Best Light Cycle

I have a 600w hps yield lab and I do not want to stress my plants. I’ve read somewhere that plants need darkness even in veg. And if I can run 24hrs without stressing my plants is it to late to start now. Right now I’m running between 18-20 hours on 4-6 off.

You will get a lot of mixed replies spouting this and that. The best cycle is the one that works for you.

I personally use 24 hour veg and love it. The plants are all healthy, green, and full of vigor. I have been doing it for a couple years from switching from 18/6 and I personally think they have more vigor than before. IMO

smokelax5 said:

I have a 600w hps yield lab and I do not want to stress my plants. I’ve read somewhere that plants need darkness even in veg. And if I can run 24hrs without stressing my plants is it to late to start now. Right now I’m running between 18-20 hours on 4-6 off.

Click to expand...

Autos or regs???

I assume regs, a few of them are random bag seeds so I don’t really know. I posted pics of them

Well, you can run your lights for 24 hours during veg if you want to, however ...

growers discovered over 20 years ago that 18 hours of light per day is sufficient to keep every strain in vegetative growth, and giving them more light per day does not improve anything very much. So you may as well save that 6 hours per day of power usage. Any difference in growth is minimal and not worth the money.

rollitup said:

Well, you can run your lights for 24 hours during veg if you want to, however ...

growers discovered over 20 years ago that 18 hours of light per day is sufficient to keep every strain in vegetative growth, and giving them more light per day does not improve anything very much. So you may as well save that 6 hours per day of power usage. Any difference in growth is minimal and not worth the money.

Click to expand...

rollitup said:

Well, you can run your lights for 24 hours during veg if you want to, however ...

growers discovered over 20 years ago that 18 hours of light per day is sufficient to keep every strain in vegetative growth, and giving them more light per day does not improve anything very much. So you may as well save that 6 hours per day of power usage. Any difference in growth is minimal and not worth the money.

Click to expand...

thanks I will just keep up with the 18-6. I just wanted to give them the best chance to grow big

I've run my clones and teens at 24/0 for years and they seem to like it.
When time to flip, leave lights off for 24 hrs then start the 12/12.
They explode.

You save 6 hours of running 600 watts or 1000. 18-6 works great. And 12-12 for flower.

There are a lot of ways to do it but the standards work for almost everything.

24 then 12/12.........just the extra cycles of heating and cooling are not good for equipment.

Yeah I was thinking in nature they at least get some darkness and it made my leaves start growing funny so I switched to 18-6 and it started growing regular

Ill run either but find it best be pretty darn dialled in for constant 24/0 light in veg - a more recent discovery for me as many times 24/0 seems like its killing my plants and couldnt work out why over a more healthy look at 18/6.

As said the gains past 18-20 hours light are minimal but they are gains

Hi Guys,
Just thought I'd pipe in. I just switched from 24 to 18 hours in veg. I was on 24hours light because I just didn't want to deal with yet another timer. I I electrically tied my seed/clone are and my main veg area together so now all on 18/6. I believe plants do better with a rest.

I just switched 5 plants to flowering last weekend. I forgot I had changed the timers last run to 11/13 (for sativas) So my plants got 13 hours of darkness and before the week was up, they were shootin' pistils everywhere.

I'm familar with these strains and this was faster then normal flower initiation...which I am assuming is light related.
Cheers,
JD

You make "nature" inside......you control it......

gwheels said:

You save 6 hours of running 600 watts or 1000. 18-6 works great. And 12-12 for flower.

There are a lot of ways to do it but the standards work for almost everything.

Click to expand...

What he said. At least for me.

smokelax5 said:

I have a 600w hps yield lab and I do not want to stress my plants. I’ve read somewhere that plants need darkness even in veg. And if I can run 24hrs without stressing my plants is it to late to start now. Right now I’m running between 18-20 hours on 4-6 off.

Click to expand...

Really comes down to DLI everyone has different opinions but they also have different light intensity. Less powerful lights need to be on longer to reach the same DLI

I have an option to increase the ballast to SUPER LUMENS 100-150 % OR DECREASE DOWN TO 50% so I think the intensity is fine .