I work late..and I shine my plants with a flashlight..

[CamuMahubah]

...when I get home late at night.

I just have to see them.

Am I hurting their "sleep" or circadian rhythm? Often times I find worms and move them to the garden or I spot a slug an remove him to heaven.

My light is LED and sorta high power. Does my late night shining hurt them?

I did it last year too and I still got a ton of tomatoes.

I've only done it a few times this summer and tonite my inner brains said "STAAAPHHH doing that!"

So I didn't.

Is it okay to shine my plants late at night when I get home?

I want to continue doing this because I work and get off and I micromanage my garden like an OCD persona. I get so much satisfaction JUST LOOKING at my plants. I sorta watch them grow. I feel so ZEN in my garden. My garden is the cheapest best fun I've ever had in my life. I'd pay to have a garden like I have but I don't even have too.

Something told me to ask my fellow tomato ocd friends here.

I shine them with flashlight as soon as I get home at midnite. Maybe a minute or two and then after my shower I light the TIKI torches and go out and have another look. I never shine a specific plant for more than a few seconds but I'm worried I'm starting up photosyn with my OCD.

I should let my them get their beauty sleep huh?

[zipcode]

I don't really think it matters. There are street lights near my tomatoes all night. They're doing fine. There's people growing great tomatoes in Alaska where many nights are days (seems like that actually helps).

[Tracydr]

Just so you sing to them daily or play the radio on a classical station they should do great.
Did you know that looking at your plants with a flashlight can help you find the tomato worms?

[CamuMahubah]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

Just so you sing to them daily or play the radio on a classical station they should do great.
Did you know that looking at your plants with a flashlight can help you find the tomato worms?

What is a tomato worm?

And classical is just classical because PEOPLE told you it was..

I snag nightcrawlers and throw them in a freshly meshed dirt so they can dig in and do their thang!

I got not a bug/worm problem. A slug here and there.

[Lee]

No your lights won't impact them one bit.... Think about how much your lights shine compared to day light.... not even measurable difference in comparison.

I am quite surprised you don't have fruit worms being in corn country.... (they come from very similar families...) so just be glad you don't. Most of my time observing the tomato plants as they grown is spent ensuring no fruit worms are ruining my potential harvest!

Lee

[CamuMahubah]

Originally Posted by Lee

No your lights won't impact them one bit.... Think about how much your lights shine compared to day light.... not even measurable difference in comparison.

I am quite surprised you don't have fruit worms being in corn country.... (they come from very similar families...) so just be glad you don't. Most of my time observing the tomato plants as they grown is spent ensuring no fruit worms are ruining my potential harvest!

Lee

I'm not really in "corn country". I'm at the edge of the sandhills. There is some corn about 40 miles west of me and 30 miles north of me as the crow flies.

I reckon there should be some "fruit worms".

Where I live it's mostly beans and sunflowers.

EDIT: Ummm how could I forget to mention the beets.

"we cain't stop here...this is beet country!"

[jhp]

Originally Posted by CamuMahubah

...when I get home late at night.

I just have to see them.

Am I hurting their "sleep" or circadian rhythm? Often times I find worms and move them to the garden or I spot a slug an remove him to heaven.

My light is LED and sorta high power. Does my late night shining hurt them?

I did it last year too and I still got a ton of tomatoes.

I've only done it a few times this summer and tonite my inner brains said "STAAAPHHH doing that!"

So I didn't.

Is it okay to shine my plants late at night when I get home?

I want to continue doing this because I work and get off and I micromanage my garden like an OCD persona. I get so much satisfaction JUST LOOKING at my plants. I sorta watch them grow. I feel so ZEN in my garden. My garden is the cheapest best fun I've ever had in my life. I'd pay to have a garden like I have but I don't even have too.

Something told me to ask my fellow tomato ocd friends here.

I shine them with flashlight as soon as I get home at midnite. Maybe a minute or two and then after my shower I light the TIKI torches and go out and have another look. I never shine a specific plant for more than a few seconds but I'm worried I'm starting up photosyn with my OCD.

I should let my them get their beauty sleep huh?

I love this post! How you love your garden! Reminds me of me! My husband and I do a lot of gardening at night but usually without a flashlight. I guess it's more gardening in the evening when it's not totally dark yet. Your flashlight won't bother them. And I always tell my friends that you should look at your plants that helps them grow. So you're doing good.

Jen

[Gardeneer]

I don't think that plants "sleep" as we do in the animals kingdom.
Plants such as tomatoes just stop the photosynthesis activity at low light condition. Maybe they do other things ..never sleep. JMO

Gardeneer

[CamuMahubah]

Originally Posted by jhp

I love this post! How you love your garden! Reminds me of me! My husband and I do a lot of gardening at night but usually without a flashlight. I guess it's more gardening in the evening when it's not totally dark yet. Your flashlight won't bother them. And I always tell my friends that you should look at your plants that helps them grow. So you're doing good.

Jen

Thanks for your post! I'm totally ocd about my garden. It is a safe place to be obsessive and it rewards my traits.

I just went out and had a look before bedtime. Nothing like shining on my Sun Sugar. That plant has grown 2 feet in one month I SWEAR IT TO YOU! It's in a pot of KGRO potting soil. I water it once a day if it doesn't rain. Little yellow flowers make my heart beat.

[Bipetual]

Sounds normal to me. Sometimes when my self-watering containers need more than one watering I do it after dark because it makes it a little harder for the neighbors to see that I put my pajamas on early.

My plants are on my deck, so for half the night they're getting light on them whenever somebody turns on a light at the back of the house. I don't think it matters.

[User 636]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

I don't think that plants "sleep" as we do in the animals kingdom.
Plants such as tomatoes just stop the photosynthesis activity at low light condition. Maybe they do other things ..never sleep. JMO

Gardeneer

There has been some interesting research about the mathematical equations that plants run to determine how much sugar they need to make it through the night. I don't think it is a simple stop and start thing but a simple complexity that we're only just starting to understand.

[pauldavid]

Originally Posted by CamuMahubah

...when I get home late at night.

I just have to see them.

Am I hurting their "sleep" or circadian rhythm? Often times I find worms and move them to the garden or I spot a slug an remove him to heaven.

My light is LED and sorta high power. Does my late night shining hurt them?

I did it last year too and I still got a ton of tomatoes.

I've only done it a few times this summer and tonite my inner brains said "STAAAPHHH doing that!"

So I didn't.

Is it okay to shine my plants late at night when I get home?

I want to continue doing this because I work and get off and I micromanage my garden like an OCD persona. I get so much satisfaction JUST LOOKING at my plants. I sorta watch them grow. I feel so ZEN in my garden. My garden is the cheapest best fun I've ever had in my life. I'd pay to have a garden like I have but I don't even have too.

Something told me to ask my fellow tomato ocd friends here.

I shine them with flashlight as soon as I get home at midnite. Maybe a minute or two and then after my shower I light the TIKI torches and go out and have another look. I never shine a specific plant for more than a few seconds but I'm worried I'm starting up photosyn with my OCD.

I should let my them get their beauty sleep huh?

Thats too funny! I thought I was the only one who did that. I work evenings, so sometimes I check on my plants when I get home. I use a headlamp myself. I have never noticed a problem doing this.