so whats best? some say go 24hrs. and some say 18/6.....talking hps here. (SoG) please elaborate on the reasons. thank you, pieeater
with 18/6 people say the plants get the 6 hour dark period to convert sugars and grow, with 24/0 you get as much light too those plants to grow as fast as they can. also some people choose to go to 18/6 during the hottest parts of the day or to save energy.
Another reason 24/0 is recommended: When you change the light period to 12/12, the plants respond much quicker to the change (stated in MJ Grow Bible). As far as personal experience, I have always run 24/0 cause it's just easier...less timers, etc. And I have gotta assume that the plant grows more with the 24/0 than with less light. This assumption is based on what I've seen during 12/12 with the EC... I would take a reading that eveing when lights went out and once again in the morning...the reading would normally be the same, indicating to me that the plant was not really feeding much during lights out...
mines on 24, a plant can photosynthesize 24 hours a day 364 days a year, so why not take advantage of that?
I always go with 20 and 4. Plants benefit from having a dark period but 18 and 6 seems like more rest time then necessary. Also, I like to give my lights some downtime to cool off. It just seems like they would get hotter and the room couldn't get time to cool down from the lights.
