24/0 and 18/6 are both acceptable ways to veg your plants.... so is 19/5, 20/4, 21/3, 22/2, or 23/1... they all accomplish the same thing.... plants tend to be more compact the more light you give them.... plants with longer dark periods seem to stretch a little more allowing more light penetration into the plant.. this is good if you dont have enough lighting to penetrate deep into the canopy... so most growers can benefit from the dark period, again, because this allows for more light penetration into thier plants and canapoy... this is coming from a guy who right now uses a 24/0 light schedule... i am going to try a 20/4 cycle on my next grow... then if the results are better than they are for me now, ie a bigger harvest, i might try an 18/6 to see if i get better results there.. but i dont know...
secondly it is fine to cut from 24/0 straight to 12/12... you can give your plants a 24-36 hour dark period while transitioning from 24/0 to 12/12.... this does few things...
1) tells the plant it is time to start producing flowering hormones and stop producing veg hormones... this leads to a faster flowering onset...
2) it helps to show plant sex earlier... i do 36 hours now and can usually tell sex after 7 days...
3) shortens overall flowering period... in my experiences anywhere from 4 to 7 days...
hope this helps...
sampson
