Quote Originally Posted by tinytoon
What about min 36 hours darkness between veg and flower??
While I agree with Rusty that it is unnecessary, it will hasten the induction phase of flowering. Here's why. There are three distinct phases to flowering; induction, initiation and developement. When a plant is growing (vegging) everytime it has a dark period certian chemicals (auxins) and hormone (florigen) build up in the plant and every time it has a photoperiod these chemicals and hormones break down. This chemical cocktail must reach a certian level, for a few cycles to induce flowering and start the initiation phase. The usual flowering photoperiod of 12/12 helps to speed up this process, but it can be further hastened using an initial prolonged dark period of 24-36 hrs. Most of us, especially continuous grow growers, don't have the space or timing to do that. Some grower's use an application of certian supplemental lighting that can fool the plant to believe the dark phase is actually longer then 12 hours and we cut induction times that way.

OM