I Want to Solicit Some Opinions

it looks fine.

quite alot better than many in "ideal" conditions..

Plant health is great.
Little stretchy... but not horrible.
Flowered under a decent HID you could pull 3oz off that easy unless it is a low yield strain.
Without knowing the genetics you either did really well, or just pretty good.

Get some spiral lights and plug-in sockets. You can hang those in the back end and adjust their height better than those neon tubes.

how many watts of floros do you have in there ?

the setup does look less then ideal , but that dont mean shit. the plant is very healthy an that is ALL that matters !

it looks pretty dim in there for that big of baby , but its hard to tell. now is a good time to add as many more floros as possible , like i said its fairly hard to get enough floros to produce big fruit but it can be done.

i personally would be looking to get a 250 or 400w hid lamp in there , but if you dont wanna spend the money or dont feel like fuckin with the heat from the hid bulbs then , i would look into HO t5 bulbs an fixtures because they put off more light then the regular shop floros.

either way she looks good an healthy.





soil

wyteboi said:

how many watts of floros do you have in there ?

the setup does look less then ideal , but that dont mean shit. the plant is very healthy an that is ALL that matters !

it looks pretty dim in there for that big of baby , but its hard to tell. now is a good time to add as many more floros as possible , like i said its fairly hard to get enough floros to produce big fruit but it can be done.

i personally would be looking to get a 250 or 400w hid lamp in there , but if you dont wanna spend the money or dont feel like fuckin with the heat from the hid bulbs then , i would look into HO t5 bulbs an fixtures because they put off more light then the regular shop floros.

either way she looks good an healthy.





soil

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I have 136 watts of fluorescent power in my space. Both of the lights are T5s. The one on the wall is HO. Together, they output 12700 lumens. It comes to about 1400 lumens/sq ft. I have read 3000 is recommended for flowering.

I am seriously considering a 250 watt HPS when I have the money. I see two challenges installing this light; ventilation and height. The height of my grow space is only 5 ft. If I install a HPS light, I can't grow my plants as tall as I would like. It could be worth it with higher yields though. I'm just going to wait for this plant to finish before I decide.

Thank you everyone for your input by the way. I've been reading forums for a while now. It feels good to talk shop with people more experienced than me.

Good to have you "out of the closet".
Welcome to RIU.

Afka said:

Get some spiral lights and plug-in sockets. You can hang those in the back end and adjust their height better than those neon tubes.

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How are the CFLs easier to adjust than the tubes? I guess I don't have a good feel because I don't have a socket in front of me. Also, are CFLs (the grow type) available readily? home depot maybe? I have to buy my T5 bulbs online.

Thanks.

Well, you can fit em up snug near the plant, in a spot where you couldn't really get a 4' tube in.

42W (200W equiv) are decent and can be found for about 10$ at home depot or anywhere.

AssDan said:

I am seriously considering a 250 watt HPS when I have the money.

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if you throw in just a little more and get a 1000watt with a switchable ballast, you'll find more bang for your buck.. you'll yield much more, higher density, and you'll be very happy with the results. its cooling off now, so nows the time to upgrade. you can find cheap used ones on craigslist sometimes, or you can order from greetrees at hydroponics.net they have old school electromagnetic ballasts for just over a hundred dollars. its what we use, and have great results.

malignant said:

if you throw in just a little more and get a 1000watt with a switchable ballast, you'll find more bang for your buck.. you'll yield much more, higher density, and you'll be very happy with the results. its cooling off now, so nows the time to upgrade. you can find cheap used ones on craigslist sometimes, or you can order from greetrees at hydroponics.net they have old school electromagnetic ballasts for just over a hundred dollars. its what we use, and have great results.

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I checked Craigslist in my area. I only found one and they wanted more for it than a brand new one on hydroponics.net. I am curious about one thing though; at what point is adding extra light not worth the extra initial expense and energy usage? It seems to me that 1000w is excessive for 9 sq ft. Do the plants use all the extra light if it's there? I don't want to go too big if I'm not going to see higher yields/denser buds with the addition of such a bright and hot light. Thanks.

AssDan said:

It seems to me that 1000w is excessive for 9 sq ft. Do the plants use all the extra light if it's there? I don't want to go too big if I'm not going to see higher yields/denser buds with the addition of such a bright and hot light. Thanks.

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yes that is way excessive ! i would use a 400w with a air cooled hood ...... there only bout 150 on ebay. then you need a good 4 or 6" inline fan for the hood ..... another 50 bucks. that could be a very nice setup.
cant you raise the height a lil ? an extra foot would be great.






soil

wyteboi said:

yes that is way excessive ! i would use a 400w with a air cooled hood ...... there only bout 150 on ebay. then you need a good 4 or 6" inline fan for the hood ..... another 50 bucks. that could be a very nice setup.
cant you raise the height a lil ? an extra foot would be great.
soil

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what? a 400watt covers a 2x4ft area. a 1000watt covers a 5x5 area, so how is it excessive? i started with a 250, upgraded to a 4 half way through my first grow. after that jumped to a 6, and after seeing what a friend was producing under a 1000 watt, i switched to 2 1000watt lights in a 4x7 ft room. was amazing, now im using 2000watts in a 4x4 space, that my friends is a bit overkill, however the results im getting are really impressive. whenever you can use a 1000watt light do it.

