Jimmy McGill
Into the light.
Hey guys. I was reading about preferred light schedules in autoflower grows and it got me thinking.
We know (or at least are pretty sure) that the autoflower trait in cannabis ruderalis probably evolved to permit an effective reproduction in regions with short to very short warm/dry season. The further north we go, the shorter the summer is but the longer the days are during the summer.
This genus probably ended up autoflowering because of necessity, to be able to survive and reproduce in the very specific conditions of their environment and those that thrive further north "know" to expect many hours of light for a short period of time and push hard to make viable seeds in that time frame. Those that live in more temperate zones like in Europe or Mexico have more time to reproduce and will probably take longer to flower because they can do so.
Now, most autoflower breeders recommend 18/6 or 20/4 schedules and I assume that they know what they are talking about since they are dealing with multiple generations of autoflowers grown under that regime.
But, a minority of growers use and recommend the 24/0 schedule because it has a few potential benefits.
the 18/6 to 20/4 light schedule makes perfect sense because it is balanced and close to the conditions the ruderalis encounters in northern Russia and even though they expect long days, they also expect a dark period (even if they live north of the polar circle the midnight sun lasts for about 2 weeks so they'll have some dark period before and after that phenomenon). But, for those of us who are growing indoors, the control of the light schedule allows us to change the growing conditions as we please and, since we emulate environments, we condition our plants to adapt and "expect" those specific conditions in the future.
So, let's consider the following scenario:
A grower lambda decides to grow his plants under constant 24/0 lighting conditions for N reasons (they really don't mater in that scenario). He buys some indica/ruderalis crosses seeds (who probably "expect" to have some dark period during their lives) from breeders, grows them and reproduces them. Then, he takes his F1 seeds and does the same, over and over again for N generations. Wouldn't be possible to expect that, after N generations, his plants would be totally adapted to constant lighting and would perform better under these conditions than under more classical 18/6 or 20/4 schedules? Will the plants transmit, via genetic memory, to the next generations the "expectation" of constant lighting? Would a plant from generation 20 even know what dark period is anymore, how would it react to it? Are the auto strains that we buy today from breeders performing better under 18/6 and 20/4 because they've been bred under those conditions?
I'm interested in your thoughts on the matter.
JD.
We know (or at least are pretty sure) that the autoflower trait in cannabis ruderalis probably evolved to permit an effective reproduction in regions with short to very short warm/dry season. The further north we go, the shorter the summer is but the longer the days are during the summer.
This genus probably ended up autoflowering because of necessity, to be able to survive and reproduce in the very specific conditions of their environment and those that thrive further north "know" to expect many hours of light for a short period of time and push hard to make viable seeds in that time frame. Those that live in more temperate zones like in Europe or Mexico have more time to reproduce and will probably take longer to flower because they can do so.
Now, most autoflower breeders recommend 18/6 or 20/4 schedules and I assume that they know what they are talking about since they are dealing with multiple generations of autoflowers grown under that regime.
But, a minority of growers use and recommend the 24/0 schedule because it has a few potential benefits.
the 18/6 to 20/4 light schedule makes perfect sense because it is balanced and close to the conditions the ruderalis encounters in northern Russia and even though they expect long days, they also expect a dark period (even if they live north of the polar circle the midnight sun lasts for about 2 weeks so they'll have some dark period before and after that phenomenon). But, for those of us who are growing indoors, the control of the light schedule allows us to change the growing conditions as we please and, since we emulate environments, we condition our plants to adapt and "expect" those specific conditions in the future.
So, let's consider the following scenario:
A grower lambda decides to grow his plants under constant 24/0 lighting conditions for N reasons (they really don't mater in that scenario). He buys some indica/ruderalis crosses seeds (who probably "expect" to have some dark period during their lives) from breeders, grows them and reproduces them. Then, he takes his F1 seeds and does the same, over and over again for N generations. Wouldn't be possible to expect that, after N generations, his plants would be totally adapted to constant lighting and would perform better under these conditions than under more classical 18/6 or 20/4 schedules? Will the plants transmit, via genetic memory, to the next generations the "expectation" of constant lighting? Would a plant from generation 20 even know what dark period is anymore, how would it react to it? Are the auto strains that we buy today from breeders performing better under 18/6 and 20/4 because they've been bred under those conditions?
I'm interested in your thoughts on the matter.
JD.
