I could imagine that it is difficult to deal with mold/bud rod with such long nights. How did you manage this?
Keep RH down under 50%. I live in a desert area and have lots of airflow. 4 growing chambers for flower each getting 6 hours per day with only one being on at a time. Since the air circulates through all 4 chambers, there isn't really a lights off period where RH would spike. With 4 filters it smells like a hospital.
Very nice seeing someone experimenting with short flower times. What kind of flowering times did you get using 6/18 hour light cycle in comparison? When do you feel its more worth using this approach? How much more attention do you need to give the grow using these high lightlevels? I can imagine that the plants turn deficient easily if something is not on point. You have a thread on this going somewhere? Fascinating stuff
They are about the same. First I noticed I could get by with 8 hours per day so I ran 3 chambers. Then I added in some more cobs per chamber getting more light with less heat, dropped it to 6, then 5.5 and ended up settling on 6 to make it easy for 4 chambers.
Don't know how to answer your question about worth. There is probably some math involved to figure it out from whichever perspective is your focus. For me it is the flexibility which makes it worthwhile.
SIPs keep it balanced for the most part but the light adjustments depend on where it is in the flower cycle. I tie branches horizontal to use the space as best I can so that is a daily chore. I guess if you were lazy then you could let it go for a while without much interaction.
Yes you do have to keep everything in order. For seedlings and sick plants I put them under blurple in another chamber until they recover. All problems I have had have been during veg and I usually kill off the runts when trying a new strain.