Going without power

[scottjamez]

Wondering if there are any suggestions on what to do if you know that you will probably be without power and unable to give your plants light for 24 - 48 hours.

Would it make sence to give them as much light as possible the day before this outage might happen? Extra water?

My plants are about 6 weeks old grown from seed. using 2, 400watt eqiv CFL's.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

scottjamez Reviewed by scottjamez on 08-29-2006. Going without power Wondering if there are any suggestions on what to do if you know that you will probably be without power and unable to give your plants light for 24 - 48 hours. Would it make sence to give them as much light as possible the day before this outage might happen? Extra water? My plants are about 6 weeks old grown from seed. using 2, 400watt eqiv CFL's. Any thoughts would be appreciated! Rating: 5

[dusto2k3]

move 'em outside for a day maybe??

Or maybe put them in the window somewhere ehre they can get a little light. Some is better than none i would guess.

[stinkyattic]

Total darkness for 3 days is suggested by some people just before flowering. If they're mature, you might as well go with it and start 12/12 when the power comes back on. Otherwise you risk hermies. Putting them in a window on a different photoperiod is worse IMO.

[scottjamez]

The window idea isn't going to work since I live in a condo with nosey neighbors. They are not at all mature enough for 12/12.

I was thinking of watering them good (I was also planning on starting ferts in this watering), and just keeping the lights on for as long as they can until the possability of power going out is over.

I do have an APC 1500va UPS for one of my larger computers, but I doubt that will lst long even if only one bulb is running even if it is a cfl. I might try anyway.

[stinkyattic]

I was thinking of watering them good

If you water them before an extended period of darkness, they aren't going to be able to use the water properly. You could get problems. Water them LESS if anything.

and just keeping the lights on for as long as they can until the possability of power going out is over.

No, you culd get hermies!

I do have an APC 1500va UPS for one of my larger computers, but I doubt that will lst long even if only one bulb is running even if it is a cfl. I might try anyway.

That's what I would do. Keep them on the same schedule, but run your UPS to the CFL- even if it isn't intense, it's still light, and will save them from photoperiod stress.

What about moving them to another safe location with more dependable power?

[scottjamez]

What about moving them to another safe location with more dependable power?

I wish I could... Unfortunatly that's not an option.

I was able to get one large and two small power backups from my computers (pays off to be a geek sometimes).

I'll try to use them to keep the same schedule as best I can. I wish I knew more about electric wiring or I would conntec a rheostat (sp?) to the bulb before plugging it into the battery so I could run it at 1/2 power for the 18 hour period of light they will be missing.

Oh well, just hope for the best I guess. Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

[stinkyattic]

I don't think you can run a flouro on a rheostat.

[jamstigator]

Hah, I had a power outage over the summer, at the peak of summer heat actually, for three straight days, while my plants were at 30 days of flowering. I couldn't really do a lot, so they suffered through 99.5 degree heat during the days, with virtually no ventilation the whole three days. For light, what I did was get some flashlights and LED flashlights, and turned those on during what would normally have been their light period. I'm sure it wasn't enough light, not even close, but I think it was just barely enough light for them to stay 'on schedule' until the power was restored. And amazingly enough, they didn't hermie. (But they were spectacularly healthy before the power outage, which probably helped them survive without freaking out.)

They did take some damage, from the heat and lack of ventilation mainly, brown spots on their leaves the rest of the way, but they finished flowering fine.

The three days of darkness thing, at least from what I've read, is something the Dutch experimented with and found that 72 hours of total darkness at the end of FLOWERING can result in as much as a 30 percent increase in THC in some strains, not all. I've never heard of giving the plants a big dose of darkness like that between veg and flowering though.

Either way, do all you can to keep them on whatever their normal schedule is, even if you have to go down Desperation Road like I did, and use flashlights and LEDs for their light periods.

[babystarbud]

i think your over-reacting....they are not flowering yet, so chill the f*** out lol

keep the dark period dark, and give them the best light you can during daytime. it was cloudy that day. so what.

[mobay]

dont know if this will help you or not , at least you get hermies. some light is better than no light for a couple of days. http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colem...ategoryid=1045