changing to 12/12

highlando

Member
Does it have to be complete darkness all the time or only one night then a lil flash here and there wont bother it please help me with this first grow
 
Does it have to be complete darkness all the time or only one night then a lil flash here and there wont bother it please help me with this first grow
I know many people leave their plants in total darkness for 24-72 hours right before switching to 12/12 which helps with the plants hormones and jump starts the flowering phase. Once you start the 12/12 cycle, you really don't want to mess with the plants once the lights go off. If you absolutely must do something during lights out I'd say do so quickly and make sure no light is directly hitting the plants. But usually during flower you don't do anything until lights on. You risk getting a hermie. Total darkness, no light leaks of any kind.
 

highlando

Member
I know many people leave their plants in total darkness for 24-72 hours right before switching to 12/12 which helps with the plants hormones and jump starts the flowering phase. Once you start the 12/12 cycle, you really don't want to mess with the plants once the lights go off. If you absolutely must do something during lights out I'd say do so quickly and make sure no light is directly hitting the plants. But usually during flower you don't do anything until lights on. You risk getting a hermie. Total darkness, no light leaks of any kind.
K thanks they r starting to change sex so it must be working
 

cannn

Well-Known Member
Yeah i wouldnt interrupt the dark cycle unless i was pretty sure they were dying in there for some reason.. Or im drunk.. Lol

Even a few lumens per square foot for a few minutes will cause problems in flower if its reoccuring and not at the beginning or end of the 12 hours. You can actually flower with 11 hours of dark but 12 is preffered for indicas while many seem to prefer 11 for long flowering sativas so it shouldnt cause too much trouble if you interrupt in the first or last hour, still not recommended
 
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Benelli

Well-Known Member
I have some buddies that are always worried about 'closing up' their ladies when lights turn off during flower.

Me, I'm not as concerned and haven't noticed any negative side effects on my situation. my lights are on from 7pm-7am and I also have a veg tent inside my flower room that I open up when my flower tent light is on. So one would think I need to have the veg tent closed up at 7am every morning. Well there are plenty of mornings I don't close the veg tent up till 8-9am and NEVER seen anything bad come from this...
 

SoOLED

Well-Known Member
I have some buddies that are always worried about 'closing up' their ladies when lights turn off during flower.

Me, I'm not as concerned and haven't noticed any negative side effects on my situation. my lights are on from 7pm-7am and I also have a veg tent inside my flower room that I open up when my flower tent light is on. So one would think I need to have the veg tent closed up at 7am every morning. Well there are plenty of mornings I don't close the veg tent up till 8-9am and NEVER seen anything bad come from this...
you just cant have a light leak that causes a glow. when I worked in the store, people would return tents all the time cause they saw pin holes or the zippers lines.

most of the lights leaks I see in tents are from the ventilation, either the passive flex pipe not having enough length to bend to keep reflected lights in/or out, or not zip tying the pass thoughts.
 

chemphlegm

Well-Known Member
I have leaks on two walls in my flower room, multiple led lights, vent lights, etc. never had an issue, but its a good idea to not flsh them, use quality timers/controllers, and use a green led light if you must go in.
 

cogitech

Well-Known Member
Thanks for asking this question and thanks to those who answered. I've been paranoid about light leaks because I just switched my first grow to flower stage and I can see tiny cracks of light through some parts of the zipper. I'll ignore it now.
 

Esrgood4u

Well-Known Member
Thanks for asking this question and thanks to those who answered. I've been paranoid about light leaks because I just switched my first grow to flower stage and I can see tiny cracks of light through some parts of the zipper. I'll ignore it now.
Just grow auto flowers then no need to worry about light leaks etc. They obviously can still hermie in other ways though like too cold or high temps.
 
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