LIGHT PENETRATION to YIELD.

Hello fellow growers. I have been pondering why I my yields have been so low (actually spend hours a day) and I can't figure it out. I have tried everything from dwc, soil, smart pots, changing nutes etc. anything and everything I could think of and I still see little increase.
I have spent god knows how much money upgrading to the name brand products( lumatek, fox farm, co2 etc)

That being said, I was hoping there was an expert on here that knows a thing or 2 about the relationship between light penetration to the buds and yield.

do you train your plants in any way?

Here's what I think

If you had a 4x4x4 box with a 400w hps (my set up) the height is obviously an issue. The girls can't get too tall. So I scroged them out but the light just doesn't seem to hit each bud site equally. If a plant has one Or more branches lacking light will the plant use more energy to produce more growth on that dim-lit branch/ bud.??

If each branch on the plant had an equal amount of light, no bud site would suffer lack of production right? Would this increase yield?
The Ony solution to this problem would be a nice s.o.g. Set up just growing a single cola. Right?

WaxxyNuggets said:

do you train your plants in any way?

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Before 12/12 all I do is top once or twice and then lst from there. I usually veg for 4-5 weeks

if your putting a budsite in each hole of your scrog, and getting uneven production then you may want to prune the low light branches.. how old is your 400 bulb? If you haven't replaced it in awhile as you were getting better at growing and training you were losing lumens.... Nutes? healthy plants throughout grow with lower N req throughout flower? What are you shooting for production wise with your setup?

rickymac21 said:

Here's what I think

If you had a 4x4x4 box with a 400w hps (my set up) the height is obviously an issue. The girls can't get too tall. So I scroged them out but the light just doesn't seem to hit each bud site equally. If a plant has one Or more branches lacking light will the plant use more energy to produce more growth on that dim-lit branch/ bud.??

If each branch on the plant had an equal amount of light, no bud site would suffer lack of production right? Would this increase yield?
The Ony solution to this problem would be a nice s.o.g. Set up just growing a single cola. Right?

Click to expand...

exactly but this only works for small scale growers. on a larger scale you can grow 1000s of plants 1-2 ft high with a whole bunch of 400watts covering a 10000square ft., buildin aisle would be a bitch and you would have to somehow build chamber on top of chamber to create levels. plus it would take tons of people to manage.... well you get the point a few bigger plants with slight less yeild but using more vertical space has its advantages.

but i like sog, but on a bigger scale very difficult to keep the plants small

the trick i found to getting higher yields it paying attention to your entire veg growth keeping your nodes nice and tight and a firm hand on the first week or flower so that your spacing doesn't get to absurd. i know it's fucking hard getting your plants close enough to the light (exception air cooled hoods) to keep stretch to a minimal without burning your plants excluding high stretch strains . on that note many growers get lulled into a false sense of security because "it's just veg", yes your plant may just be growing but whats growing is going to eventually produce bud and it in return will reflect on your yield.
Obviously light is important and if you can get full coverage do so. If you can't at least try and rotate your plants once a day to giver better coverage, if you can't do either of these you should cut down on the number of plants you have if you feel that the amount of bud sites you have is hurting your yield more then helping it.

I just bought my hood, ballast and bulb this past February. So it's not that old yet.

As for nutes I'm using all fox farm. Ocean forest soil, big bloom, grow big, tiger bloom, beastie bloomz.

Talrox said:

the trick i found to getting higher yields it paying attention to your entire veg growth keeping your nodes nice and tight and a firm hand on the first week or flower so that your spacing doesn't get to absurd. i know it's fucking hard getting your plants close enough to the light (exception air cooled hoods) to keep stretch to a minimal without burning your plants excluding high stretch strains . on that note many growers get lulled into a false sense of security because "it's just veg", yes your plant may just be growing but whats growing is going to eventually produce bud and it in return will reflect it.

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You know that may be a part of my problem. I veg with fluorescent lights 4 ft 6 bulb fixture but I keep the light between 15"-20" away from the tops of the girls. Being flouro lights I should probably keep it around 6" to get those tight nodes.

