A question for whoever wants to answer. All will be appreciated! When growing auto’s, can a guy use the 12/12 cycle from start to finish? Seems like I’ve read this before?
Gilly
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Yes but you’d be kneecaping your grow, autos work best when you’re pushing them to their limits start to finish
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18/6 is what I run
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Yep. And you can use 18/6 or 14/10 or 24/7…
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You can run lights 24 hours a day if you want to with autos, some people do with good results.
But 18/6 seems to be the most popular I believe.
The genetics within autos do not require any darkness at all but the thought is that “all living things” need some sort of rest period, so many choose to give them a few hrs of darkness each day weather it’s 4 or 6 hrs is a matter of preference.
But unless there is other reasons the lights can’t be ran 18hrs a day then they will still produce, just probably not as much 
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Yes…you can. I grow all my plants 12/12 start to finish.
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It all depends on your lighting. If you can hit 45 DLI then you’re perfectly fine with 12/12.
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Look there are people who have grown like that and had good results but i think the 18/6 or 20/4 is the way to go ,i think its more personal preference
I believe to obtain a DLI of 45 you need a light capable of producing an average PPFD of 700 over the footprint for 18 hours. To maintain a DLI of 45 during 12 hour flower cycle you will need 1050 average PPFD. 18/12 X 700 = 1050. However, this graph of recommended DLI by growth stage recommends lower DLI levels during flower
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I’m just on my 3rd run of autos so don’t know a lot about them but I changed my light schedule from 18/6 to a 6/2 and I did see a difference in the growth rate
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+1. I thought the number was 40.
So in other words just do it the way I normally would, 18/6 till flower then switch to 12/12? Not sure I’ll do auto’s but haven’t had any luck growing fem’s inside the last 3-4 times. Thought I might giv’em a try? Maybe? What’s the average start to finish time for auto’s?
Gilly
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I’ve been very curious about the “abnormal” schedules like a 6/2.
I like the logic of it and I could see it being beneficial.
I’m no plant expert at all but from my understanding I can’t help but think.
“They do everything so much faster so why would they not like a fast day and fast night schedule”
I need play with timers and see if I can get one to work this way…
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Some people have even started doing veg on photoperiod plants at 6/2 and another is 12/1 I haven’t tried this with my photoperiod but 6/2 on autos has a noticeable difference but I’ve only done one run 18/6 and one on 6/2 and just started a new run… so with just two runs and I’m sure you know how many other things could have changed my growth rate temperature humidity etc
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I started with this 6/2 schedule and when told 20 hours of light is best I went to 5/1.
I vegged 2 other plants with this Auto.
I am on the last 2-3 weeks of flowering for the auto and recently went to 12/12.
My photos growing with it just went into flower today.
I like the 5/1 x 4 schedule.
With autos I figure give them all the light they can handle but still let them sleep.
I would say it worked well for me on this my 1st time.
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Just to be different… I split the difference with the two main cycles and go 19/5
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Don’t think I said but I did 24hrs on first few weeks and been on 20/4 since.
And yeah who knows really, as @MeEasy said. So many variables involved…
If I do do auto’s I’ll probably just stick with what I know. I’m not much on change once I find something that works. I’m 1 of those “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” type’s. We’ll see? If my big girl turns out OK outside I won’t need to do another grow for a while. Should get quite the big pile from her!
Thanks all,
Gilly
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