Woody: I think they're all proving your point is indirect, kinda like how crooked politicians tell you one things and draw pretty pictures & slogans, but in reality something completely different is /will happen/ing. Hopefully some supporting pics can clear this up.
Most experienced growers will tell you and should have proof on hand
to show that starting a seed in more-light+less-darkens yields a plumper, heavier, more delicious bud than other more even ratios of light&darkness. I have first hand knowledge that 24hours light for a bit more than 3 weeks from placing a germed seed into soil, will stimulate tremendous growth and be rooting grounds for a successful plant and hopefully harvest. (THE POINT) Being that this is my friends setup, I observed them take the seed, place it in distilled water...a couple days latter we had it germ(inated) and in a small 2.5"x4" circular container. We thought up this (wacky) idea to hang the container under the light, we did that. It stayed there for a bit over 3 weeks until it was almost on fire, mind you this is hanging from a normal sized ballast about an inch below, and the light bulb is nearly 5" from the lip of the ballast where the container is hanging. We removed it, gave two weeks on a barstool at about 1.5' from top of plant to the ballast, but with the others at 18ish/6ish (light/dark..), after those twoevil weeks weon transplanted and clearly we discovered, that, we had cramped its style& the roots were runing in circles. This plant continued its rate of growth through its light changing period and since. The time we put the seed in the container was around 4/20/11 someday in the p.m. Yesterday, when saw it looked crazy as it always does, like some kind of jungle bush that Tarzan couldn't even swing threw its so dense, chillin in its lilbig container still, about 3'an tall from base of stalk and tallmans hug around.. My friends would have put it in the ground with its sisters but someone else owns it and is paying them to grow it. It has been outside since summer began. I will have pics later maybe to support this, of what it looks like now.