Fudgepackers
New Member
Hi guys
I'm looking to plant a new seed/cutting every 20 days throughout the year so that I have a consistent supply and somewhat limited space.
Assuming the average lifespan of around 8-10 weeks from seed (dependent on strain), it seems fair to say that I will probably have 2-3 maybe 4 at the most on the go at any given time.
Many people swear by using a large, powerful light such as 400W, 600W sometimes 1000W at quite a distance and this seems to be the norm.
Today I want to propose to you something different.
At least for a small grow like mine, would it be better to use a 100's of watts LED spread over all the plants or maybe a 45W LED grow light for each individual plant? (total of up to 4 lights)
The idea behind this is that I can put a lower wattage light closer to the plant therefore increasing the light intensity (luminous flux or lux) for the individual and therefore increasing yields.
As far as I'm aware, lux meters don't work accurately on red-blue LED grow lights, but you can estimate and use some simple math based on a normal white light.
Currently I have a cheese strain under a 22W white light, just starting week 3 (will be upgrading to higher wattage when the plant is bigger) and the top of the plant is receiving around 64,000 lux about 3 inches from the light. The plant looks completely different each week with minimal stretching.
Typical natural sunlight is usually between 30,000 lux and 120,000 lux. 30,000 lux being like england and 120,000 lux being like maybe a very very bright sunny day for the sahara desert or something.
For vegetative, the maximum lux plants should be exposed to is 70,000 lux. In flowering, 85,000. Anything much higher and you're giving the plants more light than they can use, wasting electricity and potentially harming the plants too, cause that is a thing.
When the wattage of the light doubles, the lux at the same distance doubles.
However when you half the distance, the lux quadruples. Remember plants do not understand watts, only light intensity. I see people talking about watts/sqft all the time yet this does not take into account distance from the light, or how efficient the light is. 40 watts/sqft with something like a cfl or HPS will have a much lower light intensity than the same in LED as more watts are being turned into heat.
What do you guys think?
I'm looking to plant a new seed/cutting every 20 days throughout the year so that I have a consistent supply and somewhat limited space.
Assuming the average lifespan of around 8-10 weeks from seed (dependent on strain), it seems fair to say that I will probably have 2-3 maybe 4 at the most on the go at any given time.
Many people swear by using a large, powerful light such as 400W, 600W sometimes 1000W at quite a distance and this seems to be the norm.
Today I want to propose to you something different.
At least for a small grow like mine, would it be better to use a 100's of watts LED spread over all the plants or maybe a 45W LED grow light for each individual plant? (total of up to 4 lights)
The idea behind this is that I can put a lower wattage light closer to the plant therefore increasing the light intensity (luminous flux or lux) for the individual and therefore increasing yields.
As far as I'm aware, lux meters don't work accurately on red-blue LED grow lights, but you can estimate and use some simple math based on a normal white light.
Currently I have a cheese strain under a 22W white light, just starting week 3 (will be upgrading to higher wattage when the plant is bigger) and the top of the plant is receiving around 64,000 lux about 3 inches from the light. The plant looks completely different each week with minimal stretching.
Typical natural sunlight is usually between 30,000 lux and 120,000 lux. 30,000 lux being like england and 120,000 lux being like maybe a very very bright sunny day for the sahara desert or something.
For vegetative, the maximum lux plants should be exposed to is 70,000 lux. In flowering, 85,000. Anything much higher and you're giving the plants more light than they can use, wasting electricity and potentially harming the plants too, cause that is a thing.
When the wattage of the light doubles, the lux at the same distance doubles.
However when you half the distance, the lux quadruples. Remember plants do not understand watts, only light intensity. I see people talking about watts/sqft all the time yet this does not take into account distance from the light, or how efficient the light is. 40 watts/sqft with something like a cfl or HPS will have a much lower light intensity than the same in LED as more watts are being turned into heat.
What do you guys think?
