Is less light better?

OK, everyone knows more light is better but consider this.

For optimum growth, plants need around 2,500 - 5,000 lumens per square foot.

The question is, is 5,000 that much better than 2,500? If it is only marginally better, maybe it makes more sense to illuminate as many plants as possible as long as you don't dip under 2,500.

What say you?

i say hell no more light is always better

i say i agree with whiterhyno.. i would say the more lumens that you can pump out, the bigger and better your yield will be... each time, everytime...

yup.......

whiterhyno420 said:

yup.......

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i'd stuff a 1,000,000,000 watt hps up in there if i can find one.got me a 12'' cage fan with a 2 hp motor on it. it blows big time .

Think about what the sun is..... The sun is what you want to create. There is no light in the world that can match the sun.

i was going to say the same thing as cockpircings said.. look at any mj plant that is grown outdoors, and the yeild will always be much greater than an indoor grow.. and why is this? because of how many lumens the sun puts out as opposed to any indoor grow light that will ever be made..
if you can find one of those 100000000000 lumen lamps, pm me and let me know from where, lol... i am sure i may need my own nuclear plant to power up the sucker, but what the hell...

actually i think the reason ur outdoor always does better is more then likely because they veg longer and have more room for roots. i bet with the right lighting if u vegged indoor just as long as outdoor ur plants would be just as big and probally better

On a sunny day, the sun provides 10,000 lumens per square foot. If u can beat that, which is actually not that hard, your in for a good harvest

racerboy71 said:

i was going to say the same thing as cockpircings said.. look at any mj plant that is grown outdoors, and the yeild will always be much greater than an indoor grow.. and why is this? because of how many lumens the sun puts out as opposed to any indoor grow light that will ever be made..
if you can find one of those 100000000000 lumen lamps, pm me and let me know from where, lol... i am sure i may need my own nuclear plant to power up the sucker, but what the hell...

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i think u can get more off of a indoor plant well because u can control the weather

I like bright stuff.

More light = more growth, 10000 lumens per sq foot is what the sun provides iirc and they can take significantly more than that, look at clone beds with multiple 1000watters. 1 1000 watt within the first foot or so is more lumens than the sun. More light = better so stack as much as you can until you can get better.

i dont know if i get this right...

which would increase my yield more?

double the amount of plants or double the amount of light?

i would think the best way ta increase yield is ta add more plants than light.

Philouza said:

i dont know if i get this right...

which would increase my yield more?

double the amount of plants or double the amount of light?

i would think the best way ta increase yield is ta add more plants than light.

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Problem is once you increase plants you will be out of optimim range of the light so you end up needing more light just to allow for more plants in the first place unless your lollipoping them lil fuckers will need more room to bush

pho20 said:

actually i think the reason ur outdoor always does better is more then likely because they veg longer and have more room for roots. i bet with the right lighting if u vegged indoor just as long as outdoor ur plants would be just as big and probally better

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lol, thats funny. didnt you hear when we said no light on earth can even approach the sun for growing cannabis? maybe in a few grows you will understand it better. best of luck

RickWhite said:

OK, everyone knows more light is better

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More light is NOT necessarily better, see my sig link. Stop following forum false paradigms and statements.

Find your plants' light saturation point and go from there.

3. High Light - yes, it’s true, you can give our faves too much light. Cannabis does not receive full sun from sunrise to sunset in its natural state. It is shaded or given reduced light levels because of adjacent plant material, cloudy conditions, rain, debris and dust collection on the leaf surface, twilight periods of early morning and late afternoon, and light intensity changes caused by a change in the seasons. Too much light mainly serves to bleach out and destroy chlorophyll as opposed to causing leaf cupping, but it often goes hand-in-hand with high heat for indoor growers. Again, back off on the light and concentrate on developing/maintaining an efficient and robust root system. Keep in mind that all but equatorial material receive less light during flowering than during the vegetative stage.

cackpircings said:

Think about what the sun is..... The sun is what you want to create. There is no light in the world that can match the sun.

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I hope you're not talking intensity? Regarding spectrum, there's alot of hooey on that one too. I don't think the plant cares as I've grown very high yielding skunk with only HPS from start to finish. Those saying otherwise have not done their homework and are parroting what someone heard or read at the lighting section of a Hydro vendor's website. HPS does contain the blue spectrum. MH does contain the red spectrum, plenty enough to produce very nice productive plants.

Even a 250W hps is brighter than the sun if you measure close enough. Stop the "we and us said" chest beating people, learn botany, and do the measurements. I did, and here they are:

*************************************************
Footcandle light values are given for a 250W Phillips HPS and an Osram Super 600W HPS, both taken from the centerpoint of the bulb/bottom of a white enameled, horizontal Diamond Lights reflector having a typical gull wing insert.

DISTANCE FROM LIGHT........F.C. READING

........................250 Watt..................600 Watt

Within 6" of lamps (way over the 10K f.c. mark)

6".......................10,000.....................10K+

8".......................7,100.......................10K+

12"......................4,800......................8,700

18"......................2,800......................5,600

24"......................2,000......................4,200

30"......................1,400......................3,300

Frame of reference: sun = 9,000 - 10,000f.c. average, clear day at high noon

Regular Cool White shop fluor measured 2" from bulb = 1,200 f.c.

Why is it so hard to stay focused on a particular idea?

Given a light of a certain size, we face a choice of how big of an area we illuminate in order for our plants to grow well.

The question is whether or not overall yield is increased by illuminating less plants with better intensity or more plants with slightly lower intensity. Obviously more plants = greater yield, but so do bigger and tighter buds. The existence of sparce growth caused by low light = less overall yield. But, I think space growth is caused more by crowding than by total area. And that is another issue. Will a given area say 4' square give greater yield with more or less crowing?

In the end, we want to know if it is better to grow to the maximum efficient area of a light and if to pack plants tighter or looser into that space. I am thinking that it is good to go to the maximum area with loosely packed plants. My reasoning is that my experience with biological systems tells me that most things produce diminishing returns and that loosely packed plants more than make up for their smaller numbers through increased quality bud.

RickWhite said:

Why is it so hard to stay focused on a particular idea?

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No two gardens are alike regarding logistics and genes. Most posts here (and elsewhere) deal with theory. You need to find out what works best for you, which means pairing the number, size, and phenotype of your plants with THEIR LIGHT REQUIREMENTS. Does that make sense?

I cram my plants into my garden, use moveable highly reflective side panels, and efficient small horizontal hoods and get heavy yields while retaining most of my fan leaves. Your mileage will vary just by changing to a parabolic hood versus me using a small horizontal. You're trying to make this all black/white....can't be done as growing is dynamic and ever changing.

Gardening is all about tweeks, caveats, and gray areas.

UB

my point being if mblaze can pull 2lbs off one plant inside i wud have to say thats better then alot of people do on there outdoor correct me if im wrong