SparkilngSupeSilverHaze :D

flowering light schedule??

i have always used 12/12, with the first number light on 2nd light off, now i am seeing 10/14??? i have grown white widow and was told to reduce light by 30mins per week in 12/12. my question is when and why do u guys change the 12/12 and to what effect? i was told on the widow to reduce the light to help in resign production? not sure... what about 2-3 days total dark at the end of flower???? L33t can u explain, only bin doing this for a year or so..


repo
 
i have always used 12/12, with the first number light on 2nd light off, now i am seeing 10/14??? i have grown white widow and was told to reduce light by 30mins per week in 12/12. my question is when and why do u guys change the 12/12 and to what effect? i was told on the widow to reduce the light to help in resign production? not sure... what about 2-3 days total dark at the end of flower???? L33t can u explain, only bin doing this for a year or so..
repo

Hi repoman,

To answer your question , well it mostly depends on the strain.There are many strains that will start to flower at around 8-9 of darkness.
Other strains need at least 11-12 hrs of darkness to start flowering properly.Usually equatorial sativas fall in this category.

So why/when do we prefer to use less hrs of light per day?

Well generally we want to use this type of light regime with sativas or sativa dominant plants that we want to force into flowering and make them produce lots of flowering hormones faster.Some sativas will flower for a long time and will not 'flower' properly but if we use less hrs of light per day we force the to flower and they finish faster.Indicas don't seem to have that problem and most will flower just fine even if we use more hrs of light (over 12).This has to do with evolution.In equatorial places light regime never goes over ~14hrs/day ('summer') and never drops below ~10hrs/day ('winter') so basically cannabis in that areas has been acclimatized over many generations to the natural environments light regime.Similar thing happens with plants that have been acclimatized in parts of the world away from the equator and closer to the poles of the earth (ie Canada, UK etc).In such areas the light regime is very different. The dark period is very long during winter but during summertime the dark period is very short. So a plant has been acclimatized there to start flowering with more hrs of light per day for its benefit.

Now when we flower plants indoors we sometimes want to force them to start flowering faster and want to make them finish faster.Using less over 12 hrs darkness/day does that.As I said usually sativas benefit from this and indicas don't.

A sativa/indica hybrid will most probably do fine with 12/12 light regime all the way during flowering but some sativas need to be forced into flowering with less hrs of light mainly for practical reasons.For example a sativa needs 18 weeks to finish under 12/12 and may take up to 8-9 weeks to show sex from the time that it is put in flowering mode , but if we use say 10light/14dark then it will most probabaly show sex way earlier and finish few weeks faster.Basically some sativas stay in a 'veg-flower' state if they are flowered under 12/12 so we need to force them to produce lots of flowering hormones in order to flower properly and faster.

As for gradually reducing the hrs of light per day during flowering as you draw closer to harvest time , this is like imitating nature again and it seems plants respond nicely (again I talk mainly about sativas).We can finish plants faster this way without the possible yield loss of a constant 'less hr/day' light regime throughout the whole flowering period.


The good thing with using sativas and less that 12 hrs of light/day is that the plants seem to focus on actual flower/bud production and not 'veg material' production which is always good.

Personally I 've tried to flower plants from seed with many different light regimes and I have experimented with quite a few strains . Ive tried to flower with 12/12 all the way, 11/13 all the way , 10/14 all the way even down to 8/16 all the way.I also tried the same things and lowered the hrs of light gradually.I 've tried things with pure sativas hybrids and pure indicas as well ..and got mixed results depending on actual method and strain.Gennerally I suggest dont start with less than 10/14 and dont finish with less than 8/16.Most sativas seem to like to flower with 11/13 and love the gradual lowering to as low as 8hrs light per day.

I am not sure about the effect on trichome production as I haven't done any side to side experiments but from the results I got from time to time I believe its good to lower the hrs gradually during the last weeks of flowering.As for the 3-4 total darkness period at the end of flowering before harvesting I can't say if it works but I like to leave the plants 36-48hrs in total darkness before I chop.I think shanti had said in an old CW post that the plants with genetics from the White family do benefit a little from an extended dark period at the end of the flowering before the chop.

Hope this helps

l33t
 
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thanx!! partner!!

i realy appreciate that info, thats the best answer i've ever gotten from any question anywhere!! DOES temp effect trichrome production, i am in florida and have had issues getting the buds to frost, resinate even with white strains. i use co2 greenair products electronic controller and reader, 1500ppm on in light only, temp sometimes runs 90 degrees F. i run my lights at night to reduce heat, but was wondering, if the temp doesnt drop 10-15 degrees during the night cycle is that affecting tricone production? FYI Im using GH 3 part chem solution with sups. Also was wondering if you had used GH in the past?


Thanks
L33t
Repo
 
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Hey Repoman

Hope all is well man, I am glad you found the info interesting.To be honest I cant really say if temps affect trichome production as I believe it has to do more with genetics , but I think that extremely high temps may cause lower trichome production compared to low temps. Perhaps I am wrong about this but thats what I believe from what I ve seen. I like to keep temps around 17c-20c during night at flowering and when lights on around 21-27c max especially during the late stages of flowering.But I 've seen/smoked very resinous and potent (outdoor grown) plants even with extreme heat/temps 35c-45c so thats why I say that genetics are the main factor . It also depends from strain to strain. Some plants may be affected more by environment (temps/humididty etc) and environmental changes than others. Never used GH so I cant comment much about them.
 
