Hours of light for young plants?

[sspitfire]

Im running the ligts 24/7 for 3-4 days now. They just srpouted and seem to be fine. Its one incandescent bulb, I will get CFLs today/tomorrow. So my question is shud i let it run 24/7 and for how long before switching to a controlled photo period. TIA

 

[Texas Kid]

IMO 18/6 is a much better lighting schedule for veggers and young sprouts

Tex

 

[zeropercentthc]

You'll get a lot of opinions. I use 20/4 because of the few reports of testing I came across suggested that 20/4 was either the best or just as good as 24/0. I used to go with 24/0 just to not have to deal with timers. ("why make things complicated with equipment that can and does fail when its not necessary?" was my thinking)
But anyway, 24/0 is good, 20/4 is good, 18/6 is good, etc etc.. I'd just make sure to use at least 18 hours of light a day.

 

[ttystikk]

the amount of light time is less important than the amount of dark time. Young plants- sprouts, clones, whatever- should never, ever see 10 or more hours of uninterrupted darkness. If you're worried about the reliability of a timer, then just leave the lights on. Some say the roots grow better when the plants get some dark time, I haven't seen any evidence one way or another.