18/6 never again

[tomcatjones]

what about Alaska?.... isn' it light out for like 6 months out of the year?lol

yeah.

i brought this up. you should grow your strains to the regions they were made to grow in. or at least mimic the best environment for them. i mentioned Alaskan thunderfuck ; i'm sure it requires odd lighting schedules and probably does better in some that aren't the normal few.

 

[Timmahh]

My ex wife just got back from Alaska. most people up there have to grow indoors. temps dont do well. if they grow outdoors, they use autoflowers... they have nearly 24 hrs of daylight. it does get dusk, say around that 9 45pm dusk just before summertime sundown. i guess they get this dusk lighting for about 6 hrs a day....

fwiw, a good buddy of mine just finished up some ATF. 18/6 veg and 12/12 lightting. using FOX FARM nutes. nothing funky or out of the ordinary.

 

[st0wandgrow]

• The 12-1 lighting schedule is as follows 12 hours lights on, 5.5 lights off, 1-hour lights on, 5.5 lights off, and repeat schedule. The 1 hour on in between off period fools the plants that stay in vegetative growth state! Your immediate savings are 5 hours in energy costs daily, as well as your bulbs and equipment lasting longer. But how do the plants react to this lighting schedule?
  
  You see immediate growth response from your plants, they are happy from the added rest time. By day 14 the plants tripled in size. The plants are bushy with twice as many bud sites without topping or bending, In fact when you top and stretch your plants out, you get many more bud sites than you would have had under 18-6 using same procedure of topping and stretching plant, your growing bigger and better and faster.
  
  So your saving 5 hours daily in energy costs, as well as your excellerated growth pattern which also saves you time and energy and equipment use.
  
  In the flowering stage, never use 12-12, start your flowering period at 11 hours on 13 hours off. When your are growing outdoors each day you get less and less sun light, you should copy the way the sun acts naturally in your indoor grow. So first 2 weeks of flower you go 11 on 13 off, the next 2 weeks you go down to 10.5 on 13.5 off, next 2 weeks 10 on 14 off, next two weeks 9.5 on 14.5 off and the last weeks of flower you should be at 9 hours on and 15 hours off. You’ll get bigger and better buds by copying the way the sun light works on cannabis outdoors.
  
  Cannabis is an outdoor plant and you should copy the way it grows outdoors indoors. The only thing that 18-6, and then 12-12 lighting schedule's do is make the energy companies rich as well as the people who sell lights and equipment, the more you use the more you spend. 12-1 lighting schedule is a more natural way to grow indoors and you well have the best results you have ever had and save as much as 50% in energy costs​

  
  
  ​

That is off this site.

Interesting. I'm always open to trying something new. I may have to give this a whirl (after I figure out a logical way to set my timers for something like this).

Thanks!

 

[gladstoned]

I thought that was a problem too, but 12 on, 5 1/2 off, 1 on, 5 1/2 off can be set on basic timer.
I said I was going to look into it next week and I actually spent 3-4 hrs looking it up immediately after I said that. I guess I felt like a POS for bringing up something I didn't understand basics of. 9 times out of ten though a bunch of pros jump in and give thoughts, not this time.
Anyway the thing I find odd, is every thread I have found going over this, other posters get mad. Why in hell would you get mad at someone experimenting with grow techniques. Fucking weird. If you said dripping ink on a plant stalk every morning increases yield and you try it, I can't imagine me getting pissed off and yelling at you everyday while you try it (as long as they ain't my plants) lol. Anyway a 25% reduction in my electric bill over a year adds up to quite a bit of medicine. I think having two small tents for experiments like this is one of my few good ideas. lol. But, I often think that when I get an idea. lol.
With your timer, just set your 12 hours on and then bust up you twelve dark with an hour of light in middle. Do you have set-up to try it? I should have my other tent tomorrow and setting up both lights may take a week or two. I have a damn lumatek ballast that I sent somewhere about a month ago. Wonder when that SOB will surface. That will help determine when shit is up and going for office.

 

[Timmahh]

another buddy just finished up a bloom on that obscure time schedule. Seems to have done well. but to soon to tell. Hes planning on doing it again.