My expectations I would say to harvest between 225-250 grams dry consistently. Which to me sounds pretty reasonable for a single 400 watter

how much money have you spent on growing? just a rough figure. this is how i figure out yield. you have the potential to yield up to 600g off a 400w using various styles just take practice skill and alot of money spent along the way. but 200g for a 400w is pretty normal for someone who has been growing for about a year. maybe have a yield or 2 under your belt, just take practice. youll get there, hell my shit only recently started to be what people would consider "topshelf" and my yields, well, there good now but when i started i didnt do too bad either most of the time when i fucked up it would be because of heat or bugs. just learning to stay clean and on top of your shit is the best way to get bigger yields once you get the basics down.

I've been growing just over a year. I would say I've spent a good $1000 on my 2 400 watters.
2- lumatek ballasts ( dimmable downto 250w)
2- air cooled hoods
2- hortilux bulbs.

I have switched soils and nutes so much though ao I think I'm gonna dial in this fox farm line up until I see the right results.
Although I still contemplate switching back to hydro. I just need to get the equipment to monitor the ph, ec, ppm accurately and effectively. Everyone says hydro is harder but I feel like it would easier to control. It seems more pin point and easier to fix any minor problems that may accur. The only downside of course is the every day upkeep of the resivour.

your already well on your way to seeing big yields! i think im somewhere around the 15,000$ range total spent on equip, elec nute, ect. that masters are at like 30,000$+ spent on this shit pulling 2g per watt, hell im only now 1g per watt sometimes a little more, but its been almost 4 years of doing this and a lot of trial and error.

you really have to account for everything if you spent around 1000$ on lights you spent about 5x that all together

with flouros i keep them as close as possible remember those things don't pump out much heat at all for the first 3weeks i keep them 2-6" away depending on what i want to do. The closer the light is the more nodes you get, the farther the light is the more stretch you get you can combine the 2 and not ever have to top your plants and if your strains have good enough branching capability's the lower branches will go almost horizontal creating this natural shrub, it's definitely fun to play around with at the very least but try dropping those lights down compact those nodes and see what happens on your next harvest.

fresh air? co2? ppms? ph? i would drop the ff nutes, but thats just my opinion. there is better for the money out there, find what you like and stick with it.

rickymac21 said:

Hello fellow growers. I have been pondering why I my yields have been so low (actually spend hours a day) and I can't figure it out. I have tried everything from dwc, soil, smart pots, changing nutes etc. anything and everything I could think of and I still see little increase.
I have spent god knows how much money upgrading to the name brand products( lumatek, fox farm, co2 etc)

That being said, I was hoping there was an expert on here that knows a thing or 2 about the relationship between light penetration to the buds and yield.

Click to expand...

this should give you a good start
check the list and see what you think
sometime you have to go back to basics to find the problem

i will try to help you as much as i can


1 are you growing a high yielding strain ?

2 your footprint/room is just to big for a 400w it needs to be 3ftx3ft

3 if your using air-cooled lights you should be 8"-10" above your plants

4 you will get bigger yields from hydro system vs soil, i would use a bubble system, topped and lst would work well if you have the right strain

5 keep your temps between 25-30 lights on and 15-25c lights off

6 keep your humidity between 40-60 veg and 30-50 flower

7 good air circulation and lots of fresh air in and old air out

i dont see how spending $$$ = big yields

#1 thing to me for indoors is environment, and the biggest issue with that is keeping cool, so spend good money on that and you can save elsewhere like ferts, you dont need all that bs in can plant food

I use these http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202051870/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=plant+support&storeId=10051

But I use the 18" ones because I run 600w systems. I like these better than a SCROG for high yield because I can still move the plant around if I need to.

I lollipop and FIM when she is about 8" tall, veg for 2 weeks and then top at least 4 times, or super crop depending on the strain...and then veg for another week and flip them to 12/12. What I end up with is 24-30 inch Indicas that have between 8-12 colas inside each hoop, and 36-48 inch Sativas with 8-10 colas inside of it. I aim for a few less colas with Sativas because they grow taller and I don't pluck fan leaves, so I want the light to shine through.