Grow A Nug
Member
Hi all
I have been put in charge to find the best possible solutions for our problem with our very small medical coop grow.
We have a light problem in our booming room. It is not a new setup but we need to increase the light. We dont feel we have very good lighting outside 3-1/2 feet of our garden bed and our yield is suffering about 8 inches on the edges as well as along the center in spots length wise. Our bed is 5 foot wide x 15 foot long, soil, organic 14 deep.
We have 2 portable mylar covered walls so we put them right up to the plants that are up against the other 2 stationary walls. It helped some but not enough. We are still suffering on yield.
We have considered a special kind of light mover that is not a rail type. With the way we are setup we cannot have the lights move on a rail system. Our hoods are daisy chained together with ice boxes and a high end inline fan attached to the end. Maybe a rotating light mover might work? But it cannot turn round and round. It would have to turn 180 and then go back the other way to get a swing effect. We dont know where we can get one that would operate this way. Our ceiling is on a 5/12 pitch which is also a challenge for sativa strains and with a light mover and hardware we may loose to much height.
For the most part money is not an issue with them to get this up and running properly. They dont want to change the main setup (less the lights or a mover or both) as it is working perfectly. They have no problem replacing all the lights, adding more or upgrading to side lighting.
We are running an enclosed environment so no air in or out. It is also co-2 enriched.
At this time we cannot increase our grow bed size. We can cool the lights with our system even if we are to use 1000 watt super high intensity lights with our current system.
Here is what we currently are running light wise
® Cool Sun XL 8 hoods Gasketed and sealed with 8 ice boxes attached and daisy chained.
® 4 Super HPS 600 watt high output horticulture bulbs. We did this because we read where 600 watt lights can be closer to the plants and actually would be as efficient as 1000 watt lights further away, so thats why we chose those lights. We obviously made a mistake thinking they would cover 5 feet wide.
® Max fan 10 1025 fpm to effectively cool the 4 hoods for return air into the room. Works fantastic by the way. Dont loose a drop of CO-2 and also replaces the air conditioner. It cools even on low speed so we definitely could increase wattage if need be.
What I have gathered so far but dont want them upset at me
I could use 4 1000 watt hps but I think they only cover about 4 square, maybe with the portable walls being up against the plants that would work? but then again they need to be 24 inches above the canopy due to radiant heat from what I have been told. Even with ice boxes attached it still will not affect the radiant heat. Radiant heat cannot be eliminated by air flow. The 600 watt lights are only 10 inches from the canopy and dont burn the plants. We understood that for every 6 of light height you loose ½ the light intensity. We have raised them up higher but are loosing our canopy penetration so that must be true. We thought by raising the lights we would get broader lighting which we did, just to week.
I also have considered mounting the best high output florescent lights around the perimeter of the walls. Like a few 5 tube or 8 tube, all the way around the garden bed at 3 to 4 feet.
I have also considered the newer 750 watt lights and using 4 of those but I am not sure if they will cover the 5 feet as well. Im also limited to GE bulbs. I kind of like the horilux bulbs due to the very high lumen output in super hps almost 150,000 for the 1000 watt.
We really need advice from an advance grower here that has a lot of experience. If thats you please respond if you have the time. It would be greatly appreciated. We are nearing 3 weeks into bloom now, so sooner the better. Thanks again.
Happy growing
Grow-A-Nug
I have been put in charge to find the best possible solutions for our problem with our very small medical coop grow.
We have a light problem in our booming room. It is not a new setup but we need to increase the light. We dont feel we have very good lighting outside 3-1/2 feet of our garden bed and our yield is suffering about 8 inches on the edges as well as along the center in spots length wise. Our bed is 5 foot wide x 15 foot long, soil, organic 14 deep.
We have 2 portable mylar covered walls so we put them right up to the plants that are up against the other 2 stationary walls. It helped some but not enough. We are still suffering on yield.
We have considered a special kind of light mover that is not a rail type. With the way we are setup we cannot have the lights move on a rail system. Our hoods are daisy chained together with ice boxes and a high end inline fan attached to the end. Maybe a rotating light mover might work? But it cannot turn round and round. It would have to turn 180 and then go back the other way to get a swing effect. We dont know where we can get one that would operate this way. Our ceiling is on a 5/12 pitch which is also a challenge for sativa strains and with a light mover and hardware we may loose to much height.
For the most part money is not an issue with them to get this up and running properly. They dont want to change the main setup (less the lights or a mover or both) as it is working perfectly. They have no problem replacing all the lights, adding more or upgrading to side lighting.
We are running an enclosed environment so no air in or out. It is also co-2 enriched.
At this time we cannot increase our grow bed size. We can cool the lights with our system even if we are to use 1000 watt super high intensity lights with our current system.
Here is what we currently are running light wise
® Cool Sun XL 8 hoods Gasketed and sealed with 8 ice boxes attached and daisy chained.
® 4 Super HPS 600 watt high output horticulture bulbs. We did this because we read where 600 watt lights can be closer to the plants and actually would be as efficient as 1000 watt lights further away, so thats why we chose those lights. We obviously made a mistake thinking they would cover 5 feet wide.
® Max fan 10 1025 fpm to effectively cool the 4 hoods for return air into the room. Works fantastic by the way. Dont loose a drop of CO-2 and also replaces the air conditioner. It cools even on low speed so we definitely could increase wattage if need be.
What I have gathered so far but dont want them upset at me
I could use 4 1000 watt hps but I think they only cover about 4 square, maybe with the portable walls being up against the plants that would work? but then again they need to be 24 inches above the canopy due to radiant heat from what I have been told. Even with ice boxes attached it still will not affect the radiant heat. Radiant heat cannot be eliminated by air flow. The 600 watt lights are only 10 inches from the canopy and dont burn the plants. We understood that for every 6 of light height you loose ½ the light intensity. We have raised them up higher but are loosing our canopy penetration so that must be true. We thought by raising the lights we would get broader lighting which we did, just to week.
I also have considered mounting the best high output florescent lights around the perimeter of the walls. Like a few 5 tube or 8 tube, all the way around the garden bed at 3 to 4 feet.
I have also considered the newer 750 watt lights and using 4 of those but I am not sure if they will cover the 5 feet as well. Im also limited to GE bulbs. I kind of like the horilux bulbs due to the very high lumen output in super hps almost 150,000 for the 1000 watt.
We really need advice from an advance grower here that has a lot of experience. If thats you please respond if you have the time. It would be greatly appreciated. We are nearing 3 weeks into bloom now, so sooner the better. Thanks again.
Happy growing
Grow-A-Nug