Light cycle cuts down Flowering Time?

[low_rdr]

IMPORTANT NEWS UPDATE.....

This is INSANE! Not only did I already write this post and apparently pushed cancel - But the new light schedule is AMAZING with the plants. I wish I had taken before/after shots but it slipped my mind, I figured it would take a long time to see results... It doesn't.

I went with 6 on, 12 off - Then on two consecutive days its 6 on 18 off. I'm using a brinks timer that allows 6 different settings/days so 5 are set for 6/12 and two are combined at 6/18.

Now.. I said that I was vegging the pineapple for at least another week because my flowering cabinet is full and a good portion of them had decent buds, but purely clear trichomes... They'd been that way for about a week, so I figured I had a good week or two left.

After 2 days, the hairs are 40% red, trichomes are 70% cloudy and 20% amber.... I'm VERY impressed. The only other change so far has been the addition of pop/rock music during lights on.

Benefits: Faster budding period - Less power consumption, and for some reason, happy as hell plants. I've got a powerbud in there that has a top cola that is absolutely HUGE, and it's gotten bigger in the past two days. This bud is the size of a solocup in width and a can of monster in height - My previous buds were the size of pill bottles, so this is a BIG increase. The new lighting is only partially to blame, but it is finishing much faster!

My advice to you, stop what your doing, and change your light schedule. If you want to wait until my pineapple express finishes, that's fine - But I'm thinking my pineapple will be done in 5-6 weeks vs 7 that it took to finish last time



Oh, the negatives: The timer is a pain in the ass to setup. Also, since the lights change times each day, its hard to get a set 'inspection' schedule - I haven't actually had a peek at the girls during lights on yet, won't be until tonight.

[Buggy]

Low - how were the results, and how much do you think the lighting contributed?

Anyone here have enough space for two small grow areas to test this? Start with 2-4 girls in each with the EXACT same set up (lights/space/temp/humidity/ferts/water/air flow/co2/etc) but do one with the norm 24/0 or 18/6 then 7/12 on the one, with the other being the new suggested lighting. I'd like to see the difference in veg first, and then flower second. I can understand the flowering in many ways to be increased with the shorter light periods - most plants don't get concentrated light for THAT long each day anyways.

Hmmm - any studies that people are aware of for the ideal number of hours of direct sunlight the plants need outdoors? Roses prefer 6+ although some do very well with 4+ and then light or total shade the rest of the day. Some plants only like 2-4 hours direct at most. What about cannabis? What is this plant's preferred light intensity? That could signal how long they really need lights on at a time.

Also, does it matter that much to the veg time if it's 12/6 or 16/2 or 24/0? There are some people that do straight 12/12 for seedlings even, so... I don't really know. Anyone?