Depending on the photoperiod (total time of light exposure)I suspect it would be fine. However, if your plants don't receive at least 8 hours of darkness, they will be harmed. Otherwise, I'd think that when the lights go off in the morning and the plants only get a little sun, perhaps that would be like a cloudy part of the day? I'm not sure. It would be good to experiment with, but do so with only one or two plants to start with and allow several weeks to see if there is any harm done. I can't stress this enough. Never change something with all your plants at once. I hope this helps a little.

Mark

It can even be to your advantage. I think I read about experiments in industrial greenhouses on 4 hours on 4 hours off regime. The idea is - the plants accummulate energy and nutrients in high light time - and actually grow in the night until they use them up. The 4/4 regime was supposed to reduce the down time - when the accumulated building blocks are already used - but new day is not here yet.

And again - the harm of 24 hours light non stop - is not that serious. Means it still increases your electric bill, and it is not conductive to grow show plants- but they won't die.

AVs come from near equatorial area of Africa = with day and night about the same in all seasons - not from tundra - where polar night changes to polar day with almost 24 hour of light. So if we think about what is genetically programmed in our plants - good night rest - just what Mark recommends.

I.

That all makes good sense. I will adjust my timer and see how it goes. I'll report back to let you know! Thanks,
Anne

About year ago I changed the timer on my lights . They now come on at 6:30 am , but I have them set to go off for 15 min every 2 hours and then they finale go out at 9:30pm. I made the change because I could not keep the temp down . It was some times running up to 88 and even 90 in the afternoon. Since I made the change my plant have responded wonderfully to the change. The plant room is cooler, the variegated plant are showing stronger variegation and the centers of most of the plants have even opened up a little to good effect.

This post was edited by daniel.edmondson on Fri, Jan 18, 13 at 13:21

Thanks for sharing your experience, Daniel. That helps me feel that what I am doing will not end in disaster! ;-) Actually, so far the violets have not seemed to notice the change at all - but it is early days yet.