Did you bump a 2 year old thread specifically to tell me I should foliar feed during flower? You are free to do that if you would like, but I will continue avoiding foliar feeding at all costs.
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ok… so I have heard this about the lights-off before switch… but I dont agree with what is stated here, that it takes flower 2-4 weeks after switching to transition. Mine, no matter which strain, never took more than 5 days and I never turned the lights off. I switch straight from 20/4 to 12/12
(only oppinion and personal experience, i have grown quite a few strains, mostly hybrid)
The sun doesn’t produce flower in 2 - 3 months either or have four walls and an exhaust fan
Thanks for this reply it’s a sort of information needed to answer this question, I wonder though is there a way of telling when a certain percentage of-red receptors have flipped? And what percentage is best as I’m guessing you would still want the plant to stretch a little so I’m guessing whatever percentage you want to stretch would be the same percentage of far-red you want to keep in your leaf? Probably impossible to answer without a chemistry lab🤷♂️
I think mother nature would advise against this. Sure, you CAN do something, but why do it? What are the pros and cons? I try to look to mother nature for the answer.
I love to experiment myself, but this just doesn’t make much sense to me. I think if anything it would cause an unnecessary stress on the plant.
As far as foliar feeding goes, I believe it’s beneficial when done correctly. Plants take in a lot through their leaves. Foliar feeding does occur naturally in nature everytime it rains. Water falling through the sky will catch particles and when the droplets land on your plant and soil she can take them in through the roots or her leaves. 
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I don’t know the correct answer either, but both sides have valid theories with no peer reviewed studies behind it. As a newbie grower it kinda sucks because until you do extensive controlled experiments yourself, you won’t know who is correct because everyone you ask says something different. The whole “24-48 hours of darkness doesn’t happen in nature” argument may not be valid because, as stated before, we do a lot of things that don’t happen in nature with positive results. People say “oh I just flip straight to 12/12 and it works great.” Well in nature the light doesn’t change like that. Can you Imagine if one day it got dark a whole 6 hours before it was supposed to? People freak out about one hour when they forget about DST. In nature the change to 12/12 (and lower 11/13, 10/14, etc.) happens much slower and the transition to flower happens much slower as well (or so I’ve read, once again no peer reviewed studies). What I’ve learned from skimming hormone articles, the plants accumulate two types of hormones, one predominately at night and one during the day. When you shift the light schedule to more darkness, the hormone accumulated during the night begins to outweigh the hormone accumulated during the day. This change in balance in hormones is what causes the change to the flower phase in photoperiod cannabis. When you do a long segment of night, you are stting yourself up for a faster transition because you are accumulating a big load of the night hormone to cause a change in the balance sooner. Theoretically
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Hey there!!
Did someone actually try this?
Im working on a Female Seeds Auto Kush, that has shown it’s pistils 2 weeks ago, on a few spots and has not changed, whish is odd in autos.
Read a thread on another site, where two guys talked about aplying the 36 hrs “trick”.
I havent changed the light schedurle because I have more autos flowering in there, so I put her away in my drying cabinet 24 hrs ago.
I’ve done it 24 and 48 and it definitely gives them a kick in the ass to let ‘em know it’s flowering.
LOL just wanted to chime in here, I just tried 36 hours and from what I can tell it matches what
Late to the reply but wanted to provide feedback
@LegateLouis was saying about giving my plants a boost for flowing. My girls hormones are fully tilted to flower and screaming get ready.
One pro/con I can think of is maybe you don’t want such a FAST transition as this means you have to be ready with all the nuts, light, water needs so they can take off, its almost like they are making up for lost time. Which could lead to some stress/trouble if you can’t keep up with all the needs.
However unless I seen a difference between two exact same harvest and the only change was the 36 black out I would say its hard to point to one side or the other.
Best advice I know if is if it works keep doing it, if it don’t work write it down and compare notes with someone who has done the same.
Related question from a first-time grower. Similar to others Grow Tent, Led Lighting, Fem/Auto-flower seeds, etc. I planted the first plant about 7 weeks ago and it has really nice buds and is STICKY. A couple other plants were added 2-3 weeks later so while they have nice little buds they are clearly not ready for harvest. Questions is if I change the lighting cycle to 12/12 (has been (20/4) is this going to mess up the younger plants?
Hi @kaben welcome to growing congrats on your first autos flowering.
Some people only run 12/12 because it works and uses less power.
I think the most common way is just to run them 18/6 til the end, because they bud anyway.
I’ve only done two autos, both 18/6 til the end. Others here will know more
I’m just getting ready to put my SCROG net into flower, and will try this lights out for 24Hrs before flipping the light cycle. I have three Acapulco Gold Fems in a 2 X 4 tent. I just received a UVB light for my tent, which is to be used the last 2-3 weeks in flower before harvest. Supposed to make the Trichomes and THC explode. There was a Scientific study done on UVB Lights being used in the last stages of flower, and this is a fact. Why isn’t any other experimenters like myself looking into this and talking about it?
