Light Interruption of the Dark Period

I am in the 12-12 stage at the moment. If I need to do any work on my set up it's usually during the day which is the 12 hours of dark period for the plants. Apparently, if there's a light leak into the area during the dark period it can interfere with your plants bud growth, slowing it down or even causing it to become hermaphrodite.
Does anyone know how much light it is safe to expose them to (and for how long) before there's a risk of freaking them out? Is a torch or normal 60watt light bulb going to be too much?
Thanks in advance for some really great comprehensive answers!

green light works

NO LIGHT! Not even a candle light. I f you do need to work get a green bulb.

I am guessing just any type of household light globe with a translucent green pain would suffice, or is there a specific type of green light bulb that's made for the job, like the red darkroom lights?

I'd really try and avoid any light in there, I also doubt using a green light will avoid problems.

Well, no light is best, but the plants are naturally used to moonlight at the very most, so no more than this (again, none is best).

I have had a couple of plants that I let bud indoors using natural light and they were exposed to the light from the socket in the ceiling each night and there was no hermaphroditism detected in that plant. It did grow incredibly slowly though and when it got under the hps in a 12/12 cycle it took ages to start moving again!
There must be a level of tolerance for the plants to some amount of light because of their natural exposure to the Moon when grown outdoors.
I suppose the really difficult question now would be how much total light does the Moon release overnight throughout its waxing and waning stages in a twelve month period? Once I knew that I could divide this amount by 365 and, theoretically if the lumen count of the bulb I was using was below that, then it should be safe.
I can't see how a green bulb would make a great deal of difference really either since it's still a form of light.
Oh, f**k it, I'll just do the work only when the lights are on!

Thanks for coming around ..

realmeatdildo said:

I am in the 12-12 stage at the moment. If I need to do any work on my set up it's usually during the day which is the 12 hours of dark period for the plants. Apparently, if there's a light leak into the area during the dark period it can interfere with your plants bud growth, slowing it down or even causing it to become hermaphrodite.
Does anyone know how much light it is safe to expose them to (and for how long) before there's a risk of freaking them out? Is a torch or normal 60watt light bulb going to be too much?
Thanks in advance for some really great comprehensive answers!

Click to expand...

you want complete darkness during your 12/12 period...if the plant doesnt receive 12 hrs of night during the dark period it will not flower properly or at all...that means no lights at all...not even your house lights..if you must work on your plants during the night cycle a green party bulb will give you enough light to work but the spectrum of light it produces is not received by the plant....

Thanks for the responses. I was having a problem with the plug in timer not turning off when it was supposed to. Turns out they're only rated at 10 amps and the ballast of a 600 watt spikes at 15 amps causing the circuit to fry in them. Apparently it's so common amongst dope growers to not know this that K-mart won't take 'faulty' timers back any more!
I bought a digital one rated for 30 amps today. It wasn't cheap and from the way the instructions were worded you could tell they're not exactly throwing the extra money at the guy who writes the leaflet for English lessons. I wonder how writing 'Setting the timer is easy' actually in any way makes it easier?