24/24 better than 18/6?

Well, I just showed my Step Father my Grow room, Him being a Indoor Growing Vet, Watching his pounds and pounds accumilate.. I Had to ask him how my grow room was doing...

My Light cycle was off... And he immediately said "Why are your lights off?"

I Said "For the Veg grow stage.. 18/6"
He said.. "What you want is 24/24, You want to create constant photosynthesis, The plants will grow faster that way" "Once your plants get bigger and produce more nodes, then you move onto 18/6, and flowering 12/12"
He also told me I Needed my lights a little bit closer,

Which made me think... It's not like the Roots get the sunlight anyway... So why not... GROW BABY GROW

But, I'm gonna take his word for it... He has had some pretty bomb ass bud and tons of plants grown under him...

Any Comments?

Controversial topic actually. I tried 24 hours untill the second set of leaves developed then switched to 16/8 in favor of keeping my grow a little more natural out of personal preference. (i love my sleep the plants might too) But I have not seen a real difference yet. Every time I open my box in the morning when i turn the lights on my plants are larger than when I turned it off before bed. I'll keep watching it and doing it my way but plants do have two seperate cycles and needs for those cycles. They breath carbon dioxide during the day and oxygen at night.

I have heard however that is is fine to keep the lights on 24/7 for the first month.

Well i'm gonna go a week or 2 with 24/24, and see if I cant tell the difference in the growth rate.

Everytime I check on my plants at 18/6 however, they do seem larger than last time (What a coincidence?!) lol

But I'ma try it out, see what it's like

Have fun but Id step it down from 24hr to 16/8 over the course of a few days so as not to confuse it.

I have read that plants can only photosynthesize light for 18 hours a day. Anything more is overkill. I am still on my first grow, however I have vegged two sets of plants of the same strain. The first round I vegged 4 plants in the 24 hour cycle; the second I vegged another 4 on 18/6 while the first 4 were flowering. I noticed no difference in speed of growth.

Also, I have heard this same story from many vet growers on here. If there is a difference, its not worth the extra watts you use per day.

Your step dad probably just learned it that way (like I did) and was never told otherwise. Try your first round on 18/6 and then try next time with 24. See for yourself.

The extra watts isnt a problem... I'm just gonna test it out for a while, if it is successful, I'll stick with it, If not as successful, back to 18/6

I'll just Trial and Error it... If it doesn't work, no biggy, I Also got sprouts beside my plants, and I heard 24/24 was good for them as well... We'll see what happens, i'll let yall know

SiLENT said:

The extra watts isnt a problem... I'm just gonna test it out for a while, if it is successful, I'll stick with it, If not as successful, back to 18/6

I'll just Trial and Error it... If it doesn't work, no biggy, I Also got sprouts beside my plants, and I heard 24/24 was good for them as well... We'll see what happens, i'll let yall know

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I can tell you now that it will be successful, there is no doubt about that. But until you compare the two cycles you won't know for sure if one is faster than the other. I have also heard that plants experience the most growth during the dark period. but that might be during flowering

Godkas said:

Have fun but Id step it down from 24hr to 16/8 over the course of a few days so as not to confuse it.

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sorry mate, i would never use 16/8 18/6 is already pushing it for sleep, 18/6 is accully prime for it, but 24 hours does grow a bit faster.

splifman said:

I can tell you now that it will be successful, there is no doubt about that. But until you compare the two cycles you won't know for sure if one is faster than the other. I have also heard that plants experience the most growth during the dark period. but that might be during flowering

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Well I just did a quick study on photosynthesis, and I would have to say, 24/24 for the first month or so would be good, then to 18/6 after, then flower at 12/12

The growth during night, I would doubt either, But arnt the roots what do the main growing? And they dont get any light what so ever...

But I Could be wrong... idk

This may be but my schedual is my timer im running analog.

Its true. Your plants can only process so much light a day. And they do need the dark for "sleep". Its healthy for them.

SiLENT said:

Well I just did a quick study on photosynthesis, and I would have to say, 24/24 for the first month or so would be good, then to 18/6 after, then flower at 12/12

The growth during night, I would doubt either, But arnt the roots what do the main growing? And they dont get any light what so ever...

