A question about advanced lighting for any open minded veterans out there

Hello, I am a long time reader but this will be my first post.

It is well known that by increasing the grow lights intensity during the flowering stage, one can increase yields. Following in that thought pattern I had an idea that I wanted to propose to the community. Please be open minded as this idea isn't exactly the most orthodox plan. Any feedback or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

The repeating theme I see across many blogs and forums is that, the only way to increase overall light penetration is to add a bigger and brighter light source. Why not instead inter-space smaller lights in and around the plant/s? This may have not been a viable option a few years back, but with the advances in both CFL's and LED's could this now be possible? Since LED's give off so little heat, especially when being used in small supplementary settings, could the lights be put under or even in between colas? I have drawn up a few diagrams to hopefully clarify what I am trying to describe. Obviously this set-up would only work in an indoor grow situation.



In the Diagram the LED's would be facing upwards.
It is worth mentioning that in the above diagrams the main light source would be a 850w mixed spectrum equivalence CFL's.

Cool idea and diagram. Adding lights only helps up to a certain point. After a certain amount of watts per square foot, you might even start to see diminishing returns. I think the general consensus is that the butter zone is 60-70 watts per square foot. Anything more is kind of a waste.

I agree with above statement . Though this is a good idea I think your over thinking it. Yes more lumens give more nugs. But only to a certain extent. I have seen people use t5s for under lighting . My opinion is they are wasting watts for the small bit of extra they are getting. I prefer to use a larger foot print and use less watts per square foot. Using hids your able to do this and still get quality sense nugs. Leds and cfls are junk . People will argue this til they are blue in the face . But the proof is in the pudding. And I don't know any elite grower using them. Seems to me with this setup your attempting to maximize your yield.. Leds and cfls are not for maximizing anything. They are for people playing around.

In flowering my best improvements were in a small tent I have for spare clones or breeding by adding mixed spectrum to an existing 200w/3000k LED COB light. I needed temps up so instead of heating I added 30w of 2700k CFL's and 30w of 4000k LED's. The combo increased my density and in turn yields by ~30%. Not a terrible investment and got my temps at 80F where I want them in flowering. Never tried mixing LED's and hps but imo any mixed spectrum will improve your results, to a point. Nice thing about LED's for supplemental is the light is directional, you can angle/fit them where you want/need the extra light. Unlike CFL's, LED's won't add any significant amount of heat. Here's a cycle I'm about to pull with 6x 1gal extra clones I had, not a bad haul for a 2x2x4' tent and about $200 of LED/CFL's.

All Mighty Acorn said:

could the lights be put under or even in between colas?

Click to expand...

I think you're on the right track. I'm a fan of providing light from more sources, more coverage, more angles. Not a single intense source. I just harvested a plant that did very well under 18-22w per square foot of Cree LED "lightbulbs" and PAR38 spots from Home Depot. No fancy (boutique) nutrients "lineups," just an inexpensive dry product.

You can find SMD5730 LED "lightbulbs" on aliexpress. I ordered some and was disappointed because the wattage isn't as advertised, it's only about 3.5w-4.1w for all the bulbs stated to be 9 to 18w (60 to 100w equiv). They're bright. SMD5730 is relatively efficient (100-110 lumens/watt compared to CFL at 65'ish). I had the idea of inserting these directly into the canopy. It would take 2-3 times more bulbs to get the same watts per sq. ft. That's going to be labor intensive with anything other than a small personal grow. What I did with the plant I just harvested was a bit of work managing that much distributed lights (5 18w spots, 2 18w floods, 7 9.5w "lightbulbs").

I'm leaning towards SMD5730 strips. It's 12v, so wiring would be easy/safe. I'm thinking about mounting them to aluminum sheets from Home Depot. Hinge the sheets so they can be curved to the shape of the plant. Provide surround lighting with these little panels. I haven't had time to experiment with it. But, I've seen others use SMD5730 strips to grow.

I think the idea of inserting lights into the canopy would work better with DIY strips too. You could make "skewers." Something longer and thinner than the "lightbulbs" from AliExpress. Even a coil that cold snake around the canopy.

I encourage you to keep going with your ideas. I've been really impressed with distributed light. I think it produces more than simply adding more light to the top. The post linked above has links to two write-ups I did about Cree "lightbulbs" and PAR38 spots/floods. You might get some ideas there.

I use 40w 6500k of those SMD tubes but only in veg and they seem to help with side branching, very cool, almost no heat. Tried some 2700k as side lighting in flowering for a couple of runs and they didn't seem to do much. They just don't seem to have the punch in flowering. imo the COBs fit better for edge/side supplemental lighting, you can point/angle them where you want/need them, and they seem to have better results in flowering on their own.