Min light hours to stay in veg

Hello, I read that you need to keep at plant on a 15 on 9 off hour light cycle per day to keep in veg. I want to do the min because I am trying to save money and work is slow because of covid in the country I live.

What light are you using?

If led give them the full 18hrs imo. Maybe turn off the tv earlier or something to offset it if it's that hard of times. I run 450 actual watts of led 18hrs and it adds 22 us dollars to my bill a month. I dont know rates where you live but I'm guessing you would barely notice 3 extra hrs a day or atleast easily offset imo

MegaArai said:

I am trying to save money

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If 3 hrs is breaking your bank my advice would be manage your priorities first,that's why they're priorities

OS IS RIGHT!

GLR is the real answer.

Its definitely a way to save light hrs but I'm questioning end results because if you can satisfactorily veg mj w 7 hrs of light why isn't every grower alive using this. Not doubting , serious question because now your talking 50% savings or more,not the extra cents an led would would use in 3 hrs.

bam0813 said:

Not doubting , serious question because now your talking 50% savings

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This method is a well known fact I learned about @ RIU.
I use this method now since I am on a budget, it works fine:

VEG "ON" 6:00 AM - 6:00 PM
VEG "OFF 6:00 PM - 11:30 PM
VEG "ON" 11:30 PM-12:30 AM
VEG "OFF 12:30 AM-6:00 AM

FLWR: "ON" 6:30 AM - "OFF" 5:30 PM

bam0813 said:

Its definitely a way to save light hrs but I'm questioning end results

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"Essentially what we are doing is using a flowering cycle which is usually 12 hours of light 12 of total darkness and interrupting the ‘’dark’’ hours right in the middle by waking them up for one hour.
There are a few benefits to using this light schedule:

• It cuts a considerable amount of electricity as the lights will only be on for 13 hours a day rather than 18
• It helps a lot with excessive heat and is recommended for places with very high temperatures, such as desert regions.
• Many people will both support and dispute this but we have good reason to believe that Cannabis focuses a lot of energy on root development during the dark hours and by giving them more dark hours in vegetation the root system will become highly developed"

Interesting for sure hell I may even try it sometime. I'll also admit rereading my statement is was ignorant of the fact that not everyone uses a single light or even led. I can see how 3hrs x multiple lights adds up alot. That being said I'm guessing he is and if he needs to tighten up he'll most likely need to cut elsewhere as well and my last choice would be light. I was more interested in the heat aspect . Thanks for explaining it some

First I would say thanks for the comments that are concerning my statement and concern and not lecture me about the conditions of my life and things I should do in my life. I am not here to learn how to live my life. Was that part of my concern? This topic is something I can look up myself but I am curious to what others have tried and what were the results. Yes, money is tight bit I still want to have fun growing. I am not looking to have massive buds. I just want to keep the plant in veg as long as I can so to have min expense before going to flower cycle.

Well first I apologize if you thought I was teaching you how to live your life or somehow making light of your situation ( no pun intended). Most people everywhere are facing the same dilemmas thanks to covid. I was being sincere and not trying to belittle you when I said take care of priorities. I guess what I meant was ,is it even neccessary to grow period until things improved for you. I also offered the suggestion of possibly cutting somewhere else, like nutes, contrary to popular belief that's not always a bad idea as some like to keep their plants on the verge of scorching and imo more light would possibly provide better results than less light for your efforts. My rational was and is ,if the end result is a fail then it was all wasted just on the cheap.
I know your in a different country and most likely it's not legal but is sun an option?

Just avoid 12 hours of pure darkness. It won't have a choice but to stay in veg

Also isn't vegging longer with less hrs basically the same as vegging shorter with more hrs money wise

Seems 6 one way and a half dozen the other honestly

I think someone already said it but make sure you know the off peak hrs of your energy service and schedule your lights on time accordingly. May save some extra there

It's not the amount of light, it's the amount of dark. You can get into all kinds of crazy light schedules and keep them in veg as long as you don't go over 12 hours of dark. You could have 4 dark/light cycles within 24 hours etc. I personally think it's stupid and would never do it, but one could.

MegaArai said:

First I would say thanks for the comments that are concerning my statement and concern and not lecture me about the conditions of my life and things I should do in my life. I am not here to learn how to live my life. Was that part of my concern? This topic is something I can look up myself but I am curious to what others have tried and what were the results. Yes, money is tight bit I still want to have fun growing. I am not looking to have massive buds. I just want to keep the plant in veg as long as I can so to have min expense before going to flower cycle.

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the 12 on, 5.5 off, 1 on, 5.5 off method, or GLR is real and works great. i see it being called the 12/1 light cycle for veg. see Nebula’s article…

I know your pain.

I have dropped by electricity consumption drastically by making sure the rest of the house is efficient as possible. You'd be amazed about how much you can save by defrosting a fridge or freezer. The kids leaving TVs switched on when they are not watching them. My home cinema system pulls 250w just being on, chuck in the ancillaries that go with it and I am pulling 300w, that is the same as what my grow lights are currently pulling.

bam0813 said:

If led give them the full 18hrs imo. Maybe turn off the tv earlier or something to offset it if it's that hard of times. I run 450 actual watts of led 18hrs and it adds 22 us dollars to my bill a month. I dont know rates where you live but I'm guessing you would barely notice 3 extra hrs a day or atleast easily offset imo

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That's insane. We get roughted here in Aus for electricoty. Running two 240w quantum boards 18hrs a day, and two 40w exhaust fans 24/7 added $250 to my bill.

Running our AC adds another $400.