New Cfl's

Ok finally got the right lights. i got 3 plants w/9 26 watt cfls . 3 per plant. they are 1600 lumen 6500k. my question is what hours should i run them?

24/0 or 18/6 is fine too if ya wanna save a coupla bucks.

i prefer 20-4

cheers

stray away from the crowd and go 12/12 from seed. you'll get some support and even more critisism

24/0, 12/12 from seed makes no sense, the plant has to veg to a certain size and become sexually mature before it will flower no matter what so its gonna veg the first 3-4 weeks even if you have it on a flowering cycle right away, why not give it 2 times the energy to grow and mature and get big instead of a smaller plant that will take just as long if not more time than a plant grown with a 3 week 24/0 veg phase before flowering......

As you see its take your pick 18/6 I would say is the norm and does give the plant some much needed 'dark' time. Nothing wrong with 12/12 from seed either, I did it for a couple of years as a perpetual harvest grow, you wont get much from them, I averaged just 14 to 21 grams dry under HPS that way BUT they show sex in 3 weeks during which time you can still get a bit of training in and you build up to a constant rolling harvest with lots of smaller plants/different strains in smaller pots. Horses for courses etc

For a first grow I'd go with 18/6.

i went 24/0 for a week then 20/4 for a week then 18/6 for 2 weeks im not disapointed in the results

From what i have read, and im sure a few will back me up on this, you may want to throw a couple of 27K lights during veg for a fuller spectrum and do the reverse for flowering, the majority 27K and a couple of 50K and/or 65K.

indeed, mixed spectrum is very important imo, ive done tests and it gives the best growth rate, again thats just my opinion though.

There seems to be some debate about dark time in veg. I have read that during the veg period, cannabis does not need to "sleep".
I do know with other plants, outdoor garden, they need the dark to grow.
Has anyone done a side by side with 24/0 and 18/6?

I haven't done a side-by-side test but i guess botanical logic would suggest as what we're trying to do is replicate nature, and these plants don't grow "naturally" (i.e. in nature) with 24 hours light, that a period of dark is necessary to allow the plant to perform all it's functions properly. I'm sure someone can tell us what the different processes that occur during light and dark periods are?!? My guess would be something to do with production of carbohydrates and release of waste gases but i'm not a trained botanist.

im not a botanist either, but 24/0 is natural in alaska, the plants do great under it, does anyone know where that guy from alaskas grow journal about it is? ive looked all over the place.

how well one plant will do in 24/0 or 18/6 depends on the genes of the plant, if you bring a southern sativa into alaska and try to grow it during the growing season its not going to do as well, My theory is if your growing indica you should grow with a photo period that make sense so if your growing sativa 12/12 is ok i think the longest day of the year near the equator is 13 hours. The main point im trying to make here is you can grow sativa and indicas whatever way you want but a sativa is going to do better in a 12/12 from seed than an indica, and an indica will probally do better in 24/0 than a sativa will. does that make logical sense?