Let's debate! 24/7 or 18/6 for VEG?

squigggs said:

how bout a transition... start it at 24/0 halfway through veg go to 18/6... then 12/12 when its time to flower? thats what i plan on doing.

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I wasted two weeks doing that GRADUAL thing on my first grow. I did it by two hours a day, cause someone here convinced me it was natural. BS! Now I go from 24/7 to 12/12 in one day!.

it's 24/0.

Ok fellas heres a question I dont think has been asked yet (not that I read the entire thread).
Its DAY 13 since sprouting & its been under 2 x fluros (36 watts in total) on a 24 hour light cycle, Id like to know what are the advantages & disadvantages of switching to the 18/6 light cycle? So when I sleep it does too.

With that small amount of light available to begin with I would use 24/0.

24/0 works great for me.
Growing plants s t r e t c h in the dark.

MrFishy said:

24/0 works great for me.
Growing plants s t r e t c h in the dark.

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what? mine don't.

has anyone here actually run a side-by-side test? or are we all talking out of opinions?

So you sayin' plants don't stretch in the dark?
has anyone here actually run a side-by-side test? or are we all talking out of opinions?

MrFishy said:

are we all talking out of opinions?

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I thought that was what a "discussion" is.

personally 18/6 works good for me

frmrboi said:

I thought that was what a "discussion" is.

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Did you note the source of that statement?

MrFishy said:

Did you note the source of that statement?

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yes, safer to quote you than a moderator,

Good answer.

If you're doing clones, 24/0 then straight to 12/12, soil or hydro or aero. From seed, I give 24/0 for the first two weeks, but after that I drop to 18/6 (I'm doing 17/7 right now just to see the difference,) and then to 12/12, as the root system develops and the dark period allows for some amount of the hormone that controls flowering to build up - this helps me to determine the sex of the plants as preflowers show up. You won't get that from 24/0 light and seed, except for ruderalis strains, which will flower out quite often without any regard to light cycle.

There are advantages to both - just need to know which situation is appropriate for the lighting. Industrial hemp growers use a 16/8 light cycle to encourage stretching for longer fibers, for example.

I have run both 18\6 and 24\0. I found 24\0 to be a little bit quicker, and really if you think about it, you're not trying to replicate nature with an indoor grow, or else we would have to replicate windstorms and heavy rain and maybe some almost freezing temps near the end of the cycle. In vegging, we're trying to (or at least i am) grow our plants as full and bushy as possible, as quick as possible. Logic (and experience) to me would dictate that an extra 42 hours of light per week is going to add up over a little while.
Having said that, i'm not 100% sure what goes on during the 6 hours of dark, i've heard all sorts of things about photoperiods aiding in metabolizing of sugars and helping nutrient uptake, but i really havn't seen this show itself in the form of quicker growth, only really stretching, something i consider undesireable. So until i'm proven wrong i'm
gonna stick with what works for me, oh also works for some dude named Ed Rosenthal.

Just my 2 cents.

Uncle Ed knows !

I'd say 18/6, cause 24/7 would require stretching a day into 31 hours.

18/6 for me...they love the dark...i get alot of growth during the night...

a lot of growth or a lot of stretching?

what's all this talk of stretching? in 20 years i have NEVER heard of stretching because you gave them 6 hours of dark. until this thread that is.


18/6 vegged sativas. where's my stretch?

maybe if you lowered your lights? just a thought.