Light During The Dark Cycle
by David
(northern CA)
My partner isn't sure how important the the dark part of the day actually is. I say it's absolutely important that not even a pin hole of light get in. We're trying to figure how we can use a CO2 generator during the dark period because of the pilot light.
Answer: David- For plants that require a dark period to flower, the dark cycle is extremely important....and those plants are very sensitive to changes in the dark period from one day to the next. This advice is not only a word of caution, but also the answer to your problem.
You would think, because from time to time there is a full moon outside, that these plants could not possibly be sooo sensitive to a little bit of light during their dark period. But for some reason, plants grown indoors from start to finish seem to be notoriously sensitive. Perhaps, when grown outdoors, the plants simply adapt to the 30 day lunar cycle- after all, it IS pretty darn regular from cycle to cycle. Or, perhaps, the plants can sense the extra gravitational pull of the moon and therefore have learned to ignore the extra light from the shine of the moon during these periods. Who is to say? (not me, lol)
But one thing is for certain....indoor plants freak out over any small difference from one night to the next, so perhaps a regularity IS the key after all. Obviously, there is no way in hell you are ever going to duplicate the complicated pattern and regularity of a lunar cycle (and I can't think of any real benefit to doing so). However, you CAN focus and making things very regular from one night to the next.
In this way of thinking, you will have a regular cycle....a 24 hour cycle. The light must come on at the same time each day. The light must go off at the same time each night. And the amount of light INSIDE the grow room during the dark period must be exactly the same from one night to the next, with NO interruptions.
Many people who do not completely understand the finer processes at work here simply beat the drum that the grow room needs to be completely, absolutely dark. I surely used to be one of those people. And the reason it works it not necessarily because it is completely dark in the room- it works because it is exactly the same night after night after night.
I have been gardening indoors now for 15 years. Even though I have begun to understand some of the finer points of plant psychology during that time, I was aghast when I went to visit a friend the other day and his flowering room during the dark period had so much light in it that you could see everything in the room quite clearly and easily.
Even though I was aware of exactly the same thing I am telling you, I was also very concerned for the health and well-being of his plants. But there they were....solid, growing normally, with not one single hermaphordite flower on any of the plants. Furthermore, he had been carrying on like that for over a year without a problem.
That experience solidified my understanding, and also leads me to my advice to you. Go ahead and wait until your current crop is done flowering before you make any changes. After that, go ahead and install that CO2 generator in your flowering area and never give it a second thought. That tiny amount of light will make no difference at all, especially if it is exactly the same night after night after night starting with day 1 of your next flowering cycle. I hope this helps David, and Happy Growing!
AffordableGarden Design&Setup
Hi everyone, Jason from Jason's Indoor Guide here. When I got started with hydroponic gardening more than 24 years ago, my first garden used rockwool cubes and B.C. Nutrients....and I remember thinking to myself yeah, sure, there may be a lot of advantages to gardening with hydroponics, for example there are very few pest problems, therefore very little pest control, no weeding, no plowing or tilling the soil, no soil testing or having to add things into the garden soil, no watering the garden....but for someone who just wants to grow their own vegetables and have more control over their food supply and the quality of the food that they eat, the cost of constantly having to buy grow media and hydroponic nutrients makes this an expensive hobby for most people...
Epic Nutrient Change
I suppose when you take into consideration how much money you save NOT
having to buy food at the grocery store, it is surely cheaper to grow
your own food hydroponically even with the cost of high quality
nutrients. Nevertheless, I didn't have a whole lot of money to work with
and I needed to make my efforts as affordable and effective as
possible....and in the last 24 years I HAVE learned a thing or two!
As you browse through Jason's Indoor Guide, you will notice all of the
systems that I use personally are homemade systems. As I got 3 or 4
years of experience under my belt, I quickly adopted a preference to
standing water systems and systems that use expanded clay pellets or
lava rock, because the media is re-usable and it eliminates a huge
operating expense. So once a hydroponic system is built, garden
maintenance is minimal- check and adjust the nutrient solution daily,
and to change it completely every 2 weeks....and the biggest operating
cost is the hydroponic nutrients. (and the electric bill, lol)...
Homemade Cloner
And, regarding the cost of the nutrients....I experimented for about 3 years with making different compost teas and nutrient teas, but there is still a lot of expense $$$ associated with making high quality nutrient teas....like kelp meal, liquid seaweed, rock dust, bat guano, un-Sulfured molasses, worm castings. You can eliminate a lot of this expense by becoming an expert at making high-quality colloidal humus compost, and use your properly made compost as the basis of your hydroponic nutrient solution.
Unfortunately, I have been gardening for over 24 years and I have only
just recently mastered this difficult skill....and even then, only
because I happened to find a very easy to follow, high quality technique
and decided to follow the instructions to the letter. I produced more
high quality compost in just one week than I was able to use in a whole
year! If you can master the technique, I highly recommend it. It is one of the top 3 things you can do to
increase the productivity of your food production efforts, while at the
same time decreasing the amount of effort required to grow all of your
own food, and decreasing the total cost of operating your food
production system.
And when I say decrease operating costs, I mean decrease them to almost
ZERO, especially if you are producing your own nutrients...
High Efficiency
Hydroponics
The ultimate solution to eliminate the cost of your hydroponic nutrients: Imagine a hydroponic system that does not require you to buy any nutrients, does not require you to make your own compost, and does not require you to brew your own nutrient tea. Seriously! No cost and no effort as far as providing nutrients to your plants! Plus, at the end of the gardening cycle you harvest all of your garden vegetables, PLUS YOU HARVEST FISH from the system--->
Aquaponics
This solution is aquaponics. If you are serious about producing all of your own food and being self-sufficient, this is the ultimate solution for reducing expenses (as much as possible), reducing the total amount of work required, and maximizing the productivity of your gardening efforts. I have been gardening for over 24 years, and it is the perfect food production solution in my opinion.
Besides mastering how to make high quality compost, learning aquaponics is one of the top 3 things you can do to increase your garden productivity, reduce your total costs, and reduce your total work. The product that I learned from is called Aquaponics4you. With all of my hydroponic gardening experience, the first time I came across the Aquaponics4you product I knew immediately that it was something very special! Place an aquaponics system outdoors and use the sun instead of grow lights, and you have reduced every garden expense to nearly ZERO!
The Same System/ 10 Weeks Later!
