Shortening Flowering Time by Reducing Amount of Hours in Day

mobby420

Well-Known Member
if i were to flower my plants with 10 hours light, then 10 hours dark, instead of the usual 12/12. therefore making each day 4 hours shorter, would my plants flower faster? I know i would need a special timer that doesnt function on a 24 hour clock, and also the times i could visit my plants would change everyday, but could this method possibly save 2-3 weeks of flowering time?

anyone have any ideas or tried something like this before?
 

bambam13579

Well-Known Member
my brother was on about this but doing 6/6 got to be worth a try you could use a 24hr timer for this aswell
 

KingOfBud

Well-Known Member
Messing with the plants natural day cycles may stress it a little. Flowering has been shortened naturally by giving her 13 hours dark 11 light. This way, the plant thinks its getting closer to winter, so begins to flower faster. But keep in mind, you will lose yield.
 

Greenthumb Gangsta

Active Member
This way, the plant thinks its getting closer to winter, so begins to flower faster. But keep in mind, you will lose yield.
You're right about this. The shorter days and night will probably cause the plants to finish flowering faster but the buds will not be developed as well.

Still worth a shot IMO.

Greenthumb
 

KingOfBud

Well-Known Member
You're right about this. The shorter days and night will probably cause the plants to finish flowering faster but the buds will not be developed as well.

Still worth a shot IMO.

Greenthumb
You saying I'm not normally right? :D You can keep decreasing the light hours, up until 6 hours of light, where it stops having effect on flowering speed. I really wouldn't man, keep it under 12/12 for good bud :D
 

mobby420

Well-Known Member
im not sure if you guys understood what i meant, i meant like tricking the plant to believeing a full day is only 20 hours, so during veg the schedule would be something like 16 hours on/4 hours off, and then in flower going to 10/10...... that way, 8 weeks of flowering should only take 6-7....... I wonder if a plant could adapt to 20 hour days?
 

Greenthumb Gangsta

Active Member
im not sure if you guys understood what i meant, i meant like tricking the plant to believeing a full day is only 20 hours, so during veg the schedule would be something like 16 hours on/4 hours off, and then in flower going to 10/10...... that way, 8 weeks of flowering should only take 6-7....... I wonder if a plant could adapt to 20 hour days?
I know what you're saying. The reason I think the buds will be smaller is because the plant need the light and dark times at 12 and 12 for development. If you shorten this they may not develope to their full potential but may ripen faster. Give it a try I would like to know if I'm wrong about this.

Greenthumb
 

KingOfBud

Well-Known Member
im not sure if you guys understood what i meant, i meant like tricking the plant to believeing a full day is only 20 hours, so during veg the schedule would be something like 16 hours on/4 hours off, and then in flower going to 10/10...... that way, 8 weeks of flowering should only take 6-7....... I wonder if a plant could adapt to 20 hour days?
You cant trick a plant, that has evolved for thousands of years into thinking days are 20 hours long. Its hard coded. You can try, but you will have some interesting results. (AKA, a fat bunch of hermies). Considering you are only shortening the day by 4 hours. You may not get many side effects. Try it. Maybe try 11/11. A 22 hour day :?
 

antipythium

Well-Known Member
You've got to keep the dark time around 12. If you do that, you can vary the light time any amount you want; but if you lessen the light too much, it starts affecting the yield pretty considerably. Haven't done it, been reading testimonials about it for years.
 

dankforall

New Member
There are peolpe who say you can make your plant flower faster (less time) if you make it dark for loonger gradually over time. It makes the plant thinl its almost winter and it finishes faster. I have never done this so cannot say for sure if it works. I am patient but thats easy when you have jars full to smoke! Much Love!
 

slackjack

Well-Known Member
commercial egg producers will keep their chickens on something like a 12 hour day to get twice as many eggs. Perhaps it may work since the ratios of day and night will stay similar causing them to lose no light except for the early flower.
 

abudsmoker

Well-Known Member
3 years ago i did a test. i thought i could speed things up with 18 hour days.

my light cycle was 12 on 6 off. First problem was mastering the use of digital timers, second problem was it was crazy trying to keep up with the flip flop schedule.

on Day 55 of flower the plants were not finished, this was the adverage day to set buds from this line. i allowed this plant to go 67 days of 18 hour days, this was still shorter than the 24 hour cycle, however you could see a dramtic loss in yeild.

you can shorten the days, however this will kill you, if you only give 10 hours a day, your plants will likely get very tall and lanky
 

whynot??

Active Member
If you want plants to flower fast, put them in dark for 24 hours when you first flip them then put them on 12/12 Keep on 12/12 until the plant is right into putting bud on then you can change it to 14/10 then when your happy with the bud size put them on 10/14 until there ripe. Any time you start changing light cycles there is a major possiblility of hermies depends on how stable the strain
 

Titania

Well-Known Member
I agree with Whynot?? except i put them in 48 hours of dark before flowering, then I started to get lazy and forgot to turn them on at all before going to work, and reduced the light time to 10/14. As a result they finished flowering after 7 weeks when the strain was a 9/11 week, so basically I reduced it by 2 weeks. Word of WARNING this reduced the fuck outer my yield, I was very disappointed and wouldn't recommend it!
 
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