Disappointing discovery...

[Slowlyburn]

Well... I am still a NOOB and I proved it to myself tonight... I found out the hard and disappointing way. As most of you know from my threads here that I have been growing with 18 24 watt CFL bulbs. My first indoor yield with 3 plants was around 5 oz in a 2.5' X 4.5' room. I thought I would double my yield this time with 6 plants in that same room. Boy was I DEAD WRONG! I dont even think I will come out with 5 oz this time.

I have a few concerning questions now...

Is it because of my lighting or because of the room size?
Is 6 plants just too much for that room?
I am buying an HPS kit THIS weekend... 600w or 1000w?
How hard will it be to control the temps if I went with a 1000w 6"air cool hood?

Please give opinions and answers and please feel free to go in any direction you feel would be helpful to me.

Thanks for the help in advance...

 

[Hushpuppy]

Don't feel too bad brother, I have been growing in earnest for almost 3 years now and just killed $70 worth of quality seedlings and 3 really nice clones of some dank in one fell swoop because I forgot to check on them and they got too hot. :doh: :hitchair:

The Problem that you had is a problem experienced by many junior growers. You assumed that you could double the yield by doubling the plants That would only work if you had also doubled the space and doubled the lighting. I grow 4 plants in the same sq footage but I let them get big enough to basically fill the room but not to the point that they overcrowd each other. Doing that takes a few grows to truely learn the plants that you are growing. I find that I get the best yield out of "my" plants when I get my rooms about 70% full. This leaves enough space for the light to penetrate down into the canopy to as many of the fan leaves as possible while getting as much bud-site growth as possible. This takes a few grows to learn just how much to veg them to get that spacing down.

It isn't the number of plants that is key (in a smaller grow), it is how much you veg them and how much they stretch after the flip that is the key to yield (and this varies with different strains). I could grow only 2 plants in the same space but veg them longer and do a considerable amount of training and still come out with the same yield. Or I could have grown 6 plants and vegged shorter and done no training and had about the same yield (for a given strain).

I say don't get the 1k HID as that may be too difficult to manage the heat. Get the 600w HID. That is what I am running right now in mine and it works very well. Definitely get a cooltube to run it in as that will fit nicely, and you can connect a flex hose to one end to pull the heat out of the room and light at the same time. As far as plants go, find you a good indica that only get about 3-4' tall (Burmese Kush works really well in that space) and you can grow 4 plants to 15" tall then flip, and that will give you (at least it gives me) about 6oz of quality bud.

 

[Grower13]

I run a 600 watt hps in my flower room...... use a 6 inch fan....... have no issues keeping it cool....... I also use a carbon filter to eliminate odor on the in take side of the light.

 

[The Silver Bullet Special]

Also for height too you can look into a scrog set up like what I will be exploring into within the next few months, keeps the height and plant number down while potentially increasing yield and you spread the plants canopy over a more surface area and evens out the colas for lighting.

I'm going to probably use a basic tent set up 4'x4' for the flower tent(600W hps in a 6inch A/C hood) and 2'x4' for the veg with T5 (6 bulb 4ft long 30k lumens). I plan on growing 4-6 plants in my veg and 4-6 plants flower with a scrog setup. With the HPS I'm sure you will increase your quality and yield of your buds anyways because the intensity of the light is stronger.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Yield is more a function of your lights than the number of plants (within reason of course). A lot of new growers have a hard time understanding this, but this is a perfect example. You are generally going to get x number of grams from your lights regardless of the number of plants. And as you are discovering, more plants can sometimes mean less smoke.

A HPS is going to give you about twice the lumens for the same amount of energy. Your CFLs are consuming 432W and emitting probably under 27,000 lumens. Even a 400W HPS is going to emit around 50,000 lumens and give you a lot more penetration. You are going to have to buy a decent centrifuge type exhaust fan at the same time. I think I would run a 600W in that space as opposed to a 1000W.

 

[Roddy]

All good info from smart growers :aok: Sorry about the learning experience, but as long as you learn and improve...and hey, moving into the big light league!! :clap:

 

[The Silver Bullet Special]

Slowlyburn you might want to check out my thread that I have goin on. Theres some pretty good info that Hushpuppy and Hemp have told me regarding lights and growing in general.

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61586

 

[Slowlyburn]

Thanks for all the info guys and gals... I do have a 8" 600 cfm radon fan pulling my closet air up to my roof. I am going to read up on scrog now!

 

[Amateur Grower]

Well... I am still a NOOB and I proved it to myself tonight... I found out the hard and disappointing way. ...

You hang in there SB. We've all made mistakes growing (am I am still making them almost daily!) and you'll get better with each experience.

AG

 

[stonedagain714]

i reduced the size of my room to about th same size that you have,and am using 1000 watt cool tube with 400 cfm inline fan.air conditioner in the room the room my growroom is in.temps hit the low 80s with light on.if i were buying a light for that small of an area i would try the 600 watt.
not affiliated with this company,but the cheapest place i have found for carbine filter and inline fan is (plantlightinghydroponics) 450cfm phat filter something like 70 bucks also 435 cfm inline fan around 70 bucks.i would go elsewere for the lights to get a better deal.the fan is offbrand but is quiet and works well.
i

 

[The Silver Bullet Special]

Good website thats where I'm getting my equip^^