A friend called me this morning wanting to know about the next grow. While explaining a few things to my friend, I had an epiphany!
Since the intent of under Canopy lighting is to increase the quality of
Flower, there is no need to run them in the vegetative stage. When flipping from vegetative stage to flowering stage, you're removing 4hrs of light and thusly lowering the DLI. By beginning the under canopy lighting at the same time as flipping, you essentially negate the lowering of the DLI.
There won't be that dip in the DLI that you normally see when flipping to flower. I haven't seen anyone say anything negative about turning the lights on full blast, when first starting using them. I think the plant will keep on trucking at the same rate And make it easier to translation to a
higher DLI during the coming stretch.
When I flip to flower, I just don't blast them immediately to make up for the DLI loss. It usually takes me about a week to get back to the proper DLI. With this method there's no catching up and I doubt if there's much stress at all. Without needing to catch up, that's going to mean a bigger plant at the same stage of life. With the stretch coming on, Higher DLI and possible less stress will be even more valuable and beneficial to the plant.
And this grow is starting this week!
