tomcat.
It is a very interesting article (albeit, adamately denied by the publisher as being relevant to marijuana production). and it seems to support the largely held notion of a dark period, as seen in this excerpt
" Changes in water properties, nutrient availability, temperature, light duration and strength, humidity, and dissolved gas concentrations are big obstacles that need to be orchestrated to achieve maximal metabolic activity."
18/6 will never cause elongation, or stretching, however high temps, weak lighting, humidiy swings,hormones, additives,nutrients,fans, etc. can. I suggest that if you see 24hrs of light as a fix to your stretching problem, and are willing to spend money on the extra juice to fix it, perhaps your plants are not normally growing in the first place. I get 2-3 inches of growth a day in the veg room with 18/6 and proper controls.
Every person I know that tries these silly non standard lite schedules A) always had issue with standard lighting schedules(really not the lite at all)and plant growth, and B) will defend their decision to spend more money on their chosen schedule. These issues are no longer debated by the companies that specifically formulate and instruct for marijuana production like
http://bigbudsmag.com/grow/how/arti...rijuana-perpetual-harvest-cycle-february-2012 and this too
http://bigbudsmag.com/grow/article/...conditions-growing-medical-marijuana-may-2011
which is a good primer to correc your slow growth issues in the grow room. Get your numbers like the article says, and then tell me how much benefit is had by keeping lights on longer than 18 hrs in the veg room. thats all I'm saying. your long lite is simply trying to make up for other shortcomings in the garden, and is evident by your admission of stretchy plants using normal 18hr cycles