18/6 or 24/0

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dknob

New Member
I read someone that said "18/6 is for people who want to save electricity or need their equipment to cool down, pro growers use 24 hour veg"

so I switched from 18/6 to 24/0. Today I had to drive my buddy to the airport, so I figured I would turn off the light since we'd only be gone 2-4 hours and Im not totally fire-proofed. I work from home so im normally here monitoring things. It seemed that my newest seedlings grew a whole shitload while we were gone. Maybe im imagining things, but id rather hear what you guys have to say about this. My roomate told me plants grow most at night, but he isn't a grower. Whats the scoop?
 
sb101

sb101

Well-Known Member
i think it's always nice to give them a little bit of rest, i think it helps development a little bit, but 24 hours of light is good too, i personally keep it around 20/4 but it all works out fine, can't say which one is necessarily better
 
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poutineeh

Well-Known Member
i did 18/6 and think i saw the best growth. something has to be going on in the plant when the lights are off i figure
 
Bagelthief

Bagelthief

Well-Known Member
plants transfer sugars into the root system while its dark (so dark time is mostly for root development). a plant under 24 hour light will not have as strong of a root mass as one under 18/6, and root mass is directly correlated to yield. from what i know, there really isnt that large of a difference in top growth, you might get a very slightly larger plant under 24 hour light, but its really not worth the extra 6 hours of electricity. save yourself a few dollars and 18/6 it up! you'll have a better yield to show for it, with less money spent!
 
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smokeh

Well-Known Member
ur room mate is right. they grow the most at night. i do 18/6 as i like to give them a little break. how would u feel if u had to stay up for 24 hours?! at least if ur up for 18 hours u get 6 hours sleep.

anyway, i did it on my 1st grow. will be doing it again on my up coming 2nd very soon.

plus,........ it does save on elec :p spesh when im running a 600w
 
Mr. Maryjane

Mr. Maryjane

Well-Known Member
okay, I remember reading about this, apparantly someone did a comparison and determined that while 24/0 does result in a higher yeild, it didn't offset the higher electric bill.
 
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dknob

New Member
20/4 it is. Not because im not convinced, but because I want the best of both worlds! My electricity costs are divided like 100 ways before I gotta pay it =)
 
420swed

420swed

Well-Known Member
ive been doing 24hr light during veg and my plant grows at least an inch a day but i might switch to 20/4 just to see if theres any difference.
 
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smokeh

Well-Known Member
any dark period (within reason) will help the plant grow. thats why some people go 10/14 near the end of flowering. i did try it and it did make alot more resin.
 
Dutch Ma5tar

Dutch Ma5tar

Active Member
I was doing 18/6.. and it seemed everytime i put the lights back on, it looked like the plants stretched a little on its offtime. Who really knows?! I'm gonna figure it out next grow!
 
Ghost420

Ghost420

Well-Known Member
biologicaly speaking plants need time to use a matabolise their sugars they made throughout the day. remember we are trying to replicate nature. cannabis has grown without 24/7 light for centuries. just do what feels right
 
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CNDSOG

Well-Known Member
right now I'm doing 24/0 on my spider plants to test my lights out and well they love it compared to natural sun light
 
Kludge

Kludge

Well-Known Member
I get better results with 18/6 than 24/0. The plants do stuff at night that they don't do during the day so let them do it.
 
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poutineeh

Well-Known Member
smokeh said:
any dark period (within reason) will help the plant grow. thats why some people go 10/14 near the end of flowering. i did try it and it did make alot more resin.
Click to expand...
at what point and how long did you do this at? im curious at trying it out.
 
mixin

mixin

Well-Known Member
i try to make my tent replicate nature. nature has a dark period every day so why not replicate that? i have some plants about 7 days into flowering and i have totally seen a difference when i see them after their dark cycle. i am sticking with 18/6 definately
 
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smokeh

Well-Known Member
poutineeh said:
at what point and how long did you do this at? im curious at trying it out.
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hey,

i tried the 10/14 about 2 or 3 weeks towards the end of flowering when i was flushing.

u can check it out in my journal if u like.


i have left 3 of my AK47 and my blue cheese out during the day and they are now under my 600w on 12/12. hopefully they will grow bigger and give me a better yield than my CFLs. we'll see anyway.
 
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