Now I am no expert on the subject, but everyone I've ever known gives their plants some "rest". I personally do a 16 on (day-time) 8 off (night time) I have run a 24/7 light cycle in years past and it didn't seem to do as well as giving them alittle nap time at night.

Plants have sensors and different tasks during the day and night.
During the day, they concentrate on photo synthesis and during the night, attend other tasks.

The best one can do is duplicate the nature. Plants have genetic
memory and programs developed over thousands of years.
Trying to override that is not going to be helpful.

I have heard that you can stop the flowering process by leaving your plant in 24 hour light. Something about the plant feels no need to reproduce because it is getting all the light it could ever want. This might be good if you are trying to make clones of your plants...With some of the longer grow seasons clones might not be a terrible idea for some peppers.

I don't think peppers respond to light that way. Some plants trigger off of light vs. dark periods (can't remember the technical term for this), but, not peppers.

To clarify, my previous response was directed towards mesatrin's post about flowering.

'cyrus gardner' and 'the monk' could very well be correct in their statements. Makes sense to me, anyway, but, I don't know for sure.

I leave my lights on 24 hours a day. I have excellent growth. So much in fact that my fellow growers that have seen my plants are amazed at their growth. So I am one for leaving the lights on continuously

jeff.

Hey Lyle, interesting, I didn't know anyone left the lights on 24/7. Nancy Bubel's "Seed Starters Handbook" (my gardening bible; I just do whatever she says in that book, and don't do anything she doesn't say, and everything grows) says 16 to 18 hours / day, and she goes into the "why" of it all - how plants need the time-out to regroup and grow. Sort of like human sleep. They actually do most of their growing at night, in the darkness, or so she says.

By the way, the seeds you sent me are totally rocking. 100 % germination, and going like gangbusters on full 2nd leaves, nascent 3rd leaves in 22 days. Very healthy and strong looking.

- Larry

Larry, Just to let you know, the Holland Hots and Jamaican Hot Chocolate are doing great also. I am glad to here the seeds I sent are doing well. I have planted about 15-20 burkina peppers seeds and only got 2 to germinate and one of them died. The seed may have been old. The other two stubborn ones are the mexican tepin and the white habanero.

I leave my lights on 24/7 from January until late May. I already have lots of peppers that have sprung forth from the many flowers. Today we tried the Sonora II peppers that I started in January and they tasted real nice. I am going to make some salsa from the Yellow Hungarians tonight.

My tests have shown exactly what Wordwiz has said. The plants under lights 24/7 will far out grow the ones under 16 hours. One must try it themselves to see the difference. I did and for me it is better to leave the lights on.

Jeff

My research on "Hardening off" shows that a week or so before transplanting the peppers outside in the garden, you should give them less than 24/7 light. The theory is that they need to get used to the outdoor conditions which are less perfect and less uniform than the artificial indoor conditions that they have been accostomed to.

Last season, I had my plants under lights 24/7 for their entire indoor life. They were all tall, but not very leafy and obviously light stressed. This year, I am only keeping the lights on 16 hours a day and have them a little further away from the lights. They are not as tall, but are bushier, with more leaves and thicker leaves.

Lyle,
I was the one that did the experiment with 24/7 vs 16 hours per day last year. In my experience, the 24/7 is the way to go before they are planted outside. I'm not sure if I posted the fall results but I can tell you that the 24/7 plants produced much quicker and many more peppers than the 16 hour per day plants. It was a banner year for my peppers last year. I gave away thousands. I now start everything with 24 hour light.
Rick

Rick,

Thanks for posting. It made it easier to find a link to your posts with pictures.

Mike

Had my peppers on 24/7 and some variates did very poorly. They became chlorotic and stunted. They fruited, but not well. When I returned the lights to 16 hrs. They dropped all there large leaves and broke axillary buds. They are all now very bushy and color has returned. The Chinesis variates seemed to do very poorly under a 24 hr day.

Continuous light can produce plants with huge leave that grow and grow and never flower. You can end up with plants leafed out like palm trees.