I realise that plants need rest from daylight in order to grow properly, but I was wondering the effect of having a Blue/White CFL for 14-18 hours a day and then having my newly installed red led's on 24 hours a day so the red promotes flowering constantly. Any ideas if this is ok for the plants?
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lighting 24 hour lighting
- Thread starter buggedcom
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Well......there are varying opinions on the matter. But no, chiles do not "need" darkness. I do run mine 16/8 though. Saves electricity and there is a point of diminishing returns.
From another thread on 24 hr lighting:
From another thread on 24 hr lighting:
Txclosetgrower said:Actually, its a misconception that plants need dark to properly process sugars. There are photo-dependent (light) and photo-independent (dark) reactions that take place during photosynthesis. The "dark" reactions are a misnomer, as they do not require dark but merely do not require the presence of light.
But yeah, some plants require darkness for different reasons. Some need darkness for flowering, others, such as certain cacti, only absorb CO2 at night, keeping the stomata closed during the daytime to reduce water loss. However, the actual food production of the plant goes on indefinitely under light I believe.
And a nice little chart for ya:
Extra info for those who care: Carbon fixation is the process whereby CO2 is converted into organic compounds. Plants fall into one of 3 categories based on how/when they accomplish this:
C3: Most plants, including peppers, are C3 and absorb all their co2 during the day.
C4: plants from hot, bright climates also absorb co2 during the day, but do so much quicker and thus lose less water through transpiration.
CAM: plants from arid regions, ie: cacti, absorb CO2 at night and convert it to organic acids, which are converted back to CO2 during the day when the stomata are closed. These are the most water efficient, since all transpiration takes place at night when it's cooler.
according to the indoor gardeners bible (van patten), capsicum is a exception to the rule of diminishing returns, he recommends 24/24 for optimal returns on capsicum. still i believe that the returns cant be worth the extra electricity, i run 24/24 for seedlings, which usually are the best for seedlings, they can make use of all the light and give best results with 24/24, after that i run my light 18/6 until the end.
We discussed this a few months ago. I can't find the link right now but here's one of the articles
http://www.actahort.org/books/580/580_9.htm
"Optimal growth and yields of tomato and sweet pepper were obtained under photoperiods of 14 and 20 hours, respectively. Longer photoperiods did not further improve growth and yields and even decreased growth and yields in some cases. 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..."
http://www.actahort.org/books/580/580_9.htm
"Optimal growth and yields of tomato and sweet pepper were obtained under photoperiods of 14 and 20 hours, respectively. Longer photoperiods did not further improve growth and yields and even decreased growth and yields in some cases. 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..."
wordwiz said:
Hmm, maybe i should at least kick my lighting back up to 18/6 from 16/8. I just want to have the light off most of the evening so my apartment isn't beaming bright orange light off into space at 3am....
Have it off from 10pm to 6pm right now to minimize the hours of darkness my lights are on. Just me being paranoid and not wanting the neighbors to think i'm growing pot
I always left my fluorescents on 24/7 when starting plants though, and they always did well for me (until they catch a virus and die instantly taht is lol)
wordwiz said:
Great link word, the photo results tell the story. Everyone who grows seedlings indoors should see that. I know Cappy (PRF) leaves his lights on 24/7 and maybe that is one reason he has such great starts. I can already see that I'll be a 24/7 convert starting now. I love this forum!