• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

What about 12 - 12 light cycle ?

Spankyscolts

Spankyscolts

I am currently using 16 - 8 but in an effort to keep more plants at my place where it's warm instead of a makeshift room in a garage. I was thinking about leaving the lights on 24 hrs and rotating trays in for 12 - 12 this doubles what I can keep.
Anybody ever do this? Does this harm the plants?
 
I have heard some people doing this, (switching them around and such) but it doesn't harm them at all as far as I know, they will just grow slower, and as long as the temps are semi-consistent it's fine (more than a 20 degree difference I would think wouldn't be too great).. and I think a lot of people switch them to 12-12 when it gets closer to spring..I personally will most likely just drop them down to 14-10 before going outside.. but that's just me

you could also do 24-24.. so leave one set of plants in there for 24 hours, and then switch the next day.. might be a little strange but I was reading about this in an article the other day about lighting, but couldn't find much more info on it, but it was suppose to be pretty good.. but I don't plan on trying that out until I read more about it.. next year I will give it a shot when I have some extra plants to screw around with
 
Maxsack331 said:
you could also do 24-24.. so leave one set of plants in there for 24 hours, and then switch the next day.. might be a little strange but I was reading about this in an article the other day about lighting, but couldn't find much more info on it, but it was suppose to be pretty good.. but I don't plan on trying that out until I read more about it.. next year I will give it a shot when I have some extra plants to screw around with
Click to expand...

Do you know where I can read up on it? Think I've overdone it just a little I was anticipating a 75% germ rate and then another 15 - 25 culls but looks like I'm going to have more than I expected don't want to cull out perfectly good plants.
 
Spankyscolts said:
Do you know where I can read up on it? Think I've overdone it just a little I was anticipating a 75% germ rate and then another 15 - 25 culls but looks like I'm going to have more than I expected don't want to cull out perfectly good plants.
Click to expand...

yeah I know what you mean, I have enough plants now, but my mom wants her tomato plants, and she had started some eariler which is fine, but now the ones that are growing up and need 1 gallon pots is going to take up a lot more room than I was planning for, which is fine, I have another light and tomato plants are not as finicky as pepper plants really, + I personally don't really care as much about them lol.. they grow real fast anyways, and I will be starting about 40-50 tomato plants at the end of march just to fill out the garden.

but as far as the 24 on 24off cycle, I found it while searching light cycles and light duration on google scholar, it didn't say much about it, and I couldn't get the full article so I am not sure how good it is.. but it did say it gave the most production rate in their experiment, but like I said, I would try to find more info on it before doing it.. if anything I would just do 12/12 for now, and just take a few plants that you have extra of and don't mind if they get a little stunted or.. well I'm not really sure what could go seriously wrong with them with the 24 on 24 off cycle, but just try it with a couple plants and see what happens, I know that tomato plants don't like 24 hour light cycles, but as far as I have seen so far 24 hours of pure light isn't bad for peppers.. and the 24 off is pretty much 12-12 I would think.. I think of it as 24 hours to create stores of "food"/energy with photosynthesis, and then 24 hours to make use of that energy....it's worth a shot, I actually might give it a shot too with a few plants once I get a few more germinated and into party cups (don't want to mess with the ones in the 1 gallon containers now)

but yeah I mentioned it in this thread, but can't find the article that I saw it in.. might be pretty hard to find, this has me curious enough to test this out sometime soon
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/28572-interesting-result-with-light-cycle-change/page__fromsearch__1
 
Man, it would be rough to switch your plants out everyday imo! Not a bad idea though. I also think they would grow a lot slower. Many people with good results profess 18-20 hours.


Edit: I don't think the 24 hour on and then off will work well. It's probably best to try to emulate the environment(s) the peppers came from.
 
Dulac said:
Man, it would be rough to switch your plants out everyday imo! Not a bad idea though. I also think they would grow a lot slower. Many people with good results profess 18-20 hours.


