Swapping from Auto's to Photo's

[mystic_roots]

Pretty much as the title states, the first grow i ever did was with photo's and i buggered them up by peeping when they were supposed to be in darkness, lesson learned

 

Past couple of grows i've stuck to auto's but i've got some photo seeds that i want to grow this year and have a question regarding the light/dark cycle. Do people recommend running the light cycle at night as the LED's should help to raise the temperature, but I also use heaters and humidifiers as required, then have the dark period during the day or would it be best to run it opposite way, dark period at night so there's minimal chance of light upsetting them but bump the heaters up a little just to keep a stable environment?

 

Any other pointers or things I need to look out for?

 

 

[BudJ]

Good thread this.  I'm in the same position having only done autos and fancying a crack at photos.  

 

I would've done the same if I'd grown photos first   My head was in the tent every hour of that first grow.

[OneMorePuff]

Doing the same right now - got a few successful auto runs under my belt, all went smoothly, but sick of rolling the pheno dice and not being able to keep the best plants, so I'm doing my first photoperiod run, a pheno hunt of Kgbeans Psychosis BX2, looking for a mother to keep.  So lots of firsts - first time dealing with the photoperiod light cycles, first time cloning, first time transplanting.  It's been interesting!  

 

Feel free to check it out - 

 

ELEVEN CHALLENGERS ENTER, ONLY ONE SURVIVES... Psychosis BX2 Pheno Hunt (First Photoperiod Grow) - Grow Diaries - UK420

 

If you're growing somewhere that's affected by ambient temps like a shed then I'd keep the light cycle ON at night and OFF in the day.  I think it would be much more of a pain to deal with keeping them warm at night with the lights off, AND keeping them cool in the day with lights on, much easier to keep a stable environment this way round.  Depends where you've got your tent though.

 

One thing I will say - I run my LED on 12 hrs at night, and off 12 hrs in the day, and my GOD is it difficult waiting that 12 hours until evening to check in on them!  My grow tent is in a shed and I haven't had any light leak issues yet.  I have used some black cooker hood filters that I've cut up and stuck over my tent intake vents though, to block any stray light if I do have to pop into the shed for something. 

[Guest]

YOU have the power with photo's.  The main idea is to have a fully rooted pot at flip time.  You can't control that with auto's.  I don't do auto's so have no idea of stretch, but photo plants double in size, sometimes more, in the three weeks after flip. 

You can take cuts at any point, including in bloom (first few weeks of bloom being ideal for me). 

Welcome to proper growing.