Leaves drooping before lights out - stress?

Sick Plants & Problems
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Every single grow I have done - soil, ebb/flood/, membrane meniscus, NFT, LPA, HPA, AAA - all have shown this symptom. At some point prior to lights out, the leaves droop to a very noticeable degree. This has happened with pure indicas, mostly sativas and mixes. From seed or clone. No exceptions.

I know many others who have mentioned the same thing.

In the past, it seems like it has been worse or more pronounced during veg, and better during flower - maybe.

Now that Im growing autos, Ive started to wonder if this is light stress related?

Im on my second auto grow, so not a lot of history to go by. I started by running the lights 20 hrs ON and 4 OFF during my first auto grow and the droop was dramatic and seemed to start several hours before lights out.

On this grow, I decided to dial it back a bit as a test, and I have been running at 18 ON x 6 OFF. Its hard to tell, but I think maybe possibly the droop is a little less dramatic and starts a little later.

I decided to push it more and I just changed to 14 hrs ON x 8 hrs OFF. Im going to let that run a few days and see if I can see any additional change.

I know people often say that the light cycle doesnt matter with autos - that you can even run 24/0. Im starting to wonder if thats really true, or are we stressing the plants? Could that stress be limiting yields and/or quality?

The same might apply to veg cycles on photo period plants - maybe? Ive seen people running 18/6 a lot, but others push to 20/4 or even more.

Anyone else have any comments or observations on this?

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I know this might sound obvious so please take no offense but are you maybe overwatering them?

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Maybe a better question when are you watering them?

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Thats not possible in hydro - which is all I have been doing for the last many grows. :wink:

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I scanned to quick my bad lol

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Maybe it’s the plants saying there ready for lights out lol like an internal clock saying ok you’ve been up to long time to wind down for the night

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Actually, on second thought thats not a bad question for soil guys. When I ran soil, I was only watering every 3 or 4 days or so. Its hard to be certain after this long, but Im almost sure I had the droop even on days I wasnt watering - maybe.

This is something that shows up really well if you are taking regular pics and then doing a time lapse movie. Its instantly obvious that its related to lights out every single day.

I’ll see if I can find one of my old ones…

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I water everyday, I don’t like to saturate

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Thats exactly my thought! I am beginning to think we are keeping them up to late and they are sleep deprived as it were.

One other thing I have seen with the time lapse, is that there is always a very noticeable growth spurt during lights out.

I think we may be depriving the plants of a critical time they need for good growth - maybe?

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When it’s all said and done even with indoor growing for the last 40 years there still plants that were designed to be in nature not sure of any spot on Earth getting 20 hours of light I would think using this thought that sativas would get tired last…maybe keep track of which ones go limp first I bet it’s the shorter flower times that droop first

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I go by weight thou, some get watered everyday some don’t depending on their uptake.

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Sleep cycles… Just because you don’t turn off the light doesn’t mean that your plant doesn’t rest.

Most new growth happens during lights out as well… Nothing to do with depriving them of light, everything to do with a living thing reacting the way it’s supposed to lol

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I tend to agree on the sativa leaning strains , I’ve got some c 99 that are on the higher end of a sativa and there’s no droopy sleepy time for them .

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But I agree with what you said up the @anon32470837, if they droop an hour before lights off, would that mean they’d like it to be darker quicker? Good thought for a topic there lol

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My autos have been starting to droop more like 4 or 5 hours before lights out. It feels like they really want to be on a 12/12 schedule.

The questions is - will reducing the ON time cost you yield/quality or increase it?

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Would be good to do a side by side comparison lights out is when all the magic happens anyway especially resin production

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Hmm… possible… But I’m not as scientific as I wish I was when it comes to the inner workings of the plants.

Definitely got my cogs turning and on a mission to read today lol

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I’ve noticed the droop at night a few hrs before lights out in my girls too (running fem phenos not autos atm) My light schedule is 18/6 I’ve just always thought the plants were getting ready for bed everything needs sleep imo. I’ve also noticed the new growth happing during lights out. I remember my parents telling me wen I was a kid that’s wen u grow wen ur sleeping they probably just wanted some quiet time it seems to ring true w plants tho. How did ur plants react to the 14 on and 8 off? Will be following alone it is definitely an interesting topic happy growing

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Maybe this will help with the autos question

The area where rundelius (misspelled) originates from has 16 hours of sunlight in August it doesn’t drop to 12 hours till mid September then in like 2 weeks time it drops to 8 hours by beginning of October

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Mine droop before lights off, and begin praying an hour before lights on. (NOT autos though)

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