-
I have a question about darkness in flowering. I know that interrupting the dark with just a lil light can stress the plants into being a hermaphrodite . Have there been any studies saying how much darkness they would need first to interrupt this photoperiod. For instance if the light goes out and one hour later you accidentally give them a lil light will effect it ? Or does it take several hours for the plant to notice its in dark and to build up whatever chemical it does in the dark?
terpking and ed_chapo7 Comments-
It depends…
Strain dependent: I have certain strains I’ve been running for years that WILL NOT herm from a light leak even if you turn on the light full blast in the middle of flower and show your grow on a podcast like I did.
The untested genetics all Hermed.
How much light exactly?: Indoors, a small “leak” into your room or tent can cause herm stress.
Outdoors, there’s ALWAYS a light leak in my greenhouse. It doesnt Matter because the amount of light it gets from the sun is so dramatically more light than an LED. The darkness seems intense to a plant that is used to full sunlight all day
2 -
Dr Bugbee studied it. This should answer your questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KSLG9heBe0
2-
Wow! Thank you so much for this post!
Excellent video! Just to throw in a few tl;dr’s I’ll sum up a couple of the big points:
1) Take a large-print book into your darkened flower environment. If you (or a person with normal night vision) can’t read the text, the light will not affect your plants, even if there’s a very dim light in the tent. (15:20)
2) Green light is NOT as “safe” as people have previously believed. Based upon Dr. Bugbee’s tests, green light is not “100% safe” (you can still use it as he’s careful to point out at 24:20 but don’t assume you can just run green lights in the dark cycle.). Because HUMAN eyes are so sensitive to green, you can use dim green light that is enough for a human to use, but won’t affect the plants.
3) Plants are more sensitive to light at lower temps (20C) versus higher temps (28C) at night. (22:00)
4) There is little solid evidence that small light leaks cause intersex flowers–these are in the realm of statistics with some plants being more sensitive than others. The general results of their tests are that if the light is still not enough to read a book by, it is under the threshold for directly causing hermaphrodism (26:35) and if intersex traits are observed, it is likely more about the genetics than light leaks.I would highly recommend any indoor growers watch this video, super-educational and answers a LOT of questions.
2
-
-
I have light interruptions all the time. I know for a fact there’s some pin holes too. I’ve not had anything turn hermaphroditic on me. I’m really not sure what kinda thresholds there are. It’s most likely…. dadadadadada.. (drum roll)
strain specific.
2-
@MrNabisco I’d even say breeder specific. Once I find my phenos, I stress the hell out of my plants and select the strongest, most vigorous to continue with.
1
-
-
I’m curious about if anyone had ever crossed skunk 1 with an og grandaddy purple strain and subsequently named it..
skunk daddy.
because.. I think I would like to do that thing.
1 -
Strain dependent and also dependent on if you’re adding far-red (730nm IR) which makes plants more tolerant to light leaks during the dark cycle. Some strains can tolerate more light in their dark interval than others.
I’m indoors growing with added IR. I’ve flipped on the room lights on a number of occasions to realize I accidentally left the tent door open. I just zip it back up, no prob. Never had an issue.
UNTIL right now where I’ve got a strain where 3 out of 7 ladies are showing male parts. This is almost positively the genetics itself, as nothing’s changed, room kept dark, and these are the only plants I’ve ever seen this issue on.
I think what it boils down to is if you have a genotype that has intersex tendencies, it will just be much more sensitive. With highly-stable genetics, the odds of intersex go way down.
1
-
