So Who's Right????

Been doing 24/7 for years, just switched to 18/6, night and day difference!!! No more 24/7!!

 

nice rickjams, good to hear some experience with this. heard so many ppl defend 24/7 i wondered what i was doing on 18/6

 

By "beat" I assume you meant "best".

There is no "best" for a lot of people. It's a personal preference. Cannabis does not need "rest". 24 hour lighting is fine, though in my opinion (and from a side-by-side comparison) the extra 6 hours of light was negligible and didn't justify extra running costs.

 

I use 18/6 for two reasons.

1. I believe that the plants need rest, as does any other living thing, but it is proven they dont need it.

2. It saves on your electric bill if your running HID!

 

The Cannabis plant is versatile enough that it will grow well under lighting conditions from 12/12 to 24/7, but like all plants it has a prefered lighting schedual.

Cannabis prefers a LOT of light during it's vegitative growth, but also requires a dark cycle in order to reach it's full growth potential. This has to do with cellular respiration, and the way plants take in their Co2/O mixture through the leaves, such is the metabolic process. I can't remember the specifics, but if you give the plant even 2 hours of darkness you will see a note-able difference in growth rate.

Do not consider DARKNESS to be a RESTING period, as this is FAR from true; plants are EXTREMELY active during dark hours.

 

I do both 24/0 for first two Weeks then switch to 18/6 as for best I don't believe there is one only opinions

 

The issue has been debated over and over and over again and there is no conclusive evidence that one is better than the other. I know in my garden the results have been identical with either option, therefore, I employ a light schedule of 18/6 as I have witnessed no benefit to 24 hours of light. But, to reiterate, other than power savings I have also witnessed no benefit to 18/6.

 

Perhaps you have seen no benefit, but according to Ed Rosenthal, it has been shown that MJ plants grow 33% faster under 24/7 when compared to the same plants grown under 18/6.

MJ is a C3 plant and needs no dark period during vegetative growth.

Need the dark | Cannabis Culture Magazine

 

Beware of taking Ed's word on EVERYTHING. He is just one guy with a lot of experience, he knows his shit, but if it was that much faster no one would would be doing 18/6.

It's not just me, I've seen plenty of people decide that 24/0 has no real benefit.

Three other users in this thread alone have said they prefer 18/6.

 

^This. I also have tried both with little difference.

One big challenge is that we all are small individual growers so what we experience isn't "proof" of anything -- growing half a dozen plants one way and then a different half dozen a different way is not a scientific experiment, so any differences you see could be due to other factors or even just random chance.

Both techniques work well, that's really the bottom line. From there go with what feels best for you.

There is a potential logistical reason to opt for 18/6, if your grow space is subject to ambient temps and would get too warm in the middle of the day with lights on, then you may want to consider 18/6 with going dark noon-6pm or something like that, just to keep temps down.

You said "let the debate begin" -- it has been underway for years and won't be resolved here.

 

I don't take his word as absolute truth. I was just citing the published opinion of one "professional". I honestly don't know or care what his credentials are.

I agree with toasty. Work with whatever suits your grow. Do whatever you want.

 

You and Ed are right though. It's a C3 plant. It's easy to confuse stretching for growth. 18/6 plants will be just as tall or taller than 24/0 plants, but the 24/0 plants will have 25% more mass.

-Loki

 

I've had the same internodal spacing in either case. Like I said, the growth I have witness has been nearly identical with 18/6 and 24/0.