benefit's of 18/6

hey guys im doing my first grow and my baby which is 4-5 days old dena she is so cute, anyway im on 18/6 and wondering why cant i have the light on 24 it will grow bigger and faster right wont that benefit my baby best and i should i leave the fan on our will it get too cold?

Kind of curious about this myself been wanting to ask this.
I've been running roughly 18/6 , it's not on a timer so it hasn't been perfect and I'm still mostly in seedling stage here, it's finally starting to look like it's getting somewhere though lots of little baby leaves popping out of the main steam and new fans starting on top. Seems to be going a bit slow though.

there are no dangers with having 24/0 light cycle. many people do it. however, with a 18/6, you give the plant some hours of coolness which can be very beneficial especially with HIDs and in a lot of cases with CFLs because it stops them from drying up. A lot of heat stressed plants will not have ended up that way if they were given the cool hours. Also, as far as i understand it, night hours releases hormones that control things such as flowering although usually hormones do not just have one function. So there could be a hidden function that could be beneficial that has not been scientifically researched.
Lastly, the budsites that grow from the nodes show much more growth during light hours because night time is associated with flowering. You can try this urself. If you leave a plant without light for a few days, the plant will not strech as much as it will grow the bud-sites.
Also, you save money on electricity.

another benefit is that wen u suddenly switch to 12/12, it is less stressful n easier for the plant to get used to the change

apprichated guys

better root growth when lights are out.

I've done both, I can't say I've noticed much difference either way. I'm sure there are guys here who can give you more precise info on this

here yougo.

Do Roots REALLY grow in the dark? -r
Do Roots REALLY grow in the dark?

Note: diels alder was instrumental in helping turn this very technical subject into something much easier to understand. This is by no means a complete, technical explanation of Botany, rather it’s an understanding of the basic principles.

Many times I’ve seen in posts that “roots grow during the dark.”. If this were true, the 24/0 photoperiod would result in a plant with a tiny root structure, if one at all! We know this is not the case - so how does it actually work?

To simplify things, lets use an analogy. Try to think of a plant as a building… one constantly under construction. The plant needs raw materials, (fertilizers and water), and energy (light) in order to “build itself”. The raw materials are the “bricks and mortar” of the building. The energy is the workers, vehicles and power tools used to assemble the building.

The Plant is capable of storing some raw materials and some energy for use later, but the amount is limited...think of a warehouse and a battery.

During the day, (Lights ON) the plant is collecting and storing light energy, and is using and storing raw materials. The plant is stockpiling raw material, and is charging it’s batteries… it is ALSO using raw materials and using the energy it is collecting. It’s building itself, literally putting itself together.

During the day however, the plant is not as efficient at building itself, as it is at night (lights OFF.) It can build itself, but not as quickly.

While the lights are OFF, the plant is using energy and raw materials to build itself…. the plant is more efficiently using the raw materials that it stored during the day. The plant is better at transporting and assembling the raw materials.

The bad news: since there is no light energy, the plant must rely on energy it stored while the lights were ON (its stored energy). (Essentially, the plant is running on batteries, and using raw material from the warehouse.)

There is no light energy to collect. Since the plant needs energy to absorb more raw materials, it is easier for the plant to use raw materials that it stored during the day than it is to absorb raw materials through its roots.

Although the plant IS capable of “doing it all” with the lights on, (Collect, store and use energy & raw materials) it does a better job of actually doing the work (using the energy and raw material) while the lights are out. During the dark however, it relies solely on its limited supply of stored energy and stored raw material.

One last thing to remember is the fact that a plant will always strive to maintain a balance between the size of its roots and the size of its canopy (Leaf mass.) The roots must be big enough to supply as much raw materials as the canopy can use, and the canopy must be big enough to provide the energy required to store those raw materials….

Trim the roots on a healthy plant, and canopy growth will slow to a crawl until the roots have grown big enough to again support the canopy.

Trim the TOP of a healthy plant, and root growth will slow similarly, until the canopy has grown big enough to again support the roots.

If the plant is already in balance, the canopy and the roots will grow at the same rate.

If you actually measured them several times daily over several days, you’d notice that they actually DO get bigger at night, but roots and canopy at the same rate, unless either has been trimmed, and as long as the “batteries” hold out.

Added on: Monday, October 2, 2006 Viewed: 4199 times
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mygirls said:

Do Roots REALLY grow in the dark?

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Nice post. I was going to spout out something about yeah I read a few articles and books saying that more overall growth can happen when in the dark as long as you make sure during the light time the plants are getting and absorbing enough energy to use during the dark cycle. But you beat me to it with that good read . It's along the same reasoning of why you don't want to cut off the giant fan leaves no matter how annoying they get.