AssDan said:

I checked Craigslist in my area. I only found one and they wanted more for it than a brand new one on hydroponics.net. I am curious about one thing though; at what point is adding extra light not worth the extra initial expense and energy usage? It seems to me that 1000w is excessive for 9 sq ft. Do the plants use all the extra light if it's there? I don't want to go too big if I'm not going to see higher yields/denser buds with the addition of such a bright and hot light. Thanks.

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not excessive, 1000watt light covers a 5x5 area no such thing a too much light, just as long as you keep it cool enough. its never worth it when your plants dont get enough light.

You can't keep a 1000W cool in that little of space, considering the distance between the bulb/canopy limitations...
I'd say skip 400 get a 600

malignant said:

what? a 400watt covers a 2x4ft area. a 1000watt covers a 5x5 area, so how is it excessive? i started with a 250, upgraded to a 4 half way through my first grow. after that jumped to a 6, and after seeing what a friend was producing under a 1000 watt, i switched to 2 1000watt lights in a 4x7 ft room. was amazing, now im using 2000watts in a 4x4 space, that my friends is a bit overkill, however the results im getting are really impressive. whenever you can use a 1000watt light do it.

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A 5x5 area is 25 sqft. He has 9 sqft. I don't see how you could cool 9sqft with a 1k bulb in there without excessive expense. Just too much.

I agree with WB AFA the 400w & air cooled hood. Ventilation/temps is just as important as the lights.

Wet

im running a 1000watt mh and a 1000watt hps at the same time in a 4x4x7 tent right now, my temps are 84-87, and i use co2 no problems cooling it, i just have 4 inline fans.
nothing wrong with using 2 400's, 2 600's would be better, i just stand firmly behind the density produced by 1000watt

Thank you for the replies. I can see I'm not the only one who' s conflicted in deciding how much light/ wattage to use. I feel like I'm leaning toward 400w with a cooled hood. I keep thinking bigger is better. If there are enough posts here, I can see myself clicking the purchase button on 3000w of HPS lights. In all seriousness though, I'm thinking 400w is good for me from a light and energy perspective.

Here is a question that I don't know if anyone can answer; can focusing a low level of light into a line create a higher yield? I don't know if anyone has experience with this, but I am thinking about creating a parabolic wall on one side of my grow space to focus light at a straight line. Here's why I think it might work; some light would be absorbed by the plant before it hit a reflective surface to focus the light back at the focal point, a low level of light will mean lower temps at the focal point, and that's all I got.

Here's the data I've got to back my idea; 10,000 lumens concentrated into 5 ft is 2000 lumens/ft or 22 watts/ft and it does not seem like enough to burn up a plant. What's the maximum amount of energy that could reach the plant you ask; well 108 watts is all I'm working with. If a plant can never get too much light, then this probably would not burn it up. I feel, at this point, I'm just thinking out loud in a public fourm.

Here's my main question; if more light is always better, what causes light burn? Is it temperature? Is it too many photons at a particular point? Am I asking too many questions? Is my analysis running too deep? Has anyone tried to do what I'm describing? Am I having an existential crisis? Am I coming across as too needy?

Here is my deal; I am a science and technology type of person. I like to know the theory so I can crunch numbers and optimize design. Please don't think that this is an assault or takedown of anyone's points. I just seek knowledge for my own benefit. Please let me know about anything you might know. I am also willing to further explain anything that is unclear in this post. I also am going to refresh my knowledge of heat transfer and thermodynamics by going back to my books and studying fundamental concepts.

Thanks for your patience and all your replies. I am greatly humbled by all the practical experience chiming in on this subject.

The light burn comes from the radiant heat from the bulb. If you have a 6in inline fan you wont have any problems. I want 8's but that's one day in the future.

Ok. So, with the help of wyteboi my prized thread is open again. Thank you wyteboi and moderators.

Going back to the topic of light, lumens, wattage etc., I found a great thread https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/358190-led-without-leds-my-first.html that goes a little deeper into the science of photosynthesis. Pr0fesseur basically drills a point in the thread a few times that lumens measure VISIBLE light, and not all the light that plants need is in the visible spectrum (I think). A quick trip to wikipedia confirms this definition of lumens to be correct http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumen_(unit). Pr0fesseur also states that much of the light emitted by HID lights is in a spectrum that plants can't use, and, in turn, this light is just wasted watts. He advocates T5 aquarium lights that emit a specific light wavelength that plants need to grow and flower. It's fascinating stuff. I encourage anyone who is open to new thinking to read the thread. This is the direction I want to take future grows. I will not be Hugo.g a HPS light at this time.

I also feel the need to defend my current growing method in this space. Fluorescent lights do not produce meager amounts of crystals.


I'm about one month in to flower here. Looks even better than my first plants. I mean no disrespect to anyone who has given advice to me here out of pure generosity. I am just showing that I have evidence to the contrary.

Thanks for reading.

Check this shit out. Pink pistils! What the fuck does that mean? This is on the side of the plant that usually sees the most light and is the hardest to see from where I open the door. Any ideas?

Thanks.