is 24hrs of light a good idea for autoflowers
Its not a bad thing. Most prefer 18/6 for saving a bit on their energy bill. Autos flip when they want to some people even run them in their flower tent on 12/12
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18/6 is ideal imo. Everything needs some sleep.
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Stuck at 12/12 until summer heat breaks.
Cant run full 1000metered watts from 4 LEDs
Slow growing compared to 18/6 spring tent growth.
LSS, lesson learned AUTOS for fall, winter, and photos for spring/summer tent
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Ill answer your question with another question.
Aside from either North or South Pole and Alaska. Where on the earth does the sun shine more then 18 hours a day? Can you name a single plant that grows in nature by being lit 24 hours a day?
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The length of light exposure should be adjusted to the lights you are using. Cannabis will only accept a certain amount of light; the rest is wasted. So if you have marginal lighting 24/0 is a good choice. If you are running high intensity stuff then you are simply wasting electricity.
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Wouldnt the answer here be to increase light intensity vs 24 hours of not intense enough light?
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As Db said…after a plant has had its fill it takes no more. Dark cycle allows it to do its I am a factory thing with stored energy in my understanding.
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I did 20/4 my last ( first grow) and had amazing results. I was curious if 24 /0 would work well and been running 24/0 for just over two weeks and my girl is growing insanely fast. Don’t mind the burnt leaves I cranked up light way too high way too fast 
. But so far so good at 24/0. I remember hearing from the guy who does homegrown cannabis co podcast ( chronic chronicles or something like that) that there was research done showing how autoflowers do best at 24 / 0. I never bothered to check that but so far my results are going great. I went with 4 hours off my first grow cause I assumed they would need some downtime but at least in veg so far my girl doesn’t seem to need it.
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Yes, but if the light is maxxed out then longer is your only option unless you can buy stronger lights.
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Any light maxed out will still be able to increase intensity by lowering the light closer to the plant. If the light isnt enough at normal hanging distance but to warm closer, make the room colder. This is my point though…
The things indoor growers do is all in an effort to replicate outdoor conditions aka nature. 24 hours of full sunlight is not found in natural fertile environments. Even in alaska when the sun is up 24 hours a day, on the occasions that it is, it isnt fully bright. There is no plant designed by nature that is ment to be lit 24 hours a day. It goes against the natural order.
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Isn’t an auto seed already modified? Thus only part of mother natures laws apply to veg and blooming.
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No, autoflower is bred, not gmo. Cannabis Ruderallis crossed with Cannabis Sativa/Indica, through polination.
Yes but we are doing all kinds of stuff that nature never intended like keeping pollen away from the plant. You can get away with running 24/0 with autos if your light isn’t quite enough but I prefer some dark time for my girls. However; my lights are pretty well dialed in and I’m growing photos normally. And lighting a 4 X 4 with a 100 watt light ain’t gonna get you a good yield any way you run 'em.
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Agree…definitely more than one way to skin a cat and there are many ways to get good results…but 100 total watts in a 4 x 4 is on the low side for yield.
I’m probably overdoing it some but I’m running 4 x 200 watts in a 3 x 3 for 800 watts total…hoping for some fat buds. No dimmers but they were inexpensive lights.
They are full spectrum with UV and IR and detached drivers (736 Osram diodes each - 2944 total diodes) for about 50 bucks a pop plus tax…so a little over $200 for all 4 lights shipped to me. They’re not name brand but I’m really happy with the performance so far. And the company has been around awhile (used to make blurple lights) and is very proactive and responsive to their customers.
First grow ever indoors at 43 days from breaking ground (GG4 autos). No topping or training this time…just trying to learn what to expect during a grow and learn from this one. I’ve learned a ton from just reading the boards here.
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Storm nailed it. We all make choices in how we grow. During the plants day, she is in photosynthesis mode, using the light and the nutes to produce energy. During her night, she is metabolizing the stored energy from the day to repair, grow, make more roots and the like.
I tried 24/0 light schedule with a gg4 auto flower in coco in an autopot, I think it caused a huge cal mag deficiency, I had to add 9ml of cal mag to every feeding to keep her healthy, then the trichomes took forever to show any amber, I grew it all the way to 17 weeks before I chopped it and it still showed very little amber. As it turned out I grew 8oz of sleepy weed. I have gone back to 18/6 on the next grow and this plant looks much better and is nice and green with no cal mag added
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I have a auto grow going right now for the first time in 10 maybe 12 years. They were so janky back then they weren’t worth growing IMHO. I did them 24/0, 20/4, 18/6 and all it did was slow the grow down. The longer you run the lights on the less power you have to put to the plants when looking at it from a DLI stand point. And wouldn’t you know it the genetics are janky on this current auto grow, LMFAO! But I’m a old guy that does not have much faith or really even like any of the new fufu bred up crap weed on the market today anyway. I do run a lot of my photo’s 24/0 for at least two weeks if not three weeks from helmet heads until they complain. Then put them on 18/6. The current auto grow can’t do 24/0 they just flat peter out at about the 21 hour mark. So knowing that I made there light cycle 20/4 and have the lights go out at 4pm and back on at 8pm. At the time we were still having 100+ f. days so thought it best to shut the lights down during the heat of the day. The two autos in the tent right now are a semi joke with one stretching like crazy and the other staying short so the PPFD/DLI/VPD is kind of messed up. The ave. PPFD between the two plants is 630 for a 20 hour DLI of 45 with a pretty good VPD of 1.20
This right here is 100% ( in regards to needing more nutrients and deficiency issues etc)
I ran my 24/0 experiment on my autoflower up until a few days ago ( from germination up to just past pre flowering). I was fighting deficiencies no matter how much I combat it they were still there.
The very next day after giving her just a 4 hour rest for the first time she looks so much happier. I will say she had insane growth to this point but I couldn’t kill the deficiencies I’m assuming because she’s having to work overtime and has to have more than what I would normally give in order to fight them.
I am now running 20/4 and the last 2 days since doing this she just seems to be thanking me