Manipulating light cycles with supplemental lighting

Caltown · Mar 8, 2016

I've been deciding on whether or not to shift my grow into a greenhouse. I've recently been told that I can keep my plants in veg by having the lights on for an hour or so in the middle of the dark period, as opposed to having them on for several hours as the sun goes down and into the night. Any information on this subject is appreciated, but my main questions are:

Will this drastically affect the growth rate in veg?
Can this cause the plants to hermaphrodite?
Is there a specific time and duration for the supplemental lights?

Senseimilla · Mar 8, 2016

1. Depends on the lighting you were using at sunup and sundown. Personally I use low level lights just enough to keep them out of flower, not really enough to do much as far as growth... so compared to that...?
2. No. plants herm in flower

If you are running from clone or certain seed strains they could drop into flower despite the 1 hr. not all plants will stay out of flower with that method most will.
3. No 1 hr of light does the trick and the specific time is not super important you want to avoid long periods of uninterrupted dark that's what let's the hormones build up that causes flowering.
4. Be sure to keep lighting fairly even and not on one side of the plants otherwise you can definitely end up with part of the plant going into flower that's in the dark and the part in the light not...

It's safest just to spend a few hours on lighting... you can also make the lights on period longer than 1 hour as well

or more intervals... the main thing is just to avoid more than 6 hours in the dark. In my experience, a small % of people swear by this method, most people say it's not worth the potential hassles.

My GH plants are already out there doin it up!

Caltown · Mar 8, 2016

Senseimilla said:
1. Depends on the lighting you were using at sunup and sundown. Personally I use low level lights just enough to keep them out of flower, not really enough to do much as far as growth... so compared to that...?
2. No. plants herm in flower If you are running from clone or certain seed strains they could drop into flower despite the 1 hr. not all plants will stay out of flower with that method most will.
3. No 1 hr of light does the trick and the specific time is not super important you want to avoid long periods of uninterrupted dark that's what let's the hormones build up that causes flowering.
4. Be sure to keep lighting fairly even and not on one side of the plants otherwise you can definitely end up with part of the plant going into flower that's in the dark and the part in the light not...

It's safest just to spend a few hours on lighting... you can also make the lights on period longer than 1 hour as well or more intervals... the main thing is just to avoid more than 6 hours in the dark. In my experience, a small % of people swear by this method, most people say it's not worth the potential hassles.

My GH plants are already out there doin it up!

Thank you! I really appreciate the advice.

torontoke · Mar 8, 2016

It's called the gas lantern routine or glr or 12:1.
12 hours of light 5.5 off 1on 5.5 off

It works and many folks use it indoors aswell.

Manipulating light cycles with supplemental lighting

Caltown

New Member

Senseimilla

Well-Known Member

Caltown

New Member

torontoke

Well-Known Member