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Power outages and indoor grows

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losthippy

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Jan 23, 2010
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I'm curious about the consequences, if any, of power blackouts or interruptions on plants grown indoors under lights. My area has upgrades to the grid going on atm with outages forecast over the next month, 3 weeks into my first indoors grow. I'm trying some autos so the time to maturation is way quicker than photoperiod varieties. They have a lot of growing to do in a short time so I'd imagine depriving them of light even intermittently might cause them to underperform. Power has dropped out for an hour a couple of times already this week and 3-6 hour outages are expected over the next month. I'm set at 18 on 6 off and wonder how the hours of lost light might impact on my plants.
Any thoughts appreciated.
 
In the times when I was growing indoors I've experienced many outages. None of them have significantly affected the end results.
 
elgoucho9 said:
Think the light would be more of a problem than the carbon filter. No light and they'll start to flop.
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I think that plants potentially flopping is a problem yes, I think feminised seeds would be the biggest risk for lights out situation because it is a stress and all the stresses can add up to bring on a hermie and ruin a crop
but i meant for those not in a 'up to date' country/state whatever and fans cut out and the popo show up
 
if it's only a black out for like a day i think you should be fine.

i was sent to the psychward while growing some plants that were like 2 or 3 foot tall before they went into flowering stage and my father didn't want to tend to them, so he turned the light off and i was gone for about a week. i turned the light back on after about a week and they still kept growing. they weren't watered either unless my father was being nice taking care of them with out telling me about it. but weed can stay alive with out light for a while. i flowered them a month or so later and they all grew buds... i don't know that my father didn't keep the light on lying to me, but he said it was off for about a week. sorry this isn't concrete evidence they will be okay. like i always say posting, maybe somebody else knows better. i wouldn't think my father would've been lying to me keeping the light on though..
 
i've also grown plants other times and they went off the light cycle (not for more than a day) and it didn't seem to cause problems.
 
foodcrisis said:
if it's only a black out for like a day i think you should be fine.

i was sent to the psychward while growing some plants that were like 2 or 3 foot tall before they went into flowering stage and my father didn't want to tend to them, so he turned the light off and i was gone for about a week. i turned the light back on after about a week and they still kept growing. they weren't watered either unless my father was being nice taking care of them with out telling me about it. but weed can stay alive with out light for a while. i flowered them a month or so later and they all grew buds... i don't know that my father didn't keep the light on lying to me, but he said it was off for about a week. sorry this isn't concrete evidence they will be okay. like i always say posting, maybe somebody else knows better. i wouldn't think my father would've been lying to me keeping the light on though..
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I think if that happened when flowering they wouldn't have survived. Even for that to happen in vege you must have had strong plants.
 
Thanks for the feedback. Agreed, a backup genny has been on the cards for a while as I live rurally and blackouts are a regular occurrence even without planned grid maintenance. I've also looked at solar batteries as my bore and domestic water supply is pump-driven and all other household appliances are also power dependent. A decent gen-set is less exxy than a battery and likely better able to cope with the drawdown for my grow during outages/dull days. Sadly, the budget for either won't stretch that far this year. Buying a firefighter unit ahead of a super-dry summer makes more sense. I digress. Because my autos are so young, they don't appear to be adversely effected by the outages thus far, though this could change as they mature and really get pumping. I've grown in the sun for 40+ years dealing with the elements without substantial loss as there is always a fix for shitty weather, but the foibles of my first indoor grow have got me a bit rattled - set-up costs, power bills and frustration not withstanding.
 
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