Can you have too much light?

i know i dont have many points or rep or anything... mainly because i just joined... but i've done a lot of reading on here.. and i think i've got a topic that will spark a good debate as well as maybe answer a lot of other questions...

CAN YOUR PLANTS RECEIVE TOO MUCH LIGHT??

now lets set some guide lines so we don't get a lot of stupid responses...

lets assume these few things..

1.Nutrients are readily available
2.Air, temperature, humidity, Co2, ect. are correct
3.Water is sufficient.. correct ph, ec, temp
4.Grow medium holds water and air well.. good root penetration
5.Light is correct.. spectrum and intensity

Now with all that being said... IF you could keep those 5 things balanced COULD your plant every recieve too much light?? Is it POSSIBLE to utalize more than 10,000 lumens a sq/ft IF it is not hindered or held back by anyone of the other 4 equally important things??

i know the sun hits the ground at 5000-10000 lumens.. all that good stuff.. but if you think about it, if the sun was more intense then it is now, then plants would be use that light right?? so maybe plants can use more than we think.. i dont know about genetics but if scientists/genetisists (spelled wrong probably.. all i can say is i'm a stoner not a scholar) can create autoflowering plants then maybe they could create a strain of pot that is super strong because it can absorb and use more light.. or maybe it can now.. hell i dunno..

anyways.. i hope this sparks some discussion or some ideas... anyone care to chime in??

u can never have too much light...

just dont burn em

well of course burning them is bad... but theres an arguement for diminishing returns after 10000 lumens.. that 10000 lumens is the maximum amount of usable lumens a plant can use.. so is that true?? can you surpass that limit and not have light be wasted?? it has to be in relation to the size of the plant i would think.. right?? a 1 foot tall doesnt absorb as much light or cant absorb as much light as a 5 foot plant does.. right?? it seems like that makes sense.. but i dont know.. any ideas??

and size plant does the plant have to be to max out usage on absorbable light??

There is such a thing as too much light, you are just wasting it after a point. That is why people don't do it.

it just seems that plants should grow as long as all parts of the grow (light, air, water, nutes, temp) are balanced correctly that it shouldnt stop using light... does that make sense? and at what point is it truly a diminishing return and at what size does the plant reach maximum light absorbing capabilities??

the only way you can have to much light is if you run out of space to hang lights. if you keep everything up to par with the amount of light you have then your plants will use it all. well as long as everything is up to par and the lights are strong enough to cut through the canopy.

so your saying that if you could fit 4000 watts of light in a 4x4 space the plants in there would use all the light??

This is a good link to read.... these guys seem to have it going on....


http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lights/msg0113370628951.html
out.

It's really hard to have too much light, you can have too much heat. Even with 3000 watts of lights you aren't even close to matching the light output of the sun on a cloudy day.

ya. im saying in a 4x4 space you could have one plant that would use all the light. of course everything else would have to be equiped to handle it. and you would need a tall ass room. but ya one plant could use every last lumen. it would consume the entire room with nugs the size of a baby but who ever said it was a bad thing?

read the link... there are limits on every plant until stress hits them...


out.

kaptainchron420 said:

ya. im saying in a 4x4 space you could have one plant that would use all the light. of course everything else would have to be equiped to handle it. and you would need a tall ass room. but ya one plant could use every last lumen. it would consume the entire room with nugs the size of a baby but who ever said it was a bad thing?

Click to expand...

wow... you say that like its a fact... so you are either a complete moron.. or a genius that knows something the rest of the world doesnt.. ill go with moron tho..

i suppose in THEROY if it was possible for plants to never get enough light if all other asspects of the grow were perfect then your right.. but thats not fact... just a theroy...

i wonder what a plant like that.. or the buds from a plant like that.. would actually look like??

no imput but i like the topic

it is fact. well theoretical fact. if growth, both veg flowering, are only hindered by the weakest link, and the links are the 5 parameters you set (air, temp, water, light, and nutes), then it stands to reason that if all 5 links are equally as strong as the other, and there is no "weak link" in the chain, there is unlimited potential for growth. and the more of any one "link" the plant uses the more of each other "link" it will need to keep balanced. so if all "links" are unlimited then growth and flowering are unlimited which means that you can never have to much light and all your light will be used. just make sure you keep well vented out.

well.. it theroy you are right.. i mean it makes sense.. but if that were the case then why arent growers growing 10 foot monsters with volkswagon size buds?? i mean i started this thread with a hypothetical question... and so i understand that some of the responses will have hypotheticals and what ifs and the such... but please keep it that way... you are making yourself sound like a noob and an idiot.. and ive read your other posts so i know you have grown a while... what kinda results have you had in the past? are you stating this stuff from experience??

i am telling your from experince. everytime i have added light and upgraded everything else accordingly i have increased my yield. i guess the best annalogy i can come up with is a car. a car can have unlimited horsepower. as much as we could imagine. as long as chasis is strong enough. its got plenty of gas to fuel it. air for conbustion. ect. the car isnt limited by what it can do. only by what we can make it do. make sense? so plants are not limited by the amount of light we think they can handle. only by the amount of light we are capable of giving them. we limit the plants growth by not being able to control the heat from the lights. or air flow. or any other number of things. we can't keep the growing enviroment stable enough past a certain point because we are human and are limited by what we are capable of. does that make any sense? im not always good at explaing myself

i really wish more people would chime in on this.. it just took a really interesting turn.. so im trying to keep up with your logic... really really trying... ok.. so your saying we are the biggest limiting factor on plant growth?? and you still havent said what you have yielded personally.. #of plants? size? light type?

I can't see it. Look at the difference between a plant grown outdoors and one grown indoors under a 600W. Sure there is a difference but nowhere near enough to justify the jump in lumens from a 600W HPS to the SUN.

yes. i am saying us as the growers as the BIGGEST limiting factor in plant growth. personally i think there are 6 links in growing. the 5 you stated and the sixth is us as the growers. all 6 are very very closely related in that if any one of the 6 links arent in tune with the other then plant and yield diminsh. wether it is a gram or the loss of a whole plant something is lost when any one of the 6 links isnt up to par with the other. that being said 5 of the links have been around a lot longer than humans. plants thrived long before we were around and will thrive long after we are gone. unles the world explodes or something crazy like that. plants out doors are only limited right now by the amount of lumens the sun emits. but like was said before if the sun emited, lets say 20000 lumens sq/ft, then without a doubt all plants would be able to use and would use all 20000 of those lumens. so it stands to reason that plants can use more light than we think. its only us as humans that cant give them the enviroment suiteable to use more light. that and millions and millions of years of evoluntion pretty much have genetically made plants that way.

From my personal experience its very hard to have too much light if you have enough space otherwise you can outgrow your area due to having to much light. More light generally means bigger plants with a bigger yield.