8 day old HG Moby Dick autos under 1000w Toad LED in 3gal fabric pots with wife’s 10yr old soil recipe. These are first autos for us and we have high hopes. Pun intended. We were always outdoor only. The space is roughly 2.5’x3’x7’. fingers crossed!
Does dark period have to be 100% dark like photos or are autos more forgiving? TIA
If they’re true autos, they’ll flower under a 24hrs lights on schedule. When they’re breeding for that trait, that’s how they select for it.
The ruderalis trait is a recessive one though. Getting it to show up reliably in the seeds is like being able to guarantee all your children will be red-headed. It’s not impossible but it might take a couple generations of inbreeding to get there.
What this means for us cultivators is that sometimes your “autos” might still need the dark schedule. To answer your question, yes you should aim for perfect darkness with lights off, in case you need it.
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Autos are. not light dependent but I do 18 on 6 off the entire grow. Yeild and quality is better for me this way
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It seems the consensus is that 18/6, 20/4 is best for autos, they seem to benefit from a rest period.
Going with 20:4! Turned on full spectrum yesterday and I’d swear they grew in a few hours. 
All plants do better when they rest you will see on 4 off the leafs won’t drop to rest 6 off they will drop in my grow and i always do 6 off plants do better as @MoOG was saying
Interesting. I’ll have to reconsider.
Whatever darkness period chosen, if any, they seem to benefit from a temperature drop at night. So if six off buys your tent a better temperature gradient, that might be more beneficial than twenty on, four off. These variables have to be tuned together.
