24hr-18/6-16/8??

Right now I am running 24hr light on my 2-3 day old seedlings with 2 29 watt CFL's. Should I keep running the lights 24hr for another week or 2? Should I go to 18/6 now or in a week?

I plan to flower my plants when they are around 8" in height due to the height restriction in which I have. I want them to grow as fast as possible and not sure what would be the best lighting schedule.

BTT

i like 24 hour. people say at 18/6 there are no signifigant changes in growth, it's personal preference. most Metal Hailde users will 18/6 to save power.

russ0r,

I've read your grow journal and saw how you used 24hr lighting. When you switched to flowering, did you go straight into 12/12? I read somewhere that doing that will stress the plants into turning hermie! Any truth to that?

BTT

my plants did great with this, you probobly heard about erratic lighting, say your light keeps goingo n and you keep having to turn it back on, and the schdule gets screwed up multiple times, this can hermi a plant. 1 time is usualyl easy forgiven, as we all do it, im sure im not the only 24hr vegger.

I have head of people that don't want to stress their plants so they just take one hour per week off until they reach 12 hours of light. I have never done this myself.

I spose it's people's attempt at simulating the gradual shortening of the days, which makes sense

btt said:

I want them to grow as fast as possible and not sure what would be the best lighting schedule.

Click to expand...

Then stop wasting your time worrying about 24 hour light or 18 hour light and give them the right QUANTITY and QUALITY of light to enable them to photosynthethise their nutrients and water uptake into the carbohydrates and sugars required for healthy plant growth. Low light output, small wattage flourescents simply do not put out enough lumens for healthy plant growth. Plants can only photosynthesise about 18 hours of light a day - any more is simply not being used.

ILoveUMaryJane said:

I spose it's people's attempt at simulating the gradual shortening of the days, which makes sense

Click to expand...

It doesn't make sense at all because nowhere do you experience 24 hours of sunlight!

18/6 unless it is too cold then 24/0

babygro said:

It doesn't make sense at all because nowhere do you experience 24 hours of sunlight!

Click to expand...

not so my friend, in polar regions during the summer solstice it is continuous lighting -- and before you crow that weed doesnt grow that high, ask mogie about ATF or matanuska tundra

whether or not the cells benefit from the extra lighting, who knows - get a microscope and cut off a leaf from identical plants on 18 and 24 each and see which cells are healthier and juicier... botany is fun

ye i always had bad results cookin them 24/7, my plants always die under 24/7 using cfls!!!,people just think 24hr of light will speed up the process,dead wrong. it seems to be too much for plants they need a lil break. 18/6 is where its at.

notmyrealname said:

not so my friend, in polar regions during the summer solstice it is continuous lighting -- and before you crow that weed doesnt grow that high, ask mogie about ATF or matanuska tundra

Click to expand...

Read and learn.

The arctic and antarctic zones are characterized by a short, harsh growing season that is not favorable for the growth of Cannabis, The arctic season begins during the very long days of June or July, as soon as the ground thaws, and continues until the first freezes of September or October. The photoperiod is very long when the seedlings appear, but the days rapidly get shorter and by September the plants begin to flower. Plants often get quite large in these areas, but they do not get a long enough season to mature completely and the cultivation of drug Cannabis is not practical without a greenhouse. Parts of Russia, Alaska, Canada, and northern Europe are within the arctic zone and only small stands of escaped fiber and drug Cannabis grow naturally. Cultivated drug strains are grown in Alaska, Canada, and northern Europe in limited quantities but little is grown on a commercial scale. Rapidly maturing, acclimatized hybrid strains from temperate North America are probably the best suited for growth in this area. Fiber strains also grow well in some arctic areas. Breeding programs with Russian Cannabis ruderalis could yield very short season drug strains.

So from that I am getting that the season for flowering is too short because the freezing temperatures, and the only practical thing for growing in that climate would be to use a greenhouse to protect the plants from the weather. The mention of very long days was followed with that the plants grew large, which sounds a bit like rapid growth. Greenhouses are not light proof, majority are designed to allow sunlight through.

mogie said:

I have head of people that don't want to stress their plants so they just take one hour per week off until they reach 12 hours of light. I have never done this myself.

Click to expand...

That's what I was talking about babygro, reducing the light from 18 to 12 gradually, not giving them 24h/day to 'simulate nature'. Did you honestly think I didn't realise that in most people's areas of the world there isn't 24h/day of light?! Jeez, don't be so ready to correct people, that's one of the reasons this forum has arguments on most posts! Chillax

ILoveUMaryJane said:

That's what I was talking about babygro, reducing the light from 18 to 12 gradually, not giving them 24h/day to 'simulate nature'. Did you honestly think I didn't realise that in most people's areas of the world there isn't 24h/day of light?! Jeez, don't be so ready to correct people, that's one of the reasons this forum has arguments on most posts! Chillax

Click to expand...

That's because you don't understand the reasoning behind giving the plants 12 hours of darkness or is it 12 hours of light they need ILoveUMaryJane? All you know is that switching from 18/6 to 12/12 starts them flowering, but you don't understand how or why it starts them flowering - because if you did, you would know that switching from 18 hours of light to 12 hours of light in gradual increments of 1 hour at a time makes no difference whatsoever to the time or point that they start flowering.

They need the 12 of darkness to start flowering. It resembles the light schedule of end of summer early fall and they need to flower so they can reproduce before the winter comes and kills them off. This is what I think...

btt said:

They need the 12 of darkness to start flowering. It resembles the light schedule of end of summer early fall and they need to flower so they can reproduce before the winter comes and kills them off. This is what I think...

Click to expand...

Yes they do need 12 hours of darkness to start flowering, but you still don't know why. It's because that period of darkness stimulates a latent hormone always present in the system that tells the plant to start flowering and end it's lifecycle. It's got nothing to with winter because you're growing in indoors under artificial lights! And everything to do with that hormone tellng them it's time to start flowering.

It does have something to do with winter because of the lighting schedule outside where plants are grown naturally by the sun. Yes the 12 hr of darkness stimulates the hormone, but it happens around fall - winter outside. I was talking about how they NATURALLY flower outside...

best light schedule for veg. is 16hrs then also give plants 1hr right in the middle of the dark cycle this tends to produce more females

delta9 said:

best light schedule for veg. is 16hrs then also give plants 1hr right in the middle of the dark cycle this tends to produce more females

Click to expand...

woaaaaaaah shit i know this is an old thread but thats the worst advice id ever seen someone give on here lol lol lol