Light Mover question + rep

A friend of a friend is in quite a dilemma and I was wondering if I could get some advice to help my friends friend out.

Due to electric bills being too costly she is being forced to reduce her op from 2x1000 watt lights to just use one 1000 watt hps. If she were to get a light mover and put the 1000 watt hps on it in her 8x8 room as opposed to having 2x1000 watt hps stationary in the room and still have the same set up as before other than that, everything being optimal. How much would this effect her yield? Would her yield be reduced, stay the same, or increase?
If anyone has any experience with light movers all help would be appreciated. + rep

if you need anymore details to answer this question please let me know

If anything I would say it would yield less because not as much light on the buds, and the plants wont grow as big.

JimiHendrix said:

If anything I would say it would yield less because not as much light on the buds, and the plants wont grow as big.

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Thanks for your reply and input. Anybody else have any idea how much this would affect the yield? if so how much?

Her yield certainly won't increase. I like light movers for long skinny grow areas but, honestly, I wouldn't trust one to cover 64 square feet....in a square room.

does your friends friend have adjustable ballasts so she could use 2 500w bulbs?

Thanks for ur input.

I would like to add the whole 8x8 area would not be filled. Due to the light mover realistically if the light mover is 6 feet long a 6 ft longx 4 foot wide area would be filled. I realize the yield would probably not increase, but how much do you think it will decrease if it does? are we talking a significant amount? cutting the yield in 1/2 or 1/4..

anyone? bump bump

If you put the light on a mover you will not cut your harvest in 1/2. MAybe more like 1/4. The light mover will strestch light coverage by 1.5 times. So, your yeild SHOULD be only around 25% less.

thanks for ur reply +rep to you

Thank you sir.

If the issue is the electric bill is an issue, consider that it does not take much weight difference to make up that extra money each month on the bill.

Another idea is 2 600 watt lights. But, since you already have access to the 1000 watters probably not a great idea for you. 2-600watters put out some good light coverage.

Also, if you put your light on a mover you can lower the light some more as the light will not be sitting on one spot for too long. So you have much less of a chance to burn your plants.

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I have a friend who was struggling with a 1000W HPS and 250W side lighting (UVB) in a 4.5' x 4.5' garden (20' sq, 50 W/f).

He got a Light Rail 3.5 (recommends the 5.0) and a 600 W HPS, built a frame for an 8'x3' garden (24'sq, 25 W/f), got rid of the side lighting.

He does a continuous grow, spots for 12 plants in the garden, and gets 1 to 3 liters (4 to 12 cups) of bud per plant. About 6 gallons of bud per grow.

He tells me that the Light Rail blows more wattage away. Half your wattage double your yield (shrunk and stretched a bit but that's the idea)

Here's a picture thread.

https://www.rollitup.org/seed-strain-reviews/211186-pics-my-garden-ssd-km.html

A long and side view of my garden (8' x 3'), 11 x 5 gallon pots and 2 x 6" pots. Light mover, 600 W HPS, air exhaust in ceiling and holes drilled in floor for air intake. It's just a 2"x4" frame with Reflectix walls and ceiling, plywood floor (four 2'x3' pannels to adjust for different height plants) on 2"x4" runners. The frame is in the middle of the room so I can roll up all of the walls to get at every plant in the garden without breaking my back.










The Light Rail and closed interior, the air exhaust on the middle left. Putting the Reflectix roof on brightened the room more than I thought it would.





http://www.lightrail3.com/garden/LR5.php

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I would suggest 2 x 600W rather than 1 x 1000W unless your friend is growing very tall plants.

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thanks for ur post. that was a ton of help. does he have any journals i can follow. How much weight would 6 gallons be? Also how long did he veg for? If you could give me some more detail of his grow or point me in a direction to read more i would greatly appreciate it.

Also so you said he decreased his light by half from the 1000 and the 250 uv to a 600 and he increased his yield because of the light mover?

Also so ur saying if she can get down the right dimensions for the garden that removing one of the 1000 watt hps and putting the other 1000 watt hps on the light mover, that it would not greatly affect the yield from previous harvest with the 2x1000 watters? and that it even might be able to increase it?

thanks again for all your help hobbes +rep

If she was using the 2 100W lamps well, then it would be hard to top that, but you could come close to it.

check the amps on the light movers, if I remeber correctly they run something like 4 amps, sometimes another smaller light or two smaller lights (600's) make more sence for both light and elec cost. the amperage will be on the motor, give it a look when you/friend are at the hydro store.

good luck

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"How much weight would 6 gallons be?"

I usually get 2-3 liters per plant at 40g - 70g per liter of 4 week hang/bag/jarred bud (Strawberry Diesel for these weights). The weight will vary depending on moisture content, strain, and pheno.

On the low end: 12 plants x 2 liters/plant @ 40g/L = 960g

It seems very high, well over the 1 g/w goal. It doesn't seem like it should be right but all of the figures match up. 12 plants. 2-3 liters per plant for a decent strain. 40g - 70g per liter.

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Here's are two plants that each produced 2 liters of cured bud. Each plant has an 18" x 16" spot in the garden but I could jam a couple vertical plants between the 5 gallon pots if I needed the production.

