Simple light cycle question?

[UrbanGardener]

Howdy all,

Okay so this one should be pretty basic but I just wanted to confirm. I've always grown on 18/6 for veg but lately been doing 24/0, I see no point now for the 24/0 really and also I want to save on electricity. Will there be any negative impacts of changing my vegging plants from 24/0 to 18/6? Cheers!

UG

 

[nor cali farmer]

try 20/4 its half way

 

[UrbanGardener]

That's a pretty fair call! I just want to be able to sleep with out my exhaust fan on really =P and conserve a bit of powah!

 

[Darkone7]

There are no issues with switching back to 18/6.
Although cannabis plants will grow under 24/0 transpiration happens during lights off,and this is a natural and important part of a plants cycle.

 

[ooS0uPoo]

This may be out of place, but I noticed in your post you wanted to turn your exhaust fan off when the lights were off. I may be mistaken but Ive always run my exhaust regardless of what light schedule Im running based on my plants need for fresh and circulating oxygen in their environment (I think the rule of thumb is 2-3 times/MIN your cubic feet of grow space). As far as your schedule goes, Ive run 18/6 and 24/0, havent noticed much of a difference except to my electric bill, although they say roots grow when the lights are off, we know this to be false or no one would ever have a successful harvest vegging at 24/0. Im not sure if this helps at all, hopefully one of the senior farmers can lend some insight into the botany differences between 24/0 and 18/6....Im a little interested myself! -S0uP

 

[7rayos]

I'd go for 20/4 too, for a while at least. I was growing at 24/0 last winter and gave some clones to a friend who's doing 18/6 and they started showing pistils. Not all will do that, though, but i'd say it's a risk.
As for the bills, my math works that they don't grow 25% faster or bigger despite using 25% more power. Just a bit faster and bigger, say 10% tops. I'm back to 18/6.

 

[Mr.Smokster]

I always did 24 and since growing Og I have noticed that they are much happier with some time in the dark

 

[KaliTransplant]

I always had done 24/0 until a few months back. Tried the "saving power" thing....18/6 sent BARELY repotted, not vegging yet clones of blue dream, sour diesel, and headband into flower-like growth . GDP and Other more indica-dominant hybrids showed no change. Ends up my temps were too cold too with the light off for 6 hours, so that may have contributed, but i think equatorial varieties (lemon thai in the og's and haze in dj's blue dream) look for an accumulation of info, so if they're primed, a change to 18/6 might set you back a few weeks. Just my .02

 

[Flow]

Those that run anything less then 24/0, do you need complete darkness like 12/12 or do you think it is ok to have a little light leak?

 

[7rayos]

That might have to do with the strain, but a "little leak" could be a short thing like a photo with flash or a bit of daylight getting through, plants are things that just "react", they don't stop to consider the situation... it depends on several factors, some might turn to veg again, some might show nanners, some might just carry on. But as a rule of thumb, best is to keep total darkness.

 

[Whippleschnitz]

As periods of dark increase so too does the flowering hormones. I would assume that if you put a sexually mature plant into a an 18/6 photoperiod after receiving 24/0 that the increase in hormones would almost immediately cause pre-flowers to appear as hormones increase. Even if the pre-flowers appear it shouldn't go into full flowering until the photoperiod decreases to around 14/10.