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The 12/12 flowering cycle


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I want to start out this post by stating that this is a theory discussion post and anything I state is my theory only supported by the evidence discussed. I am by no means saying that my theory is correct because although I have done some testing and gotten some results, it isn't conclusive enough to prove anything, hence me making a post to see if others have tried what I have, what there results were and what other theories may be out there.

 

I'll start out by asking the main question and that is how many of you have ever tried a flowering light cycle that differed from 12/12 (12 hours on, 12 hours off) continuously throughout the entire cycle?

 

I personally have experimented with many different cycles from 12/12 to duplicating a specific latitude daily daylight hours to trying crazy experiments such as 24/24, 24/12, 18/18, 18/12 and others.

 

I have a theory that one of the causes of hermaphrodites is the use of a continuous 12/12 light cycle throughout the flowering period, which in 95% of the strains grown today, is very unnatural and doesn't duplicate nature are all. All over the world no matter what your latitude, the natural daylight cycle differs almost daily with each day getting shorter and shorter.

 

I have grown clones from the exact same mother plant, from many different strains and mother plants, both indoors with a convention 12/12 cycle throughout the flowering cycle, with a lighting schedule that duplicates a natural cycle that decreases daily(or every few days depending on your timers ability) and outdoors. In my experience I have found that a clone grown with a 12/12 that would develop hermies, didn't develop them using a more natural decreasing daylight period indoors or out. One other thing I have noticed in my own experience is that sativa dominant plants that came from equatorial strains are far less likely to have hermies than indica dominant or hybrid strains, indoors, when grown under a 12/12 continuous cycle and I believe that's because strains developed from strains that came from lower latitudes have a natural daily daylight variance that is closer to 12/12, where the time between the longest and shortest day only differs by minutes than strains that came from higher latitude strains, where the difference between the longest and shortest days can vary by hours.

 

One of the ways to make a female plant produce it's own seeds, which are usually feminized, is through a process called rodelization, which is basically stressing a plant using various methods to induce its natural ability to fertilize itself as a natural survival mechanism. One of the natural ways this happens and the easiest way I have found to make a female fertilize herself is by using light stress. In nature, a plant produces its own pollen when it has grown for a long time without being fertilized because it thinks it isn't going to be fertilized. In my opinion this is almost exactly what every person is doing when they use a 12/12 continuous light cycle. As most would agree, most hermies pop out later in the cycle and I think it is because the plant gets stressed under a 12/12 continuous cycle. My theory is supported by the fact that the same exact clones grown using a decreasing light schedule or outdoors, did not produce any hermies when they did under a 12/12 continuous cycle. To add some additional evidence, I personally have never had a plant have hermies outdoors, ever, and I know for a fact that I have grown a lot of seeds that either came from a plant I grew that produced it's own S1's or they were feminized seeds, that most people argue are more likely to have hermies, and didn't when grown outdoors.

 

To sum all this up, my theory is that most hermies are cause by the stress caused by using a continuous 12/12 light cycle, which is totally unnatural, thus stressing the plants causing them to produce hermies and that by simply changing your light cycle to a more natural one that decreases over time, you will dramatically reduce if not eliminate any hermie problems you may have.

 

So I would like to know if anyone else has also done any experiments like this or if you have done other similar things like grown the same clone indoors and out and indoors you had hermies but outdoors you didn't. Have you ever had a plant produce hermies outdoors and can you say 100% that you are certain it wasn't possibly pollinated by something someone else was growing nearby, that you didn't know about? If you have, please share you experience. If you haven't but have reason and evidence to show something different than by all means please share because as I stated, this is only a theory I have that so far my evidence and experience has shown to be probable. I haven't been able to find to many other people that don't use anything other than a continuous 12/12 cycle and I can't believe that I am the only one that has thought of this before, so hopefully we can get some additional input on this from others.

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For those interested that are still reading, here is an example of the light cycle I try to duplicate indoors that I have found almost every strain to start to flower and finish at, except any strain derived from lower latitude strains such as a haze. It is the same amount of daily daylight hours at 40* latitude, which is the same latitude as northern California, where just about any strain can be grown because of the more consistent warm temperatures. At this latitude most strains will begin to flower by Aug 1(north March 1 southern hemisphere). The amount of daily daylight per day is below. I would like to point out that most strains will finish in the amount of time estimated by most breeders when growing indoors using a 12/12 continuous cycle, using the schedule below, which if you notice is usually not long after the amount of daylight is just getting to or below 12 hours. If I were going to grow a more equatorial/lower latitude strain, I would duplicate the cycle from Sept. 1 and go into Nov. which I can display in needed.

         Aug       Sept      Oct

          h  m     h  m      h  m
 01     14:15    13:02    11:44
 02     14:13    13:00    11:42
 03     14:11    12:57    11:39
 04     14:09    12:55    11:36
 05     14:07    12:52    11:34
 06     14:04    12:50    11:31
 07     14:02    12:47    11:29
 08     14:00    12:44    11:26
 09     13:58    12:42    11:23
 10     13:56    12:39    11:21
 11     13:53    12:37    11:18
 12     13:51    12:34    11:16
 13     13:49    12:31    11:13
 14     13:46    12:29    11:11
 15     13:44    12:26    11:08
 16     13:42    12:24    11:05
 17     13:39    12:21    11:03
 18     13:37    12:18    11:00
 19     13:35    12:16    10:58
 20     13:32    12:13    10:55
 21     13:30    12:10    10:53
 22     13:27    12:08    10:50
 23     13:25    12:05    10:48
 24     13:23    12:03    10:45
 25     13:20    12:00    10:43
 26     13:18    11:57    10:41
 27     13:15    11:55    10:38
 28     13:13    11:52    10:36
 29     13:10    11:50    10:33
 30     13:08    11:47    10:31
 31     13:05                  10:29
 
I would like to note that by duplicating these daily daylight amounts indoors, not only will they usually finish in the same number of weeks that are predicted, but I am pretty sure they will yield more because of the longer amounts of light. It is hard to prove since there are so many other variables but a lot of grow books I have read from Ed Rosenthal, Jorge Cervantes and others all say that the longer or shorter the amount of daylight, the higher the yield using more light and shorter amount of time to harvest using less, so I am going off of that information as well my own experience.
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