lighting 24/7 Lights On Grow

[JesterJoker]

So besides a small time of probably 5 days, I have kept the lights on my peppers 24/7.

I don't really see any negative effects of this, and I will continue to do it and show updates here for everyone.

I even had buds I had to pick off my 9-10" chocolate bhut, because it was flowering very early.


I have no buds or flowers on any of the plants besides those, and they are very large and leafy green. I have pictures posted in my 5 Gallon DWC thread showing the picture.


I'm going to test it through the whole grow and do lights 24/7 and see what happens.


I found all sorts of stuff on a post from way back in like 2009 that a lot of the members here posted on back on gardenweb. The results the guy had were amazing must have been like 40-50% larger plants. I guess I will take the chance and if I have pod issues later on I will cut back the lights.


On a side note I have a 2" sweet pepper growing on a plant in a 16oz party cup. The pepper is very green and healthy. I will grow it to fullsize and collect seeds and see how they do.

 

[cowboy bhuts]

lots of people do the 24/7 thing but i like to give my plants a little night time. just seems to me thats when they do their growing. its like you could take a picture of the plants when the lights are on, then again after a dark period and notice a change. where as 24/7 still gets the growth you just dont notice it.

 

[Flakes]

Yeah, I like to keep to a 16/8 cycle. I did experiment with 24/7, but there was no noticable difference in growth. I mean, it doesn't hurt them, but it doesn't significantly benefit them either, so... if I were to increase my electricity consumption (and my electricity bill) by 50% I'd expect something significant in return and I just don't think I'm going to get it. I'd be interested in hearing other peoples' experince with 24/7 though.

But, I think there is some benefit to keeping your lights on all the time for the first couple of weeks, but it may have more to do with the heat than it does with the light, I don't know.

 

[AlabamaJack]

an excerpt from the below linked article...

"Although long term use of continuous light is detrimental to tomato and pepper plants, vegetative growth and fruit production of both species can be improved by short term use (5 to 7 weeks) of continuous lighting. Compared to shorter photoperiods, continuous light (24-h photoperiod) increased the leaf levels of hexoses in tomato, of sucrose in pepper and of starch in both species. The accumulation of starch and sugar in leaves under continuous light indicate a limitation of tomato and pepper plants to export the photosynthate out of their leaves. Such a limitation would explain the fact that extra light energy provided by continuous lighting did not result into growth and yield gains"

http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=580_9

 

[PIC 1]

18/6 is the norm. for me, plants need to rest, saves on the bulbs and cost to run, less watering involved, and I prefer to foliar feed when the lamps are off.....my de-humidifiers run 24/7, fights off excess condesation elsewhere in the home...

 

[Emu]

AJ- I could only get to the abstract of that article, but even that had helpful info in it.

I have a related question. It looks like the info on photoperiod was assuming the lights were strong enough for the given amount of plant. (I'm sure there's a better way to put that, but it escapes me right now...) I know I've seen in various threads that on in-door grows, I should shoot for X amount of lumens/ft[sup]2[/sup]. My question is: Would the results in that article be the same if you had less than the ideal amount of light, say 1/2 or 3/4 the suggested level of Lumens/ft[sup]2[/sup]?

The reason I ask is that I'm going to try to get some things going over the fall/winter, and I'm not wanting to spend a lot. Hopefully by next season I'll be living in the country so my needs are going to change...

 

[Dshlogg]

I wonder about not using 24 hour days. For example leaving the lights on for 24 hours then off for 4. Seems like the best of both worlds to me.

 

[JesterJoker]

So far the leaves on a couple of my DWC setup are larger then my hand, there looking quite like big tobacco leaves. And the others are getting close..

They are quite the large green monsters. I will continue and see if they produce. I had to snip the buds off my chocolate bhut jolokia, it sprouted about 15 buds and I wanted taller plants
so I snipped them, and the leaf production and under leaves that were growing doubled in size. This thing will be a huge bush soon. and those side shoots should become alot larger. I like that they are staying round-ish.

I'm up for wasted time on peppers, taking the chance that I might get some freak plant that might have a massive yield or small yield, I don't quite see how 4 plants will break the bank
I will tell you all how it goes.


I was also only able to read the excerpt of that article.

thanks.

 

[BigCedar]

I don't have much to input but I have been experiencing a bit with that as well with my "trial seedlings" before my shit-ton of seedlings this winter, I noticed that the few varieties of bhuts loved it but then I noticed some of the Red Savinas were leaf curling? looked nothing like normal leaf curl so I thought to go back and try 18/6.. The savinas stopped curling, bhuts are still doing fine.. which led me to believe maybe every varieties different? anyway, keep us posted n good luck
Brandon

 

[PIC 1]

I wonder about not using 24 hour days. For example leaving the lights on for 24 hours then off for 4. Seems like the best of both worlds to me.

Find a good programmable timer for your lites, endless combinations for your light cycle

 

[JesterJoker]

thanks Brandon,

I'm seeing leaf curl on habanero's, and a few others, but they are root bound in the container I have them in. But not on any other. It seems the real superhots are ok with longer daylight cycles.

I will keep you updated. Its looking to be a decent sized plant eventually.


the 4 I have in DWC are, Butch T, Brain Strain, Chocolate Bhut jolokia, and Dorset Naga.

I have 4 Bhut jolokia's going into the buckets in front of these in 3-4 weeks when they are big enough.

 

[Flakes]

AJ- I could only get to the abstract of that article, but even that had helpful info in it.

I have a related question. It looks like the info on photoperiod was assuming the lights were strong enough for the given amount of plant. (I'm sure there's a better way to put that, but it escapes me right now...) I know I've seen in various threads that on in-door grows, I should shoot for X amount of lumens/ft[sup]2[/sup]. My question is: Would the results in that article be the same if you had less than the ideal amount of light, say 1/2 or 3/4 the suggested level of Lumens/ft[sup]2[/sup]?

The reason I ask is that I'm going to try to get some things going over the fall/winter, and I'm not wanting to spend a lot. Hopefully by next season I'll be living in the country so my needs are going to change...

That's a good question... Maybe if we could get the full article we could see if they considered that, any students with access?

You get more lumens/watt in the lower watt bulbs, there'd be no switching on/off, no need for an extra timer, stable conditions...

On the other hand, you can set up the 16/8 cycle to make the most out of the low-rate tariff - unless you're just supplementing daylight. It gives the lights the chance to cool off. You've got more powerful lights that penetrate the canopy better. Watering can probably be arranged so that it's more efficient. If you run it 24/7, you're attracting all kinds of bugs at night...

I don't know, I guess there are pros and cons.