When the power goes out?

B.C. · Apr 18, 2012

Hi guys, I thought Id start a thread about something that doesn't get talked about much. What to do when the power goes off.

A couple of days back my power went off. It was only fer 3-4 minutes and it was back on. I jus let it go since it was such a short period.

Then today it went off again, this time it was about an hour. So before it came back on I unplugged the timer and closed it up.

I've always been at the understanding that if the lights go off for more than a few minutes you should jus keep it off until the time comes for the light cycle to come back on again. Otherwise yer risking hermies, because yer shorting the dark cycle.

Im at 6 weeks in flower running Casey Jones and a fem version of Sage, so Im hoping none of this causes hermies.

So what do you guys think and do when the lights go out?

BC

foomar · Apr 18, 2012

The only thing that registers with the plant is an uninterupted dark cycle of twelve hours , more will do no harm to adjust timers.

My Caseys will tolerate three short nights before throwing the odd male flower.

supermanlives · Apr 19, 2012

i have a delay. it waits 15 min then restarts. prevents hot restarts.then continue regular schedule.

jessica d · Apr 21, 2012

Ya saves on bulbs to not restart under 15 min, but i always have restarted if under 1hr. Then adjust timer to keep 12hr of darkness. A generator is a great investment if possible. I used to have 75-80 power outages in a yr at one location and never experienced a hermy oddly enough. Good luck

dragging hooks · Apr 21, 2012

Last October we lost power for four days
due to heavy snow on trees that still had leafs on them

no problems once the power came back on

foomar · Apr 22, 2012

Plenty of winter blackouts here , often with several false restarts , was the main reason for adopting digital early as magnetic was killing bulbs fast , the digi is not bothered by brownouts that stalled the magnetic and restarts a hot bulb clean.

Space Ghost · Apr 22, 2012

when the power goes off.... you realize how happy you are that you're not growing full hydro...

Widow Maker · Apr 22, 2012

The Titan timers have built in battery backups to keep up with the correct time of your cycle and if I ever get an outage I'll do whatever i can to get some kind of light on the plants even if its minimal during the on cycle.. flashlights, candles, lol.. obviously keeping it dark during off hours.. then i just cross my fingers and hope its not too long and smells start to linger :laughing:

B.C. · Apr 23, 2012

When I grew on a much larger scale we had 2 marine batteries and 2 invertors (sp?) to run air and water pumps along with several fluorescent lights and the scrubber if need be.

Now Im jus runnin a dozen, all in soil. So now if the power goes out for any length of time, they're jus gonna take an extra long nap that day. lol

Take care... BC

hashcat88 · Apr 23, 2012

i throw in a battery powered led lantern. not much but i figure its enough to keep them on schedule.

luckily most of the blackouts weve had have been during my lights out anyway

avant gardener · Apr 23, 2012

most of socal lost power for two days last summer.
know what you could do?
pray if you were in soil.
hydro? weep.

TGT · Apr 24, 2012

I would think it takes over ten minutes or so for the plants to even register the lights are out - although I could be wrong. My old strain run of AK47 use to droop its leaves in the regular 'sleeping mode stance' after about ten to fifteen minutes.

Anyone know for sure the reaction time on cannabis plants to the photo period? Probably strain and pheno related eh?

TGT

foomar · Apr 24, 2012

Relatively low light for a few moments reliably breaks the 12 hour dark cycle , and the plant recognises it as a normal 12 hour day.

Would expect it takes around 12 continuous dark hours for the plant to react , and seconds of light to reset the counter , with a range across strains , DC and something hazey react differently for sure.

Have just fast sexed thirty plants by running 12 off /1 on repeated for three days , the plants saw six days equivalent , all were obvious and the previous batch in 12/12 took 7 - 10 to be as sure.

B.C. · Apr 25, 2012

hmm...

hmm...

My last run with this Casey Jones had a few nanners and seeds from not shutting the closet doors all the way for an hour after the lights went out. Jus one time.....

BC

foomar · Apr 25, 2012

Hi BC , out of seven casey girls , had one persistent intersex , two were less than stable and were culled , remaining four were excellent but three of them will throw a couple of obvious male flowers on the lowest buds in a predictable way in the last few days of flower , has not been a problem in a perpetual flower room .

Have noticed these girls are sensitive to drying out , any wilting around week five guarantees a hermie later , and they are less tolerant of small pots than most of similar vigor.

But the smoke quality makes them worth putting up with a few anoying traits.

Marquis de Sod · Apr 26, 2012

i think you are on the money BC. hashcat88 has a great idea tho, in the alternative. i have done the same as you with absolutely no ill effects. pull the plugs, reset the timers at the regular time after an extra long dirt nap when i plug them back in.

cough_cough_eer · Apr 26, 2012

As always, good advise B.C. I had an outage and my ballast went out. It was one of the old Lumateks.

magiccannabus · Apr 27, 2012

supermanlives said:
i have a delay. it waits 15 min then restarts. prevents hot restarts.then continue regular schedule.

Hey man, I have a Ceramic Metal Halide and hot restart is really bad for it. Did you build your own delay or can you buy them somewhere? I think this would be a good investment for my grow when I can afford it.

Also, does anyone know how you calculate the draw requirements when planning to use an uninterruptable power supply(battery backup)? Do they have inductive load limitations that would make them unsafe for this? This is definitely a good topic. I think a lot of people want these answers.

B.C. · Apr 30, 2012

Interesting bit of info about CJ not liking the smaller pots, Foomar. Mine are in 2 gal nursery pots, so about a gallon and a half of soil. The damn things are over 4 foot tall! lol I'll be keeping a close eye em. The stretch caught me off gard this time. They had long dark period in veg (timer fail) and that was enough for them to start stretching. I waited for em to go back to normal cuz there were some funky single bladed leaves pop out on the Sage thats also in there. I didn't wanna risk them hermming. The CJ never did stop stretching!

Ah well, they're at 8 weeks now, I usually let em go 10, so they're about done.

I never really thought about it,. but that fast sexing method is purdy clever. The plant would see it as a normal day at the end of 12 hours, then 1 hour back on resets them again! brilliant! lol

High Miss Bonghit! so nice to see you! Sorry ta hear about yer ballast though, at least it was an old one, eh?

Magic, thats a great idea having a battery back up. Now if you can get the details worked out. Hopefully someone can chime in and help out with that.

Thanks for the input yall. Take care... BC

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