your personal experience on light cycle 18/6 on veg cycle or 24/0 veg

what do you guys think what do they go in 18/6 or 24 hours on straight?

18/6 for me. Less electricity costs and most people would agree that there are little differences in most vegetative cycles. And in my opinion, plants need sleep too!

I also see no point in using a 24/0 light cycle especially if you are using hid lighting. A plant will also show sex quicker under an 18/6 light schedule than a 24/0 when you flip your lights to 12/12. I veg my plants in a tent with a t5, for the first couple of weeks they get a 20/4 light cycle and after three weeks cut back to 18/6. Another thing that can be done that I've read but not tried, for four weeks veg your plants at 18/6 then week five at 16/8, week six at 14/10 and then week seven into 12/12. I too think a plant needs to sleep.

How the plant will respond to a 24 hour photocycle depends solely on the plants genetic makeup.I am growing a strain right now called paradise seeds acid and every day at around 15 hours the plants gets droopy and looks pretty bad actually.The next morning at lights on they look like the picture of health.This is a strain I would never run 24/0.But I'm sure many strains probably sativa dominant will flourish on a 24/0 photoperiod.The reason I say a sativa is because I grow indicas almost exclusively and the acid isnt the only strain I've seen get fugly at 16 hours or so of light.

I always use 24 hours of light with my T5 for vegging. I don't think it really makes a difference though, but I do see rapid growth quickly under 24/0. If I was using MH bulbs I would most likely go 18/6 just for the difference in power consumption.

I would love to test out the 24/0 - 18/6 debate side by side if I had the space, but I don't. Anyone want to put the debate to rest? Has anyone? That would be very interesting.

I'm growing 3 plants with 5 80 watt fluros so I have to use 24/0. I think 18/6 wouldn't be enough.

18/6 is best, the plants will use the hours of dark to grow their roots which is essential for big healthy plants.

During the 6 hours of darkness in the vegging cycle is complete darkness as important as it is in flowering? Or would some light leakage be ok?

Ego Fum Papa said:

During the 6 hours of darkness in the vegging cycle is complete darkness as important as it is in flowering? Or would some light leakage be ok?

Click to expand...

No light leaks at all is the best.

from a horticultural/botany point of view, it needs no dark period (class C or some such designation). I do a perpetual grow, so there's always vegging going on. I run 24/0 basically unless the plants are looking like they will get too large before I have room in the flower area. If I need to slow them down, I go 18/6 (or top ). I have run crops entirely on both now, and switched mid crop, and in all situations the 24/0 grew faster (with much tighter node spacing) and developed more dense root structures. It's gotta be telling that I use 18/6 to slow down growth

personally i do 24/o for the first 30 days then 18/6 for the next 15-25 then ill switch to 12/12. seems to help slow growth in the end of veg and helps bud slightly faster IMO

at first i was doing 24/0 but then went i started doing 18/6 after the 6 hours of rest my plants were reaching for light

I guess it depends on if you want roots or not.