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Lights 'on' to lights 'off' - time of day

Does it matter what times of the day you run fluorescents? Meaning should it be 6am to 6pm vs. 9am to 9pm, or doesn't it matter? I know plants have an internal clock, so I was curious if anyone had any insight on this.
 
I'm pretty sure most people use a timer, but I just tunr them on in the morning whenever I wake up, and turn them off at night at whatever time I go to bed. They seem fine like this.
 
well, i run my lights from 5AM to 9PM here....only because i dont want to reset the stupid timer, its usually 6AM to 10PM lol.
 
i run mine from 6 to 1030 year round. so sometimes its 7-1130. i dont like messing with the timer either. cause i dont remember how to set it. haha. plants dont care about DST anyways =]

Alex
 
The plants don't care what clock hours they're lit only that it's consistent. I try to set my timer to roughly follow the sun's length of daylight hours but I have the lights come on during the hours when I'm home and awake so I get to see them (afternoon into evening). Mine are currently running only 10 hours a day now but will be 16 hours of light in summer. The seasonal light & temp changes seem to trigger the plants into their various life stages so I think that's a plus over a strict 12 on/off.

You should see all the flowering Neps at Orchids Ltd. who live under seasonal MN lighting conditions in the greenhouse rafters. But beware I've seen a freshly watered N. truncata vine with 20" pitchers come crashing down out of the rafters there as well! :D
 
Mine are on 16 hours a day. I don't reset the timer for DST why bother since it's dark outside either way. 3/4am to 8/9pm. I do not change the length seasonally although some people lengthen/shorten by 4 hours.

Note: Flowering is determined by the length of the dark period. Some plants are so sensitive to the disruption of the dark period that one hour of bright light during the night will prevent them from flowering. If you have plants that won't flower try a longer or shorter dark period than you've been using.
 
6:30am to 8:00pm here ;) vacation timer
 
I turn my lights on at 6am and off at 9pm
A 16 hour photoperiod is ideal.
 
7AM - 11PM. You can get those outdoor timers used for holiday lights for pretty cheap. I picked one up for <10$ and it is pretty rugged. Pretty handy when you are going out for the night or want to sleep in on the weekends. I probably could have got it for a little cheaper if I had waited until after the holidays.
 
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