The amount of light your cannabis plant receives during this stage has a direct impact on the cannabis plant's health and its ability to support its buds.
What Is The Light Cycle In Vegetative Cannabis Plant?
Light and lighting are very important for the cannabis plants in the vegetative stage. This is because the plants use light to photosynthesize and grow strong and healthy. Therefore if they get more light, the bigger and better your cannabis plants will grow.
The most common lighting cycle for your cannabis plant's vegetative stage is 18/6 (light/darkness). You can use a combination of light and darkness (like 20/4, 19/5, 17/7) but ensure they don’t get more than 12 hours of darkness per day. This will trigger your cannabis plants to start flowering. You should bear in mind by giving your cannabis plants less light you will cause them to develop slower.
Remember that giving them more light than they require won't result in your cannabis plants growing faster or being more developed. Therefore by doing this you can harm or really stress your cannabis plant
The Light Cycle For Vegetative Cannabis plants Outdoors
- Photoperiodic Plants
When growing cannabis outdoors, the light cycle will depend on what season you are in. The various seasons have different amounts of light and darkness hours. This will influence the start of growth for your photoperiodic cannabis plants.
It is important whilst growing outdoor cannabis plants, you know the amount of light and darkness your plants will receive during the next couple of months. This will ensure that your cannabis plant develops the way you would like it to.
- Auto-flowering Plants
Auto-flowering cannabis plants do not have a vegetative stage and start flowering directly from seed. They are not dependent on a light cycle.
Therefore you can grow auto-flowering cannabis strains outdoors, all year long. Although other factors such as humidity and temperature can influence the development of your cannabis plant. They will vegetate and develop properly outdoors at any time before they start flowering.
The Light Cycle For Vegetative Cannabis Indoors
- Photoperiodic Plants
When growing cannabis plants indoors, your responsibility is to maintain all the elements of the environment. In the beginning, it can be a little bit hard but once you get more experienced it can have many advantages.
Photoperiodic cannabis plants depend solely on the amount of light and darkness to start flowering. This can become tricky for new growers outdoors but when growing indoors, you are in control of everything, including the light cycle.
Unlike auto-flowering cannabis plants, photoperiodic cannabis plants that are indoors can vegetate for a long period of time. They will only start flowering once the light cycle has changed. This gives us the ability to vegetate our plants as long as we desire and then switch them to the flowering stage once we have achieved our goals in the vegetative phase.
- Auto-flowering Plants
Auto-flowering cannabis plants flower independently of the amount of darkness they receive. Giving them too little light can result in an underdeveloped plant that doesn’t flower to its full potential.
The more experienced grower can experiment with various light cycles. Many growers suggest that they achieved the best results by giving their auto-flowering cannabis plants 24hs of uninterrupted light. It is encouraged to experiment, however, be aware that too much or too little light can stress your cannabis plant.
Using different light cycles for auto-flowering cannabis plants can be used to save on electricity. Although this could affect the yield of your cannabis plant, removing only 2hs of light per day, will not make a big difference to your plant. This can save you a couple of bucks.
If you are still new to growing cannabis you should start with an 18/6 light cycle this will guarantee your harvest.
The Conclusion
The vegetative stage of your cannabis plant is very important. In this stage, your cannabis plant is building up its strength in order to support all the buds during the flowering stage. It is important to remember that there is nothing like the best light cycle for the vegetative stage of your cannabis plant.
The light cycle will depend on many factors. These factors are individual and specific to each grow room.
It is important that you give your cannabis plant the correct amount of light and nutrients it requires. To ensure that the cannabis plant develops properly and will ready for the next stage. Although the growth and yield are solely dependent on the genetics of your cannabis strain. The amount of light your plant will receive is a decisive factor in the quality and the yield it will produce.
