Save money with smarter lighting?

[McFreedom]

Hi,

I've got a 1m x 1m x 2m grow tent containing 18 plants in the 6th week of veg. I intend to keep these plants in veg for the next 2 weeks or so.

My house has a decent size solar power setup, but since it's winter here in Australia, it's only making a significant amount power about 11h per day. Can I save some money and keep my plants in veg by running my main lights (400W LED) for 11h per day and use a 14W white LED light bulb 16-24h per day?

Thanks guys

 

[OrgrO]

I do believe so. I veg with 2 hrs of 125 watt CFLs followed by 12 hours of 1200 watt HIDs then 2 hrs of 125 watts CFLs for my 16hr light cycle. No problems.

 

[pop_rocks]

your plants are 6w old in a 2m tent?
how tall are they now?

i would hesitate to use the led in that manner because i would be afraid of promoting stretch

to flower the plant needs at least 12h uninterrupted darkness
you could always set your timer to run for several hours, then go off for a few hours and then come back on at intervals
i dont know how long the light has to be on to suppress the flowering response but im sure half hour to hour at a a time should do it

 

[McFreedom]

Thanks for your replies. They aren't very tall, perhaps they are getting too much light. I came up with this idea to get them to stretch a little. This being my first grow, I'm experimenting with topping, pruning and low stress training. The tallest plant is probably about 30cm. I must say I don't think the soil has enough perlite in it, nor does it have sufficient microbes. If I don't add nutes every 2nd watering the plants will yellow and droop.

 

[pop_rocks]

how far apart are the nodes?
/space between leaf sets?

i would not worry too much about stretch at this point
they will naturally double (or even triple) in height once flower is inittated
what strain are you growing?

 

[McFreedom]

how far apart are the nodes?
/space between leaf sets?

i would not worry too much about stretch at this point
they will naturally double (or even triple) in height once flower is inittated
what strain are you growing?

I've got Green crack and Nepalma. The plants are varied, I've pruned some heavily, and some I've trained, some topped, or a combination of these, and others I've left alone


I took the pic with only the 14w supplemental LED on

 

[pop_rocks]

they are looking pretty good man
i would still not encourage them to stretch
that tent is going to be packed when you start flowering

 

[rykus]

yeah i keep a 10x20 area suplemented for 18hrs veg with just 6 50w flouro's.... the main lights stay 12 hrs all the time, works fine.

 

[McFreedom]

they are looking pretty good man
i would still not encourage them to stretch
that tent is going to be packed when you start flowering

I'll only keep them in veg for another 2 weeks, so despite your good advice I think I've gone with the supplemental LED bulb. If they stretch too much that'll be a lesson learned. The main lights are probably a bit more than what the plants need, and some are quite short at the moment, I'll be keeping an eye on them if think if they stretch more than I'd like them to I'll flip the timer back to 16h with the main lights

rykus, given your grow area is in feet, that's more or less the same wattage per square foot as mine. Have you noticed any excessive stretch occur?