Basic Lighting Question

I apologize in advance if there is already an article answering this question. If so, someone please direct me there.

I am curious as to how much light one should use if there is a room with 1 1000w MH. This MH is used to take the plants through there vegetative stage. How much light should you use for the flowering stage??? 2000w? 4000w?

1 1000w HPS & 1 1000w MH? or just one 1 1000w HPS. I know that it is ideal if both a HPS and MH are present during flowering so I need to know how much light is needed to bud 1000w worth of Vegging plants, efficiently . . . I hope that makes sense. Any help is greatly appreciated and this is my first thread. Also, this forum has been very helpful with its plethora of knowledgeable members so I figured ask here first and last .

It really depends on your style of grow not just the type of light being used. How many plants you have, how big you allow them to get and whether you're doing a scrog or any other strange techniques being used. Also the strains, as Sativas will get much taller during flowering and may require more light as such depending upon again, your style of growing. We will need more information to offer you some useful information.

I SCROG and use the 50 watts per square foot minimum rule of thumb to yield nice buds, any less and the buds are just not dense, kinda on the light side.

I am using an Ebb & Flow system with 12 buckets. 12 plants Flowering and they can reach about 5 and a half feet . . . maybe an inch or two more .

Okay you thinkin way over board. if i had 4000w i would have 100 headie ass plants... saying that it is important to understand its all about lumes per sq ft. the sun during the summer puts out 10,000 lumens per sq foot. this is quivelent of a 150w MH for ONE sq ft. a 400w HPS will grow damn headie buds for 3-4 sq ft. and a 1000w will do 6-8 sq ft.

What if someone was thinking of using both HPS and MH lights in a 3x4 grow space? Was thinking of going 1000 HPS and 400 MH through both veg and flowering stages, but now I'm REALLY thinking this is overkill or will encourage heat problems in such a space. Looking at probably 8-10 plants to start... so would one 250 HPS and one 250 MH be more legit? Maybe a 400 HPS, 250 MH?

Thanks guys...

Boulder Buds said:

What if someone was thinking of using both HPS and MH lights in a 3x4 grow space? Was thinking of going 1000 HPS and 400 MH through both veg and flowering stages, but now I'm REALLY thinking this is overkill or will encourage heat problems in such a space. Looking at probably 8-10 plants to start... so would one 250 HPS and one 250 MH be more legit? Maybe a 400 HPS, 250 MH?

Thanks guys...

Click to expand...

dual spectrum is always better than one spectrum. i would go with 400hps, 250mh if you can get rid of that heat. you might need a cool tube/air cooled reflector. If you can use both. The more light the better. but with HIDs, the more watts, the more heat. 1000w bulbs generate A LOT of heat

Yeah- its a closet space, so heat is a concern of mine. I'd like to go 400 HPS, 250 MH, using a Reflector like one of these GrowZilla joints:

http://www.planetnatural.com/cgi-bin/planetnatural/growzilla-reflector

I think that should be just about perfect. Can't wait!

oh nice reflector man, i love that. just get that think ducted with a fan to ensure, first your removing the heat, and second the bulbs dont die prematurely from over heating

All right here is some more information on my room. I am working with 105 square foot total. The flowering room is 65 square foot and veg room is about 33 square foot.

For the 65 square foot flowering room I am curious how much light I should use to correctly light it. I am thinking about getting one 1000 watt HPS bulb at 145,000 lumens and a 1000 watt HPS/MH bulb at 117,000. That's 263,000 lumens total. So, 263,000 / 65 = 4,046 lumens per square foot. I know a good minimum is 3000 lumens per square foot. Should I purchase another light to increase the overall light per square foot or should this suffice? Ive already spend over $4000 and dont really wanna spend too much more unless its really going to increase the overall yield. Thanks for the help!

You hit it right on the head. The more light the higher yield you will have from your ladies. A 1000w fixture will provide enough light to at 6' x 6' area but you need to keep the light between 26" to 30" from the top of the canopy. I'm now using 4 1000w fixtures in my 72 square ft space & crop A and crop B are outstanding. Heat is the only issue. Keep the room in the low 70's & the girls will love you for it.