lighting advice for perpetual grow

Hi all,

I am planning a perpetual similar to stinkbud and Al B.

Strain is Endless Sky from Dr.Greenthumb. Already got a couple moms started from seed, and more on the way later today.

This strain is 45 days, so i'm thinking three trays 15 days each.

My question is about lighting in general, and for the first tray in particular. Each tray will be about 2.5' x 3.5', with 12 plants (just slightly less than 1 plant per sq ft). Since I will be putting the clones right into flowering, I thought I would go a little easy on them with the light. So I was thinking 250w for the first tray, 400w for the second tray, and 600w for the third tray. Is this a good idea?

And my second question is specifically around the first tray. My understanding is that if you take clones from a vegging mom, the first little while, even under 12/12, the plants are still mostly in a vegging state. Should I make the light above the first tray a MH instead of HPS, to better suit the vegging activity of the plants in the first tray?

the basic reason you use different sized lights is to cover more square footage. so, for a 45 day grow with equal sized trays you only need one size light, and a 400 is about right. you don't need to baby the clones.

since you are flowering from the start, you can use 3 hps lights.

Werd thanks DR.