What's the minimum amount of light you can use for veg?

According to an apparently well respected grower/breeder in the UK, a 20/4 lighting schedule is best for efficient growth during veg. I would advise sticking with this schedule no matter what light you use.

You can certainly veg under fluros, but an HID will give you huge plants. I use a 400W MH, on a very short travel light rail, and couldn't be happier with the results I get.

 

When running a 20/4 lighting schedule, does it have to have total darkness during the dark four hour period?

 

Yes. Dark period has to be dark. Less than the light of a full moon.

 

I personally keep it simple. Since my cloning area runs 24 hrs a day, and is in the same area as my vegging plants, I just keep both the clones and the vegging plants under 24 hours of light.

When I want them to flower, I move them up into the flowering room under the 2,000 watts of HPS light at 12/12 and they just immediately start flowering in around 10 days. Since they have never seen darkness from the time they were cuttings (or even when they were part of the moms), I find they just start flowering very quickly.

Bez, if you want to save money in your veg area w/ electricity, I wouldnt neccessarily cut the light hours back - maybe just use a smaller light. You might screw up the vegging cycle - they wont know whether to veg or flower if you cut the light/dark time back too much.

I run a 400w MH over my gals like Wee, maybe 16" from the plants, and it works perfect for me.

jerry.

 

Yeah I do the same thing (all areas under the same schedule).

Jerry, I strongly advise you try 20/4 some day. You may get increased yield with less electrical costs.

 

I'll try anything to get better yield and save money Wee...*lol*

This gets into the same old argument about whether plants actually "need" dark time - or not. Some say they definetly do, others say it doesnt matter. I've tried both ways and it didnt seem to matter.

Anybody elses experience?

jerry.

 

Long time lurker. Thanks to all for the great information found here. Love breaking the chains from packaged "nutes".

I have kept plants in veg using a 16/8. When you get down into 14 they start thinking that its late summer and will start to flower.

 

[quote name='"BeZtoken"']

Cool Bro thanks for the info, that's kinda what I was figured/hoped for. I am gonna try it.

BeZ...V[/quote]

No problem. Just giving back.

 

I know how to veg plants using as little as 7 or 13 hours total a day with the same, in most cases 15-35% better and shorter, vigorous growth as a regular 18/6 schedule, want to know how? =) run your light 12 hours on, off for 5.5 hours, turn back on for 1 hour to interrupt the night cycle and prevent flowering, then off for the last 5.5 hours of the 24 hours in a day, this will also reduce stretching when you induce flowering for the simple fact when the plant is under 16-24 hours of light they become "light junkies" and addicted to light and when you instantly switch back to 12/12 the plant becomes confused and begins to stretch, same thing that would happen if your lights turned off at 12 hours of light for a day and fucked up your plants during the veg cycle, ya follow? now you can reduce your total amount of light down to 7 hours a day with no difference in growth, how do you do this? simple. Run your lights 30 minutes on, then 30 minutes off 12 times a day, then leave them off for 5.5 (the first cycle actually will be 6 hours tho since the last cycle of 30 on 30 off is turned off) then 1 hour on and then 5.5 hours off. Will reduce production costs, keep your plants shorter and bushier and stretch less when you induce flowering (there will still be SOME stretch, more prevalent in sativa strains), using either of these methods can increase yields %15-%35 as well. If you want a more in depth explanation feel free to ask, or if you want Joe Pietri wrote an article about these same light cycles in Skunk Magazines October 2011 issue. Also think about this, professional indoor/greenhouse horticulturists use these same light cycles to produce bouquet flowers for brides, or roses etc, if they were to run the same light cycle that supposed marijuana cultivation "experts" say to use, then your wives wedding flowers would cost $1200 instead of $200 lol. Also look into lunar cycles and planting/sowing seeds in junction with lunar cycles and it will make things simplier and increase quality/quantity.

 

I personally have never seen any advantage to screwing with their schedule, but to each his own. For me it usually results in hermies or some unnecessary stress. I clone and veg in 16/8 until they go into the bloom at 12/12. I usually like 18/6 but @ .45 kwh every little bit counts. I just think of it as growing just above or below the tropic of cancer or capricorn out of the tropics.

 

I've did it both ways, also using a 400MH. I found that there is a point of diminished growth after 18 to 20 hours of continuous light. BUT- here's the big but(LOL)!! When I do decide to grow an indoor winter grow like I did this year, I use the sun through south facing windows during the day, and put them under a smaller HID(175MH) at night, The sun is free so the diminished returns aren't as important. That being said, The total amount of full sun they recieve is roughly 4.5 to 5 hours, and the rest is ambient light until I get home to move them. I've been doing this technique for many years and have never had it cause any maladies in the plants.
To the OP, yes outdoors plants don't have to have direct sunlight all day. In some places plants will actually yield more with a little break from the sun at the peak of the day. I live at 30 degrees north, and unless you have irrigation to your plants, about all you want is 9 hours a day, anything more than that stresses them because of high internal leaf temps.

 

i have never seen this light schedule fuck up plants or cause them to hermie because its consistent, inconsistency and abnormal non consistent light schedules and environmental factors usually do that. AND WHOLLY FUCK YOU PAY A LOT FOR ELECTRICITY i feel bad for you, i only pay .08 Kw/H, my light schedule would slice your electricity costs down a ton with shorter, bushier and more productive growth, when your plants arent as stretch they dont have to transport water and nutrients as far, and nutrients like P are very immobile, so the shorter you can keep your plant the more efficiently it can absorb, transport and use nutrients, water and thus will use less energy transporting those nutrients throughout the plant so thats another advantange. Take a strain your very familiar with and have grown lots and put it under this veg cycle and then an 11/13 flower cycle and you will see major difference and a 15-35% increase in production.

 

[quote name='"Cryptlord9999"']

i have never seen this light schedule fuck up plants or cause them to hermie because its consistent, inconsistency and abnormal non consistent light schedules and environmental factors usually do that. AND WHOLLY FUCK YOU PAY A LOT FOR ELECTRICITY i feel bad for you, i only pay .08 Kw/H, my light schedule would slice your electricity costs down a ton with shorter, bushier and more productive growth, when your plants arent as stretch they dont have to transport water and nutrients as far, and nutrients like P are very immobile, so the shorter you can keep your plant the more efficiently it can absorb, transport and use nutrients, water and thus will use less energy transporting those nutrients throughout the plant so thats another advantange. Take a strain your very familiar with and have grown lots and put it under this veg cycle and then an 11/13 flower cycle and you will see major difference and a 15-35% increase in production.[/quote]

Environmental factors could be a problem, as I am not the most reliable sequential timer. It seems like the plants would become kind of like a narcoleptic (sp?). I could see how this might work.

Electrical costs are what drives me. I feel it every month. Necessity is the mother of invention, and in my experience "members of our tribe" are a pretty resourceful bunch. I'll have to give her a try with some rangey sativas. Always Be Learning.

 

links to professional method?

 

any refernces? any thing to back it up?

edit: MIW should post some pics of his stretchy plants here for kicks.