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

If you're looking for opinions, conjecture and anecdotal evidence....you've come to the right place.

"It is well known that by increasing the grow lights intensity during the flowering stage, one can increase yields."

Huh? It's also well known that under normal sub tropical to temperate climes that cannabis gets far less light during flowering than while in veg due to the sun being lower in the horizon, shorter days, etc.

No need to start another thread when it's all right here - https://www.rollitup.org/t/light.853779/

The SEARCH option is your friend.

UB

Thank-you
I will admit that I am a noob to marijuana cultivation but this is not to say that I am new to gardening or plant cultivation. I realize that all plants have different quirks and that you have been at this one heck of a lot longer than I have, but I see that a lot of evidence states the opposite.

http://www.growweedeasy.com/5-tips-increase-yields-growing-indoors
http://sensiseeds.com/en/blog/maximise-yield-cannabis-plant/

Even at the link you sent me you mention that you increase the light wattage
"I start with a 400W MH and bring in a 600W HPS when the time is right."
https://www.rollitup.org/t/no-lower-budsites-do-not-need-light-to-develop-get-educated.829061/

I am not trying to start a fight, only to get to the bottom of this and maybe be able to take some true knowledge away.


It is worth mentioning that in the above diagrams the main light source would be a 850w mixed spectrum equivalence CFL.
Also that this question purely relates to a ScrOG set up.

I suppose the real question boils down to whether or not a plant can photosynthesize from the bottom side of a leaf. If so this idea could have merit.

Source: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090809223452AAfI4h9

Does photosynthesis occur on the bottom side of the leaf?

can leaves convert sun light into energy on both sides of the leaf top and bottom? If there was a light source on both sides of the tree in the ground pointing up and in the sky pointing down, would the tree produce twice as much energy?


Best Answer

Mrudul S answered 6 years ago

There are two layers of photosynthetic tissues in leaf. The layer on the side facing to sun has palisade tissue which is having compactly arranged parenchymatous cells with high density of chloroplast. The layer below this is of spongy tissue where the cells are loosely arranges and number of chloroplasts per cell are also less as compared to the palisade tissue. This arrangement give advantage to the plant so as to trap maximum possible solar energy to be trapped and use it efficiently to prepare its own food. So the answer to your question is yes. Both the surfaces of the leaf are performing photosynthesis.

I think that if you used onef of those 3w 365nm red LED lights (365nm red are the best for cannabis I believe), say at the middle of each four squares in your screen you would definitely see an increase in yield, and also in vegetative growth speed as they grew up to the LEDs. Also, as far as supplemental lighting goes UVB bulbs are said to increase resin production when used during flowering.

I think it's possible. I also think it would be an absolute nightmare to work with the plants.

All Mighty Acorn said:

Even at the link you sent me you mention that you increase the light wattage
"I start with a 400W MH and bring in a 600W HPS when the time is right."
https://www.rollitup.org/t/no-lower-budsites-do-not-need-light-to-develop-get-educated.829061/

Click to expand...

Overhead lighting. I add more light as the garden footprint expands, back out lighting as it contracts. My footprint is not finite, nor will it ever be i.e. I don't use tents.

Even mentioned this - "when the time is right."

Nothing is black and white when it comes to gardening. It and these posts should be taken in the proper context without cherry picking or parsing.

UB

Uncle Ben said:

"It is well known that by increasing the grow lights intensity during the flowering stage, one can increase yields."

Huh? It's also well known that under normal sub tropical to temperate climes that cannabis gets far less light during flowering than while in veg due to the sun being lower in the horizon, shorter days, etc.

Click to expand...

It's also well known that under normal conditions that ducks get far less food than those under gavage, but foie gras is awesome. Under normal conditions where gardeners aren't vigilantly removing males, Cannabis gets pollenated and produces an inferior product. So sticking to what is normal or natural doesn't automatically produce a superior product.

The research that SDS has posted in the LED forum indicates that plants grow more when provided with a higher daily light integral (DLI) with an approximately logarithmic response until saturation is reached. Isn't that why outdoor growers are able to grow gigantic trees relative to indoor growers even if the intensity is the same at the tops? Outdoor plants have higher DLI than indoor ones with the same intensity at the tops, because the intensity is the same on lower exposed leaves when outdoors. Higher DLI = more overall growth until saturated.

Illuminating the lower leaves is a way to increase DLI indoors without saturating or bleaching the tops. Are you seriously denying that will lincrease your yield? You seem to fixated on "popcorn" but that isn't what we're talking about. Of course lower buds are smaller because of hormones.