24h VS 18/6???

I'm about to start growing again after a hiatuses and have my beans germinating. I was wondering what the benefits are of doing 18/6 other than the obvious savings on power? I would presume you would also loose 6 hours of light that they could be getting and plants taking longer to get to where they need to be before you could flip them? Any info would be appreciated!

IMO plants require darkness to process the energy absorbed during the day. In fact you will see increased growth during lights out.

This is actually a topic of some debate. For soil grows at least I've found that the plants respond better when they have a dark cycle, but I honestly don't really know why. I think it has more to do with the microbial activity in the soil itself than any process within the plant. With hydro I've never noticed a difference. In the long run I've stuck with 18/6, even with my autos, just for the power savings, since either way it's never seemed to negatively affect my yields.