Non-standard Light Cycles

Ah yup. That’s right. She do!

There is actually a lot going on physiologically with “Circadian Rhythms in Plants” below are some quotes taken from an article that anyone considering Non-Standard light cycles should read.

"Plant scientists have shown that a properly tuned circadian clock is important for plant disease resistance to arrays of pathogens and pests…

Even in the absence of pathogens, many of these responses show low but rhythmic changes that are influenced by the circadian clock. When a real attack arrives, the plants’ daily rehearsal of their defense systems ensures a strong and concerted timely defense. Plants with misaligned clocks succumb to the attack."

On another slightly unrelated note. Tropical landrace strains grow in areas that don’t get more than 13 hours of sunlight or more than 11 hours of darkness.

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So much about plants we may never understand.

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I run my lights 11/13 in flower. It allows the plant to finish 5 to 7 days faster as well as showing different phenotypical traits. Coupled with the fact that I use cmh lights which also allow the plant to finish faster, I can finish a 60 day plant in 45 days. This has become very popular for commercial grows here in Washington. When you add up the days saved per cycle it allows for another entire cycle per year. That’s a lot of money, so many are switching. Try it sometime it works and gives you a new perspective on some of you’re old strains.

yes i’ve heard about finishing earlier but is there a correlating loss in yield? i’d definitely do that with those long flowering sativas for sure but like a 56 day plant i’m not sure if i’d want to cut 2 weeks growing time off that

Old school approach

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Hey @Beancracker is your schedule 11 hours on and 13 off or the oppposite?

Yes 11 on 13 off is the schedule I use.

This is a trick being utilized by the Dutch, whom absolutely dwarf us in big ag. They are light years ahead of any other country in agriculture. They can produce, process and ship tomatoes to the U.S. cheaper than we can produce them. They have found many new methods of out growing everyone. Such as they adjust nutrient levels throughout the day based upon how much sun the plant is receiving at that time. Plus thier use of organic biostimulants and the ground breaking results that have followed from that. No offense to anyone but I stopped listening to stoners and started listening to scientists along time ago. Anyone looking to increase thier knowledge of growing I advise looking to the Dutch and their practices. They have greenhouses that cover hundreds of hectares. They are a site to see. All enriched with C02.

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I’ve experimented with the lamps on 11/13
You are not gonna clip 15 days off your flowering time. More like 2 (maybe).

you still didn’t answer the question if there is a correlating loss in yield. just some vague statements about dutch agriculture followed with an insult.

so you are able to shave 15 days off a crop and achieve the same yield? i don’t believe it. your ‘extra harvest’ is probably just the weed you didn’t yield in the previous harvests

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No no please I most certainly didn’t mean to insult you, please forgive my vague response, just saying that it’s origins are from a country doing things far better including yields. I do not notice any loss in yield if so it’s very minimal and an extra harvest by far out weighs any loss. What I do notice is the plant is farther along in say week 2 and 3 than normal. So just quicker growth. As I said there are huge tier 3 commercial warehouse grows here in Washington that are converting from govita to cmh specifically because of this reason. It’s taking over the commercial industry even though you can leverage the electric company to purchase as many led lights for you as you want due to power savings. Again sorry for the vague response and after reading it again, I see where you thought it insulting. Again let me clarify. What I meant by listening to scientists rarer than stoners, was not aimed at you or anyone here. I meant for the last 15 years or since cannabis forums have been around is i found it a great place to go and listen to people arguing about every subject known to cannabis. Best light? instant argument. Best nutrients? Instant argument. Etc and so on. So I started listening to scientists. So now that I’ve stuck my foot in my mouth I’ll leave you with another apology. Sorry Legalcanada I didn’t mean to insult you.

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sorry i wasn’t clear i didn’t take it as a personal insult, i meant as an insult to stoner science!! but i guess being dumber than a scientist isn’t really an insult at all. you’re good bro! lol but thanks for clarifying :ok_hand: i was just wondering about the yield. never heard about CMH reducing time either what causes that? UV or something?

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Not sure on the cmh side it is reported to be the highest par in the industry at, and don’t quote me I would have to look it up, but something like 96 percent. So 96% of what the sun produces. And utilizes square wave technology. It also has been documented with test results that it raises cannabinoid counts as high as 12 to 15 percent. Which I also noticed quickly. Super terpy. There is a great episode of the adam dunn show with a gentleman that went in depth on the cmh and its application in the industry. Said Phillips, the inventor, took notice when the landscape guys said the grass grew faster under certain lamp posts, and that’s from 30 foot in the air mind you, as that was there initial use lighting up street lights with a cheaper souce of lighting. As for the 11 hour cycle I was told that because a large variety of the cannabis plant is equatorial, 11 hours of light more closely simulates the photo period in those areas.

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do you think 10/14 could lower it even more? or 10.5/13.5 ?

I think at a certain point it would become detrimental. And really i run a far (630-650) red led for 20 minutes after my cmh’s and hps turn off. It simulates sunset and allows the plant to essentially fall asleep quicker allowing for a quicker recovery in the morning, thus better overall growth. Another Dutch trick. No real way to measure the success of that, just makes me feel like I’m spoiling them. And they deserve that. So really I run 11 hours and 20 minutes on.

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The “Emmerson effect” was first observed by American Robert Emmerson.

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He means Phytochrome Red and Phytochrome far red, acting as a switch to tell plants the sun just went down. It lets them fall asleep faster, though i didn’t know it was a Dutch discovery. @Beancracker do you have more info on the subject, I only know a couple sources.

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If he can provide evidence to his claims, I will eat a 3.5cu/ft bale of Pro-Mix, without-water :fork_and_knife:

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I want to see this on camera! :grin:

Edit: (i don’t know the answer)

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