Has anyone used a 24 hour light cycle to flower Autoflowering strains???

[paulycali]

Has anyone used a 24 hour light cycle with Autoflowering strains???

Wondering if anyone has finished a cycle growing autoflowering strains using the 24 hr light cycle no darkness? Thanks

 

[paulycali]

i've heard of them going as much as 20/4 cycle on the autoflowering websites. some say 18/6 and no less than 16/8. But they say nothing maybe a hint, its hard to understand what they meant sometimes about the 24 hour straight light cycle. What do you farmers think

 

[paulycali]

Decide to do a test run with a few feminized Lowryder #2. First run at the autoflowering strains. THE BIGGER THE ROOTS THE BIGGER THE FRUITS!!!

 

[edux10]

i would think that no one really knows because every seed will be different and there are no 'cuts' of autoflowers so everytime is different. 24hrs would maybe make them produce faster because they are getting constant energy but at the same time some plants like to rest and grow faster after a rest period. Id try 24hrs at first and if you get any problems lower it a little bit. Autoflowers are like a time bomb that starts ticking when you germ, so you only have 'x' amount of time till they are done. gotta find the sweet spot ya know.

 

[paulycali]

i dont know what i wanna do! most likely 20 light 4 darkness. Just because i believe resin production and all the inside goodies happen during the dark cycle. I do use the 13 hr light 11 hr darkness where i do get more yield in the end. So your right on the more light the more growth and buds. now do you think if i give them 24 hr light there short life will become longer resulting in a bigger plant with a heavier yield or just mess them up. or maybe budset will take longer and they might not fully develop by the end of there60 day life cycle. I think pushing it to 20 hrs of light and 4 hrs of darkness works for me. i got a thread you can check out if you want with these autoflowering lowrider #2 ladies

 

[BakedasBeans]

Hey pauly, Ive grown the White Dwarf Autoflowering ( I dont remember the breeder though). I have grown it both under 24/0 and 20/4 and the one i did under 24 stayed almost perfectly within their 8 week from seed to harvest discription, I think it went 9 weeks for me. I pulled 16g off of it at about 20 inches tall (I think it can produce more though as I had it under a cfl until it had already been flowering for 2 weeks). The one i had under 20/4 seemed to grow bigger but it took 3 months til harvest and I got 4-5g less than the one I did under 24/0. Also it didnt have as dense of flowers as the one under 24/0. This was done with the White Dwarf so it might a little bit different results with the Lowrider but this is my experience so I thought Id share my thoughts. Hope it helps!

 

[paulycali]

Thanks bakedasbeans! Now im really torn. So if you were going to grow the autoflowering plants again your saying you would do 24 hrs of light and no darkness? That got the best results. I am on 20/4 right now, what do you think i should do

 

[BakedasBeans]

Just based on what ive seen with the Autos i have run before if this is an important grow i would do 24/0 instead of 20/4 and i would also give it 48 hours of dark before harvest just like with regular plants. Also what size containers are you using? The ones i used were about 1.5 gallons, i have heard that they do best in 1 gallon containers and stay with the breeders timeline better in the smaller containers. If you are on 20/4 and they havent started flowering yet maybe try to keep uner that cycle until they show preflowers then put it on 24/0 ( if you like to experiment). I dont know what kind of effect lengethening the light period when a plants starts flowering would have but with autos i dont see where it could hurt, but like i said if this is an important grow or you only source of meds id maybe switch to the 24/0 if they havent been veging long otherwise keep them on 20/4. I currently am starting 16 various autos in 1 gallon containers under a 400w (thinking about putting a grow diary thread up) and i think the 20/4 veg, 24/0 flower cycle is what i am going to try this time to see what it does because i have heard root growth is better at night (if i am worng please correct me)so those 4 hours of dark durring veg could help boost the yield and/or help them to start flowering a little erlier.

