New Grower Lights 18/6 or 20/4

[lazylathe]

Mine are on 18/6 for the whole grow.
3 of my auto bubbelicious have stopped vertical growth at around 2 feet while the one just continues to grow!
She is almost 3 feet in height now and filling out nicely!

I also have 3 photos in their with the autos and have to veg them till the Autos are done.

 

[poppycock]

Has anybody seen any ill effects from running 24/0. right now im running at 24/0 and it seems to increase the veg time im not sure about yields but the plant seems bigger. I chose to go this route because of the power consumption records the electric companies have. flowering seems to be slower also it took about 10 days to go from 2 pistles per bud site to about 20.

 

[Bromeo]

I run 18/6 because my led panel says not to run more then 18 hours straight. I don't think that's something that should be overlooked.

 

[Muddy]

I run 24/0 till they sex, then 20/4, since that's what most of the breeders recommend. If I were running a lot of HPS I might consider cutting back to 18/6 but with LEDs the extra two hours doesn't add up to much additional electricity.

 

[wg]

My opinion on 24/0 has remained the same for quite some time - much like Muddy, I ran 24/0 until sex then switched to 20/4 - the reason for this is I believe that the plants need sleep and there's theory (with evidence) that the dark cycle improves trich production and density. If this is true for non auto plants then it should remain true for auto plants because of the fact that they're bred with non autos. With HPS I ran 16/8 for electricity & heat purposes and didn't notice a big decline in production from 20/4 HPS although there was some loss. LEDs, same as Muddy, I ran 20/4 because they don't cost anything to run and generate very little heat, even with 3x 240W BlackStars. Remember, sleep is a regenerative period for a lot of organisms!

 

[poppycock]

Ok after doing some research i found that darwin has a theory that plants grow faster at night.
http://www.ehow.com/info_8653494_do-plants-grow-slower-night.html
And http://biology.ucsd.edu/news/article_091508.html
Stating that the fastest growth happens when the sun rises as the plants attempt to use up all its stored energy before it begins producing more sugar. So 24/7 is not a very good light schedual and i have switched to 18/6. As to which one is better it seems like there is a tie between the two. I chose the one with a longer night schedual.

 

[riz la green]

While most people might assume that plants grow at a slow and steady rate throughout the day and night, Darwin and others found that they grow in regular nightly spurts, with plant stems elongating fastest in the hours just before dawn.

I prefer to run 24/0 with auto's all the time, i cant in summer though. i also veg photo's and keep mothers under 24/0. I find it keeps the space between inter-nodes really tight and keeps overall height lower.

 

[poppycock]

they tend to do more stretching at night than day so veg would be better at 24/7.

 

[midman4u]

I am trying this. I am running 3-600 watt hps the 2 outside lights run 18/6 while the one in the middle runs 20/4.

 

[Ryanz86]

I am trying this. I am running 3-600 watt hps the 2 outside lights run 18/6 while the one in the middle runs 20/4.

I may try somethin similar.. Although i hav 5 600w hps, hav them in dark for 6 hrs weni switch lights on i have only 2on for an hour then switch all on, for the last hr i switch all off apart from 2 again for another hour.. No massive difference from a straight 20/4 and 18/6..