Super Topping?

JonnyAppleSeed420 said:

I agree with most of your statement but you need to check your 600's under a light meter, 15 inches for a 600...no. Plants lowest flowers are being 30" below the light will still get high intensity. Can you explain how "less potent and dense flower" comes from lower intense light?


Nice girl! What was the dry weight? Looking at her though I wonder what AK is supposed to yield, I would think she still has a ways to go for her full potential.

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Thanks for the compliments! AK is a heavy yielder and she never lets me down. I don't recall the yield on this one specifically, but I typically pull about 5-6 zips in a 7 gallon soil container with 3-4 other plants under a 600w light (perpetual in accordance with state medical laws). I could pull off 1.5-2 lbs from a 600w in a 4 x 4 tent of AK47 either separately or a single container scrog. I'm not bragging, just trying to illustrate. Many could do much better I'm sure!

The basis for my 15" benchmark from plant tops to light is a generic analysis taking into consideration the inverse square law which illustrates how lumen output is effected by the distance from a lighting source, in this case a 600w HPS. Lets say a 600w HPS produces 92,000 lumens. Considering the inverse square law the light emits 42k at 10", 19k at 15" and 4,700 at 30". A 600w HPS at 30" < initial maximum output of one single 4' T5 fluorescent bulb, not taking into consideration canopy shading. Not very much flower power. A 600w HPS at 11" = 35,000 lumens, probably pretty close to an 8 bulb T5 array at < 1" distance.

Essentially, the closer you can keep your plants (within reason) while maintaining optimal environmental conditions, the more effective, useful and deeper penetrating the light energy is. This is what makes indoor scrogs, sea of green and diligent training techniques so useful to the indoor grower. Obviously it makes no difference if an outdoor flower is 4' off the ground or 15', the intensity of sunlight will not deviate from its output given the intensity of the light source, i.e. the sun. Indoor lighting is a completely different story.

As you can see from the AK pic, I like my plants with an even canopy, close to the light for maximum and even lumen penetration. I just don't finish flowers 30" below the light, they end up in my compost, or in some cases hash. This is why my style of growing produces nothing but dense and resinous plant tops. I used to finish my plants top to bottom, but by the time the tops filled in and the light intensity was reduced under the canopy, it just wasn't worth the time to trim, certainly not smoke when I had an abundance of top nugz.

Do you get monster colas from under your canopy? I don't doubt that decent gear can be had from the bottoms of plants with adequate space, but typically indoor growers use tents, which are pretty crowded. There's not much to be had under the canopy in a tent that is packed for maximum yield.

There's no wrong way to do what we're doing, but there are ways to maximize the results and efficiency using math and science. I tend to have that type of personality lol.

Pic 1 - Inverse Square for various lighting types. Pic 2 - AK47 Pictured before. Pic 3 - AK47 which finished a while longer from a different run.

I top all my plants to have 2-6 tops

Great info Swagbag. I have a grower here that lollipops and they look like your exactly except 4ft, tall. This is kinda what I mean, even though you may not be at the potential of the strain you can tell that your girls fit their space and that is all any of us can do. Each grow room or location will have restrictions and if you can learn to maximize your space like you, you can expect to get max yield for your sq/footage. Their beautiful, love the finish...that yellowing at this age is nice to see. I understand the parameters of the inverse law and use it as a guide line for setting rooms up, but after that you have to read the action in the room and make corrections on the fly. Start using the inverse law as a guide, then once you have a bench mark start leaving another 6 inches lower growth and just see your results. This will allow you to dial in just how much useable light/space you have. You will notice an increase in yield almost immediately, if you keep stretching your grow zone you will start to notice the lower stuff begins to fluff and feel airy, you have reached to point of no return back it off a little there and you are at max for your space. Its nice to see a conversation that doesn't degrade like so many others. Great chatting with you man! JAS

JonnyAppleSeed420 said:

Great info Swagbag. I have a grower here that lollipops and they look like your exactly except 4ft, tall. This is kinda what I mean, even though you may not be at the potential of the strain you can tell that your girls fit their space and that is all any of us can do. Each grow room or location will have restrictions and if you can learn to maximize your space like you, you can expect to get max yield for your sq/footage. Their beautiful, love the finish...that yellowing at this age is nice to see. I understand the parameters of the inverse law and use it as a guide line for setting rooms up, but after that you have to read the action in the room and make corrections on the fly. Start using the inverse law as a guide, then once you have a bench mark start leaving another 6 inches lower growth and just see your results. This will allow you to dial in just how much useable light/space you have. You will notice an increase in yield almost immediately, if you keep stretching your grow zone you will start to notice the lower stuff begins to fluff and feel airy, you have reached to point of no return back it off a little there and you are at max for your space. Its nice to see a conversation that doesn't degrade like so many others. Great chatting with you man! JAS

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Nice reply JAS, I appreciate the conversation as well! For what its worth, I don't think you are the asshole of the world.

That AK with the yellowing may be the prettiest one I've ever done. I just liked her, even though I'm not a huge fan of the smoke! Its too damn paralyzing for me lol. Best of luck to you.