Most common and easy fix to massively increase yield. Plus dispell a myth

Okay, move your 1000 watt lights 2.5-3 feet away from your colas and move your 600 watt lights at least 2 feet away. That's it, yep, that's all. I have personally seen so many people with 1000 watt hps light a foot away from their plant tops it's ridiculous. When I tell them that their yields would be better if the lights weren't so close, they always start an argument about lumens. We see very different things. I see their hot loose colas not growing for 2 weeks, they see the optimum lumens the plant can get without the colas out right turning brown and dying. One friend said show me scientific proof that a thousand watt light farther away produces more, and since I invite no one over to my place. I told him to look at every single pro-op picture on the net in Amdam and keep in mind 10 to 1 those are 600 watters.

It depends on the lights penetration. You want the light closer, but as you say, not to the extent that you are damaging the plants through heat. Further away being better heat aside though is nonsense so far as i have read, and by read i mean the physics of the thing, not simply opinion.

It sounds like you are essentially arguing that if it's too hot it's not good.

Really this is very useful for marijuana related people and also this is so popular related marijuana in the this community of forum

If your HID light is too close it will burn and/or bleach out the top of your colas.

Those 1000 and 600 watters need to be a couple feet or so away from your canopy.

skunky33 said:

Okay, move your 1000 watt lights 2.5-3 feet away from your colas and move your 600 watt lights at least 2 feet away. That's it, yep, that's all. I have personally seen so many people with 1000 watt hps light a foot away from their plant tops it's ridiculous. When I tell them that their yields would be better if the lights weren't so close, they always start an argument about lumens. We see very different things. I see their hot loose colas not growing for 2 weeks, they see the optimum lumens the plant can get without the colas out right turning brown and dying. One friend said show me scientific proof that a thousand watt light farther away produces more, and since I invite no one over to my place. I told him to look at every single pro-op picture on the net in Amdam and keep in mind 10 to 1 those are 600 watters.

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Holy shit dude I just got banned from Icmag over this issue. Some punk there was pulling out nasa research papers and talking about photons and telling people to put their lights within inches. Some people just won't hear it.

And notice how the lights have no active ventilation. For example if they had ventilated hoods it could be a very different story.

In addition to heat, there is the light footprint to take into account if using a reflector/hood... and if the fixture is too low the outer plants/foliage won't get direct light... But what scientific proof are you referring to (can you cite/share it)?

Otherwise, commercial grow operations have the space to use the maximum area/footprint of a light over the maximum number of plants for efficiency - most individual growers are more concerned with getting the most they can from a light in a restricted area with a limited number of plants. Just different situations.

Japanfreak said:

Holy shit dude I just got banned from Icmag over this issue. Some punk there was pulling out nasa research papers and talking about photons and telling people to put their lights within inches. Some people just won't hear it.

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I'd like to hear the actual reasoning if you want to take the time to explain.

tip top toker said:

It depends on the lights penetration. You want the light closer, but as you say, not to the extent that you are damaging the plants through heat. Further away being better heat aside though is nonsense so far as i have read, and by read i mean the physics of the thing, not simply opinion.

It sounds like you are essentially arguing that if it's too hot it's not good.

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Yep, if it's too hot it's not good. Further away means less heat. In HID's light is heat even if your room is 78 degrees your colas can be 90 degrees. The physics is that, if a top cola is a foot away from your 1000 watt HID even if it's not dying, it's not growing as it should, it's 90 degrees because it's absorbing radiant energy from the light.

TaoWolf said:

I'd like to hear the actual reasoning if you want to take the time to explain.

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This is from cannastats

Distance and the Sweet Spot
Every top-lit indoor garden using artificial HID lighting has a sweet spot located directly under the lamp, where it's closest to the canopy. If not accounted for in your plans to distribute available light, fc in the sweet spot can far exceed that of the sun, especially when lamp cooling technologies are used to reduce normal distances limited by heat. Finding the limits of your coverage area implies a compromise between the minimum light levels at the outside edges of your area (furthest from the lamp) and the maximum light level at the sweet spot (closest safe-point to the lamp). The happy medium is not to overdose the sweet spot with too much light (or heat) and to distribute enough light to the outside edges of your grow space for acceptable growth. The controlling factor for both of these limits is the height of the lamp above the canopy. Reflective surfaces surrounding your garden will help reduce light losses at the outside edges, but light at and below the sweet spot is controlled by distance between it and the lamp. The table below gives an idea of the distances involved, fixtures used during the meter readings are common to indoor gardens.

tip top toker said:

And notice how the lights have no active ventilation. For example if they had ventilated hoods it could be a very different story.

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Active ventilation? Look at the room man, heat rises. I look at it this way, ventilated hoods are to keep the heat from the garden, not the plant.

Japanfreak said:

Holy shit dude I just got banned from Icmag over this issue. Some punk there was pulling out nasa research papers and talking about photons and telling people to put their lights within inches. Some people just won't hear it.

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I know dude! it sucks you got booted. All one has to do is look at all the giant colas under lights many times 3 ft plus away. When I talked to a buddy years ago who grew huge giant!! yielding skunks in soil without Co2, I asked him why not move the light closer he said the "cola's get too hot, and don't grow" enough said for me. How do you argue with that.... lol

ya im way closer than 2 foot. i run at 8 inches or so. no heat issues if you have the right venting set up. all going to depend hpow you want to use it realy...futher away weeker lumens but bigger footprint. closer less footprint but more intense lumens. i go close to use less plants and food and time but yet get same bud as i use the light more efficiently.

so the way i run it cost me less but get same end result and tighter budz and better use of the foods

skunky33 said:

I know dude! it sucks you got booted. All one has to do is look at all the giant colas under lights many times 3 ft plus away. When I talked to a buddy years ago who grew huge giant!! yielding skunks in soil without Co2, I asked him why not move the light closer he said the "cola's get too hot, and don't grow" enough said for me. How do you argue with that.... lol

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So now you need to show proof that even if it were closer, and the temps hadn't altered, that he would have grown smaller colas. You are doing nothing but explaining in a peculiar manner the well know idea of putting your hand above the colas to make sure it's not too hot, little more

ive just recently added my 3rd 1000w hps to the grow room.a magnum xxxl (bad ass by the way) i did have a little bleaching of the tip of the colas a foot or so away from the lights. when i revamped the room adding my 3rd light i decided to go 2 foot away the coverage is out of this world.have 30 girls under them and all recieve great light to the eye but my concern is stretching , bein that far away.also my lights never get so hot u cant touch em. i have a 6 inch cent.fan cooling all 3.

ya 6 inch isnt enough to run 3 1k lights. i use a 6 inch on 2 600 here and its just right.

this other guys colas may have looked big but i bet was fluffy buds.

Japanfreak said:

This is from cannastats

Distance and the Sweet Spot ...

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Ah, all I get from that is to take the light footprint into account in addition to the heat... In any case it's saying ~18 inches for a 1Kw and ~12 inches for a 600w which sounds about average for an air-cooled hood in an enclosed space... It doesn't define what 'over-lighting' is or how that relates to PAR... Not trying to be rude, but I'm not seeing anything in that article that suggests anything different than what most people practice?

Here's a graph in regards to PAR in relation to equatorial sunshine and distance for some specific information:

View attachment 1282857

It's interesting you can exceed equatorial PAR with a 150w HPS easier than with a higher wattage HPS... but the light footprint from a 150w HPS that close wouldn't cover much more than a small plant (or two very small plants).

reflectors are also important.some are better than others.i have a diamond reflector which does a great job.