Quote Originally Posted by mainegrown
so there is no way to extend the day? even a little? what if it was not so radical but more like 16 on 13 off?? or 12 off? that way the plants wouldnt have too much time to be rid of the hormones and accumulate new veg ones.. that is how you said it worked right?

and i think that a slightly longer growing time and therefor larger plants would be the end result.
kinda buzzed so couldnt tell you if that makes sense but right now it does. lol
-J
Hey mainegrown,

You are right, you can extend the photoperiod for longer then the traditional 12/12 and get some more growth. I just recently used 14/10 for a run with a grow tray where I felt I was short of light power, so what I lacked for irradience (photon energy) I tried to make up for with longer light duration.

The first problem I see with your proposed 16/13 schedule is you've then created a 29 hr "grow day". So then every 5 grow days you have expended 6 calendar days. The second point may or may not be a problem, and that is wether your plant can stay in flower with that long of a photoperiod. That you can check via an experiment, but remember that this can be very strain dependent. You may find one strain it will work for with no problems, but another strain may fall outa flower.

If you want to contemplate a radical light schedule, check out "martian method" on this board. Both Dogznova and Mother have grows where they have tried this (it is also refered to as martian nights). The offical name is PAD (photosynthetic artifical darkness) developed by a very sharp mind by the name of Shawn Rauber, with help from Salmayo and others. This method involves using certian light spectrums at certian intervals to trick the plant into thinking there is a dark period, when in reality the lights (certian spectrums) are on 24 hrs per day. This holds a lot of promise, not just in amounts produced but also in the quality of the finished product. :thumbsup: