Live Stoner Chat AUTO LIGHTING SCHEDULES: I Gotta Ask.

[Slater]

El Noob-o is back to dip my toes in the proverbial pond of truth.

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I've heard and read so many different things about light schedules for autos.

1. 24/0 is fine - makes no difference.

2. 18/6 is best - they need rest.

3. Plants will yield more if rested.

4. Yield will not be affected either way.

Q. Does one waste growing time in resting?

Q. Does one get more/better yield by resting?

Q. Does one screw up their plants by resting one day and running 24 the next?
(I ask because I have ran mine 24 hours on cool days.)

I normally run 18/6 and lights out in the heat of the day.

Gurus discuss!

1. 24/0... depends on your situation but for me its waste of power

2. 18/6... this is what I run in the summer to save on power and heat, in the winter I have run 20/4, again more of a heat issue than growing time

3. I believe that they do need a rest but when you run 24/0 you will see them go to sleep... so do they need the light to be switch off to rest, no, but you might as well to save on power even if its only for 4hrs

4. I have tried all the light cycles and have seen no difference on yields, I now only run 18/6 on auto's. Waste of power running otherwise... this is only my opinion based on my set up.

Q1... No... because the plants do a lot their growing when they are resting... Look closely after lights come on you will see the growth

Q2... It make no difference the plant will rest it self what ever the light cycle.

Q3... Nah your safe man, I'm always cocking up my timers at least once during a grow... only yesterday I notice that one of my photo tents had been on for near on 20 hrs and the girls are in week 4 of flower (I had unplugged the timer for maintenance and not plugged it back in the day before). I switched off gave then 24hrs of dark then back into the normal light schedule. You should be all good dude.

I think your all good with 18/6 or 20/4... 24/0 is just waste if power in my opinion

 

[Tony21]

The best light schedule is the one that delivers the optimal DLI and that depends on the lights and wattage used.
Nobody knows what the optimal DLI for auto's is, let alone a given strain, so unless a PAR meter is used this is all guesswork.
An auto NEEDS rest, where's the science for that and does auto's actually have a diurnal mechanism?
Personally running staggered 18/6 in 3 groups for a DLI at canopy of 40-45 mol, and I switch off the grow lights randomly when I do stuff in the tents sometimes for hours without noticing any confusion. This usually yields a little more than 3 g/w

 

[Give Pizza Chants]

Once in a Beatles interview, Ringo was asked something like;

"What is your view on the socio-economic impact of the Vietnam war on southeast Asia?"

Ringo replied, "I'm on drums."

After reading some of these responses I realize I too am on drums.

 

[puggle6]

Once in a Beatles interview, Ringo was asked something like;

"What is your view on the socio-economic impact of the Vietnam war on southeast Asia?"

Ringo replied, "I'm on drums."

After reading some of these responses I realize I too am on drums.

All we are sayyyyinnng... Is




f6

 

[hairyman]

I ain't no drummer or an electrician but I would like to be able to adjust and mix my lights in watts and colours

 

[Banjacked]

I ain't no drummer or an electrician but I would like to be able to adjust and mix my lights in watts and colours

I ain't no drummer but I is a sparkytrician so what exactly do you mean as it all depends on what you have

 

[hairyman]

I stuck with what I got , but ideally I would like to be able to optimise the light given to a set of 12,individual sqft footprints both in colour and wattage

 

[AutoWonders]

Before I bought Autocobs, I ran my led lights around the clock. Now I give the ladies 4 hours of no lights.

 

[Banjacked]

I stuck with what I got , but ideally I would like to be able to optimise the light given to a set of 12,individual sqft footprints both in colour and wattage

Oh goody, you got me my brain working and I like that.

Take an array of 12 cobs, as an example, and not these "driverless" ones. First, you could have 6 at 6000K and 6 at 2000K. From that moment the world is your oyster with regard to switching them on and off, either individually via inline switches or "all in one" via switching the mains input. Then you start looking at dimming, so, say, a dimmable driver can control how each "bank" is lit and that controls your "wattage". Then you can go crazy with controllers, wifi or automatic, for the dimming side and you could control each individual cob in that manner depending on how you set it up.

Obviously the same applies to strips, especially with "dual colour" strips with both "high" and "low" kelvin ratings so you can either have dimmable warm white, cold white, or both depending on need.

The options are there, from manual dimming to remote control to programmable Arduino, etc, boards which will do everything for you. It all depends on how complicated you want it with regard to whether you want to control over each individual sq ft or whether you would be happy with "all or nothing".

And people have done that sort of thing, and with the invention of "smart lighting" the necessary parts are already out there.

 

[hairyman]

Being able to have control of temp. Par ,,all that jazz the light. Humidity control it would be nice to do it 12X indvidual environment but I think it could be split to four zonal environmental controls but keep x12 lighting k and intensity ,,

I need to be able to do it with what's available in poundland and screw fix. , what's wrong driver less led they come with plug on and can pick colour and wattages ,, *