 

[str8upmenace420]

yes so go with a thunderfuck strain perfect for alaskan conditions

 

[AlmightyPapaC]

Personally I feel the rest period is essential. I run 18/6
On a 400 Watt MH. In 3 weeks they were 3 feet tall.. I
had them in 1 gallon milk jugs. So I disagree that 24/0
would make much of a grow increase. Let your ladies
rest. That's what nature would do. KEEP IT STUPID SIMPLE!

 

[roosba]

Just a question? wouldn't the 1 hour of light on in the middle of the off period stress the plants?

 

[greenlikemoney]

The Amazon, located on the equator, has a near perfect 12/12......Anybody ever seen the crazy shit that grows there? BIG and JUICY......DEL6666 has the results to prove it !!!!!!!!

 

[stumpjumper]

Personally I feel the rest period is essential. I run 18/6
On a 400 Watt MH. In 3 weeks they were 3 feet tall.. I
had them in 1 gallon milk jugs. So I disagree that 24/0
would make much of a grow increase. Let your ladies
rest. That's what nature would do. KEEP IT STUPID SIMPLE!

But it does, they stretch less and have closer node spacing. They do not need rest.

 

[tomcatjones]

But it does, they stretch less and have closer node spacing. They do not need rest.

stumper.. i want to see this in writing somewhere. i have yet to find such facts.

you may get FASTER growth. but you'll get MORE Growth with a dark period.

but the node spacing is ALL about temps. not the hours.

node spacing for me - less than a centimeter on all plants. (except power kush)

 

[stumpjumper]

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-39970.html

"It's been established for many many many years now that cannabis is a C3 plant. It does not need a dark period.

C3 plants gather CO2 only during the light period when they are photosynthesizing. As long as the light is on, C3 plants gather and use CO2 for photosynthesis.

Some growers practice a version of anthropomorphism with their plants. They believe that since people need rest, plants do as well. Concerning cannabis, this is not true.

Every grower can make a personal choice about light cycle. They can save on their electric bill or prolong ballast/bulb life. 18/6 can be less of a "shock" when changing over to 12/12 for flowering than 24/0 or heat issues can be addressed by fewer hours of light, but basic botany has proven long ago that cannabis needs no dark period.

Ed Rosenthal, Mel Frank and Robert Clarke all have covered this extensively over their careers.

hXXp://www.mellowgold.com/grow/mjbotany-removed/marijuanabotany1.html Marijuana Botany Chapter 1 - Sinsemilla Life Cycle of Cannabis
hXXp://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3127.html Need the dark
-------------------------------------------------------------

"This is a direct quote from Ed Rosenthal whom most of you know is a marijuana growing guru:

Marijuana plants photosynthesize as long as they receive light as well as water, air, nutrients and suitable temperature. Photosynthesis is the process in which plants use the energy from light (primarily in the blue and red spectrum's) to combine carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and water (H2O) to make sugar while releasing oxygen to the air.

Plants use sugars continuously to fuel metabolic processes (living) as well as for tissue building. The plant combines nitrogen (N) with the sugar to make amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. They are the substance of plant tissue. When the light is off, the plant's metabolic processes, respiration and growth, continue.

The plant can photosynthesize continuously so it produces the most energy and growth when the light is on, continuously. Continuous light does not stress the plant, which reacts somewhat mechanistically to it.

Plants under an 18-6 light-dark regimen are producing sugar only three quarters of the time. They are thus growing at only 75% of their potential. Leaving the light on continuously will result in bigger plants, faster, which leads to higher yields."

-------------------------------------------------------------

"The following information is straight from Greg Green's "The Cannabis Grow Bible"

Cannabis is a light demanding plant. Professional growers keep the light on their plants using the 24/0 photoperiod for this reason. Plants that grow under 24/0 flourish and do not need a quantity of darkness in order to rest and perform photosynthesis properly. Plants that are grown in optimal conditions under 24/0 light regime grow vigorusly and the benefits of a 24/0 photoperiod can be seen actively in the results. More nodes are formed, more branches are created, leaf numbers increase, the plant is growing at its finest.

