hello every one, i have a plant thats around 6-7 inchs tall and its in a 3x4x4 box and its running under 1 24' floro light i have had the plant for at least a month and during this weeks water cycle i added its first plant food dosage. but i was just wondering if my lighting situation is corrct i leave the light on 24 jours a day 7 days a week and the lant seems to be doing fine . but is this a good idea?
hey man ! diggin the name haha grateful dead rules!!! Anyways, onto your question... There is a huge debate whether it is better to start the plants off under 24/0 or to run it under 18/6 . What you seem to be doing is great..(But you have not provided info on how old your plant is? once the plant starts gettin older its best to put it under 18/6) For me, i put it under 24/0 for a couple days when its still a seedling and then switch to 18/6... But now to REFUTE the 24 hours light and go with 18 on and 6 off. Some people believe it is best to put it under 18/6 mostly because a plant does need its dark time, which will allow it to do a whole new type of growth (unsure as to what that is ) but if you watch your plant close you will see!! its best to run 18/6 if your plants a couple weeks into vegetation by the way... well in my opinion anyways! just gives it a little break from all that light and when a plants outdoors it doesnt constantly get 24 hours of light remember..
As for the light yeah it should be on for at least 18 hours a day until you make the plant flower when you will turn the light back to 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. This is the kind of set up i had at the beginning and you are going to find out pretty quickly that your going to need a much bigger container. When transplanting into another pot be careful not to distroy any of the roots. You will probably need some more light as well, 3000 lumens/ sq ft is about as low as you want to go for growing, a 24 inch light is probably only going to put out 30 watts or so which translates to 1800 lumens/ sq ft. What i did was buy a 50 watt High Pressure Sodium light used for outside to light mine as well as the 24' floro. You can find them at Home Depot or any other hardware store really. This light will put out almost 5000 lumens/ sq ft. Hope this helps out some.
my plant is about 1 month and a week into veg from birth lol birth... ne ways it has about 5 storys working on its 6 set and is dark green with little hairs all over the leaves i have it in my own special mix of soils i just nuted it with mg... against my will no doubt any ways me and my ***** bo vice were chillin rite j/k j/k im running it on a 24/7 light schedule and im gona start it on a 18::6 tonight i didnt notice a slight discoloration in the leaves but hardly noticable (this happend way before i ever nuted them) , i think it was from my lights being so close rite now im runnin it off a 24" floro but it has come to my attenion other wose so ima go buy a hps light also im thinking about transplanting it soon cause its in a 6" pot and thats to small so ill probly transplant to a 3 gallon pot is this a good idea? ne ways peace~