I just bought a eletronic timer for my griw lights. I have been just leaving them on which cant be good. What should i set them to run per day. They are in 16 oz cups and have 5 or six leaves on them. They are in a 6 foot long fish tank covered with glass fish tank lid. Lights are 4 4 foot tubelights . thanks richie

Hi Richard.
I have my lights on 12 hours and 12 hours off.
Good luck.
Vito

16 hrs for vegetative growth, 12 hrs for fruiting

i thank yall for your response. I will set it for 16 on. Will give it a go

Yes, I usually do 16 hours on a day. I have often heard it is better to have the extra time than plants that require more light. Have not studied much why, just kind f followed the advice... and it has worked thus far!
Good luck.

Thanks. I have been lazy and did not turn the lots off. 24 7. Thats why i bought a timer !!! They are nice and green. Think they will grow faster with less light. They have massive roots compaired to the amount of leaves

More light = more growth but there are diminishing returns above 14 or 16 hours per day.  i.e. the extra 8 hours won't get you much more growth.

Only the youngest of plants can get by on 10 hrs/day.  I generally give 12-14.  Once you get to 16 they grow so fast that you have to water them daily.  If you're like me and miss a day they'll wilt and drop leaves and they'll be worse off than they were at 12 hrs/day.  In LA you can put them out now so it may not matter how fast they grow and 24 hrs/day of light is fine if you can keep up with the watering or have the space to put them in pots big enough so they don't have to be watered daily.  Here, they still can't go out so I don't want them out growing their space and lighting capacity.  The bigger the plants get the more they shade themselves and others.   You end up needing more light to compensate.

Here's what plants produce when under 24 hrs/day of sunlight.

 

 

 

 

I run mine 14 - 18 hours depending on how much wine I drink in the evening :)

16 hrs on / 8 hrs off.

In fact most growth is done in the dark hours so thing will really improve for you now you bought a timer.

Wow i figured the dark had to be important thanks. I have it set to 16 hours.

Hi,
IMO, the problem with leaving the lights on, is that the air gets drier as your lights are drying the air .
The more lighting time, the more the air gets drier .

So if like me you have a hard time keeping some humidity, you want less lighting especially when the air gets drier - typically during daytime.
I now (10 days ago) switched off the lights as day-time duration is long enough here now IMO (lights on from February to mid-March ).
Last month, I started lighting during the night time. The reason for this was that at night we get naturally more humidity in the air here at least.
So I thought it was better to light at night and dry the air during that more humid time laps than drying the drier air at day-time.
The leaves that were drying on my young trees stopped the process of drying from the edges to their inner center .

Thanks everyone for your opinions and help. Since i statred this thread its got so damm hot here i cant run the lights as they will cook. I have started sliding the lid open a little each day to get them ready for louisiana's 100 percent humidity. They are doing fine so far. They are in green house so they get filtered sun light going to sun harden them. I thought i would be able to use me lighting system for faster growth but sun light will have to work because of the heat issue. I know sun is best but for starting cutting i like the fish tank. I will go back to sticking the cuttings in soil mix in shade like last summer.

Hello KK,

What kind of lights are your running here?

Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KK

I run mine 14 - 18 hours depending on how much wine I drink in the evening :)

Great thread!

Great setup, Terrance!

Lol...yes, I am all over this forum:like you :-). Its great info!!! I am so into figs I just want to read everything!