Some growers opt to use 18/6 as their photoperiod. This is 18 hours of light, six hours of darkness light regime. Under these conditions the plant will grow quite naturally but not as vigorously as the 24/0 photoperiod.

The 18/6 photoperiod expels 3/4 the amount of light that a 24/0 photoperiod does. Although this does not mean that a plant produces 1/4 less leaves,branches and nodes under the 18/6 photoperiod, it certainly does show the correlation between light and cannabis growth. As we have said already, cannabis is a light demanding plant. There are no problems associated with 24/0 and although some have attributed cannabis sexual dysfunction (the hermaphrodite conditon) to 18/6 photoperiod these problems are actually the result of heat stress.

A 24/0 photoperiod requires that your grow room temperature be kept well monitored. The 18/6 option is cheaper to run. You use a quarter less electricity and this will have an impact on your electricity bill. Also the 18/6 photoperiod will generally extend the bulb's lifespan. During the 6 hours of darkness the grow room is allowed to cool down for this period but a well maintained good grow room setup should not require a cooling down period.

24/0 and 18/6 both share the same problem though. Once you start the photoperiod you should keep that way especially when the plants near maturity (the preflowering stage). An irregular photoperiod can cause more males than females to develop. It can also cause sexual dysfunction to appear. Whether you choose 24/0 or 18/6 as your vegetative photoperiod try to keep that photoperiod unitl your plants are mature enough to express their sex."

Here you go....

More nodes under 24/0 versus 18/6 would also mean tighter node spacing.

 

[st0wandgrow]

I thought that was a problem too, but 12 on, 5 1/2 off, 1 on, 5 1/2 off can be set on basic timer.
I said I was going to look into it next week and I actually spent 3-4 hrs looking it up immediately after I said that. I guess I felt like a POS for bringing up something I didn't understand basics of. 9 times out of ten though a bunch of pros jump in and give thoughts, not this time.
Anyway the thing I find odd, is every thread I have found going over this, other posters get mad. Why in hell would you get mad at someone experimenting with grow techniques. Fucking weird. If you said dripping ink on a plant stalk every morning increases yield and you try it, I can't imagine me getting pissed off and yelling at you everyday while you try it (as long as they ain't my plants) lol. Anyway a 25% reduction in my electric bill over a year adds up to quite a bit of medicine. I think having two small tents for experiments like this is one of my few good ideas. lol. But, I often think that when I get an idea. lol.
With your timer, just set your 12 hours on and then bust up you twelve dark with an hour of light in middle. Do you have set-up to try it? I should have my other tent tomorrow and setting up both lights may take a week or two. I have a damn lumatek ballast that I sent somewhere about a month ago. Wonder when that SOB will surface. That will help determine when shit is up and going for office.

I think I'm going to try it. I have a perpetual garden where I harvest every 3 weeks, so I'm not too worried at all about the plants coming out of veg. If it doesn't work out, I'll have another batch 3 weeks behind it. My only concern would be my mama plants that I clone from. I'm running 4 different strains, 4 mamas, and I'd be pissed if they hermied or something.

Maybe I'll swap my mamas out for new ones, and start those on the new light cycle. Something tells me that mamas that have been exposed to 24/0 lights might react adversely to a new light schedule.

 

[mufastaa]

stumper.. i want to see this in writing somewhere. i have yet to find such facts.

you may get FASTER growth. but you'll get MORE Growth with a dark period.

but the node spacing is ALL about temps. not the hours.

node spacing for me - less than a centimeter on all plants. (except power kush)

faster growth but not more growth??? that makes no sense. if you have faster growth for the same amount of time, you end up with more growth. duh.

and 24 hours did help me with node spacing. and much faster growth.

 

[dickkhead]

• The 12-1 lighting schedule is as follows 12 hours lights on, 5.5 lights off, 1-hour lights on, 5.5 lights off, and repeat schedule. The 1 hour on in between off period fools the plants that stay in vegetative growth state! Your immediate savings are 5 hours in energy costs daily, as well as your bulbs and equipment lasting longer. But how do the plants react to this lighting schedule?
  
