18hrs Vs. 24hrs

I've done 18/6, 20/4, 22/2, 23/1 and 24/0. I wanted to know too. For the last 6 months I've been sticking to 24/0. Much faster growth, shorter spacing between nodes. Less stretching. pure indicas in soil reach a foot tall in 7 days and are bushy straight from just rooted clone. My clones root in 5 days, sometimes a few take 7 days. in 24/0. In 18/6 clones took 10 to 15 days. In 24/0 They are always perky and never get droopy. When you make the initial switch to 24/0, they will get droopy at end of day and stay like that for another day. Then they come out of it amd remain perky. Some do blow up like crazy when flip to 12/12. Not all do.

all under a 4ft 6 bulb t5, clones under a 4 ft single bulb t5

I have tried them both and I prefer 18/6 versus 24 hours straight.. Plants are living things and they need some rest too.

My only input would be this, every living thing grows when they sleep. How many times have you gone to bed and the plant seems to grow over night. How many times have you planted a seed, gone to bed and the next morning it is a seedling. Not only weed everything I grow. I think the dark time is good. Just my opinion and I grow a lot of stuff, veggies, flowers you name it.

I prefer 24/0. I use 18/6 or 20/4 if I wanna get a little stretch to take some clones.

chrishydro said:

My only input would be this, every living thing grows when they sleep. How many times have you gone to bed and the plant seems to grow over night. How many times have you planted a seed, gone to bed and the next morning it is a seedling. Not only weed everything I grow. I think the dark time is good. Just my opinion and I grow a lot of stuff, veggies, flowers you name it.

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I get the point you're trying to make, but in reality the plant grew so much because you weren't looking at the plant every 15 minutes. I actually put my germed seeds under 24/0 light until they pop(a day or 2 max). Quick googling gave me this, "Dark reactions dont require light, but they arent inhibited by it, either. For most plants, the darkreactions take place during daytime." http://www.slideshare.net/Christian_Mike/the-dark-reaction-of-photosynthesis-in-plants

I say 20/4 because you only lose 4 hours of light, but you save a good bit of energy too. That and it keeps the temps not too high. I'm not a fan of 24/0 over 20/4 because I didn't see a noticeable difference. I'll agree that 24/0>18/6 though. I'd like to see some sources that say plants must have a dark period too from the people saying that plants need rest.

Does nature say enough if nature gives us dark periods.. Im pretty sure its cuz we need it

bombasticson said:

Does nature say enough if nature gives us dark periods.. Im pretty sure its cuz we need it

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So in nature. How about alaska . Sun doesnt set for 3 months. Plants and trees grow just fine. Some of the lushes forests inbthe world grow there too.

It's hard to find anything non-forum related when you try and google if they need dark during vegetation, but the first two (and only two, so far) articles I found say they don't need any light, saying they're "c3 plants", whatever the fuck that means.

http://www.mmmfaq.com/24-hours-18-veg/
http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3127.html

hyroot said:

So in nature. How about alaska . Sun doesnt set for 3 months. Plants and trees grow just fine. Some of the lushes forests inbthe world grow there too.

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... we talkin bout nature or alaska and where you get this info you were there to see this lush forests to compare which is better.

bombasticson said:

... we talkin bout nature or alaska and where you get this info you were there to see this lush forests to compare which is better.

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We're trying to have a constructive discussion of 24/0 vs 18/6. Saying "nature is best" doesn't add anything to the discussion. Post an article, post some research someone did, post anything that says cannabis must have a dark period and we can get to discussing it. Btw research doesn't count as someone doing 18/6 and saying the plant grew better. Research would be either have 2 grows at the same time one 18/6, one 24/0 or doing one grow with each time and comparing the results.

You can't be serious about Alaska right...Do you think it's all snow or something like you see in the movies? Hyroot is making the point that with 3 months of darkness the plant life still thrived. If plants had to have a dark period wouldn't all plant life in Alaska die and cause the ecosystem to fail?

For alaska, yes ive seen them in person and on discover channel and nat geo and science channel. Look something up geez.

Heres a study from oxford university with various species of plants. Where in 24/0 one photosynthesis respirating increased dramatically while the others stayed at a constant.

http://m.aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/63/4/459.abstract

Either way. More light , 6 hours more per day. So obviously it will grow faster and node spacing shorter. When lights go out. They stretch a little trying to reach light thats not there.

Actually I was talking about using an 18 hour day divided into 14 hours of light and 4 hours of dark. Then for flowering -- 6 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. I was wondering if I am the only one in the world doing this.

Glider said:

Actually I was talking about using an 18 hour day divided into 14 hours of light and 4 hours of dark. Then for flowering -- 6 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. I was wondering if I am the only one in the world doing this.

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I've heard of people doing strange shit like that, so no, I don't think you're the only one, but, idk what it does, at all.

What would you be doing that? Would you save on electricity (I can't do the math, lol, shit starts getting weird).

Theres been other threads where people have done that. It does work. But since there are more dark periods. The plants finish much faster and much smaller yield. For example. If you just ran 11/13 instead of 12/12. It would finish a week earlier. So if you create more dark periods, especially more than one dark period per day. They will finish that much faster and smaller. I dont want to do the math to figure out precisely. For veg it would just grow slower. More continuous light in veg. The faster it grows. There are acceptions where some strains might react differently. I never seen that happen. In veg if they get 8 hours or mor of darkness, they will flower.

If u look in my threads, I messed around with light cycles. I done 7/12. Setting the timer was a nightmare but I got great results. Never finished quicker but ended up with plenty of bud

Hey super, what was the yield difference vs 12/12? Actually what did you do with the extra 5 hours? Did you mean 7/17?

View attachment 2205236A great Lady when she is sleeping, but she never sleeps ! Three weeks old at two feet

Im doing 16/8 right now for my bubba kush. Time isnt a factor as its perpetual. I must say its slower but saves on high power consumption.

supersillybilly said:

If u look in my threads, I messed around with light cycles. I done 7/12. Setting the timer was a nightmare but I got great results. Never finished quicker but ended up with plenty of bud

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Thanks Super. It is a bitch setting the timer. I am doing 6 light/12 dark down. We'll see what happens. So far I am very happy with the size of the plants and their form

I took a plant biology in college and yes, plants do need darkness to grow.

The photosynthesis process itself, there is a reaction known as 'dark reaction' pathway or lately known as 'carbon reaction' pathway where the free energy of ATP and reducing power of NADPH, are used to fix and reduce CO2 to form carbohydrate. This is very important process to release Oxygen into the air. This happened in the dark or at night.