Please Help switch from 12/12 to 18/6 for 2 days

I started flowering last week and my ballast has decided not to work correctly. It will shut off automatically but wont turn back on. I have searched for timers but to no avail I havent been able to find any.( I live in an Asian Country.)

My new ballast set to 12/12 time will be here on monday and i have manually been turning the one that i have on and off everyday until it comes. My question is how bad will it stress my plants if i have to change the lighting to 18/6 for two days. I have another 400w hps set for 18/6. I work in a different city on the weekends and cant trust anyone to do it for me.

any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

mm, it could stress out plants a lot, but if its only one weekend u should be fine. good luck.

lozac123 said:

mm, it could stress out plants a lot, but if its only one weekend u should be fine. good luck.

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Cool man, I just dont want to risk using the 12/12 ballast and then come back to plants that have been in complete darkness for 2 days straight.

well, in that case u mite be better off not turning off the light at all for 48 hours, its better an extra 12 hours of light, than 48 hours of dark. in my opinion, they would be as stressed with 24hours of light a day for the wend.

yes, I agree with lozac--its much better to leave them in total darkness than to change the light cycle. You are much more prone to hermie if switch 18/6...I'm not sure if 2 straight days is enough to cause it to hermie, but you will definitely confuse the plant back into thinking its vegging and then sending it right back into flower. If nothing else I think this will slow your flowering development by a week or so.

Just keep them in the dark and tell them its going to be really cloudy for a few days...they'll be cool with it.

Jerry Garcia said:

yes, I agree with lozac--its much better to leave them in total darkness than to change the light cycle. You are much more prone to hermie if switch 18/6...I'm not sure if 2 straight days is enough to cause it to hermie, but you will definitely confuse the plant back into thinking its vegging and then sending it right back into flower. If nothing else I think this will slow your flowering development by a week or so.

Just keep them in the dark and tell them its going to be really cloudy for a few days...they'll be cool with it.

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Thanks for the info Jerry. Ive been reading up on leaving them in darkness and it seems like it will speed up the flowering process a little bit. So, I think im going to do that over the weekend.

chinawas said:

Thanks for the info Jerry. Ive been reading up on leaving them in darkness and it seems like it will speed up the flowering process a little bit. So, I think im going to do that over the weekend.

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hey guys,

I am going to have a small issue a swell, and need some advice.
I made a new post just the other day.

What about switching back to a natural (balcony) 16/8 after 4 weeks of flowering (12/12) for about 3 days ?!?! I need to leave for that period of time, my plants are on the balcony for 12 hours (get good light), and I have an indoor dark room. the difference in light is about 4 hours per day, that for about 3 days total. So I would wanna leave them on the balcony... thanks for your advice !!!!