This is a really complex issue so please bare with me and I apologize for the lengthy explaination.

Plants can benefit from up to 20 hours of light. They require at least 4 hours of "rest" per 24 hours. If you keep the lights on 24 hours, the plants will each pick their own "rest" time. Plants prefer to "rest" in the dark but will "rest" in the daylight if they have to. If you have them trained on a schedule of say 18/6 and change the dark period to a different time of the day the plants will eventually adapt their rest period to the time of day you give them darkness, however, this takes time (days) to occure thus you rob them of some of the light period until they adjust.

Two good reasons to have a 20/4 hour cycle instead of 24/0.....

1. That you train all your plants to rest simotaniously so that when you change the cycle to 12/12, they are taking full advantage of the 12 hours of light (assuming the 12 hours of light are during the same time of day you gave them 18 hours of light). When I change light cycle, I have the lights turn off 4 hours earlier than my original 20/4 schedule and remain off 4 hours after.

2. You save electricity.

Plants droop when their water content is low. Plants are most perky when they have maximum water intake and respiration. Your plants were not achieving the maximum water intake which could have been a result of many factors (over watering, drowning of roots, not enough respiration, low room temperature, too much humidity, nutrient imbalance.....the list goes on and on).

When you started spraying the leaves, you compensated for the lack of water uptake from the roots, which was the right thing to do. You also increased the light cycle allowing the plant higher respiration capability. Now that your plants have recovered, I recommend you spray them less frequently and back the light down a bit and continue to monitor their reaction. You will better train them if you adjust the light and water cycle gradually (over a couple of days).

The best conditions, in my opinion, are to get the plant to operate like a water vapor.....sucking in as much water/nutrients as possible and evaporating it at it's maximum capacity. Too much light/heat and you risk respirating faster than the plant can uptake water thus drying leaves. Without enough respiration, your plants will grow slow and not uptake as much water/nutes as they're capable of. Over watering, you risk drowning the roots.

It's all about finding out what your room needs to make the conditions perfect for the specific plant you're growing. This is why we're all much alike. If it were too easy, we probably wouldn't do it.

GM
GluteusMaximus Reviewed by GluteusMaximus on . 18/6 Vrs. 24/0 Whatâ??s up everyone Iâ??m new to growing, I never grew anything before, and im going to take a swing at it, I did my research on the forums and watched a few grow movies heres where im at so far Flood and drain system Rockwool cubes 4, 40 inch Cool and warm white fluros 6 inches from the plants GH nutrients ½ strength Ph 5.9 No ppm meter Rating: 5