A month of flowering very little bud
- Thread starter Bpayne
- Start date
JN811
Well-Known Member
Things to know about lighting
Things to know about lighting
Color rating- Measured in Kelvin (K). The higher the number, the more bluish the light. 4000K-7000K is mostly on the blue side of the spectrum, while 3000K and under goes from a white spectrum, to a redder spectrum.
How much light is needed?
The minimum amount of light required by marijuana plants is around 3000 lumens per square foot. However, it's not 100% accurate, since although you may have a 10,000 lumen light, the amount of light that reaches the plant varies with the distance between the light and plants, and reflectivity of the grow box. The ideal amount is somewhere around 7000-10,000 lumens/sqft, and as long as the plants do not burn, as much light can be used as you want.
(*note, the sun produces about 10,000 lumens/sqft, on a sunny summer day).
Determining lumens for your grow area:
Determine the square footage of your area (example in a 4 foot by 4 foot area, there is 16 square feet)
If you have a 1000 watt High Pressure Sodium, that produces (approx.) 107,000 lumens.
Divide this by 16 (your square footage) 107,000 / 16 = 6687 lumens per square foot.
So just divide the total amount of Lumens, by the total amount of Sq ft, and thats your lumens per square foot.
How far away from my plants do the lights go?
The lights in your grow room should be as close as possible to the plants without burning them. There is no such thing as too much, unless there is sufficient heat to dry out and burn the leaves. A good rule is to put your hand under the light, if its too hot for your hand, chances are that the plants will be too, so move the light up until your hand feels more comfortable. For seedlings and clones, I keep them a little further away from the light, because they are very susceptible to burning and drying out, at these stages.
Efficiency is very important when choosing a type of light. The wattage is not the most important thing, as you can see below, different types of light produce different amounts of lumens per watt. A 300 watt incandescent will produce about 5100 lumens. While a 300 watt Metal Halide (just an example, they do not come in 300 watts), will produce 27,000 lumens. Obviously far more efficient for growing, while still using the same amount of electricity.
Approximate light production:
Incandescents: 17 lumens/watt
Mercury vapor: 45-50 lumens/watt
Fluorescents: 60-70 lumens/watt
Metal halide: 90 lumens/watt
High pressure sodium: 107 lumens/watt
Incandescent lights: Incandescents are the most popular type of lights in the world. They may come advertised as incandescent, tungsten, quartz, halogen, or simply standard. The important thing about incandescents is this: they suck.
There are some incandescents which are sold as 'grow lights.' They usually have a blue coating and usually come in 60W and 120W sizes. While they may seem like a good choice to new growers, they are next to useless; they produce some light at a usable spectrum, but only have about a 5% efficiency and generate more heat than usable light. Most of us have these in our homes right now. Don't use them for growing, instead opt for a Compact Fluorescent as a cheaper but more efficient alternative.
Fluorescent lights: Fluorescents are a lot more useful than incandescents. Their efficient enough, and cheaper than HID lights. Compact fluorescent tubes are popular with growers because of their good output to size ratio. Compared to standard 4' tubes, compact fluorescent bulbs are smaller, and more can fit into a given area. Fluorescents are good for small grows on a tight budget, and for novice growers, since they do not require any special sort of wiring or understanding of the necessary bulbs for a given fixture, and are very widely available.
Fluorescent lights come in many different Kelvin ratings; often the spectrums are labeled on packaging as being 'cool white' or 'warm white.' Cool white is more blue, and is good for the vegetative stages of growth, and warm white light is more orange or reddish, and is best for the flowering stage.
High Intensity Discharge (HID) Lighting Systems:
Mercury Vapor (MV)
Mercury vapor lights are not the most efficient light for growing. They are very bright, and relatively cheap. They do emit light at the wavelengths necessary to support your plants growth, but not nearly as good as a MH or Hps light. Much of the light emitted by MV lights is bluish-white. Street lighting is what most MV lighting is used for.
