18/6 is a arbitrary number that’s been used on the growing communities for many years b
All plant including Auto need a rest period
And if growing outdoors they would not get more than 14 hours of direct sunlight in most places so 14-10 closet represents the natural light pattern
Your welcome to run 18/6 it works and will not cause issues
Plants actually do all the growing and developing during lights out so a longer dark period may actually be more beneficial then more light
During lights on they are storing the energy for night time work 
Thanks So for optimum growth you have to find the right balance between light and dark.
1 Like
That’s what we are doing with the 14/10 schedule
Trying to mimic the suns natural pattern @gldeaton50
You can finish this grow on 18/6
With no worries
But I’ll see suggest you try it on a future grow imo it works great I personally will not be using the 18/6 schedule anymore
1 Like
1 Like
That’s a good link @Nugs I was referring to veg schedule but yes reducing light below the 12/12 will also be beneficial
@Countryboyjvd1971 Ahh I see now I skimmed to fast. Yeah I started on 18/6 then I began to lower 1 hour per week after first sign of preflower.
Light distance and par seems to make quite a bit difference. Though I hear 1w per gram. So meh what do I know I’m still a newbie XD
1 Like
We all
Learn fast lol yes all those things come into play as well @Nugs and any advice you can add to a conversation it helpful imo
We don’t always remember to tell everyone everything lol so more than one comment is always better
1 Like
Right, n got a say this community is allot more friendly then most. That helps a bunch.
Though yeah I’ve seen people that swear by 24/0 seed to harvest on autos. But I’d prefer not to run lights and power all the time. Plus the whole rebuilding and building at night makes sense to me.
1 Like
As I said it’s all about following natures lead lol
@Nugs we can’t out think nature it will always find a way
I also don’t agree with the 24-7 thing makes no sense to me
I can understand why people think that longer light cycles help but a plant will only store so much energy from the lights and everything after that is a waste imo
You need to rest and so do the plants lol
So glad your on board
And yes the fact that the community is so freaking friendly and helpful is why I decided to hang around we have some super members and mods here
We are all very lucky to have found IGLM imo
Plants look awesome @kLockwerk… Those autos will flower when they want to… Lol… They dance to their own beat… IMHO , you can drop lights to 14/10 or12/12… Save some electric kilowatts!! They will flower at any light schedule
@Countryboyjvd1971 is there a thread where you and @latewood discussed this?
I grew my last Auto with the 14/10 schedule worked great finished off the grow in 57 days woohoo
I’ll be doing gold leaf under the 14/10 for veg as well
@latewood explained it to me basically it closest schedule to sunlight and @Hogmaster suggested I try it and I’d did
I’ll be using the 14/10 schedule from now on works great Imo
It’s not hard to agree that running 18 hours of light for an extended time isn’t natural. But how does light intensity and spectrum play into that? I’m seeing several grows that are implementing a far red light for very short period of time at the beginning and/or end of the light cycle. Reports are that doing so aids in the plant “waking up” and “going to sleep” faster. Do you know if there’s any truth to this?
How about the light intensity provided? I’m wondering if we should be in the opinion that if we provided more light during lights on, that we would benefit more from a longer dark cycle? As opposed to say a much lower light intensity being more beneficial to run them a little longer?
Or should we now be dropping everything we’ve done up til this point, and start going in the direction of lights using dawn to dusk controllers? That’s about as close as we’ll get to replicating natural lighting as of right now. I’m just not sure if it’s the cats a$$ or another led marketing ploy.
Thanks!
1 Like
I’d have to look for the thread it wasn’t just me he was explaining it too it was a bunch of us he may jump in here to explain again if he sees the tag
I’m running full spectrum lights
My understanding is they Are closest to natural light ?
The auto finished in 57 day but I was told 60 is normal for that strain super hash auto ?
And if it’s in your budget I would definitely consider dawn to dusk timers
I’ve a few light that do exactly that in the market where they will start of low intensity and finish and a low intensity st simulate natural light
I’m no light expert but seems like trying to replicate natural light would be best ?
@dbrn32
Yup, it’s one of those things where it sounds logical, but getting anywhere solid is relying heavily on people’s opinion. Which is sometimes the best we get and just have to run with it.
Your grows always look great! Which is one of the main reasons I’m asking. I’m definitely not a lighting expert by any means either, just having experience with the different things I’ve thrown together for myself and others. I think I can identify what will grow weed and what wont. But on a budget regardless of how much it is, should I spend more targeting intensity of a certain spectrum, or would I be better off putting some of that money toward targeting certain spectrums at precise times within the light cycle? Like uv levels at high noon, far reds at dusk, and so on? Going well beyond simply just ramping intensity up and down and providing light from 400 to 700nm with a having a couple uva and near ir diodes that run the entire cycle.
For clarification, I don’t expect you or anyone really to have these answers. Just throwing them out for discussion, and seeing how everyone feels about it. You never know who has come across what info.
All good questions @dbrn32
Maybe @Aquaponic_Dumme can answer this more i believe me build His own lights
And I’ll try new things brother I’m not afraid to try
If it doesn’t work out as well you can always change things up again
1 Like
Cool thanks!
I’m the same way with trying things out. Would be a little different if seen it as a couple hundred dollar investment. But the controller I was looking at runs about $400 alone. Probably more like a couple thousand all said and done. I don’t exactly have that kinda cash to dedicate to an experiment.
I’m looking at possibly some cheaper options using some aquarium stuff, but light would have a lot less output. Which brings me to the point I was asking about. I started looking at this project for about 6-700 watts. But it looks like 100ish watts is more in the budget with controllers and everything. I feel like whatever results I came up with wouldn’t be relative on that scale. So debating on scrapping it all together, and going with what I know.
1 Like
10-4 @dbrn32 that would be a pricey experiment for sure
Dumme does auqa ponic stuff so maybe he could help you decide?
Interesting ideas you have tho
1 Like
Thanks! Being 100% honest, they’re not exactly my ideas. Just grabbing bits and pieces of others ideas/experiments.
Hopefully Dumme or anyone really has something that will help me decide where to go with it.
1 Like
@Hogmaster I am going to try the 14/10 light cycle in my next grow as wel. I suggested it to a friend of mine and they have been using it as well. More money in my pocket so I’m going to give it a shot.
4 Likes
I too am going to go with the 14/10 for the ww seed I put in soil today. It makes a lot of sense.
3 Likes
I think we all came to the same conclusion @Tr33
I think @latewood would be happy to hear so many of you are embracing this idea and moving away from the 18/6 we where all programmed to use Woohoo I love how someone try’s something here and tells a few people and it just grows
I’m not sure how long Latewood been doing this or when others started but in a short time I’ve seen a lot of the members switching 
Woohoo CB
2 Likes