How should i light my plants?

[Skill333]

So, where i live, energy is a wapping .79 per kWh... so how would you suggest i give my plants the light they need? i'll be growing 2-3 white widow plants, and wish the get the biggest yeild (obviously ) and i'm just curios on how you guys think i should run it, i was thinking of using 400 watt bulbs, but with this running 12-18 hour s day, my electricity will jump up 100-150$ a month if i'm correct, and that will cause a red flag in my opinion, and for that price of electricity i might as well just buy my buds thanks guys!

 

[Skill333]

So i've found a dimmer i could purchase, that would bring the lights down to 150w, would that be ok to have a 150Watt MH bulb for vegitation process and 150Watt hps for flowering stage? note, i would have 2-3 plants at around 4 feet tall. Or should i scratch this method and go with SOG?

 

[Skill333]

anyone?

 

[Outragedpluto]

When it comes to lighting the more the better. ( to a point that is). I found that my 400 watt was sufficient in lighting up a space for 5 medium plants. That is only 2-3 feet tall. And running my light only cost me $40 a month roughly. If your worried that the electric company will rat you out, don't. Just pay your bill and they could care less if your bill jumped a few hundred dollars. They want you to use power so you have to pay them lol. But the dimmer is a great choice to get your plants started since they don't need as much light at a young age. But the amount of light directly relates to your bud output. Hope this helps!!!


And welcome the the forums. You should head over to the introduce yourself section and get your name out there. Hopefully more will be by to help!!
Be safe and keep it green my friend!!!

 

[labexperiment]

OH! GLR, Gas Light Routine. Using a timer run your light under the GLR. This method is quite simple: 12 hours of light, followed by five and one half hours of darkness, a single hour of light exactly, and then a second period of five and one half hours of darkness. Placing a full hour of light in the very center of a 12-hour dark period tricks the plant and interrupts the buildup up of sensitive floral hormones, which would normally trigger flowering by destroying them. The grower simply raises the plants to the desired size before switching to the fall schedule to bloom.

Using this method, vegetative duration may be also reduced, and with a shorter growth cycle comes more frequent and better production. Vegetative cycles can be shortened by one to two weeks, and flowering may also be shortened a week or more using this method in con- junction with a diminishing light schedule.

For patients growing their own medicine or for compassionate cannabis providers, production turnover may be increased from four to five crops per year or more using rotation, and power consumption can be reduced even further by the use of high-intensity fluorescent lighting during vegetation, and overall, power consumption savings can be 50 percent or more.


Found this info HERE

Hope this help, good luck.

P.S. I have also read some are using 2 hours of light in the middle.

 

[David Bowman]

P.S. I have also read some are using 2 hours of light in the middle.

Excellent summary labexpirement! BTW, I've never heard that before. Since we know that one hour works, I wonder why one would want to increase energy use by increasing the nighttime interruption. What I'd really like to know is how small of a light interval is necessary to sufficiently halt the flowering process that we know occurs within one hour.

 

[labexperiment]

Excellent summary labexpirement! BTW, I've never heard that before. Since we know that one hour works, I wonder why one would want to increase energy use by increasing the nighttime interruption. What I'd really like to know is how small of a light interval is necessary to sufficiently halt the flowering process that we know occurs within one hour.

From all I have read 1 hour is the bare minimum, I suspect some go to 2 hours for fear of herm(just an opinion based on human psychology).

 

[Skill333]

Thank you guys so much! hopefully i can get a few plants going within the next month or two! thanks alot

 

[labexperiment]

Good luck.

OH! and welcome to 420Mag.

 

[KingJohnC]

If you are paying such a high price for your electricity you should consider using LED lights for your grow. I have been testing and reviewing a Lush Lighting Dominator 2x and am very pleased with how well it vegetated plants similarly to a Metal Halide light and I am 33 day in flower and am seeing very similar pistil and calyx development as I would normally see when using a High Pressure Sodium light. If you do decide to use LED lights they would also help greatly with the amount of heat you will otherwise generate and have to cool or exhaust.

Here is an advertisement from Lush Lighting for the Dominator 2x, the energy savings would mean a lot more to you when paying .79 per kWh