Light schedule

An 18/6 light dark schedule is optimum for all cannabis, autos or photoperiod plants in vegetative growth. Cannabis can only grow so much in any 24 hour period and this growth tops out at about 18 hours, meaning running your lights any longer than 18 hours is basically a waste of electricity. Besides, your plants need to sleep to function properly and undertake certain metabolic processes that it can not do during the lights on time. I like to think of the 6 hours of sleep time as 2 hours to repair, 2 hours to rest and 2 hours to get ready for the day ahead, and this is basically what occurs during your plants sleep time. Being greedy and trying to force growth by extending the lights on time will backfire in the long run, your plants will become exhausted from the lack of sleep, making them unhappy and unhealthy, and an unhappy and unhealthy plant can not grow prime flowers. If you are concerned with the rate of growth, investing in the best lights you can afford is the best solution. Also, covering your seedlings with bottles/humidity domes is unnecessary, it just creates an unnaturally high humidity environment conducive to fungal growth, as well as preventing good air exchange, and air movement to strengthen the main stem. Also, a humidifier is not really needed unless you live in a scorching desert with 0% atmospheric humidity. Save your money, cannabis is not a rain forest plant and excessively high humidity will possibly lead to mould and/or fungal problems, especially once flowering commences. Hope this helps,.......... Organoman.

From what I've read about autos, they are independent of lighting schedules during veg. Some people do 24 hours of light, some do 12/12 from the start. Auto strains are usually cut with Ruderalis, which flowers based on time from germination, not the amount of light the plant receives. As with anything, you need to make sure that if you do give more light, that you do not stress the plants (i.e. make sure you water sufficiently, enough nutrients, etc). Just make sure you're a little extra vigilant when you add a few extra hours, and I would not recommend changing the light schedule in flower, only veg. Cheers, and happy growing!