Curious why i dont see many people using side lighting

I just starting flowering 5 girls in 5 gal pots under a 600w in a 4x4. I was thinking about getting some leds or 2' 4 bulb t5 to hang as side lighting to help out the bottom buds. The more i look at pics and youtube i notice most people dont use any side lighting and i was wondering if there was a reason other than not wanting to use more electricity? And for people who do use it would you recommnd t5 or led? Im thinking t5 since i dont have much room between the plant and the walls of the tent and i have read of people having problems with led if it is too close to the plant.

Some people will use led or cfl on the sides but I suspect with the reflective material inside grow rooms, adding ore lights just meansore power being used.

Also you don't have to harvest the whole plant at once. Some people harvest buds when resdy then keep the plant going to harvest buds on the lower branches

you would only be feeding more popcorn, makes more sense to put all the light into the top bud sites

Both of you make sense, thanks for the quick reply. As for the reflective material, i would think it does help but i woudnt think it would create the same intensity as 200w of extra light. I'am ok with making the popcorn buds bigger, and if it turns out airy ill just use it to make hash. I could be wrong but it makes sense to have big nugs on top,if the bottom nugs turn out a little bigger than they would have it seems like a good thing.

The way to reduce popcorn buds is to strip the larf early in bloom. This encourages fewer, but larger and more developed buds.

For the record, I don't use anything BUT side lighting- but then I grow vertically.

ttystikk said:

The way to reduce popcorn buds is to strip the larf early in bloom. This encourages fewer, but larger and more developed buds.



For the record, I don't use anything BUT sidelighting- but then I grow vertically.

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Since i like to make hash im not trying to eliminate the lower buds, just make them better quality. If i were to strip the bottom portion, lets say i lose a half oz as an example then the top buds would get that much bigger to make up for the lost half oz of bottom buds?

If im doing 1-3k grows i use side lighting. If the whole room is flowering no, imo they can only be used around the perimeter of the grow. Real hard to get them deep, and keep cool, and without leaves touching, without moving bulbs daily etc...just doesnt benefit

Maybe not side lighting but id experiment with maybe using hps and metal halide in conjunction at the same time!

VTMi'kmaq said:

Maybe not side lighting but id experiment with maybe using hps and metal halide in conjunction at the same time!

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Thats exactly what i plan on doing next grow. Ill be moving once i harvest and electricity wont be an issue since my sister and her husband own the spot and ill be paying a flat fee for rent no matter how much juice i use and they are fine with the grow. Was thinking about getting another 600 and run mh and hps. U think 2 600s in a 4x4 is overkill?

Nope! I think it's sexual chocolate! My advice is to use cooltubes though, i find them much easier to keep kool! SEXUAL CHOCOLATE EVERYBODY!

Personally i really like hps spectrum and use only hps veg through flower

qwizoking said:

Personally i really like hps spectrum and use only hps veg through flower

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i love MH, if you have height restrictions the bushiness and close internodes are a real help, plus the true colour/white spectrum makes the garden nice and green to look at...

HPS is brighter and I guess you'll get more bud for your watts.

I did a test finishing a HPS flowered plant under MH for the last week (at 400W) - i might have imagined it, but I thought she was frostier than ones that were under yellow light all the way though.

Great thanks for all the info guys