How Can I Improve my Indoor Lighting?

[Medical Marijuana]

I follow the thesis of UV's importance in potency, proven by my preference for outdoor pot properly cared for under optimal conditions to the same strain grown indoors under optimal conditions. High blue spectrum output, including some UV and near UV, relative to red spectrum output is necessary to achieve complete potential. My thoughts on environmental conditions impact on sexual disposition demonstrate the more favorable enviromental conditions, the more females nature wants in that location. Poor environmental conditions encourage male offspring in the hopes that their pollen will be carried off to the nice place where all the ladies are. I have found seedlings started under 7500K light along with my strict environmental control to increase female turnout ratio on a consistent basis. All this has me interested in testing out the new 1100 watt metal halide from Sunmaster as a potential replacement for my current setup. It provides greater PAR output than anything else you can plug in a 15 amp circuit along with significant blue spectrum and UV output to increase female turnout and THC levels.

[jackhammermik]

And speaking about PAR…I have a question on spectral distribution…I agree with you ***** and only want the best for my plants so… I have two links to show you. Which bulb do you think will be best?

EYE Hortilux BLUE
EYE Hortilux Super HPS
The reason I ask this is that the light kit that I am going to get is a
Powerhouse
Growzilla
2000 Watt Dual Bulb
Agrosun Gold Metal Halide
EYE Hortilux HP Sodium
Plant Grow Light System
Powerhouse Growzilla Radiant Dual MH/HPS Plant Grow Lights by Hydrofarm at Home Harvest Garden Supply

I think, depending on your thoughts, I might ask them to swap bulbs.

[ReelBusy]

LED lights?
Good or bad?

[bigman151]

Is a combo of 70w hps with a few cfl good or bad

[prosmoke]

does anyone know where i can buy a cheap lumen meter?

[chargedbird]

Quick couple of questions for the 400W metal halide (MH) lamp.

1. I have a cheap reflector without any glass, its just on open reflector, how far above the plant should this reflector be?

2. I went from florescent to metal halide (MH) and noticed more heat, so what would be the max temp the plant should be exposed to?

Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

[chargedbird]

bump

[Screwnuts33]

Charged,
Start with the light about 18" from the top of the tallest plant. Hold your hand over the top of the plant with the light on and the back of your hand toward the light. If the light is hot on your hand it is too close/hot for the plant. If you can't comfortably hold your hand there for 30 seconds raise the light. If you can't raise the light tie down the plant.

[aero420]

In an effort to improve my grow, as well as cut down on electrical consumption, I recently upgraded my lights and changed the approach a little.
I have a separate veg and flower area, both are 6 x 6 with 8 foot ceilings. The wall along the door has 1 foot of clear floor, the rest of the room is the "plant area", which is a 12" raised platform for that's piped for drainage. So basically, the plant area is 5' x 6' and I have about 6' of vertical room with the lights fully raised. Originally I had 4 400w MH fixtures for the veg room, and 4 1000w air-cooled HPS for flower. Both lights were the core and coil style ballast. (HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM)

Now, in the veg room I have (5) 4' x 8 bulb T5 fixtures. There are two fixtures hung from the ceiling that have all blue bulbs. Each wall around the back and sides of the grow platform has a fixture mounted on the wall horizontally, about a foot above the platform, with a 50/50 mix of red and blue bulbs. I think providing a more complete spectrum is better, and the lower and side branches are already thanking me for the change. I rotate my pots to try to even out the "side" exposure, since the "front" side is not lit. I am going to play around with the mixture of bulbs, but thats were I started. With MH, I ran 18/6, now I run 20/4. The reduction in temp was unbelievable. With the MH lights, I had my exhaust fan set to come on when the room got to 78 degrees, and that was with only 4 400 W MH lights. Now, I had to set the exhaust fan on a timer cause the room was only getting to about 74 degrees(ambient is consistently 72). I had to add a ceramic heater to get it up to around 76-78. In the flower room, I replaced my 4 1000w HPS fixtures with 4 600 watt fixtures with Galaxy Digital Ballast. In addition, I installed 3 T5 fixtures on the wall, just like in the veg room, with a 50/50 mix of bulbs too. I think the 600 with digital ballast are brighter than the 1000w I use to have. It may be in my head but I am pretty sure they are. The lights in the flower room were air cooled before so the temp change was minimal, but the addition of the blue and red fluorescent light from the side/below has done wonders for bud production on side branches, especially on a few sativa's I have done since the change over.

I am in the process of changing the platforms slightly as well. Previously they drained into Rubbermaid, which I carried to the sink. I got an up-flush toilet pump and am in the process re-plumbing the platform so it drains to the pump.( I don't know if that's gonna work or not yet) I built this set up about 3 years ago when I switched from Aeroponics to organic soil. At the time, I topped the platforms with 1/4" expanded metal for drainage, which is raised about an 1" above a sheet of 3/8" plywood, covered in linoleum, and tilted for drainage. The expanded metal was killing my hands, knees and containers. I am replacing that with the smooth variety of expanded metal, which I never knew about. I am also replacing the plywood/linoleum with 1/2 acrylic plastic, cause the wood is not holding up.(Big Surprise) As soon as I get that done I will shoot some pics and post them.
I am also looking forward to starting a journal as well. I have some F-13 clones coming in a week or two and am thinking about trying to multi-harvest them, so I am looking for feedback on that as well if anyone has done it.
Overall, I was hoping to lower my electrical consumption, which I did, as well as increase the spectrum of light offered to the plants, which I am still trying to fine tune. On a side note, I recently started playing with some of the auto-flower hybrids, and the 20/4 light cycle in the veg room, along with the mixed bulbs works great with those. I just put them in the "sweet spot" in the corner so they get blue from above and red/blue from the sides and 20/4 light, and they seem to do well.

Good Growing to all