GRID INTERRUPTED
I love the magazine and have for years, and your column is one of my favorite reads. I live in an area that’s subject to occasional power interruptions and need advice. I recently experienced an outage that occurred just before the beginning of my 12/12 cycle. The power wasn’t restored until one and a half hours after the cycle was scheduled to start. My question is this: Should I reprogram my timers so that my plants receive 12 hours of light that same day? Or should I leave my setting alone, allowing the photoperiod for that day to be only 10.5 hours? My plants are 23 days into a 55-day flowering period. Thanks in advance, and keep up the good work!
Rick’Six
Dear Rick,
Thanks for the kind words! As for your power outage, you shouldn’t see any adverse effects from such a brief interruption in the electrical supply. Also, it sounds like yours occurred during the „daytime“ when your lights are on. Its much worse to interrupt the dark cycle with light than to lose a few hours of light for a day or two. Disruptions during the dark period confuse plants much more and can potentially lead them to turn hermaphroditic or revert back to their vegetative stage. Both are a nightmare. Go back to the regular 12-hours-on/12-hours-off cycle as soon as you can and your plants should be fine. There’s no reason to make the daily adjustment you asked about.
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