  You see immediate growth response from your plants, they are happy from the added rest time. By day 14 the plants tripled in size. The plants are bushy with twice as many bud sites without topping or bending, In fact when you top and stretch your plants out, you get many more bud sites than you would have had under 18-6 using same procedure of topping and stretching plant, your growing bigger and better and faster.
  
  So your saving 5 hours daily in energy costs, as well as your excellerated growth pattern which also saves you time and energy and equipment use.
  
  In the flowering stage, never use 12-12, start your flowering period at 11 hours on 13 hours off. When your are growing outdoors each day you get less and less sun light, you should copy the way the sun acts naturally in your indoor grow. So first 2 weeks of flower you go 11 on 13 off, the next 2 weeks you go down to 10.5 on 13.5 off, next 2 weeks 10 on 14 off, next two weeks 9.5 on 14.5 off and the last weeks of flower you should be at 9 hours on and 15 hours off. You’ll get bigger and better buds by copying the way the sun light works on cannabis outdoors.
  
  Cannabis is an outdoor plant and you should copy the way it grows outdoors indoors. The only thing that 18-6, and then 12-12 lighting schedule's do is make the energy companies rich as well as the people who sell lights and equipment, the more you use the more you spend. 12-1 lighting schedule is a more natural way to grow indoors and you well have the best results you have ever had and save as much as 50% in energy costs​

  
  
  ​

That is off this site.

i was vegging 18/6 and they were growing slow as shit! so i went to 23/1 and there thriving and are growing twice as fast! Id like to see this 12 on 5.5 off 1 on 5.5 off
if i can save that much and get the same results itd be awesome!!

 

[gladstoned]

Doesn't the height of your light also affect your node spacing?

 

[gladstoned]

I think I'm going to try it. I have a perpetual garden where I harvest every 3 weeks, so I'm not too worried at all about the plants coming out of veg. If it doesn't work out, I'll have another batch 3 weeks behind it. My only concern would be my mama plants that I clone from. I'm running 4 different strains, 4 mamas, and I'd be pissed if they hermied or something.

Maybe I'll swap my mamas out for new ones, and start those on the new light cycle. Something tells me that mamas that have been exposed to 24/0 lights might react adversely to a new light schedule.

I would have the same fears. I hated the fact that every time I wanted to try something new I had to usually try it on my whole grow.
The biggest thing I question about light schedules is switching from 18 or 24 hrs of light to 12 hours at once. No part of that makes sense, except for ease of constantly adjusting your shit and running perpetual harvests.

 

[gladstoned]

i was vegging 18/6 and they were growing slow as shit! so i went to 23/1 and there thriving and are growing twice as fast! Id like to see this 12 on 5.5 off 1 on 5.5 off
if i can save that much and get the same results itd be awesome!!

I would have to say that I am pretty much where you are on this. I have my suspicions about 12-1, but I am sure gonna try it out. If that is just another smoked-up way of wrecking your plants then I will probably go with 23-1, just to let my shit relax for a minute anyway. A few weeks I'll be done with my auto's and they were recommended 20-4, so I am vegging everything at that currently.

 

[ShLUbY]

if you have plants that are vegging under 24/0... do not switch them to 18/6... you will cause them a great deal of stress... they will start to flower because they are getting some darkness... it will slow down their growing to a near halt until they realize that they are supposed to be vegging and they'll revert...... but it will just stunt them badly... just like if you cloned from a plant that was flowering, it takes it a few weeks to get bag into the vegetative state. trust me on this one... first hand experience when receiving a "mother" from a friend when i WAS vegging in 18/6 YEARS AGO

i switched my veg to 24/0 from then on and will not change.... you will not see a 30% increase in harvest and anyone who has been in this industry long enough and experienced enough will tell you that those kind of numbers are not possible just from a sleep time in veg...

your cannabis only knows one thing at a time... that's its vegging or that its time to flower...

 

[tomcatjones]

faster growth but not more growth??? that makes no sense. if you have faster growth for the same amount of time, you end up with more growth. duh.

and 24 hours did help me with node spacing. and much faster growth.

horrible logic is horrible.