Question on changing wattage for veg / flower

New to growing in general and have some questions about output as the plant grows. I have a 3x3 tent with a timber 300w 4cob kit in it. I started a seed and put it in the tent a couple of days after it sprouted. I have the lights dialed down to 100w and they are about 20" away from the plant. (on day 10 in the tent now)

When should I turn the light up, or should I just be running full all the time? It is probably not enough light in that space to be a problem at full blast but just trying to feel things out and save some energy cost if it is not needed. I figured 200w would be fine for veg and then I would max it out come time for flower but really have no clue.

Any thoughts /opinions welcome.

Thanks!

I just got my COBs and I'll be about a month behind you.. Been doing a lot of thinking about your very question...
My plan is to start like you did... then as the plant gets bigger start to increase wattage by about 10% at a time..
See how they respond, wait a few days and increase again...
I've got some big outside plants that I brought in to flower under it now.. they are doing well but are too close 10"... getting some bleaching .. have it dimmed to 240 watts..

HydoDan said:

I just got my COBs and I'll be about a month behind you.. Been doing a lot of thinking about your very question...
My plan is to start like you did... then as the plant gets bigger start to increase wattage by about 10% at a time..
See how they respond, wait a few days and increase again...
I've got some big outside plants that I brought in to flower under it now.. they are doing well but are too close 10"... getting some bleaching .. have it dimmed to 240 watts..

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Yea, may just have to play with it and see how it all goes / do some more research. I assume there are probably some par numbers I could use but then I would need a meter as well. May be too hard to give an estimate based on so many different setup variables etc. I will keep tracking my wattage and distance in the journal. I don't think I have enough to be a problem but again, would like to avoid any to begin with

Wait to give your plants FULL power until a week into flowering. You don't want to be running full power on veg, otherwise it defeats the purpose. In my opinion at least. This is why people go from flouro to hps.

I like to veg at about 1050ma and bloom at 1400ma. That is about 35w veg 50w bloom psf. Peace

VegasWinner said:

I like to veg at about 1050ma and bloom at 1400ma. That is about 35w veg 50w bloom psf. Peace

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Thanks for the numbers! That gives me something to work with.

My light pulls ~330w at the plug on full so that is only about 37w psf in my 3x3. I only have one plant so I am planning more like 5 square for my calculations. (not sure if that is reasonable or if it even works like that) Looking like I will go closer to 200 in veg once it grows up a bit and then just blast it in bloom. Thanks!

420herbalist said:

Thanks for the numbers! That gives me something to work with.

My light pulls ~330w at the plug on full so that is only about 37w psf in my 3x3. I only have one plant so I am planning more like 5 square for my calculations. (not sure if that is reasonable or if it even works like that) Looking like I will go closer to 200 in veg once it grows up a bit and then just blast it in bloom. Thanks!

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Thats a plan. I get em going, when I need to flip them I run them at 50w psf since bloom is 50 psf peace