Light cycles and budding hormones?

[pepurr]

I read somewhere that cannabis plants are always producing a hormone that induces budding. Also this hormone is destroyed by light and this is why the plant will not bud when the days are long. The light is destroying the hormone enough so that it has little, if any, effect. Then when the light period is reduced to 12 hours, the reduction in light allows the hormone level to get high enough to allow the plant to bud.

I was wondering if having even less light would make much of a difference in budding. The logic being, even less light means more bud hormone.

Maybe going to 8 or 6 hours of light would make bigger buds. Maybe it would make them bud faster.

Anyone of you ever try this? What are your thoughts?

pepurr Reviewed by pepurr on 04-12-2010. Light cycles and budding hormones? I read somewhere that cannabis plants are always producing a hormone that induces budding. Also this hormone is destroyed by light and this is why the plant will not bud when the days are long. The light is destroying the hormone enough so that it has little, if any, effect. Then when the light period is reduced to 12 hours, the reduction in light allows the hormone level to get high enough to allow the plant to bud. I was wondering if having even less light would make much of a difference Rating: 5

[demoreal]

Its good thinking. I know some growers are experimenting with flowering times. People do 6/6. I think it gives a faster yet less yield grow. Do not know much about it but if you do a google search you will get some stuff.
Never thought of something like 6/18 It sure would take a long time to finish. It grows in the wild with more than 12 dark.

[Dutch Pimp]

New growers, constantly ask these kind of questions!...and I'm sure many have experimented with different light cycles. But, none have come running back and said ...
"HEY!...this worked great. I'm gonna do this everytime"

We argue the merits of 18/6 or 20/4 or 24/0 for vegging all the time....and
Bottomline: they all work well for the individual grower to chose one that fits their situation...:thumbsup:

There's not much arguement about 12/12 for flowering..it works well...Case Closed....but, feel free to experiment...
..let us know how it works out.

I don't experiment, much...I just want to supply myself with as much weed as possible. I've suffered mistakes...following the normal procedures..I don't need anything ...'iffy'...too much lost time that way.

I use 18/6 for vegging...cause...I can't fuck with light on all the time...

[demoreal]

just making a correction.
I said 6/6 I meant 6/12

[pepurr]

New growers, constantly ask these kind of questions!...and I'm sure many have experimented with different light cycles. But, none have come running back and said ...
"HEY!...this worked great. I'm gonna do this everytime"

We argue the merits of 18/6 or 20/4 or 24/0 for vegging all the time....and
Bottomline: they all work well for the individual grower to chose one that fits their situation...:thumbsup:

There's not much arguement about 12/12 for flowering..it works well...Case Closed....but, feel free to experiment...
..let us know how it works out.

I don't experiment, much...I just want to supply myself with as much weed as possible. I've suffered mistakes...following the normal procedures..I don't need anything ...'iffy'...too much lost time that way.

I use 18/6 for vegging...cause...I can't fuck with light on all the time...

Hey! No offence taken Dutch. New grower, old grower, that isn't really an issue.

The only way mankind has to grow is through asking questions, debate, experimentation. Can't say the case is closed though. I see plenty of peeps out there who go 8 hours of light when budding. I bet there is a point of diminishing returns though.

I will be doing some experiments in the future. It is fun. For now, like you, I want tried and true results. So, going 12/12 is the way I plan to go for now.

Thanks for your input. :thumbsup:

Edit: The last plant I grew 28 years ago, I put it under 8 hours timed light for budding. Had to move back to San Diego and didn't have any place to put it indoors. Was able to find a nice spot out side. It was late in the season. I think that helped. When I harvested, that turned out to be some awesome smoke. Purple sensi all the way, with fat buds. Got the seeds from some Kona.

[demoreal]

I think you should experiment. Not only is the light cycle of interest but the angle of light as well.
Nice questions Pepurr, keep them coming!

[thepaan]

It seems you have acquired some misinformation and I really don't want to bore you so I will try to keep this short.

In plants, flowering may be triggered by one or more of several sensory pathways which the plant uses to determine the season. One such pathway is light. A photoreceptor in plants known as phytochrome is responsible for causing the flowering response when night becomes the appropriate length. This is because phytochrome comes in two forms which are converted between each other. During the day more of one form exists and during the night more of the other form exists. This pathway for triggering flowering in cannabis has a requirement for long nights. For a short-day plant (or long night) long-day conditions presumably causes a hormone to be produced which delays flowering. To my knowledge, this hormone has yet to be identified and it's very existence is only a theory.

• Flowering is still growth and growth is best with the most light.
• The flowering response is like a switch - on or off.

With these two points we can determine that the best situation to be in is the longest day which still causes flowering (such as the recommended 12 hour day). The only way around this I can think of (but have never tried) is to trick the phytochrome into thinking the night is longer than it really is.

Reference 1
Reference 2
Reference 3
Pick a random reference

[pepurr]

Very interesting information, thepaan.

I sure do wish they did all that research with cannabis and rice, instead of arabidopsis and rice.

It seems, from what I've read about this on web pages you have provided and ones I have found, that different plants use this mechanism to produce flowers at different times or day-light/night lengths. I would guess that the timing of flowering, that was evolved in each respective plant species, was determined by its survival strategy. Early bloom must have an advantage for one plant while late bloom has an advantage for the other.

It would be nice if there were scientific studies on this in the cannabis plant. I doubt many, if any, of the people who grow cannabis, have the resources to do that.

[demoreal]

read the book by Robert Clarke in my sig

[thepaan]

I sure do wish they did all that research with cannabis and rice, instead of arabidopsis and rice.

Yes, I wish there was more data for cannabis available as well. But, you can get the gist of how our favorite plant should behave if wherever they say "rice" you instead read "cannabis". The exact numbers won't be right but they are both short-day plants so they should have the same responses.