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Two Super Strawberry Diesel with 6' 4" inches of stem each plant (double topped), both are under 6" from the bucket rim. CCOB is a good way to grow if you have limited height or (like me) just don't like tall plants. Each stem goes from the center of the bucket to the edge (6"-1"= 5"), around 1/4 of the bucket (38"/4 ~ 9") and go up ~5" for 4 x 19" = 76" (6'4") of stem grown in less than 6"



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Top view. Each plant gave 2 liters (8-9 cups) of cured bud. I can comfortably fit 12 of these in my 8' x 3' garden with one 600 W light = ~6 gallons of bud per harvest. More once I learn to grow better, make my own soil and nutes, etc, etc ... . I'm doing a continuous harvest, eventually I'd like to harvest a plant or two every week, balance things out instead of trimming for days at a time. Since the stem virtually stops stretch when bent horizontal the nodes are much closer together than a vertical plant that's gone through stretch during flower, so more nodes (colas) per foot of stem.



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"Also how long did he veg for?"

It was me, I was joking. usually 3 to 4 months. I top at the third node and veg until the plants are 22" per stem, then bend them around the bucket rim so only the branches are sticking up. The topping is the cutting for my next clone, I don't keep a permanent mother.

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"If you could give me some more detail of his grow or point me in a direction to read more i would greatly appreciate it."

Here are a couple of picture theads.

https://www.rollitup.org/subcools-old-school-organics/278203-jack-ripper-jilly-bean-pandoras.html

https://www.rollitup.org/seed-strain-reviews/211186-pics-my-garden-ssd-km.html

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"Also so you said he decreased his light by half from the 1000 and the 250 uv to a 600 and he increased his yield because of the light mover?"

Yes. I changed my growing style as well, that probably had as much to do with the yield increase, flower time shortening, increased overall potency, etc.

Hard to believe but true. Each area of the garden gets direct 6 hours of light, for an average of 25W/'2 for 12 hours - half what is normally used. Subcool has shown that marijuana can be grown effectively with 6 hours light, the light mover does it better than just switching off the light.

As well, I believe there is a diminishing return for 12 hours of intense light, it's not what is given in nature. I haven't researched this much so take it with a grain of salt. If we move the light along and give the light receptors on the plant a chance to ... rest, give up their energy, whatever they do - they may be able to absorb a larger percentage of the energy the next time the light shines on them.

And the changing angle of the mover sends light to parts of the plants - on a regular basis - that would not get light at all with a stationary light.

I'm a big fan.

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"removing one of the 1000 watt hps and putting the other 1000 watt hps on the light mover, that it would not greatly affect the yield from previous harvest with the 2x1000 watters? and that it even might be able to increase it?"

From what I understand you are asking if the garden's demensions can be changed to cover the same area as two lights of the same size.

Yes. My garden is basically two 50W/'2 600W HPS gardens put together. I changed the demensions to give me the maximum distance I would want the light to travel from center (18" from center - 36" wide) with a 600W light and made the rest of the garden fit.

I put out more bud now, with half the wattage and a light mover, than I did with the 1250W. Changing growing styles and improving as a grower helped. The light mover by itself will not double your yield.

The travel distance of the light is easily adjusted, mine travels the middle 5' of my garden with tall or young plants on the ends.

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thanks again for all your help. do you happen to know how many amps a light mover pulls?

i dunno light movers are nice, they allow you to get the light alot closer to the tops, since the light moves, it does not burn the plants = bigger buds, i dont see why you would loose any weight on harvest, i made gains when i added one, not any losses.

paintsprayer71 said:

i dunno light movers are nice, they allow you to get the light alot closer to the tops, since the light moves, it does not burn the plants = bigger buds, i dont see why you would loose any weight on harvest, i made gains when i added one, not any losses.

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thanks for ur help paint. the only reason why i think she might lose yield is because instead of having 2 stationary 1000 watt hps she would only have 1 1000 watt hps on the light mover. don't know if you caught that or not, but maybe you did. she would be happy if it would not affect her yields at all and would be estatic if it would increase it. +rep

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Sorry paintsprayer, I wasn't clear. We we discussing loss of yield from [2 lights of equal wattage] to [1 light of equal wattage to the other two and a light mover]. Same growing space. I find an increase in yield too.

I just weighed a liter of Bubblegum that was chopped on Oct 5, about 4 weeks of cure. It was 66 grams, so I'm in the ball park for weight per liter. I thought this plant would be my best producer ever but it did just over 2 liters. The little Flo to the right only gave 1 liter but I transplanted from a 20 oz cup just before flower, not enough time to produce a good root ball.




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I was hoping to get 12+ cups from the Bubblegum, I probably ended up with 9.



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yea i figure 1 1000 on a mover youll also save on heat issues as well. also my local shop has just got in some 1500 watt hps ballasts and bulbs.........i guess there a new product, would be over-kill in my area, but a in bigger area that would be badass 200,000+ lumens..how ya like that bubblegum?, i have one in veg right now havent flowered it how many weeks did you let her go?
ive also got a plant thats part flow as well, the f-13 from dj short, not a real big yeilder but damn it tases awesome.