Metal Halide (MH)
Metal halide lighting systems are optimal for use in the vegetative phase of growing. They emit mostly blue light, which encourages vigorous growth of foliage. They are very efficient, but can get rather expensive to start with; fluorescents may seem more appealing because of their lower price, and they are not much different when compared on a lumen-to-lumen cost level. These lights can be used through-out the grow, but will most likely result in light, fluffy buds.
High Pressure Sodium (HPS)
High pressure sodium lights emit mostly orange, yellow, and red spectrum light, which is perfect for the flowering stage of the plants growth. They are (in my opinion) the most efficient type of light available for any application. HPS lights can be used through-out the entire grow. They produce more dense and usually larger buds than any other light.
HPS lights are generally a little more expensive than MH systems of similar wattage. They are more commonly used by experienced growers because of their ability to produce tighter buds, higher lumen-output-per-watt, and will produce from start to finish.
I'll also add this graph below, i hope this post helps some of you out.
Things to know about lighting
Color rating- Measured in Kelvin (K). The higher the number, the more bluish the light. 4000K-7000K is mostly on the blue side of the spectrum, while 3000K and under goes from a white spectrum, to a redder spectrum.
How much light is needed?
The minimum amount of light required by marijuana plants is around 3000 lumens per square foot. However, it's not 100% accurate, since although you may have a 10,000 lumen light, the amount of light that reaches the plant varies with the distance between the light and plants, and reflectivity of the grow box. The ideal amount is somewhere around 7000-10,000 lumens/sqft, and as long as the plants do not burn, as much light can be used as you want.
(*note, the sun produces about 10,000 lumens/sqft, on a sunny summer day).
Determining lumens for your grow area:
Determine the square footage of your area (example in a 4 foot by 4 foot area, there is 16 square feet)
If you have a 1000 watt High Pressure Sodium, that produces (approx.) 107,000 lumens.
Divide this by 16 (your square footage) 107,000 / 16 = 6687 lumens per square foot.
So just divide the total amount of Lumens, by the total amount of Sq ft, and thats your lumens per square foot.
How far away from my plants do the lights go?
The lights in your grow room should be as close as possible to the plants without burning them. There is no such thing as too much, unless there is sufficient heat to dry out and burn the leaves. A good rule is to put your hand under the light, if its too hot for your hand, chances are that the plants will be too, so move the light up until your hand feels more comfortable. For seedlings and clones, I keep them a little further away from the light, because they are very susceptible to burning and drying out, at these stages.
Efficiency is very important when choosing a type of light. The wattage is not the most important thing, as you can see below, different types of light produce different amounts of lumens per watt. A 300 watt incandescent will produce about 5100 lumens. While a 300 watt Metal Halide (just an example, they do not come in 300 watts), will produce 27,000 lumens. Obviously far more efficient for growing, while still using the same amount of electricity.
Approximate light production:
Incandescents: 17 lumens/watt
Mercury vapor: 45-50 lumens/watt
Fluorescents: 60-70 lumens/watt
Metal halide: 90 lumens/watt
High pressure sodium: 107 lumens/watt
Incandescent lights: Incandescents are the most popular type of lights in the world. They may come advertised as incandescent, tungsten, quartz, halogen, or simply standard. The important thing about incandescents is this: they suck.
There are some incandescents which are sold as 'grow lights.' They usually have a blue coating and usually come in 60W and 120W sizes. While they may seem like a good choice to new growers, they are next to useless; they produce some light at a usable spectrum, but only have about a 5% efficiency and generate more heat than usable light. Most of us have these in our homes right now. Don't use them for growing, instead opt for a Compact Fluorescent as a cheaper but more efficient alternative.
Fluorescent lights: Fluorescents are a lot more useful than incandescents. Their efficient enough, and cheaper than HID lights. Compact fluorescent tubes are popular with growers because of their good output to size ratio. Compared to standard 4' tubes, compact fluorescent bulbs are smaller, and more can fit into a given area. Fluorescents are good for small grows on a tight budget, and for novice growers, since they do not require any special sort of wiring or understanding of the necessary bulbs for a given fixture, and are very widely available.
