Does anyone run their lights primarily at night?

[Heather]

I'm still having to be cautious about running my MH light on potentially rainy days. Since it didn't end up raining today as expected, and isn't going to rain tonight, I came home and turned the lamp on.

How will this sort of sporatic lighting affect the plants? Is it problematic for them to have light tonight and tomorrow, then no light when I'm away at the end of the week, then lots of light again? Is there any drawback to running the light at night as opposed to during the daytime on a sporatic basis?

Any thoughts?

 

[cdub]

I think you should just wait until tomorrow to turn the lights on again. I know they didn't get their daily photosynthesis in today, but I'm sure they'll be fine. My gut says that a sporadic light schedule over an extended period of time could be detrimental to the plants, although I can't really explain why I think that. On the other hand (as far as my plant biology knowledge can carry me) I think most plants will take advantage of light whenever it is available and perform the light reactions in photosynthesis, and then will just as easily carry on the light-independent reactions of photosynthesis when the lights go out. This would obviously not be the case for many succulants and desert plants that require a distict temporal separation of the different parts of photosyntheis. So, as long as you provide some darkness, at least a portion of every day, then it really shouldn't matter when they get the light, as long as the total light at the end of each 24 hr period ends up the same. I am totally speculating, so I'm interested in what others have to say about this. A long story short, find a covering for that light and get a timer for your time away.

 

[Heather]

Ditto...what Cdub said.

 

[TADD]

H isn't this your post? oke: Better turn your lights on to see the thread better!

 

[gonewild]

Your plants need a stable home environment.

If you are talking about sporadic lighting for a short time then I don't think you would see any problems. Over a long sustained period of sporadic lighting you will most likely see growth change from good to something less than desirable.

Plants have rhythm and use the circadian clock to control their growth processes. They need to anticipate when the sun is going to come up and go down. You can train them to function with just about any light cycle but there needs to be rhythm between day and night and day and night and day and night.

 

[Heather]

H isn't this your post? oke: Better turn your lights on to see the thread better!

No, I just meant that I agreed with him.

 

[littlefrog]

I run my lights at night... But that is in the basement, I don't think the plants know the difference.

 

[Heather]

Rob,
Two questions - why?
and
Is it as dark as night in the basement during the day without the light or is there some other light source?

 

[littlefrog]

In my plant room there are no outside light sources.

I started doing it because I really only have time to water and maintain things down there in the evenings (usually around 10 or later), so it just makes sense to have the lights come on around 6pm and go off around 8 in the morning.

I have a friend who grows under many kilowatts of power, and she does her lighting at night because she has an off peak arrangement with the power company. Any power she draws during off peak hours is something like half price (of course the on peak price is a bit higher). She is a night owl anyway, so it works for her.

 

[NYEric]

I told you you should move. A nice penthouse w/ floor to ceiling windows and maybe somewhere w/ a constant 75 degree temp. :drool: Oh, back to reality. I use my lights to supplement during the day and since I usually get home lte to give them extra UV at night. Of course it's better to have the lights on a schedule but it probably wont kill them to mix it up a little.

 

[Heather]

I have a friend who grows under many kilowatts of power, and she does her lighting at night because she has an off peak arrangement with the power company. Any power she draws during off peak hours is something like half price (of course the on peak price is a bit higher). She is a night owl anyway, so it works for her.

I noticed it on my bill last month that it mentions "off peak" and so I wondered about that as well.

Thanks for the thoughts and info....more to muse over.

 

[NYEric]

Now you can runthe lights for you and your babies together at night. oke: