Is a street light going to mess with my hops flowering?

[mr x]

I planned on making a couple 12'hx16'l trellis grids along my driveway. At the end of the drive way, on the other side, I have a streetlight. This is the best pic I have at the moment:

The pole is on the righthand side. The driveway starts right there and comes straight in from the street. The first trellis will be about 15 feet away. I also have a motion sensor light in the driveway which will shine a bit of light at night. Anybody have any experience with this kind of situation?

 

[Evan!]

No, but I've heard that the hop plant (like most plants) determines when to flower by the length of the days. If you have a streetlight and/or motion sensor light that screws up that schedule, it will still grow, but you may get no yield because you've screwed up its flowering schedule.

 

[Beerthoven]

I have a steetlight in the middle of my back yard (its a big back yard) that is surrounded by Dog Wood trees. They flower right on schedule every spring, and so do the Forsythia. The streetlight doesn't seem to alter their schedule at all. I think the light needs to be a specific frequency or wavelength or something to mess up a plant.

 

[mr x]

If you have a streetlight and/or motion sensor light that screws up that schedule, it will still grow, but you may get no yield because you've screwed up its flowering schedule.

That's the big unknown.

It's a funny thing. If you grow plants indoors, you definitely will wreck your flowering schedule with a light burst during dark period of the flower cycle, and may permanently prevent a plant from flowering at all.

But outdoors, these same plants will be fine under full moon intensity, which can be significant. I have grapes that grow fine against the house under the same motion sensor light, but I'm not sure what the flowering details of grapes are. Time to hit the books I guess.

 

[Doc Thirst]

I've done a good amount of indoor gardening over the years and I highly doubt this is going to be much of an issue. The light has dissipated so greatly by the time it reaches the ground its hardly recognizable as a light source to plants. If you look around the internet you can find some info about these 400/600/1000 watt HPS and MH lights, that will give you an idea of the lumens at different distances. Now if you have a super crop that is reaching within a few feet of the light you might have an issue.

 

[pjj2ba]

You should have no problems. Hops are a short night plant. Interupting the night cycle is only a problem for long night plants (xmas cactus, poinsettias etc.)

Warning science content!!!!

Flowering is regulated in part by a protein called Phytochrome. It exists in two forms. It is converted between these two forms by red and far-red light. Exposure to red light activates the protein. Far-red light inactivates it. In the dark, the active form will gradually revert to the inactive form. This is what plants measure. Depending on the plant (short vs long night) when the specific ratio of active to inactive is reached, flowering is initiated. This was discovered in the mid 50's with tobacco plants. Before then, photoperiodism was not understood.

So during the day, while, both R and FR light is received, there is more R so the active form predominates at the end of the day. Then it slowly reverts to the inactive form overnight. A short day plant like hops needs to have a higher level of the active form present first thing in the morning in order to initiate flowering. In this case interupting the night will not hurt the plant. For long night plants like xmas cactus, a couple of minutes of light in the night will cause the phytochrome to be converted to the active form, basically resetting the clock all over again and inhibiting flowering.

That being said, lots of plants are day neutral. You plant them and once they reach a certain age they flower, no matter how long the dark period

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Sorry, but I don't think pjj2ba has any idea of what he's talking about.

Here's what you have to do: get some old chicken bones and ground up some rhinoceros horn....





:cross: Seriously, thanks for the great information!!!

 

[eddie]

You should have no problems. Hops are a short night plant. Interupting the night cycle is only a problem for long night plants (xmas cactus, poinsettias etc.)

Warning science content!!!!

Flowering is regulated in part by a protein called Phytochrome. It exists in two forms. It is converted between these two forms by red and far-red light. Exposure to red light activates the protein. Far-red light inactivates it. In the dark, the active form will gradually revert to the inactive form. This is what plants measure. Depending on the plant (short vs long night) when the specific ratio of active to inactive is reached, flowering is initiated. This was discovered in the mid 50's with tobacco plants. Before then, photoperiodism was not understood.

So during the day, while, both R and FR light is received, there is more R so the active form predominates at the end of the day. Then it slowly reverts to the inactive form overnight. A short day plant like hops needs to have a higher level of the active form present first thing in the morning in order to initiate flowering. In this case interupting the night will not hurt the plant. For long night plants like xmas cactus, a couple of minutes of light in the night will cause the phytochrome to be converted to the active form, basically resetting the clock all over again and inhibiting flowering.

That being said, lots of plants are day neutral. You plant them and once they reach a certain age they flower, no matter how long the dark period

You just made that all up, didn't you!?

Seriously though, great info.

 

[mr x]

I'm going with them in the driveway. If they don't flower this year, I'll haul them rhizomes out in the country next year.

 

[pjj2ba]

Sorry, but I don't think pjj2ba has any idea of what he's talking about.

Here's what you have to do: get some old chicken bones and ground up some rhinoceros horn....

No, No, No, not rhino horn, man horn, and it works better with duck bones. And of course it is always better with scantily clad women dancing around. That never hurts.

Philip J.

 

[mr x]

This better work. I think I know where PA is....lol

 

[modenacart]

unicorn horns work really well for me.