Need good Horizontal, rectangular Reflector

[Philosophelon]

I think that that sounds like a great footprint for a 600w P.L. Deep. I'd orient the bulb perpendicular to the 40" dimension if possible, but it's only 4" different from the 36" side, so it doesn't matter much. Also, I like to run diffusers under the bulbs if I'm growing a flat canopy (I use Sun System Equalizers), as it softens the hot spot a bit and allows closer lamp placement. If you veg to 12", you might only need 9 plants in that space, depending on how bushy your plants are, but then I'd use bigger pots. If you want to use 15x2gal pots, you can probably get away with less veg time.

I actually run 4K (3:1 HPS to MH) right now (5' x 15' canopy) in cool tubes with highly polished wing reflectors so I get poor diffusion with an intense hot spot. The row of 4x1Kw lights is on a linear mover that moves about 15" in either direction, parallel with the tubes. They're all on drippers (drain-to-waste) in 1:1 coco to extra chunky perlit. Each plant is about 2.5' wide, with 4' of vertical budsite space (ideally, but there is a fuck up now and then), and about a foot of bare stems underneath. With the 1Ks and hot-spot for penetration, the mover, and 900-1000 ppm CO2 I pull anywhere from 0.5 to 1.0 gpw, depending on the strain. With an average yield usually around 0.8 gpw. I run a staggered harvest and usually harvest about a plant per week, usually just over 1/2 lb per plant on the low end (my gorgeous, favorite-high-ever Flo cut), up to just under a lb at the high end (my fav old Original Blueberry cut, or my uber-heavy Island Sweet Skunk cut), with an average prob around 12 oz or so (my actually-to-sweet-for-my-taste-and-it-still-fuckin'-yields-well Sweet Tooth cut).

I need to come up with shorter names for my moms .

Also, the reason I only run like 900 ppm CO2 in flowering is that I have a staggered harvest system, and I don't want to encourage too much adventitious leaf growth in late flowering, particularly as I sometimes have fluffy sativas in there.

 

[stink.whistler]

Pico's thread was really interesting, but I have to say these PL Midi w/ air cooled hood look like the perfect cab reflector.

REALLY happy you turned me on to it, Philosophelon, it seems custom made for my application. Since I want to run 38"x24" with a CMH, and the lamp throws 36x18, I think I will get a couple of the 2 foot 24watt T5HO Red lamps to put in the back, right under the back of the reflector housing. Should get full coverage that way, plus the red will supplement the CMH nicely.

 

[Philosophelon]

I don't think that adding flouros to a 400w fixture will help alot, because you have to place the HID farther away than ideal for the T5s, and they won't throw any light to the ends of the rectangle. When I first started working at the store we had fixtures with 2x150w HPSs and 4x4'T5HOs in the same reflector, but they didn't work as well as the 8x4'T5HO fixtures.

In my cab, at first I ran the midi with a 600w HPS bulb over a 30"x44" area, and I still had good coverage (with the 30" side parallel to the bulb). I think you can run without the T5s and still get good coverage, even though the ideal coverage is 1.5'x3', I don't think you will have a prob with 2' parallel to the bulb. Eventually I added a 400w MH to the cab, and it definitely lit the ends of the (cabinet) rectangle better, but I don't think that the T5s will do a whole lot. Although if you put the T5s in their own reflectors and put them over the ends of the rectangle, it might increase your yields a bit.

 

[stink.whistler]

Good advice, I guess it would make sense to see what the coverage was before forking over another couple hundred bucks on something that might not make a difference.. It would strictly be 100% personal (I don't even have any friends who smoke anymore), so I definitely wouldn't need the extra yield anyway. Just would want to keep a few different strains going for variety, and play around a bit w/ mixing up some genetics.

We'll see. I have plenty of time to plan.

 

[jwm]

One of the nice things about the CMH, other than the great spectrum of course is they give off a bit less heat. I know you don't have the space but i used a vertizontal reflector which allowed me to position the bulb approx. an inch or so above the canopy. I aimed an oscillating fan at the bulb and never had a issue. I'll be using a 400 w in a 3x3 tent I have coming. Good Luck!

 

[BeeBee]

I'm another big fan of PL lights. I've been using them exclusively since I first saw them 8 years ago. I don't need to air-cool, and I only use 600 watt HPS.
The midi is a great choice for your cabinet.
For the 600 watt deep, I generally try for a 30 x 36 inch footprint. I've tried larger, up to 36 x 42, and found I prefer the smaller area. The optimum "bud depth" for a 600 is about 16 inches if you want all the buds to be really dense and resinous, so it doesn't help to have tall plants. By bud depth, I mean the part of the plant over which the flowers are distributed--in this case, the top 16 inches.
I'm a proponent of keeping the lights as close as possible to the light at all times. I start to lower the lights from the initial 30 inch height (measured from the bulb, not the reflector) a couple of days after the rooted clones are planted, and by the ninth day of the grow cycle (which is the last day of grow), they are about 12 inches from the nearest leaf. After that, I raise them as the plants grow and get too close. The PLs are easy to rig for this because they are so lightweight--of course, this is much easier if you don't have a bunch of ducting attached!

