What is the best light routine for vegging plants? 24/0 give the plants the most light, but dont they need to "sleep"? is 20/4 better or 18/6?
im a 24/0 guy, ive grown 20/4 and 18/6 as well. ive noticed 24/0 tends to make bushier plants ( in my experience ). it all comes down to how much you wanna pay for electricity.
Ongoing debate that will not be settled here. The vast majority of indoor growers use either 18/6 or 24/0, the 20/4 option is bantered around as well but is a distant 3rd place. Some growers feel the plant needs a rest, others do not. Suffice it to say that all of these will work, the question is which (if any) achieves the best results. Ultimately you will need to decide for yourself which makes the most sense to you. Sometimes 18/6 makes more sense for purely practical reasons, if you are having problems keeping temps down then you can consider going dark during the warmest part of the day.
I also run 18/6. I live in a hot humid part of the country so it's best that I havethe lights off during the hottest part of the day. Also that 6hrs the lights r off really helps me out on electricity( got a 1000w hps). One more benifit is the developing of preflowers, so if ur starting from seed u don't have to switch to 12/12 to find out sex(in most strains that is). I still use 24/0 for seedlings and cloning.
i roll with 18/6, but there is no best with evidence to back it up. i've seen grows with both, and they both got dank nugs, so what's the difference? do what you wanna do, if it doesn't work, switch it up.
It's a plant that was here long before lights were invented. Think about what is most natural for the plant. 18/6 makes a lot more sense, I have tried both ways and in the end I have had the best luck with 18/6, there is a lot less heat issues, yields are the same, and it is cheaper.
the only difference in growth there is this: during the dark-time in vegging, the stems stretch upwards to get more light, while 24/0 gets a bit shorter, bushier plants... again there's tons of other factors that play in here as well, like temps, ventilation, genetics, etc... so it's up to your preferences, pretty much good luck kere
18 hours ON + 6 hours OFF = Answer Debate. over. i wish.. unless your cloning, in that case, i personally would go 24 ON until some good root growth gets started (until you wanna transplant).. i am by no means saying that this following technique is what made my best harvest/grow, my best, but this was my light cycle for that grow. Germed from seed. sprouted. Gave 24/0 for 2 weeks. then i switched to 20/4 for two weeks. then 18/6 for 30 days, and then then went into 12/12 for 8.5 weeks. i was running like 1600 watts during the 12/12. for the last few days (going on week 9 in flower), i turned all my lights off except the 1k HPS, and reduced the 12 hours on to 10. waited 3-6 days for certain ladies to get the right tric's and harvested. i did it just on the ol' "well, if it were outdoor, then blah blah", so i gradually curved from intense light, to a subtly less intense light at the end. like i said though, it was my best yield, quality, etc grow yet. and i grow one strain. (AK) but i cant say that i KNOW it was because i did what i did with the light cycle..
The advocates of 24/0 would argue that point -- they would say that you do reduce your bill per month, but you slow down the growth with that dark period and therefore have to veg longer to end up with the same-sized plant, so the power bill for the total veg period actually could end up higher. So they say. I don't take sides in this debate. It is a serious subject that requires a controlled, scientific approach across many hundreds or even thousands of samples to derive a reliable answer. And there just isn't that much funding available for researching optimal marijuana growing techniques. So instead many of us do our own small-time experiments, and we come away with "conclusions" that aren't reliable. But they feel reliable to you because the 2 plants you grew with light cycle X did better than the other 2 you grew with light cycle Y. Which is totally unreliable and will generate contradictory results, hence the ongoing debate. Many of the 18/6 growers feel that a rest is more "natural". That doesn't necessarily mean that plants "need" the rest, it is more an expression of what feels right. And that's my point, it all boils down to your comfort level between the two. Try one, then next grow try the other if you want. Pick the one that "feels" more right to you, either way you won't go wrong.
[quote name='toastybiz']The advocates of 24/0 would argue that point -- they would say that you do reduce your bill per month, but you slow down the growth with that dark period and therefore have to veg longer to end up with the same-sized plant, so the power bill for the total veg period actually could end up higher. So they say. I'm runnin 2 rooms (flower/veg) so my veg cycle is never ending, and when u throw in the a/c i have to run because its hot all the time, u can see why i would want to give my lights a rest. Like u said its all about whats best for the grower
from what i've read about growing any plant, the hours of darkness are spent rooting, and the hours of light are spent reaching for it. i'm willing to bet that if you were to check 2 different pots from 2 different cycles, you'd see the difference in the root ball. it's just a hypothesis but from all the research i've done, i'd say a rest was a good thing all around. i'd start a seed on 24/0 for a week to establish growth, then cut it back to either 20/4 or 18/6 so it can develop a good solid root system, instead of constantly trying to reach the lights.