Will more light benefit me?

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terky

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Hello,

On my last run I got about 3.5 lb from 3800 watts at about 8000 lumens per sq ft.

In my new room I got the big Raptor hoods figuring they would throw the light better. So now in that room I have 24 plants under 4000W at about 8000 lumens sq ft.

I was told that 1 lb per 1000W is about all I can get.

So my question is, If I were to put 6 1000W lights over those same 24 plants would I yield more? Or are the plants pretty much maxed out at 8000 lumens?

I still have a third room to finish. I am trying to get on a monthly cycle. Would it help to put 6 lights in the last room? So that in the first half of flower they are at 8000 lumens, then in the second half they are at about 12,000. Is that overkill?

I would like to get to at least 6 lb per crop. I am still in the process of adding co2 and that may bring my yield close to my goal.

Thanks
 
more lumens the better if it dont cuase other issues like heat or blocking of other lights.

there is a point to to much light intensity though and plants can "bleach"
 
IMO a dialed in room shld be able to hit the one gram a watt mark...following that logic one pound is 454 grams which is less then a half a gram a watt off a 1000watt bulb so it wld seem there is room for improvement with your current setup. I wld think dialed in you cld get close to 2 lbs from a 1000 watts. I agree with puff that to a point the more light the more yield provided you keep heat issues from happening. A lot will hve to do with the strain as well as how long you veg for and how well you train. Some strains seem to put out more then others. Unless the strain you are growing is the type that doesnt put out I wld try and dial it in more. CO2 if used properly shld help. Jmo
 
Well ive never adhered to the 1gpw thing but my present grow id err on the side of 30oz from 6 x lemon chronic plants under 1 x 600w hps so that would be well over 1gpw and a min of 12oz from 4 x cheese plants under the other 600w hps which would be well under 1gpw.
You say you have 8 and 10k lumens psf but thats only if the lights are close enough to the plants for that amount of light/lumens to penetrate.
The lights put out say 145,000 per 1kw light (i think) but that is optimum when your plants are 1 foot away this decreases and 2 ft away doesnt decrease a little but massively and so on.
T4
 
Ok. My room design seems good enough. This was my first go in the new setup, with a new strain. Its still a little under construction but operating at about half of capacity.

I just dont want to spend money on these big hoods, hvac, and wiring for it all to be insufficient.

I guess I need a little more practice.

Thanks
 
It is my understanding that full sunlight is about 10k lumens per sqft. If that is correct then I would think 10k is gonna give you the max potential of the plants with everything else dialed in(temps, nutes, co2, close proximity and highly reflective walls as close to the plants as possible without swueesing them. JMO, I be that once you get it done and get the co2 going with 8k they are going to be all but maxed out. :)
 
You can give your plants 1000000000.0000000 lumens per sq ft but your plants can not process that amount of light so effectively its all wasted but you seem to on the right track terky so just stick with what ya are doing and maybe try a little pruning.
T4
 
I know you say you have 8-12k lumens psf but for clarity what size is your room.
T4
 
Great thread everyone....well said!


What kinda setup?

Hydro will increase your yeild if your in soil...
 
trillions of atoms said:
Great thread everyone....well said!


What kinda setup?

Hydro will increase your yeild if your in soil...
I don't agree... a "dialed in" soil grow will produce right along side any hydro grow.
vegging in hydro 'can' be slightly quicker
 
I agree with Hick it doesnt matter what medium/style soo long as your dialed in you will get great results.
T4
 
Rooms are 9.5 x 7.5 x 8.

Comes out to 7859.64 lumens per sq ft if 140,000 lumen bulbs are used.

I just finished designing my make up air system this morning.

When the dampers are closed I will be pulling 400 cfm through the four raptor hoods. 2 8" ducts for each hood. And they will actually pull 200cfm. When the dampers open I should pull close to that 400 CFM through the room to exhaust heat and humidity. Should change all the air in 2 or 3 minutes. The dampers will be on thermostats and humidistats. I will be getting a 12" max fan that should be able to pull 1200 CFM through my system.

All the make up air will be filtered through a media filter then either a HEPA or electronic filter. Have not decided yet. I will be using Heat recovery coils to pull heat from the mother/clone exhaust to heat the flower rooms at night. The same fan coil will also bee hooked to a water reservoir for cooling if outside temps get above 90. I am really trying not to use AC or electric heat to keep operating costs down. I figure a 50 or 100 gallon reservoir should be able to pull plenty of heat out of the rooms. I plan to build a 10' waterfall in a pipe to allow some water to evaporate and cool the system. This res will be out of all rooms so it will not affect humidity.

And this is all with the Cap ebb and grow.
 
Yes 140,000 lumens output of your bulbs but are they situated 1" from the tops of your plants if not then the 1.4k lumens goes outa the window.
6 plants per 1k is fine dude
 
Hey T4 don't you mean 1foot not 1 inch. :confused: 1kwatt lights 1 inch from the tops of the plants will cook them, not to mention cause a lot of shadowing.
 
Pretty sure he means 12 inches Hush....it's our fault for still using feet instead of the metric system. :p
 
No i did mean 1" away from plant tops and using parabolic vert hung bulbs its all possible and i was using the 1" from plant tops as a guide for max lumens to the effective useage/potentail of bulbs light output of plants thus i used plant tops as lumen loss example.
Man im pretty stoned soo this may make no sense.
Follow up tomorrow when im with it more.
T4
 
Fyi i will post pics of what i mean tomorrow folks.
NITE
T4
 
Hick said:
I don't agree... a "dialed in" soil grow will produce right along side any hydro grow.
vegging in hydro 'can' be slightly quicker

Ahh. The old soil vs hydro yield question. In turns times per year if you grow year round will def yield more. Single harvest vs harvest, prob not.

OP. Focus on maxing out the light output vs yield you have now. Will more light/more space equal more bud. Of course. But your overhead goes up(cost per gram) also. Thats a factor. Lot more work, for little gain? Do the math.
 
nouvellechef said:
OP. Focus on maxing out the light output vs yield you have now. Will more light/more space equal more bud. Of course. But your overhead goes up(cost per gram) also. Thats a factor. Lot more work, for little gain? Do the math.

That is what I was wondering. If I can get close to a gram per watt I am where I need to be with this setup.

I was doing all of the heat load calculations today. I was unsure if chilled water coils would be able to keep up. I found a commercial coil selector program online.

After messing around with it for a bit I figured it out. I sized a coil at 14" x 14" hooked to a 400 cfm fan. supply water will be around 60 degrees. With this setup I can cool the flower rooms from 95 to 70.

I plan on a 24" x 24" coil in the outside air duct. I sized this coil to be able to bring 100 degree outside air down to 75. So I wont be pulling 90 degree air through my hoods.

All this with a couple of fans, water pumps, and a few thermostats. I would recommend looking into water coils if your thinking about AC in a mild climate. I should only need this system 1 or 2 months a year. All of my duct, controls, and hardware should be around $1000 with minimal operating costs. And no outside compressor, kinda weird to have AC in a shop....
 

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