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thanks my brother from another mother!!hehehe, everyone has bin so nice, i realy enjoy reading and talking to u all! hope everyone has a safe and happy new year!!


repo aka kushmaster


as clay in r pots, so r the days of r lives!
 
Happy and Safe New Year to you to repoman!Here are some more pics in no paricular order this time


Photos from various stages of growth

Two pics from the SSH, SK pheno at 74 day from seed:

SSH_74DayFromSeed_SkunkPhenoSparkingBud_01.jpg


SSH_74DayFromSeed_SkunkPhenoSparklingBud_02.jpg


SSH_74DayFromSeed_SkunkPhenoSparklingBud_05.jpg


And this plants main cola :

SSH_74DayFromSeed_SkunkPhenoMainCola_01.jpg
 
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those r what i wanna turnout!! real nice job L33t, those look amazing! keep up the good work and thanx for the grow and pis! what kind of dig camera r u using?? bad ass one no doubt. cant wait till the next one.

repo
 
Thanx again for the kind words repoman. I now have a 6.1 Mp DSLR with a few new lenses including a 50mm macro one but all these SSH pics were taken with my old cheap cam , a 4 Mpixels 'Bridge' Cam (not an SLR).
 
good lighting no doubt? that looks like someone from high times shot it.. me like, have u grown materkush MNS strain ever? i think its crossed with haze or G13, the one thats on this sites strain catagory?

repo
 
good lighting no doubt? that looks like someone from high times shot it.. me like, have u grown materkush MNS strain ever? i think its crossed with haze or G13, the one thats on this sites strain catagory?

repo

Hiya repoman,
Good lighting is very important to get good looking photos, one common problem with most photos I see is that they are overexposed due to the automatic metering from the cam when in auto mode. I like to use manual mode and get different exposures until I am satisfied with the outcome.The good thing with Bridge and SLR cams is that you can actually use auto mode or semi-auto mode in contrast to most 'compact' cams.

The MNS MasterKush strain is actually MasterKush x Skunk not G13 or Haze. I ve never grown it by the way cause I dont like indicas much but I ve heard this one has a very special and pleasing high and looks very promising.Great trichome production too from what I 've seen..I ll definitely grow it sometime in the future.
 
kool jus goin back and fourth...lol my uncle used to shoot for 17 magazine, i know a little, but nice job, i prefer manuel cams cannon ae-1 300mm zoom, w/macro. i need a new rig with zoom and macro.

repo

ps we should have instant msg on this board!!lol
 
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'' ps we should have instant msg on this board!!lol''

The mns site admin told me he will work on a chat room as soon as some server issues are fixed so we can have real time discussions like on other online boards. :)

By the way canon makes some nice DSLR cam.I d love to get one but the high end models can be really expensive.
 
yeah, like 2500 to 3000dollars. i will have to save, at least till next crop. i agree it would be kool realtime talkin. this is the only forum i belong to about growing, i spoke easy and being in the states... dont want to due 25yrs for growing myself meds for my glacoma, and diabetis.

when will our gov realise?? thats food for topic another time, have a good one L33t peace!!

repo
 
yes many things would be different if people respected other peoples' rights and gave them the freedoms everyone should deserve. Life would be so much different especially for us growers that have to deal with fear and stress due to our hobby and choices. Its to bad to feel like a criminal when you haven't hurt anyone else apart perhaps from yourself.

Enough rambling :)

Some more pics from the plants.Here are the 2 more Haze dominant phenos , the right one is what I call my keeper and the left is the most hazy/sativa dominant of the lot ..at 58 Days from seed :

SSH_72_DaysFromSeed_HazePhenos_2.jpg


SSH_72_DaysFromSeed_HazePhenos_3.jpg


SSH_72_DaysFromSeed_HazePhenos.jpg


And a closeup of the top part of the colas:

SSH_72_DaysFromSeed_HazePhenos_4.jpg
 
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SK pheno 58 day from seed:

SSH_72_DaysFromSeed_SK2ndPhenoTop.jpg


SSH_72_DaysFromSeed_SK2ndPhenoTop2.jpg




Eventhough this plant looked quite ripe at 58 from seed I had to let if for more than 35 days extra days (5 weeks) to get it fully ripped with a descent amount of cloudy and amber trichs.

SSH_72_DaysFromSeed_SK2ndPhenoTop3.jpg
 
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This SK dominant plant pictured in the last photo was around 65-70 gramms of trimmed bud when completely dry/cured , it was one of the lowest yielders from the 7 SSH females along with one of the NL dominant plants. The highest yielder was a Haze pheno (the keeper/overall favorite plant), the one with the long cola , this one was around 100gramms+ of bud after it was cured.It was the most potent too. Second highest yielder was one of the NL plants. The other Haze pheno , the most sativa dominant plant , was around 75-80 gramms and had airy buds, but very special hazy smell.
 
Cant wait to see your next grows and read the reports,truly STUNNING :) SSH.

Looking forward to what you find in the MangoHaze and how you compare the growth and effects of the finished product mate :)

peace bro.
 
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