But I Could be wrong... idk

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k Fluro's cool light, have blue spectrum, MH have LOTS OF blue spectrum, and HPS have yellow, Red spectrum for flower, blue spectrum is for Plant growth, leaf, stem, roots, etc and red spectrum, when used 12/12 makes ur plant flower, dense reisen covered colas. if you flower if CFL's you get poofy popcorn bud... not good

TillthedayiDIE420 said:

k Fluro's cool light, have blue spectrum, MH have LOTS OF blue spectrum, and HPS have yellow, Red spectrum for flower, blue spectrum is for Plant growth, leaf, stem, roots, etc and red spectrum, when used 12/12 makes ur plant flower, dense reisen covered colas. if you flower if CFL's you get poofy popcorn bud... not good

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Well I Have 2 Cool Flouro Tubes going down the middle of my box, You said Blue spectrum? Would 24/24 be damaging or no?
I Know I'm gonna be getting a Nice Grow Light, You said Red Spectrum is the BEST?

This topic also got me wondering...
You know how in Alaska they have Periods during they year where it's 24/24 sunlight... and visa versa with darkness at times.... Would a plant be able to survive in Alaska *I Think it's alaska...*

SiLENT said:

Well I Have 2 Cool Flouro Tubes going down the middle of my box, You said Blue spectrum? Would 24/24 be damaging or no?
I Know I'm gonna be getting a Nice Grow Light, You said Red Spectrum is the BEST?

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Blue spectrum best for vegging and red spectrum is best for flowering.

there ya go mate!

I always run 24 hours on my plants in the veg stage.I notice a large speed increase but I also run 1000 watt lights.I am going to turn the volume down though now that I have well established mothers that are about 4 feets and thick and lush.After I pull the clones I will drop it to 18/6 to keep them from budding but keep them in a healthy veg stage.16/8 your just about teasing them into budding stage.I have compared 24 hours vs 18 hours and see about a 35% speed of growth increase.My moms are now little over 50 days or so and 4 feet and fat and have been on 24 hour cycle since floros were on the new cut clones which are the moms now.I personally think the 24 hours is better but have heard some argue 18/6 to give the plants a rest or sleep period.Now for my regualr non mommies Im going to run lights 24 hrs from first day of clone for about 4 weeks then to 18/6 for a week to 10 days then 12/12 til harvest.

" Light Cycles

The dark cycle is very inportant to palnts. Respiration (this is when plants are making energy from sugar to oxygen) Continues in dark but at a much slower pace, almost independent of available oxygen because the leaves are not making oxygen in the dark.

In the dark there is a shift from leaf production to root production as the leaves transfer excess energy down to the branches and roots. Therefore, some dark time allows for better root structures. The "Experimental Root Growth 10 Days After Cutting" graph on page 33 shows that giving plants a 24-hour light cycle is not the way to supercharge growth"

This is from "How to supercharge your garden" With the graph on page 33 this follows...

"Light period for cuttings

Plants have a free running internal bio-rhythm of 21-27 hours. In this rhythm, they need dark time. Cuttings have a built in daily rhythm (age also) that they inherit from their parent. Cuttings will root better with a 6 hours to 8 hourdark period because this is the main time when leaves and the stems transfer energy down to the root zone for storage and growth."

The chart has hours of light per day on the bottom, and length of roots in millimeters.
-@ 4hours of light the roots after ten days were only 22mm long
-@ 8 hours of light after 10 days the roots were 25 mm long
-@12 hours of light we shoot up to 40mm long
-@16 hours it peaks at 50mm
-@20 hours it drops down to 37mm
-@ 24 hours it drops down to 29mm

There is also a shitload of info regarding root to yeild ratio vs veg to yield ratio, and draws the conclusion that at the end of the experiments the root to yield ratio was higher

This is why i stopped with 24/24 LOL

SiLENT said:

Well I just did a quick study on photosynthesis, and I would have to say, 24/24 for the first month or so would be good, then to 18/6 after, then flower at 12/12

The growth during night, I would doubt either, But arnt the roots what do the main growing? And they dont get any light what so ever...

But I Could be wrong... idk

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Where did you get all this interesting info from?

Seedlessone said:

" Light Cycles

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Thank you... some facts