Or where or where is the light I want gone?

[dirtykidsnation]

Alright, here i am, stuck with a slight problem on my designs. I wanted to pick into the brain of a few of you S.O.G. growers out there, and hopefully we might be able to reach an agreement on what size light to buy.

For my situation:
3ft by 3ft canopy approximately.
Will be lollypopping plants (top main cola harvest only)
Will be a dense top canopy (plants packed in tight together.)
Looking to grow only 2-3 ft tall plants (again only top parts though, so only like a foot max of bud production)
Aeroponic style grow (Now, I dunno if this information will be important, but just in case people needed to know)

I've searched and searched, and what my searching has told me is that a 400 watt light would fit my situation. Now I understand more light is better, but I don't want to max out my light for this situation. Any who, just wanted to see what you other wonderful people of this community could pitch in to help me with this decision. Thanks everyone and keep on keepin on!

 

[Hold Your Fire]

Always get the biggest light you can properly cool. IMO.

 

[ogatec]

600w is perfect for 3x3 area esp for the method you are describing..

 

[Eminem]

600w at least.

 

[Jnugg]

A 400w HPS would wok over a 3' x 3' canopy but would only provide 44w/square foot and 5555 lumens/square foot...pretty weak IMO,and outermost edges would recieve much less light then that.

General rule of thumb is 50w/square foot as a minimum.

Cannabis only needs a minimum of 375 lumens/square foot during it's seedling form,or as a rooting clone,and requires a minimum of 2500 lumens/square foot for it's vegetative stage but up to 5000 is recomended for fast,healthy,vigorous growth.In the flowering stage it would be ideal to provide 7,000-10,000 lumens/square foot,although one can easily harvest a healthy crop with as little as 5500-6500 lumens/square foot.

If you step up to a 600w HPS you will provide your 3' x 3' canopy with 66w/square foot and 9,000-10,000 lumens/square foot,therfore your buds would be not only bigger but denser and more matured overall.

I must ask though as it seems you are not going to be doing a perpetual SOG (harvest a batch every 10 days-2 weeks) so why not do 2-4 plants total and SCROG?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

I would hang a vertical 400w CMH for veg/early flower and finish with HPS. You won't get as many plants in the space but you can put plants all around the bulb. You could even do it with a 250 if you only have one layer of plants.

 

[SantaCruzMtns]

Good info. I am looking for all the info I can get to build a veg and a flower room. My space is 8' deep 8' tall and 19' wide. The only equipment I have right now is a 600w Hps set up . Bulb/ glass tube with metal hood and ballast. I have Two 1000 w hps Ballasts but no other parts to go with them! I need to make a list.

 

[dirtykidsnation]

Hey, thank you everyone for your replies. Especially you Jnugg. You provided what you thought plus the reasoning behind it.

Hey Jnugg, as for your question as to why do this setup over a Scrogg, my original plans were because I wanted to get a feel for what I would call my "dream" setup, but on a much smaller scale. But as I think about it more, Scrogging seems like a bit more of a hassle then just adding a couple more straight pole like plans to the system. Well, a lot more. Lol! Also, the time it takes to fill in the screen, messing with the screen, etc etc seems like it might be a little rougher for me then cutting a lot of extra clones.

 

[turbolaser4528]

I would hang a vertical 400w CMH for veg/early flower and finish with HPS. You won't get as many plants in the space but you can put plants all around the bulb. You could even do it with a 250 if you only have one layer of plants.

anyone hit 1 gpw with a vertical cmh?

 

[Lazyman]

Yep I would say 1 X 600w or if you want to get fancy and have more even light distribution, two 400w's. Those plants are a little tall for SOG, if you're pruning the shit out of them you'd save some time (read: time saved =more crops per year) by just vegging them a little shorter, I flip mine around 10-12" tall and they end up around 2' tall at the finish.