slowthestone

The lights come on....a plant begins soaking up energy while some cell division occurs.

Lights go off...a plant begins utilizing the stored energy and cell division goes into high gear.

The first stages, depending on the grower, has us indoor types inducing 16-22 hour long photoperiods. Some even leave the lights on 24/7.

When we go into flowering, ~poof~ ... here comes this 12 hour shot of dark. 12 hours of light...12 hours of dark...50/50. That's when the fun begins yes? The grower has gone and forced puberty onto their plants.

Anyway....plants, to the best of my knowledge, are far more active when the lights go out than when they're on. As if each photoperiod...a plant is catching it's breath for the next sprint come lights off. That suggests to me that the key part of the cycle is that 12 hours of dark.

I look outside, I've got two times a year where nature is making for a 12/12 day. The nights get longer...the plants start pumping bud....the days get shorter, theres not as much energy available to be absorbed...but bud production either hits a healthy plateau, or keeps peaking.

So why am I sitting on a 12/12 cycle? Seems by nature's example that I should keep the lights off for longer periods over the course of X amount of weeks.

Following with manipulating a plant's height, forcing flowering as soon a plant can begin that stage of growth...4 weeks into 12/12 a grower has a plant putting it's resources into flowering, with only but a smidge of it's former percentage of energy for linear growth being maintained. Looking back to nature again, with the shorter days, longer nights...combined with manipulating the height via the 12/12 cycle, suggests a plants vegetative max has been reached, its function then is to maintain itself while the different process of flowering begins. Maintaining it's vegetative growth takes no where near the daily amount of energy and resources it took to get there.

Flowers, or bud sites...they fend for themselves during solar absorbtion. As if they're their own self-sustained plant living alongside the woodsy stalk and stems.

How long of a photo-period do the bud sites need at a time? Because nature is telling me that the process of flowering doesn't require a 12/12 cycle be maintained, just initiated. And in actuality, is doing more of what the grower wants to occur, while it's in the dark.

In other words....a plant isn't having to catch its breath as much and is quite the conditioned sprinter after a month of flowering.

So again...why am I sitting on a 12/12 cycle? It's reeking of being counter-productive to achieving maximum growth as what is seen in the first two stages.

And while I'm at citing nature...we're the one's with the 24 hour clock...not the plants. That has me wondering if the whole 12/12 thing is just a means of keeping things simple and dummy-proof. Certainly there has to be a better sweet spot than 12/12. I'm picturing a plant sitting around for a couple hours, maxed out on what it can or will absorb, needing the lights to go off so that that over-riding process that is photosynthesis shuts down, allowing for flowering to begin reaching it's maximum each dark period.

Why 12/12 anyway? Why not 15/15?

Or 10/10? The ones that intrigues me most are...8/10 - 10/12 - 8/12 - 10/14....Each allowing a plant to sprint a little further while the lights are off, and not sit around waiting long after its cought it's wind.

I've the feeling that the processes of a flowering plant are being put out having to wait on photosynthesis to shut down.

I'm of the mind that I can be doing better as a grower than following a dummy-proof 12/12 cycle.

old dog

There is nothing wrong with growing a few test crops. Without a test crop its all just a guess.

4 test crops I have done are..

12/12 from seed, It works fine plant was almost all bud.

13on/11off plants did not care, they flowered just like normal.

24/0 on an autoflowering strain , smaller buds but very sticky and stinky.

Random dark and light , took flowering plants put in 24/0 for a day or two, went back and forth for a couple weeks. no hermis, plants did not care.

Thats the way it worked out for me.

The test has showed me there are a lot of myths about MJ.

Quantrill

Botany online: Plant Responses - Light - Photoperiodism - Stimulation of Flowering
Fun reading

__________________
Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't.

~Mark Twain

knna

I play often with photoperiods. In fact i use 12/12 the less.

The 12/12 has proved be the more balanced photoperiod, thus its wide use.

Dark period lengh is like the power of the plant's motor, longer the darkness, more cubic cm. And the light period and nute profile, the transmission you use with the motor.

Thus there are many possible good combinations, respecting the 24h cycle or not. But you must take into account for circadian rythms wich rules living organism. Any photoperiod different of natural 24h must be tested carefully, some works, some not. It seems 24 and 36h photoperiods work the best, although 18 and 30h photoperiod seems to not affect negativelly.

Anyway, seems impossible to generalize the effect of differents photoperiods, because each strain reacts differently.

The photoperiod affects many biological process, phytohormones pool and equilibrium. It affects carbon fixation partitioning between flowers/leafs and stem, between canopy/rootzone, in the synthesis of THC...its a very complex topic. Anybody must find wich work better for each strain they use and for the high desired:

Daylengh affects strongly THC content. There is a controled experiment showing a 10/14 producing 50% less THC than 12/12, and 8/16 producing very little THC, while total dry weight vary only a little between. So its necessary understand what each photoperiod produces and use it acording to the goal.

For example, i used 14/10 in the last part of flowering, seeking for max THC content. But when rippening, trics didnt madurate enough. When was 1 week over usual crop maduration, i decided to cut, but then i notice the plants was reveging: in 2 days, they grow 2" of airy buds and one finger leaves. I harvested, and i was very surprised when taste the weed: the best taste i ever proved in that strain! Sure it had a low THC content and and high CBD, it worked perfect against anxiety and pain (im a medicinal user). It was an accident (i discover a light leak in the bottom of the cab after harvest), but very afortunate.

This did me think a lot. Yes, we know a lot about MJ. But probably is more what we dont know about.

__________________


Bulb Analyzer Tool

slowthestone

Thanks Quantrill... I was missing today's fix of jumbled terminology!

buzzmobile

Do you have a source to link for that experiment?

scooterpie

Whats Madurate? I can't find any def....


pi

__________________

knna

Yes, i upload the abstract. I found once the full article, but i lost it, and im unable to find it again.

There is other studies very relevant about, but not used MJ in the experiment, but shows the different partitioning of carbon fixation vs photoperiod, and starch accumulation and degradation:

Daylength and Circadian Effects on Starch Degradation

For advanced explanation about flowering mechanisms, download this book:"The molecular byology and biotechnology of flowering".pdf

"Photosynthate Partitioning into Starch in Soybean Leaves: I. EFFECTS OF PHOTOPERIOD VERSUS PHOTOSYNTHETIC PERIOD DURATION", by N. JERRY CHATTERTON AND JOHN E. SILVIUS

"THE EFFECT OF TOP ENVIRONMENT AND FLOWERING
UPON TOP-ROOT RATIOS" (by R. H. ROBERTS AND B. ESTHER STRUCKMEYER), have a section studing hemp by temp and photoperiod.

"Process that make THC". A whole review about factors affecting THC content. Not scientific, but very interesting.

SEASONAL FLUCTUATIONS IN CANNABINOID CONTENT OF KANSAS MARIJUANA

Enjoy it!

Attached Files

Influence of photoperiodism on cannabinoid content of Cannabis sativa L..zip (2.2 KB, 35 views)

__________________


Bulb Analyzer Tool

knna

Sorry, with my short english sometimes im unable to find the right word. I refered to tricomes become milky and amber from the translucent initial state, meaning the conversion of CBD to THC (delta 9).

PD: Properly speaking, the conversion is to THCV, wich converts to THC delta 9 during curing.

__________________


Bulb Analyzer Tool

Quantrill

Can you reword this so I might understand how carbon and starch correlate to thc?


Madurate= mature ?

__________________
Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't.

~Mark Twain