Can you "move" light and dark period?

[stanovnik]

Hey guys,
need some advice from more experienced growers. At this moment I am not growing auto but regular feminized seeds, because I couldn't get high CBD seeds in autos so I have feminized Royal Highness and Painkiller XL, but I think the following should apply to all plants.

Anyway, my plants are 3 weeks old at this moment and I am about to move them into an off-site indoor tent. The problem is that on the current at home 18/6 period they "sleep" from 12am to 6am, but since I realized that the temperatures in the tent will get quite high during the day, I would like to shift the "sleep" period to let's say 12pm-6pm (no light = less heat).

Can I do it without causing too much stress to the plants? I don't want to make the plants sick or end up with hermies like last time (but there were also many other factors...).

What would be the best way? Moving it by 1 hour every day? Or simply extend the light period one day by 12 hours? Or is it too radical?

Another questions I have is, later when I switch to 12/12, does it matter if I add 6 hours or start 6 hours early (to make 18/6 hours into 12/12)? Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for any input.

 

[namvet25]

I think you can switch to 12 pm to six pm all together with no problem.when you go 12/12 just take 6 hours off the 18 hrs and add 6 hrs to your current 6 to give you 12/12.

 

[stanovnik]

So are you suggesting to do the radical switch? But which way to go?
- Keep them dark for extra 6hrs until it is the new time for the dark period [12pm] (which would make the dark period 18 hrs during the switch)
- Keep the light on during the current dark cycle until it's the new time for the dark period [12pm] (which would make the light period 30 hrs during the switch)
- Or simply just when it's the new time, turn off the light and follow the new L/D period? (which would make the period 18L/6D/6L/6D/18L during the switch)

I don't want to mess up their circadian rhythm too much or simply stress them into early flowering. Or am I overthinking it too much?

A side question: I've just learned recently the hard way how bad is letting any light shine on the flowering plants (=>hermies). Is it less critical during the veg state?

 

[Torched]

I have had timers die and not encountered problems with having the plants in the dark for an extra 12 hours one night. NAmvets suggestion of chopping both ends is probably a little less traumatic to the plants though.

 

[NEimmaculates]

IMO the best thing to do would be to give em a long day just keep the light on till you get to the time you wanna switch to. So if ya wanna go from off at 12am and switch to off at 12 pm give em 36 hours of light then when the light goes out your dark period will be during the day and continue as normal. Keeping the light on won't stress em in veg, a lot of people run there veg lights 24-7. However an extended dark period will confuse em. Flowering is based on hours of darkness not hours of light.
Hope I explained myself right. I'm a bit stoned ATM.

When you flip to 12/12 it really doesn't matter if you take it from the back or front. It's hours of uninterrupted darkness that matter. So take it from where it's more convenient for you to do so. Mine are usually off durning the day and on at night when it's cooler.

 

[stanovnik]

Thanks all for your replies.
I think I will go with "keep the lights on" option. Makes more sense to not confuse them with long or unexpected dark.

 

[Gonzo]

Thanks all for your replies.
I think I will go with "keep the lights on" option. Makes more sense to not confuse them with long or unexpected dark.

Just do that, this option is the most supported in diffrent forums, so it sucks least, seems.

It will be much better, even if you stress your plants, because heat is more dangerous if goes out of control.

With this method you will stress plant once, heat makes continuous stress, if not controlled.

 

[stanovnik]

If anyone is interested, here is an update on my light move/switch.
I did it as people here suggested and the plants are fine, no hermies. Not even after my majer screw up during the switch.

After 1 week I found out by accident that I fu*ed up the setting of the digital timer and the ladies instead of 12/12 were getting 6 hours of light and 18 hours of dark. When crossing midnight the timer was supposed to stay on, but instead it turned off. Should have read the manual.

So I immediately switched to analog IKEA timer and even with this week of "stress" everything was fine. The funny thing is that I was worried to keep the light for a few hours more and in the end I screw up so royally that they get only 6 hours of light for a week.

The lesson learned is: RTFM and don't worry about few hours of extra light or dark during the switch.