Auto Growers.....18/6 V 20/4

@rufio yo bro how’s it going? Harvest time soon for you?

Can’t say from first hand experience with autos but what I understand is the point of diminishing returns is more than 20 hours light per 24 hour period.

18/6 saves a couple quid, plants may take a couple days longer to finish 

20/4 possibly the most light you should give for a return 

24/0 possible but surely a waste of some electric!? The plant cannot grow 24/7 so only use if very cold temps are an issue when light is off. Interestingly Geoff Lowenfells grows his autos 24/0 but he’s a soil scientist not a botanist! Lol 

hope that helps a bit.. someone here who autos a lot might know best case ! 

btw were you pleasantly surprised or the opposite when you read your electric bill? 

@chillbert plan to chop first plant at the weekend 😀 been meaning to update the diary. Will do this week.

Yea I was thinking similar to be honest man, probably little difference either way. I’m not keen on the idea of 24/0 but others that know a lot more than me seem to like it so could be like a lot of growing these things...more than 1 way to do it. 

I knew it was gonna be heavy man as the garage is cold and the heater is on a lot, humidifier also and the light is 300w too. 

At least I now know what the worst case scenario will cost, the bill I got was for jan and feb which is the most of these plants lives. Summer grow will cost less and at some stage I plan to do a proper job in the garage, build a room almost within the garage. 

yo bro for autos i always run 20/4, you can run an auto on 24/0 it wont do any damage to the plant as it has a set lifespan as such, you will just have some stress issues to deal with and maybe a slightly smaller yield. i find 20/4 is the perfect sweet spot you give the plant a little rest each day to allow for more vigorous growth the next day. as for 18/6 it doesn't really matter tbh. the whole point of autos is a fast quick harvest if your gonna grow 18/6 you may aswell just keep with a photo period.

my money is on the 20/4 tie frame, ive grown out plants under each of the schedules and i think 20/4 is the best in mho sir:gb:

I've only done auto's, and I've only done 18/6. I like the "rest period". But maybe I'll try 20/4 like GB, I'm starting a new grow, maybe I'll try it.

Did not notice that much of a difference between the two if I’m honest.

Think 18hrs is enough and you might have slightly faster growth with the 20hrs but I like keeping my energy usage down so for me 18hrs is what I’m going with.

For the first week or so I did have a couple under 24hrs but with the lights dimmed to about 25% and that gave me some nice solid squat growth, then reduced light time as I increased the intensity.

18 6 is enough IMO but you can go as far as 20/4, any more than that i think is over kill 

When I finally do photo's I'll probably pissed because they'll be sleeping all the time.  

Did the comparison years ago 🤔, cant really remember why I went 18/6 ,there must be reason I will check my old notes ,rather handy though as i can veg photos in there aswell ,also have a few week old seedlings in there ,my 18/6 tent does the hard work 😆