Good morning, Stoners!
Looking for opinions/ideas...
My new Mars Light came with instructions on growing techniques.
It recommends that the light be 12/12 hours for bloom. What are your recommendations??
Looking for the right combination.
12/12 This is advice for photoperiod growers! You can use this lighting with autos if you want but why would you, when autos are not dependant on a 12 hour dark period to flower? More hours of light mean more hours of photosynthesis!
A lot of people go for 18 on 6 off or 20 on 4 off:18-6::20-4:
As some people like to give their plants a rest with a dark period.
In the hot summer months where we struggle with high cab/tent temps a dark period through the hottest part of the day helps keep things cool.
I personally use 24 / 7 / 365 but that suits my grow style which benefits stable day and night temps but to be honest that is mainly for start of flowering to reduce stretch.
24hrs on means I don't have to worry about timers, there are no fluctuations with my electrical usage, temps remain stable, I don't have any issues with condensation and I get good yields.
Having the lights on for 24 hrs a day means I use a bit more electric but with LEDs being more energy efficient than the HID lights I used in the past, I don't really worry and the electric costs have all been worked out prior to the grow, so I know exactly how much each grow costs.
You could ask marshydro tina what here thoughts are with how many hours a day Mars Hydro lights are rated for. Some LED light manufacturers say their lights should only be on for a certain numbers of hours a day.
I have never owned a Mars Hydro LED so I can offer no advice on how long they can be used per day.
LED's I have used 24 hrs a day are E-shine DS300's , Vipar LED B2x3, Northern grow lights 300W DIY 4 x CBX3590 COB Kit , 1 x CBX3590 DIY COB and SANlight S4W Osram Light bars.
All these LED's were quite happy with 24 hr usage and crops were all good.
Your gonna get different advice from different people because we all have our chosen way, is one way better than the others? It is hard to tell, sometime it is just a matter of feeling your way through and making a personal decision and plumping for a light schedule that suits you.
I have seen grows using all the above lighting regimes and they have all grown excellent weed.