 

[Irie_Lion]

Glad to see there are plenty of others using the PL light systems. What type of yield do u usually average under the 600 in the 30x36 grow space? Like i said before i recently got one and i am lookin to get some ideas at area, yield etc.. Gona be running Humboldt nutes organic grow, bloom and deuce deuce for this cycle once everyting is up and running. Any other suggestions for using the deep reflector 600w system? Thanks again

 

[BeeBee]

A pound would be a good yield. It takes some knowledge and experience to get the most out of any strain, space, and growing system. A successful grow is usually the result of a balanced approach, where you optimize as many factors as you can, and eliminate all the negative factors. Ventilation is extremely important, perhaps the key to good results.
The biggest tip regarding the light is to pay attention to how you mount it. The light is NOT centered between the two mounting holes; rather, the hole that is away from the cord end is the center of the light. Mount so that the bulb is parallel to the short side of the room.

 

[FreezerBoy]

I'm pulling close to 1/2 pound with a 250 CMH in a 22"x29" ScrOG. I think you'd have to screw up pretty bad not to pull a pound with a 600.

 

[AndreNicky]

Oooh, that was a good thread, and I do like SS2s. But Pico only compared like 4 reflectors: The Arctic Sun, The Cool Sun, The Cool Sun XL, and the Super Sun 2. He maybe did the SS1 too, I don't remember. You can't say that the SS2 reflects light the best (it doesn't), just better than the three other reflectors he tested.

If u read thru the thread u would see that alot more reflectors were tested then those 4, once pico got the ball rolling alot of people posted there findings aswell

Also to everyone considering a PL hood check out picos thread, Darthvapor tested one and it was one of the lowest

 

[khaleel]

Good advice, I guess it would make sense to see what the coverage was before forking over another couple hundred bucks on something that might not make a difference.. It would strictly be 100% personal (I don't even have any friends who smoke anymore), so I definitely wouldn't need the extra yield anyway. Just would want to keep a few different strains going for variety, and play around a bit w/ mixing up some genetics.

We'll see. I have plenty of time to plan.

if you're wondering whether florescents will produce quality nugs or not, check out the thread in my sig line "free your florescent bud pics". I grew with T5's all of last year before switching to a 600 hps, and though yield is pretty weak (1/4 - 1/2 per plant, veg'd for 2-3 weeks and using co2 in bloom) the quality is magical.

​

good luck with whatever you do!

 

[stink.whistler]

Very impressive! Lot's of fluoro growers seem to be especially impressed with the quality. I'd like to figure out how to supplement HPS or CMH with fluoro, to see if HID yield combined with fluoro quality would be a good blend.

 

[Philosophelon]

It's not tricky to supplement smaller HPS or CMH bulbs with fluorescents (CFLs or T5s). Just put them in their own reflectors, and position them closer to the edges of your garden to supplement the areas that do not recieve as strong of light from your HIDs. Keep in mind that you need to keep fluorescent bulbs as close as possible to the canopy to maximize efficiency.

 

[pico]

If u read thru the thread u would see that alot more reflectors were tested then those 4, once pico got the ball rolling alot of people posted there findings aswell

Also to everyone considering a PL hood check out picos thread, Darthvapor tested one and it was one of the lowest

I personally tested these reflectors in the thread

arctic sun
super sun 2
cool sun 6
cool sun XL
super sun 1
cool breeze
generic batwing
sun system batwing


Plus many more were tested by others. I even gave darth a reflector to test out. I think it was the Bell unit, I forget.

I know it is a long thread, but there is a ton of testing deep in there.

 

[_Dude]

Blessed love and greetings, I just recently acquired a 600w PL light system with the deep reflector and was wondering what the best foot print would be? Thinkin about settin up an area about 40"x36" for flowering with 15 girls in 2g bags. Not sure if i should go for more in that space or less?? Probably gona flip them from clones at 12" wanna keep them somewhat small but height isnt an issue. What size area and yeild do u get off the 1k Phelosophelon? thanks for any advice!! Really lookin forward to gettin this thing up and running

Since you asked, check out Cannastats before you make your final decision on footprints. Basically, if he's to be believed (I believe him), most growers go with footprints that are a lot smaller than optimum.