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Thread: Lower wattage lights to increase yeild??

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    Default Answered: Lower wattage lights to increase yeild??

    Hey dudes... and dudets

    Been growing for a while now under 600w dual spectrum bulbs, using primarily dutch pro, growing to approx 3 foot, in 20Ltr pots, coco coir, and until recently hand balling but have just change over to easy feed system. Looking promising so far but about 5 weeks away from results so cant compare just yet.

    Temps are controlled quite well, humidity is a bit of a battle at times, but I do what I can asap. Keep my ph to 5.8 and ec goes up to between 2.2 and 2.5, until about week 5-6 when I reduce to about 1.8.

    So this is my method right now but my yeild is always around 3.2 oz per plant. Growing star dawg I know these can yield 5+oz.

    So I have started to look at my lighting situation, as I have read blogs on here of people getting 3oz from 11Ltr pots, under 250w and 400w veg/flower.

    Because I cannot get too close to my girls early on due to light heat and intensity I do find I get quite a bit of stretch at the internodes, and so want to try and counter this. On this last one I tried heat shields which are good for heat distribution allowing me to get closer, but the intensity of the light meant I ended up bleaching the leaves temporarily, so not ideal.

    What I wanted to know is if I use lower wattage lights e.g. 250w, 400w, and build upto 600w in order to prevent stretch am I likely to see bigger yields? My thinking is if a stretched plant produces e.g. 10 nodes (20 branches), and I lollipop 50%. Thats a plant with the energy for 10 nodes, focusing it energy on the top 5 nodes (10 branches)....
    BUT... if using a lower wattage to prevent stretch, and a plant is grown to the same height as the first one above, it should produce more nodes e.g. 20 nodes (40 branches), and when lollipopin 50% now, leaves you with a 20 node producing plant, focusing its energy on the remaining top 10 nodes (20 branches/colas/nuggets), makes for fatter, heavier, buds.

    This is just an example and not based on anything real, its just my hypothesis (big words ). There must be method in the madness somewhere lol.

    Thanks
    Last edited by THCBrova; 14-02-20 at 01:16 PM.

  2. "Reducing watts will result in more stretch.

    Stretch is down to the excess far red light in hps and dual spectrum that makes the plant think its in shade."


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  4. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by THCBrova View Post
    ec goes up to between 2.2 and 2.5, until about week 5-6 when I reduce to about 1.8.
    Wow that's high. Rule of thumb on here is you should never go over 1.4ec throughout the entire grow. What's your background ec

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    GEORGE (14-02-20)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Slazenger View Post
    Wow that's high. Rule of thumb on here is you should never go over 1.4ec throughout the entire grow. What's your background ec

    Sent from my HD1900 using Tapatalk
    Water round here doesnt get a reading on my ec wand. I add calmag when water my cuts to bring upto 0.4 in the feed, potted in light mix which has ec 1.2. Then I work from there generally increasing 0.1 every new feed/tank.

    I have always done it like that because thats how I saw the guy who taught me do it. My understanding is the higher the ec the more nutes available to the plant. I know it eventually takes all its gona take, around 60% of the way through its life, which is when/why I back back off. The whole osmosis thing.

    They guy who taught me gets gets 11s and 13s of each, but wont tell me his secrets unless I pay him lol. Wana suss it for myself. He uses 2× 315w per sqr mtr so he can get closer to the plant, less heat.

    Need to try out the SCROG'in as well. I helped a mate out last year and we super cropped, but still ended up with 3.2's.

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    Quote Originally Posted by THCBrova View Post
    Water round here doesnt get a reading on my ec wand. I add calmag when water my cuts to bring upto 0.4 in the feed, potted in light mix which has ec 1.2. Then I work from there generally increasing 0.1 every new feed/tank.

    I have always done it like that because thats how I saw the guy who taught me do it. My understanding is the higher the ec the more nutes available to the plant. I know it eventually takes all its gona take, around 60% of the way through its life, which is when/why I back back off. The whole osmosis thing.

    They guy who taught me gets gets 11s and 13s of each, but wont tell me his secrets unless I pay him lol. Wana suss it for myself. He uses 2× 315w per sqr mtr so he can get closer to the plant, less heat.

    Need to try out the SCROG'in as well. I helped a mate out last year and we super cropped, but still ended up with 3.2's.
    I live in a soft water area where the base EC is 0.0 aswell. I was told don't go above 1.4, build it up slowly. Early veg 0.6. late veg 0.8-1.0. early flower 1.0/1.2, late flower 1.2/1.4. only need to use calmag if it needs it. Not just because you're in a soft water area. And I was advised to use calmag as a foilar feed otherwise you get really high EC or not enough other nutes as the calmag raises it.
    Check your run off. That will tell you exactly what it's taking up and how much extra you're giving it that's going to waste.

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    Reducing watts will result in more stretch.

    Stretch is down to the excess far red light in hps and dual spectrum that makes the plant think its in shade.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Slazenger View Post
    I live in a soft water area where the base EC is 0.0 aswell. I was told don't go above 1.4, build it up slowly. Early veg 0.6. late veg 0.8-1.0. early flower 1.0/1.2, late flower 1.2/1.4. only need to use calmag if it needs it. Not just because you're in a soft water area. And I was advised to use calmag as a foilar feed otherwise you get really high EC or not enough other nutes as the calmag raises it.
    Check your run off. That will tell you exactly what it's taking up and how much extra you're giving it that's going to waste.

    Sent from my HD1900 using Tapatalk
    Thanks, I'll check this out. What sort of yeilds are you getting? Under what lights?

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    Quote Originally Posted by gardro View Post
    Reducing watts will result in more stretch.

    Stretch is down to the excess far red light in hps and dual spectrum that makes the plant think its in shade.
    More stretch... even if I move lights closer to the plant?

    Ive seen x6 315s over a 1.6m2 that were very close, but dont know about stretch because they were about 2 weeks from harvest, but they looked pretty awesome. SCROG'd, n think he got 11s of those. Dont know what he did in the weeks beforehand of course.

    Sorry, didn't see that 2nd part. So if its down to the excess red spec. whats the solution, different bulbs? If yes, what do you recommend?

    Thanks
    Last edited by THCBrova; 15-02-20 at 01:20 AM.

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