Indoor indoor growing. ripen trichs asap. those that do 24 hr light schedule, do you do that in mid to late bloom too? or do 12/12?

[grower789]

I see so many autoflower grows go 90-100 days and I know its mostly genetics but maybe its also the lack of a dark period.

I know people will do autos on 12/12 to kick start flowering if its taking longer than expected to bloom. And then prob switch back to 24 or 20/4 etc. But I've read, but found no real test results on this, that prolonged dark periods, like the 12/12 for photos, will make a plant develop flowers better and improve trichome production.
Has anyone tried to experiment with switch light schedule for bloom to 12/12 when normally doing 24 in the past, and found that flowers develop more? that trichs development more and/or bigger? And that trichs ripen fast?

 

[BII]

The plants that go longer generally have higher yield. Others can better comment about the trade-offs between faster vs. longer maturing autos.

My strong impression from following AFN is that with nearly all autos more hours of light (actual the more cumulative light, the more total photons) per day results in better outcomes - potency, yield, etc. I expect more knowledgable growers will tell you to do 18-24 hours/day of light as soon as bloom happens, if not doing this from the very start. There continues to be much debate about whether 24 hours or something less per day is best. [I favor 24/7, non-stop light].

 

[Death The Cultivator]

IFE CYCLE OF CANNABIS I Juvenile Stage Cannabis flowers when exposed to a critical daylength which varies with the strain. Critical daylength applies only to plants which fail to flower under continuous illumination, since those which flower under continuous illumination have no critical daylength.

Most strains have an absolute requirement of inductive photoperiods (short days or long nights) to induce fertile flowering and less than this will result in the formation of undifferentiated primordia (unformed flowers) only. The time taken to form primordia varies with the length of the inductive photoperiod. Given 10 hours per day of light a strain may only take 10 days to flower, whereas if given 16 hours per day it may take up to 90 days. Inductive photoperiods of less than 8 hours per day do not seem to accelerate primordia formation.

Dark (night) cycles must be uninterrupted to induce flowering (see appendix). Cannabis is a dioecious plant, which means that the male and female flowers develop on separate plants, although monoecious examples with both sexes on one plant are found.

Marijuana Botany Propagation & Breeding of Distinctive Cannabis Robert Clarke

It your lights are strong enough I guess you could, possibly, shorten the day length to 12/12 but that's assuming you knew the DLI or read your plants enough to see the need for more or less light. Ultraviolet B light can shorten the flowering period but growing times set by breeders aren't a magical rule. Even if you did shorten the day length, it was noted by DJ Short that in photos, reducing the day during flower sped up flowering but caused more sativa like effects rather than denser.

Back to the magical breeder guide, usually is not right. Environmental changes can affect the phenotypical growth but not the genotypical meaning that if I grow...

Northern Lights Auto with perfect VPD, living soil, and c02

and then I growv the same Auto of a different pheno in

70+ rh and 74f with no breeze but strong lights and living soil

One may finish much earlier or suffer in quality, yield, etc because of the environment despite them being the same strain. If you need faster finishes find good breeders that you can verify have your desired traits.

HERE is an article about lighting needs in plants and basically adds an element to whether or not autos need 24/7 light. I believe they only do if your light lacks the PPFD to satisfy your plants otherwise a more cost effective schedule can be implemented. Plants can only absorb so much light even with c02 before their chlorophyll gets damaged and bleached.