Left door open,lights on extra 8-10 hours,question

Indi

Active member
I left door open with lights on outside the area and directly into grow area.
They are at about week 6 of 12/12 just starting to fatten up.
Do I turn lights off and keep off for the next lights on period,which will be 30 hours of darkness or make sure they get 12 hours before lights go back on.
If I let them go back now to original settings they will have only had 4 hours of darkness .
I’d say leave lights off for at least 12 hours but thought I’d ask first.
 
Just go back to the schedule in my opinion. It probably wouldn't hurt to have the extra darkness, but I believe getting them back into a "normal" rhythm is your best bet. Also, in my experience the more you mess with timers the more likely you, or the timer, is likely to mess up. Mechanical timers will always eventually become unreliable in my experience.
 
I'm glad you've had luck. I felt the same way until old faithful started slipping. Modern digital timers have worked well in my experience, and Harbor Freight has one exactly the same layout as the hydrofarm model.

The difference of opinion does bring up the wattage issue. N2 reminded me that I was using MUCH higher wattage equipment, and if you are using a 1000 watt HID or above I'd also go with a heavy-duty mechanical timer, as I do think they are safer for high wattage apps, at least from what I have seen. All my timers now have a 300 watt load or less and I do forget about bthe general fear of electrical fires I used to live with.

Whatever you decide, best of luck and good growing.
 
Listening to the issue I would give 12 hrs of darkness and start the cycle thereafter . A few hours should not affect them that much. Especially so late in flower.
 
it wasn’t the timer just an emergency during the water time and I left door open with a light on in the room next to grow area and it shined right in.I got home and thought what is that smell.
I use a outdoor inter attic mechanical 40amp timer and it’s the best spent 50.00 versus a box full of junk timers.
 
Its hours of darkness that sets the bloom hormones in regular Cannabis, not hours of light. Hence, if you leave the lights on longer, just give them at least 12 hours of dark when you shut them off to keep setting the hormones to flower. It should not disrupt anything. Just leave the lights off for however long to reset the cycle to where you want it in the day, light/dark. One day all dark will not hurt them. Also variable longer dark periods and variable shroter light length will not disrupt them either, as long as they are dark for at least 10-12 hours. On some strains I have had to force them with as much as 14 hours darkness (like with SE Asian and Colombain strains). I have also found that once they are set to bloom they tend to stay in bloom and you can increase the light length in bloom. I have forced blooms in March and set them outside right through the summer solstice before harvesting.
 
They seem to be uneffected.
They are at end of week 6 and I don’t see anything wrong so I didn’t do anything.
I suspect there’s a touch of auto genes in them or something keeping them very short for a haze.
C99 is a great strain and stay short but produces some very nice looking sativa traits but without the stretch.
 
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