scheduled double days. more growth? or too much stress?

11 years ago

Two times, by accident I've left the plant light on all night long and carried on the cycle through to the night. Both times it's looked like the plants grew quite as bit in those extra 8 hours and showed no signs of lag over the next few days. Also, they are in veg. Both incidences happened weeks apart. If I do this once every few weeks, will this stress the plant too much? or will it give it a slight advantage.

I compare this idea to a typical american teenagers week. work 5 days with a normal school/sleep schedule, but pull an all nigher from Saturday to Sunday evening, wake up normal time for school on monday, and do it all over again next week!

I know that overtime it would take its toll on the teenager, so maybe I shouldn't do it every week, but once every second or 3rd week.

Like I say, when it happens by accident, the results always SEEM good. Any thoughts or experiences?

Comments (4)

Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
11 years ago
What kind of plants?
Altito
Original Author
11 years ago
zucchini, corn, stevia, an onion, purslane, and a couple tomatoes under the light that ive been experimenting with. so far its stayed on overnight 6 times, all times being staggered a bit to ensure the plants recover from the stress. From what i can tell, theres no signs of stress; each time the light is left on, the plants are thriving the next day. in fact, this even took one of my tomatoes out of it's depressive funk in which its growth was stunned for 3 weeks after transplant and a drastic lighting change (from a 500w outdoor construction lamp to a 6500k flourescent grow setup). just one double night, and the runty tom came back to life. the zucchini is very healthy with luscious green foliage and lots of flowers emerging from the center. theyre a nice mix of male and female flowers. The onion is loving life, and the stevia shoots out new growth and sometimes puts out a few flowers. the flowers taste good the next morning :).

So far this experiment has been a great success, but it's still much too early to tell. like the ancient saying goes; don't count your zucchinis until they're grown! Lets see what I can do about uploading a photo in the next couple days.

This post was edited by Altito on Tue, Apr 9, 13 at 20:39
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Altito
Original Author
11 years ago
almost forgot... the corn does wonders with double days as well... just so long as they have enough water. one morning the corn was looking very thirsty, but fully perked up by mid afternoon. other times when water levels are right, the plants leaves and stalk are noticeably larger.... about a days length larger.

the purslane planted itself, but i keep it because its a tasty weed and makes a very nice ground cover for the stevia. It doesn't like the double days, but it doesn't hate them either. it just folded up its leaves like a blanket and went to sleep at 1030pm like it always does. despite the constant light, the purslane still knew what time to open up the next day. This plant also developed flowers that i ate.
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
11 years ago
Wow you've got some serious growing going on under those lights! The veggie forum is extremely active this time of year, you might get more responses, and some actual advice, from those folks. Best of luck to you!