Lighting question? 24/7 or 18/6

I have been vegging for a week on 24/7 should I switch to 18/6 or leave it on 24 hours? Im using 12 t8 with about 40000 lumens

24 hour of light is fine

I go with 18/6. I believe it's more natural for the plant, and it will save you some $$ on the electric bill too. I never saw the benefit to leave the lights on round the clock. 18/6 has always worked great for me and I've grown some MONSTERS. Another reason to shut it down at night is it cuts the usage hours down on the HID bulbs. If you flower a plant for 8-9 weeks on average, that adds up to 300-400 hours that you're not burning a specific bulb. Just my 2 cents.

18/6 is good your plant like humans need to sleep and like the earlier post said it really no difference in the lighting but on the bill yes,as a newbie I started 3 grows ago with 24/7 and after reading several posts change to 18/6 and I believe had better results but I was going autos so not sure about a reg strain.

Keep it at 24 hrs when they are young, but as you get closer to flower switch it to 18/6 and hopefully it will preflower

munch box said:

Keep it at 24 hrs when they are young, but as you get closer to flower switch it to 18/6 and hopefully it will preflower

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What exactly do you mean? Are you saying that the light cycle is what makes a plant show preflowers?

Antman said:

What exactly do you mean? Are you saying that the light cycle is what makes a plant show preflowers?

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thats exactly what I'm saying. If you went down to 12/12 it will start preflowering even faster, and if you give your plant 24hrs of darkness after veg,( just before flower), then you will start to see preflowers really really fast. Canibus plants worship the sun my friend. They do what the light tells them to do

Changing the light cycle to 12/12 will force the plant to FLOWER, no doubt. Any noob can tell ya that. But preflowers will show once the plant is mature, regardless of what you do to the lights.

Antman said:

Changing the light cycle to 12/12 will force the plant to FLOWER, no doubt. Any noob can tell ya that. But preflowers will show once the plant is mature, regardless of what you do to the lights.

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Not true, with SOG immature plants are forced into flower without any vegging at all

Correct! With SOG, "Immature plants are forced into FLOWER", not preflower. Preflowers have no part in the actual flower, or bud.

How is a flower able to form without first pre-flowering?

Antman said:

Correct! With SOG, "Immature plants are forced into FLOWER", not preflower. Preflowers have no part in the actual flower, or bud.

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I'm pretty sure preflowering is just a term used to describe the formation of calyxes. So its like this.... If plants are grown in SOG, they are not preflowered. BUT before they grow flowers they do grow preflowers (calyxes) understand?

bad2587 said:

I have been vegging for a week on 24/7 should I switch to 18/6 or leave it on 24 hours? Im using 12 t8 with about 40000 lumens

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24/7 or 18/6 is fine for veg.. mj counts night hours not day hours anyway.
as long as you have less than 12 hours of darkeness (ie 18/6) etc..
your fine in veg, the plant will not flower on ya.

i myself run 18/6 and for good reason..saves power, and bulb life and gets almost the same growth time, plus plants need rest just like all living creatures. they switch there air intake to oxygen rather than co2 and a whole chemical change goes into effect for the plant to properly go through photosynthesis.

when you want to flower simply switch to the ol' 12/12..

will you be using the T5 to flower? if so..switch 3/4 of your bulbs out with 3000k or 2700k spectrum, leave a few 6500k in there for sup spectrum

There are plenty of folks who go to 12/12 right from seed with outstanding results. Also note that at the equator EVERY day is 12/12. I understand that the weed there is A-OK.

I have a small grow going on but I just germed 5 seeds and they are going 12/12 from the get go.

the equator also has much more UVB exposure from the sun than other parts of the earth. UVB rays have been proven to stimulate resin production on Canibus Plants

novice11 said:

There are plenty of folks who go to 12/12 right from seed with outstanding results. Also note that at the equator EVERY day is 12/12. I understand that the weed there is A-OK.

I have a small grow going on but I just germed 5 seeds and they are going 12/12 from the get go.

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thats a matter of opinion not fact..
A-ok is just that..ok..
theres a difference between A bud and topshelf..everyone has there own standards and mine are very very high.
going 12/12 from seed is ok..it will work..but a plant is not even mature yet until its 4-6th week of veg mind you..so your only hurting your yield, potency, flavor, etc..
but hey..what ever floats your boat.
you also have to lookl at that strains genetics to btw..some fast flowering indicas will do better or worse than longer flowering hybrids or sativa dom strains going from 12/12..
few weeks realy makes all the difference in the world imho.
if its hieght your trying to combat..use bushmaster and root pruning, or topping fimming, or a combination of the options to create a shoter, more mature, more robust plant that yields 3x as much better bud.

i also used to live in south florida..not to far from the equator..we get 15-16 hour dayz during the summer not 12/12 lol
thats a bs unfactual statement.

24/7 for me. Works perfectly fine, & it works Great with my style of growing.

on 24hrs plants grow taller faster 18 to 6 way longer

munch box said:

How is a flower able to form without first pre-flowering?

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Bro! Preflowers DO NOT eventually form the actual flowers(buds) on a Marijuana plant. They are SINGLE calyxes that grow where the stem, petioles, and stipules meet, at each node. One or two female pistils OR male staminates will protrude from each preflower, but that's it. NO bud or flower forms at that site. Check out the pictures. Male plants grow preflowers too, and I hope we're all in agreement here that you're not gonna harvest any bud(flowers) off of a male plant, right? Sheeesh.View attachment 1738909