I know somebody who did experiment with this a little bit, and I paid attention because free knowledge is never a bad thing.

He took 2 groups (G1 and G2) of identical clones. They rooted them in a bubbler, 24 hour lights on with some weeny CFL's, then when they rooted (all of the strong ones within a couple days of each other), he transplanted them to FF soil.

G1 received 18/6 for 3 weeks, then switched to 12/12 on week 4
G2 received, 18/6 for week1, 16/8 for week 2, 14/10 week 3, then 12/12 on week 4.

There was no obvious difference in each group. G2's slightly changing cycle did not trigger earlier vigorous bloom growth.

He is running 2 1000w lights, contained, about a meter from the plant tops, SOG.

Now, I think to get a more accurate understanding of whether a slowly changing light cycle or a sudden change is better to trigger vigorous growth, you'd have to stretch the veg cycle out much longer, maybe even upwards of 2 months!

But, what is cool about his experiment, is that we both learned that you can save a bit of electricity by slowly cutting back on light usage with no obvious negative side-effects (if you're doing a 1 month veg or less, can't speak for anything longer than that).

So if nothing else, you get an extra ten bucks to go to the movies or something each month.
t3rmites Reviewed by t3rmites on . Gradual light change rather than abrupt 12/12? Is there any benefit to doing a gradual change from 18/6 to 12/12? I have been wondering about these things lately. It seems like if you wanted to imitate nature a graded light switch would be more natural and possibly stress the plant less. Also maybe it would elongate flowering sites before flower set lending to larger buds overall? I know it would probably set harvest back but I wonder bout the overall potency and yield differences. Has anyone tried this? I was thinking about how a Rating: 5