Flowering at full power or gradual ramp up?

I've finally reached that point where my ladies look ready to flower. So far they've been vegging under 4 boards of Samsung lm561c LED's at 200 watts.

The maximum wattage the lights can go up to is 480 watts, but that much will probably be overkill for my 11 square foot tent and un-supplemented CO2 levels, so I was considering using about 400 watts maximum.

Upon switching to flower, is it better to ease the plants into it? Say, week 1 250, week 2 300, week 3 350 week 4-8 400? Does anyone also feel it beneficial to lower the wattage as the plants start to finish off and flushing is initiated?

It's hard to find concrete information on gradually increasing wattage as people using HPS, MH and (god forbid) CFL don't seem to use dimmers as apparently it messes up the color spectrum. Does the same thing apply to Samsung LED's or is the spectrum uniform regardless of wattage?

I heard on a podcast someone even recommending that upon switching to 12/12 it's a good idea to slightly lower the wattage before eventually bringing it back up again as it reduces the shock of the light cycle change.

And one last, slightly related thing, if I used the full 480 watts and instead increased the distance of the lights to the canopy (from 12-18 inches up to 24 inches) would the better spread and higher PAR in the corners produce better overall growth than if the lights are closer and the PAR is concentrated in the center?

My girls and I would appreciate any insight you find people can offer.

Pics ?

In the past I did not have the option of adjusting intensity, but now do with current lights.
What I have done is reduce lights on hours slowly toward the end. 15 min a day.
Down to 8 hours with 2 days in the dark before chop.

Put your lights at about 30" above the canopy if your going to run them above 350watts. If you look in my diary in my sig below I have just posted about it.

Budzbuddha said:

Pics ?

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my girls are bashful... you know how teenagers can be

maxlev said:

What I have done is reduce lights on hours slowly toward the end. 15 min a day.
Down to 8 hours with 2 days in the dark before chop.

Click to expand...

Excellent idea. I know that nothing about indoor growing is natural but it makes sense to mimic nature where we can. Do you have any concerns about potentially reducing peak flowering time with the reduction in lighting?

zypheruk said:

Put your lights at about 30" above the canopy if your going to run them above 350watts. If you look in my diary in my sig below I have just posted about it.

Click to expand...

Beautifully made diary, only surpassed by the beauty of the plants and setup. I'll be sure to watch out for any signs of light burn and be vigilant about raising them when needed. It sounds difficult to hit that sweet spot between power consumption, optimum PAR levels and distance to canopy but that's part of the fun of the challenge.

get yourself a cheap lux meter. that you can have a proper measurement of how much light the plant is actually getting.... they are cheap, like 20-30 bucks.