Fluorescent lights come in many different Kelvin ratings; often the spectrums are labeled on packaging as being 'cool white' or 'warm white.' Cool white is more blue, and is good for the vegetative stages of growth, and warm white light is more orange or reddish, and is best for the flowering stage.
High Intensity Discharge (HID) Lighting Systems:
Mercury Vapor (MV)
Mercury vapor lights are not the most efficient light for growing. They are very bright, and relatively cheap. They do emit light at the wavelengths necessary to support your plants growth, but not nearly as good as a MH or Hps light. Much of the light emitted by MV lights is bluish-white. Street lighting is what most MV lighting is used for.
Metal Halide (MH)
Metal halide lighting systems are optimal for use in the vegetative phase of growing. They emit mostly blue light, which encourages vigorous growth of foliage. They are very efficient, but can get rather expensive to start with; fluorescents may seem more appealing because of their lower price, and they are not much different when compared on a lumen-to-lumen cost level. These lights can be used through-out the grow, but will most likely result in light, fluffy buds.
High Pressure Sodium (HPS)
High pressure sodium lights emit mostly orange, yellow, and red spectrum light, which is perfect for the flowering stage of the plants growth. They are (in my opinion) the most efficient type of light available for any application. HPS lights can be used through-out the entire grow. They produce more dense and usually larger buds than any other light.
HPS lights are generally a little more expensive than MH systems of similar wattage. They are more commonly used by experienced growers because of their ability to produce tighter buds, higher lumen-output-per-watt, and will produce from start to finish.
I'll also add this graph below, i hope this post helps some of you out.
right, so without being able to get anymore light what am I going to be able to do? will it just go on forever and never fill out the way it is now? until it finally dies and barely has any type of bud on it at all, like so no cola will form or anything? because I just absolutely have NO way whatsoever to get more light
JN811
Well-Known Member
let me just put it to you this way, i had 4 plants and a 400 watt hps which produces around 50,000 lumens and i was going to add 6 26 watt cfls to my grow. 6 24 watt cfls produce only 10,000 lumens total, and you should have, at very least, 3000 lumens per square foot, which is 3 sq feet, you grow looks to be about triple that size plus you have no reflectivity
I already blew one circuit in my circuit breaker from using the lights I have and that was with a protective power strip surge protector, so either way I CAN NOT add extra lights, what else can I do because more lights are not an option, I'm not against more lights, I wish I could have more lights, but I am telling you I simply Can NOT add more lights so I understand what your saying about the light but it is something I can not do anything about, so what should I do NOT concerning lights
sampson0420
Well-Known Member
There is no way you are overloading your circuit if it is installed correctly. You can easily run 2000+ watts on a 15 amp circuit. If I were you, I would get rid of your current setup and start again.
It doesnt seem like you are going to have favorable results, plus you can be in danger of starting a fire. There is no way those cfls should pop your breaker like that, something is wrong! GL and have a safe holiday.
seasmoke
Active Member
Bpayne, get yourself some 300wt cfls. They'll screw right into your fixtures. If you can't give them the lighting they need, then stop growing....all your doing is aggravating yourself, and us. I have a White Widow that has been budding for 5 weeks now and she's about 32'' high and covered with buds...I have 5 more 3 weeks in Sunday and they are covered with bud sites. If you don't want good advice, don't waste our time.(Also, it looks like you may have been overwatering them- could be moisture stress)
I don't know what you need to do for money, go collect cans and bottles and return them....maybe get a job? Mow a lawn, shovel some snow? CFL bulbs are NOT that expensive....use the bulbs you have now around the house.
I don't know what you need to do for money, go collect cans and bottles and return them....maybe get a job? Mow a lawn, shovel some snow? CFL bulbs are NOT that expensive....use the bulbs you have now around the house.
He can't get more lights, this is his only chance to grow. If thats true you might as well pack up shop man. Not trying to be a dick at all, your lights are fine for getting a little bud, you should have vegged going straight into flowering isn't smart at all. You can finish what you got but its not gonna be good most likely. If you wanna do it right next time around shoot me a pm with your budget and equipment I'll help you.