 

[paulycali]

root growth is root growth dont get me wrong roots are #1 for the plant but they always seem to be in the dirt or something dark, so technically there always in the dark. i cant find anything that says you need to change the light cycle for autoflowering either, i think iremember somewhere saying that 24 hrs of light is ideal but havent been able to find that info since. All i find now is 20/4. Plants seem to produce there essential oils and resins and so on in darkness, so thats why i believe they should have some darkness. Though i do veg all plant under 24hrs of light till flowering but theres not much oils and stuff being produced during veg either mostly growth. I am going with the 20/4 cycle lets see what happens. Check out my autoflowering thread lowryder #2 bakedasbeans

 

[BakedasBeans]

Ya thats true i guess i didnt think of it that way haha. Ya i have also read that they do best of 24 hours i think i saw it on the site i ordered the seeds from but im not positive. But then again the dark period also give some time if you end up needing to spray for bugs/powder mildew and not worry about burn as well. Ill deffinatly check your thread out i am interested in autos since they are relativly new, at least to me and id like to run most of the genetics at least once. Is lowrider #2 the only one you have run or have you run others?One of the ones i just started was the easy ryder i think its the lowrider x auto ak. if i run mine at 24/0 maybe we can compare the two since they shase similar genetics.

 

[paulycali]

sounds perfect! yes the easy rider is in the lowryder family so they should be similar in grow patterns and budset. try yours on 24/0 while i will do the 20/4. should be fun comparing them both. if you find info from a seedbank or good source on the 24 hr light cycle all the way through def let me know. this is my first run with any autoflowering strains

 

[paulycali]

Finally found that site again. So basicaly it says you can grow them with any light cycle from 12 hrs up to 24 hrs but they say there studies show that best results are achieved under 18/6 light cycle. thats why i am a little wiery about the 24 hr cycle. i thinks the 20/4 will grow bigger and faster than the 18/6 and produce bigger buds since they will be bigger plants. for your 24/0 i think they will be the biggest with big buds but not as tasty and aromatic than the 20/4 cycle since you gave them no darkness. maybe you can give them an hour of darkness. just something. or go all the way with the 24/0 cycle

 

[paulycali]

i started vegging them under 24/0, then switched them to 20/4. think its alright if i switch it back to 24/0? its only been a few days since the switch from 24/0 to 20/4

 

[BakedasBeans]

Ya that's interesting I'll be excited to see how it comes out. The ones I grew under 24 tasted amazing still but I don't have a flavor comparrison to a 20/4 grow but if givig them more dark could improve the already great taste I am all in. And I don't see how turning them back to 24 would hurt. Your leafs might twist a little or you might a 3 fingered leaf or two but I've done this before with no problems. Are you going to veg under 24/0 and flower under 20/4?

 

[zappafan99]

I grew out 5 EasyRyder and five AK47x lowryder2. I was breeding for a bunch of seeds to thicken/backup my outdoor crop this year. I found so many different sizes and growth patterns it would be near impossible to compare....except that they were all pushing hard to grow as fast as possible. I always gave mine a little rest. I would just be consistent and you'll be fine. At 10wks x 7 days x 4 hours = 280 hours of dark vs. zero. 280 hours = 11.6 days without light. This could be a very large difference in a plant with such a short life. Best of luck and remember to give us your results.

 

[paulycali]

Hey bakeasbeans! I am going to stick with the 20/4 light cycle for veg and flowering. Theres really no veg so theres no need to switch the light cycle. 20/4 all the way through. You should not change your lighting from veg to bloom just keep the same light cycle the whole way through.

And for zappafan99 whats up with those calculations? Not sure what you mean! And what light cycle did you give them

 

[zappafan99]

My numbers were for how many hours of darkness the plants would receive over 10 wks (the length breeder recommended from seed for Easyryder) on a 20/4 cycle. They would lose 11 days out of 60 of sunlight versus going with a 24 hour light cycle. I went with 20/4. Now I might try to go 24 hours until I hung em to dry to see how that worked. I hope this is more coherent, I am/was/will be very baked. :icon_cookie::icon_cookie::icon_cookie::icon_cookie::icon_cookie::icon_cookie::icon_cookie::icon_cookie::icon_cookie::icon_cookie:

 

[paulycali]

Its really a little over a week! comes to about 8.25 days without light. Not to bad! This is my first run at the autoflowering strains my thread is lowryder #2 experimental grow. Check it out! I think when its all said and done the 24/0 cycle should produce more buds but will it be as tasty and as potent as the 20/4 cycle. All we can do is wait. Dont forget to check out that thread i will be posting happenings and results

 

[Dankdestroyer]

im growing ak47 x lowryder2 in coco 24.7 no dark period with 150 watt cfl and they are kickin out loads of growth do a 24 7 mate

 

[Dankdestroyer]

mine are doing fine under 24 hour lighting give it a go theres some good advice right there ;)