CannabisKid Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 Good day Peeps, its been awhile since i've last been active here the itch to grow again has hit hard and this time i would like to look into using the proper equipment. my only concern is how much of an affect loadshedding has on the plants. Are people having to make use of back up power solutions as an necessity or is it still viable to proceed as i won't have the type of finances to purchase a proper backup power solution. My main concern not having back up power would be any stress that loss of power to the indoor grow may cause, particularly the females turning hermie. Someone at a local grow shop pointed out that auto flowers don't tend to hermie from disruptions to the photo periods, I'm assuming the dark period never has light interruptions but during light periods there will be these intermittent 2 hour stretches of darkness . Are people with indoor grows having any notable issues caused by Loadshedding? Is it still worth proceeding on to grow if no backup power is secured for the grow. Thank you 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK-47 Gold Arabesque Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 I have a small inverter just for my extraction and oscillating fans. To keep the air circulation going in order to avoid temperature and humidity issues during load shedding. But I'll still get the 2 hours of dark in-between my light period. It also throws my timer switch off. Not sure how it affects the plants, will see at the end of my current grow. Perhaps some more experienced growers can elaborate as to how the interrupted light cycles affect the plants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkunkPharm Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 The lights cycle is not such a big issue. It’s more Fluctuation in humidity that causes the most issues. As long as your plants get their 12 hours sleep you should be fine. Keeping the humidity down during the load shedding period is the most important thing. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CannabisKid Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 Shot gents, appreciate the info. Might have to consider back up power for reasons i didnt think of. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesignatedDave Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 On 2/4/2024 at 10:00 PM, CannabisKid said: Good day Peeps, its been awhile since i've last been active here the itch to grow again has hit hard and this time i would like to look into using the proper equipment. my only concern is how much of an affect loadshedding has on the plants. Are people having to make use of back up power solutions as an necessity or is it still viable to proceed as i won't have the type of finances to purchase a proper backup power solution. My main concern not having back up power would be any stress that loss of power to the indoor grow may cause, particularly the females turning hermie. Someone at a local grow shop pointed out that auto flowers don't tend to hermie from disruptions to the photo periods, I'm assuming the dark period never has light interruptions but during light periods there will be these intermittent 2 hour stretches of darkness . Are people with indoor grows having any notable issues caused by Loadshedding? Is it still worth proceeding on to grow if no backup power is secured for the grow. Thank you The short answers to this is yes, you are going to need some form of backup power for the fans / extractors, your concern here is heat and humidity, not light. You have to keep the air moving. Autoflowers are the best for load shedding, (if you don't have backup power for your lights). Put your lights on 24/7 and let load shedding be your dark periods. So 2x 2H load sheddings a day = 20 hours of light for the plant, which is spot on perfect. Even at stage 6, you plants will still be happy. Autoflowers will not care about the broken up light periods either. Also autos don't need the lights to be as "higher wattage" as photoperiods due to DLI (Daily Light Integral). So to explain this briefly. a Plant can only take is so much light in a 24 hour period and the rest is just wasted light, this is called the DLI of the plant. A cannabis plant needs between 30 - 45 mol/m² of light per day. Generally you would aim for abouts 40 DLI a day for cannabis. When you have a photoperiod plant in flower, it can only have 12 hours of light, so to hit 40 DLI a day, we use higher watt lights like (for example purposes) a 650watt / 1.2m² tent. When using auto's, your lights are on for 18 - 20 hours, so that 650watt can be dropped down to say 400w to achieve the same 40 DLI in that period. If you have extreme load shedding (stage 16), you can turn up the power of your lights for the available hours you have power to meet the same 40 DLI. You will also find a lot more mould and mildew resistant autoflower strains than you do photoperiod strains as this resistance has been bred into the strains, this helps with the humidity issues that can occur. Generally speaking, a small'ish inverter + 2x 100Ah 12v batteries can hold small oscillating fans and extractor fans for a relatively long period of time. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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