Edit: I don't think the 24 hour on and then off will work well. It's probably best to try to emulate the environment(s) the peppers came from.
Click to expand...
My thoughts exactly!
 
yeah, I know.. I'm not saying it's a great thing to try out with all the plants, but I figured if he is going to try to switch the plants out twice a day.. it would be worth trying out with a couple plants first and see what works.. I personally would just go buy more lights but that's me lol, and if I was on a budget I would be willing to give it a shot..

but like I said, I didn't really think about this until I read about it in a journal of horticulture or one of those journals, but I can't find it again so far.. and it was only part of the article so I didn't even really get the full explanation of what they actually did, they just mentioned 24 on 24 off.. so I was curious to see what else there is on it lol.. and nothing yet so far haha, which lends me to believe that yes, it's not very effective/practical, but mainly it's just not usually necessary which is most likely why people haven't checked it out yet
 
Maxsack331 said:
yeah, I know.. I'm not saying it's a great thing to try out with all the plants, but I figured if he is going to try to switch the plants out twice a day.. it would be worth trying out with a couple plants first and see what works.. I personally would just go buy more lights but that's me lol, and if I was on a budget I would be willing to give it a shot..

but like I said, I didn't really think about this until I read about it in a journal of horticulture or one of those journals, but I can't find it again so far.. and it was only part of the article so I didn't even really get the full explanation of what they actually did, they just mentioned 24 on 24 off.. so I was curious to see what else there is on it lol.. and nothing yet so far haha, which lends me to believe that yes, it's not very effective/practical, but mainly it's just not usually necessary which is most likely why people haven't checked it out yet
Click to expand...
ok gotcha! :)
 
megahot said:
I wouldnt suggest such a light cycle, the plants wouldnt like it! I currently use a 13/12 light cycle.
Click to expand...

13/12? 13+12 =25 man you got some long days

All and all just spit balling here .. working through different scenarios in my head. Trying to maximize space and plants. Germination is going way better than I expected except for a couple of varities. And I too have another 100 - 150 plants in 4 weeks including toms and my med hots for my yearly salsa. Next year after going through this I'll have a far better feel for it. Might try the 12 - 12, I read about it somewhere was hoping someone had tried it
 
Spankyscolts said:
13/12? 13+12 =25 man you got some long days

All and all just spit balling here .. working through different scenarios in my head. Trying to maximize space and plants. Germination is going way better than I expected except for a couple of varities. And I too have another 100 - 150 plants in 4 weeks including toms and my med hots for my yearly salsa. Next year after going through this I'll have a far better feel for it. Might try the 12 - 12, I read about it somewhere was hoping someone had tried it
Click to expand...

well the 12-12 is pretty common, like I said it's used more for when they are flowering (even though peppers veg and flower at the same time so it doesn't really matter) and after reading the longer days like 16-18hour days actually produce more plant and fruit vs the 12-12.. but anyways, 12-12 is good, just slower production, which is fine since your not really trying to make them grow super fast or anything.. I know what you mean though, I am trying to figure out how I am going to start another 40 tomatoes at least (already have... I think 50 or so now lol) and another 40+ pepper plants that I'm germinating now.. and I already have 80 in 1 gallon pots in the grow tent.... but that is why there is always a year to screw around with things, and after that is it usually much smoother sailing lol

and I am sure you know what you are doing with the tomatoes but just in case, my mom got jumpy with me starting all my peppers and she started some back in dec. and they are in 1 gallon pots now and about.. 2-3ft tall, we kind of stunted them a little by keeping them in smaller cups for a little too long, but anyways, I plan on starting the 2nd set of tomatoes mid, mayyybe late march, but it only took about a month for them to get nice sized into party cups about 10" tall or so, they went much faster than I thought they would lol.. crazy tomatoes
 
Spankyscolts said:
13/12? 13+12 =25 man you got some long days
Click to expand...

damn! ya beat me to it.. I was gonna ask where he finds that extra hour... I could use it!!

I did a little reading on photoperiods and bookmarked this link:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lights/msg0116544117544.html

Obviously, there is a bell curve where there's an optimal amount of light, receiving more light after a certain period of time will actually cause a plant to produce less than it produced if it were lighted for the optimal time..
 
that's funny, I found that same journal article somewhere else, I think that might have been one that I linked in the other thread, not sure though, they are all pretty similar
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top