I have a new conception of how the light spectra interact with the plant. (My new best guess.) More information from all of you (dude, dog, sal) has made me re-arrange my puzzle pieces again and the picture makes a lot more sense, so hopefully it??s actually a better understanding...

I think the conception of ??triggering? any biological process was getting in my way. If it really is ??all relative? then grouping light spectra and plant processes makes the most sense to me. For light, I??m thinking blue (~300-500nm), red (500-700?) and far red (720?-800?) and for biological processes, I??m thinking vegging (leaf, branch, root, etc. development), photosynthesis (energy-making), and misc. (various other processes that include ??flowering?).

(Note: Pr is phytochrome that is only sensitive to Red light, and Pfr is phytochrome that is only sensitive to Far Red light. Each one changes to the other upon being exposed to light that it is sensitive to. Additionally, Pfr naturally converts to Pr in darkness until some equilibrium is reached.)

If I guess what effect each spectrum of light (B/R/FR) would have on each biological process?

Blue:
Vegging: increases (perhaps by co-opting something? Because it seems exclusive)
Photosynthesis: increases
Misc.: prevents flowering (via vegging?)

Red:
Vegging: little/no effect?
Photosynthesis: increases
Misc.: decreases (Pr/Pfr competition?)

Far red (or complete darkness):
Vegging: little/no effect?
Photosynthesis: little/no effect?
Misc.: increases (Pr/Pfr competition?)

I picture each of these processes running at a faster or slower rate, depending on spectra. This is why I think the idea of triggering was getting in my way. To get the plant to flower, it only needs sufficient ??flowering activity? (I??m thinking rate and duration), but since blue light prevents it, the plant needs nighttime for that to happen. At night, the plant can??t perform photosynthesis so it can flower for a while, but eventually runs out of energy, which it re-charges during the day. This all takes place at a natural rate based on the sun, so this is the baseline I??ll use for comparison. The idea of speeding up or slowing down the plant??s perceived clock is the speeding up or slowing down of the rate of these processes relative to what the plant naturally expects (or requires, as in Blue light??s absence being necessary for flowering). During the day, the plant usually receives a certain ratio of B:R:FR, that varies over the seasons but is relatively stable day-to-day. We flower at 12/12 because that??s how long darkness takes to produce the level of flowering we are happy with. HPS works better than fluoro even at similar intensities because there??s way more FR in HPS, meaning the misc. processes are running faster all day and have a ??head start? into the night.

Speeding up the plant??s day means making the processes that happen during the day happen faster, which is vegging and photosynthesis. Since they already get a large amount of Blue and Red light, it??s hard to make that go much faster except the misc. processes provide some important benefits that are limiting factors (I remember sal saying something about the plant??s equivalent to heem).

??Speeding up? the plant??s night means making the misc. processes happen faster (because that??s what naturally happens at night), but the limiting factor is still energy. So if we introduce Red light, it provides energy but slows down the misc. process, so we have to add Far Red to compensate, or allow for some total darkness. The closer the light is to 660nm, the more it suppresses the misc. processes (because Pr is most sensitive at ~660?) so the shorter the wavelength the better, down to around 500 because that will increase photosynthesis while minimizing the decrease of the misc. processes and avoid increasing the vegging process.

The key to the Martian Method would be finding the right balance. You want enough vegging to support the plant, enough photosynthesis to drive everything (presumably as fast as possible), and enough of the misc. processes to provide necessary things (perhaps hormones?) critical to flowering.

I could (and probably should) go on explaining what I'm picturing, but it??s late and I??m tired and should have been doing more pressing things the whole time. :-/

Also, please keep in mind that in order to convey my level of certainty on all of this, I'd have to write "maybe" or "perhaps" or "could be" on every sentence. That's very tiresome (so I don't) but that's what I would have to do... And as always, I??m sure this is an oversimplification.
Mother Reviewed by Mother on . First attempt at a 24-hour "Martian Method" In order to keep track of events, at the request of some online friends, and in order to share the love with the rest of the cannabis community, I'm starting my first grow log using the Martian Method, which I learned about from a very helpful Salmayo, here: http://www..com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=30203&highlight=Martian and it has also been discussed in another thread on this board, starting at post 1438: http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-lighting/150174-perfect-led-grow-light-58.html Rating: 5