just hauk it in the garage. Lolyou need a flat bed trailer hooked up to a quad
perplexus
Member
Just doit. The easy way. Do a few. It works great.
hoonry
Well-Known Member
perplexus - I think that if I were you, I would focus on maintaining the environment inside the row rather than worry about that red light spectrum unicorn you're chasing! that is to say, I would wait until I didn't have to fight the sun making the row too hot to pull the tarp and worry less about if you're getting the best dosage of sunlight. hahahahaha I have no science to back up my claim that stopping the tarp pulling causes problems - just anecdotal evidence. I feel like the more indica dominant a plant is, the less likely it is to pull out of flower or throw bananas when you quit pullin' the tarp. I've seen a few sativa doms that had tarps pulled on them for three weeks revert when the tarp was stopped being pulled. the decision to stop pulling the tarp was based on the fact that it was well into august and everything else was flowering naturally. surely they wouldn't revert, would they? you bet they did! good luck man looks like you have a nice lineup
perplexus
Member
Yeah, ill prolly be pulling for another 2 weeks. i wanna hit the equinox. As for my unicorns, i cant leave them be. Its not enough for me to just pull a cover and say damn the reason why. Im really interested in this aspect of growing. Its so much more hands on. My main environmental issur now is going to be heat. Keeping enough of it in the gh. i plan to procure at least 100 5 gal buckets, fill them wih water and paint em black. line my rows and let ma nature do the rest. I have a proper forced air propane heater, but am trying to avoindnconsumption of fossil fuels wherever possible. I just wish there was someone here who could speak to the effects of the light and time of cover.. ive been researchingbut there is so little to go on... mostly manufaturer claims. lol
perplexus
Member
And thanks, i like em so far. Another fun thing which i will start chronjcling soon is the volunteer breeding program.
last year the girl here had random seed plant go male and her help wasnt watching. long story short. one or two of her plants got seeded. some of the seeds found their way into the dirt (which is shit, desert hardpan) near the waste dirt pile. they grew up strong. three of them. all female. No at the same time, she left a bunch of this same pot here for smokin because of the seeds. it was just sitting on a drying tray in the drying room, but it stil tasted great . more importantly, it worked great too. so i saved the seeds, and have just gotten eight to germinate. (one died when my ghetto ass light box collapsed) i also took clones off of my three volunteers. In addition to this light dep project, i hope to back cross one of these seed plants with the strongest mother clone and strongest female seed plant. Essentally creating my own custom strain, tempered by the extremes here. SO, THAT SHOULD BE FUN TOO!!!Hopefully be getting some pictures up soon.
last year the girl here had random seed plant go male and her help wasnt watching. long story short. one or two of her plants got seeded. some of the seeds found their way into the dirt (which is shit, desert hardpan) near the waste dirt pile. they grew up strong. three of them. all female. No at the same time, she left a bunch of this same pot here for smokin because of the seeds. it was just sitting on a drying tray in the drying room, but it stil tasted great . more importantly, it worked great too. so i saved the seeds, and have just gotten eight to germinate. (one died when my ghetto ass light box collapsed) i also took clones off of my three volunteers. In addition to this light dep project, i hope to back cross one of these seed plants with the strongest mother clone and strongest female seed plant. Essentally creating my own custom strain, tempered by the extremes here. SO, THAT SHOULD BE FUN TOO!!!Hopefully be getting some pictures up soon.
burner89
Well-Known Member
I did a little light dep this summer just to get a couple of girls farther ahead. The old garbage bag method worked for me but i could only use it on a couple of my smaller plants. I would put the bags on at supper time and take them off when it was dark. I did that for two weeks and then just stopped covering them as all the plants had started to flower. They have continued to flower and are ahead of my other girls by at least a week if not 2.
I also have a small clone that has had her daylight hours cut down to 10.5 per day to see what affect that has.
Another thing I noted was my plants in the woods that got evening shade flowered about a week before my one plant in an open field, they are all the same strain. Even plants that were in the same area but received sun for an extra 30mins were a few days behind the more shaded ones.
Just thought I would share what i noticed, I am a newby at the whole growing thang.
I also have a small clone that has had her daylight hours cut down to 10.5 per day to see what affect that has.
Another thing I noted was my plants in the woods that got evening shade flowered about a week before my one plant in an open field, they are all the same strain. Even plants that were in the same area but received sun for an extra 30mins were a few days behind the more shaded ones.
Just thought I would share what i noticed, I am a newby at the whole growing thang.
perplexus
Member
Yeah bro, if shade in the fall makes it happen faster, that leads me to conclude that some light leaks can be okay. And for some reason i believe this to be related to the type of light available... Not just the time the light is on them. I have a shade cloth ive been using to keep my girls cool, i think it is also helping pish the flowers along with that shade effect. Hmmm ... Thanks for sharing bro!
NorStar
Member
I've been light dep. for years, I use green houses that are glycol chilled and hepa filtered, I use a double layer of 5 ml blk/wht plastic to cover all night. Greenhouses use dehumidifiers at night and a run on an off switcher that runs off the exhaust fan, as to not waste electric when the fans kick on. The intake fans over power the exhaust fan and create positive air pressure inside the green house insuring all air entering is filtered and making it very difficult for bugs and mold to enter. I pull three solid harvest yearly this way and with some light supplement you can go year round. I treat the inside of my greenhouses just like the inside of my indoor rooms.
perplexus
Member
Exactly why lightdep is so friking cool.
NorStar
Member
Not following I open close on a 12/12 mostly. 8-8 spring fall 11/13 8-7 for insulation and light pollution from my house. Not concerned with sunrise or sunset.
perplexus
Member
That makes sense. However i am finding a small body of information that has me wondering. Is is better for the.plant to get 12 hours of full spectrum light, for max nutrient consumption, or is it better to catch some of the red light on either side. And i.feel like especially when you are.ripening those trich, the 13 hour night.really belps... Ive heard of growers running indoor 6 on 12 off. How much sun does the plant actually need.to.produce buds? Where is.the point of diminishing returns. I personally feel, that while.strain specific, the golden.nimber tends.to.be.closer to 13 hours.dark. I have no concrete prooof but im.working.on.it. Right here. In this.forum.lol
hoonry
Well-Known Member
hahaha good stuff perplexus - I like the way you think. I'm pretty sure you're not gonna overdo the sun - if you can score 12 hours of direct light than I think you are loving it! but assuming you don't, the bigger question might be how much darkness is ideal - say you get 10 hours of direct light, 2 hours of ambient light. is it better to cut off one of those ambient light hours to reach lucky 13? it might be! if I had access to 12 straight hours though, I would take it. I think to really satisfy your red light spectrum quest, you will need to run a side by side comparison - two plants of the same stain, grown in small containers and depped elsewhere than your hoop - like a closet. then you can give one of them that early morn light and the other the late sun and analyze the results. I am curious. In my mind, (and I could easily be wrong) I would guess that then evening sun plants will do better, not as a result so much of the light spectrum but because when the sun is hitting the plant in the evening, it's generally warm enough outside for the plant to respond quickly. the morning light comes at a time when the temps are still low and I would guess the plant has a harder time utilizing it then... but I really have nothing to back that up with it's all stoner theory!