Phantom

Was reading through this thread on another board and found the concept pretty interesting....Just wanted to get some feedback from the people here on what they thought....

http://www.overgrow.com/edge/showthr...threadid=20444

Phantom
Ghost Who Smokes

bgetting

Plants do not absorb in the green spectrum, so if you were to shine a green light on a plant, it would lok black (assuming no other color light). this is also why plants look green, as the green light is reflected and wee see it. Putting a green filter over your light will let them flower in a 24/0 lightin cycle, but why? It is cheaper to just turn the light off. In the case of having some vegging and some flowering, it may work, but you would have to ensure that the filter blocks red and far red light, and also make sure that none of the flowering plant is exposed to even a little light. It has been shown that in some cases, even one leaf put into flowering lighting will cause the entire plant to flower, and vice versa.

Phantom

I get all that, but the crux of the thread wasn't to use a green filter. It was to use a specialized filter to only allow light of wave lengths greater than 660 micro meters through (far red spectrum) and therefore force the conversion of the photochromatic pigments in a shorter time than the usual 12 hours of darkness required. By doing this in short bursts at regular intevals you increase the quotient of 660 to 720 pigments and retain the flowering process. This in effect means that you could have your lights running for a greater amount of time therefore reducing your overall flowering time.
The large cost of these filters is the biggest hurdle to overcome but if you could significantly reduce your overall flowering time it "might" be worth it.

Phantom
Ghost Who Smokes

bgetting

First of, light is measured in nanometers.
After that, it is a thought, but from what I know of phytochrome research, there are many proteins involved, including the traditional "phytochrome". The model of there being one protein that converts under far red, then degrades over the dark period, and the ratio of far-red to red (degraded) determines flowering is the simplified model that is put into intro biology books. In reality there are a few proteins, and some other unknown factors acting in the flowering mechanism. As for if the filter would work, maybe, but I still say it is a waste of light. Turning off the light is the best way to influence the plant, as there are things going on that we haven't figured out yet. Also, filtering out light in the photosynthetic spectrums is just a waste. In order to get filters that would let only the action spectrum through, as well as far red, would be expensive.
If you want to cut down on flowering time, think simple. Most plants outside never get a full 12 hours of direct light a day. On average it has been figured to be 6 hours. So when you are flowering, use a 6 ON/12 OFF light cycle to lower flower time. The plant grow the same (when I did it) and I have seen no noticeable difference in yield, both in my trials and a few friends have done side-by-sides just recently. Works fine, is natural, and saves you electricity, all you have to do is rig a timer to pull that off. I had one made by an electrical engineering major at my college.

Phantom

Thanks for the response
I was a bit disappointed that you went of on a tangent on your first post as I figured if anyone could make sense of the thread it would probably be you.
I was throwing something out that 'I' hadn't heard about before and therefore wanted some feedback I wasn't actually saying I was going to do it though as the cost is quite large and I would want to hear of someone actually achieving positive results before I ventured down that path (the other thread was only discussing the theoretical possibilities).
Were you saying that the alternative lighting cycles you tried did cut down on over all flowering time? If so how significantly?

Phantom
Ghost Who Smokes

bgetting

If you drop it down to 6 hours a day, the harvest time is 3/4 that of a normal 12/12 cycle. Gotta go, work is over....

Phantom

Sounds like it's worth it then, I'll give a go in the bubbler that I just started flowering as the main bloom area is only a couple of weeks off being ready.

Phantom
Ghost Who Smokes