Light

[mosin]

Hi all, this might seem a silly question but this is my first grow and I'm a little worried, my plant looks nice n healthy but its got big and the lights I'm using no longer reach every leaf on my plant ( the bottom ones ) and I'm wondering if this might be a problem?, I'm about a week into flowering my ph lvl is good and my plant is about 4 - 5 foot, its only the one plant as its my first one i didn't want to over do it and try making a forest but i don't after looking after it for nearly 3 months want it to die or any thing. Also i cant seem to find any indication on it is female or male, i know its only a week into flowering so the sex is not to much of a worry as i know it can some times take more than a week of 12 / 12 to show its sex. I will upload a few photos once i have sorted my phone out ( broke atm ). Any help is much appreciated. Thanks Mosin

 

[elious]

Hey hey hey!! Welcome to 420magazine! So what I do for light penetration is something called defoiliation. You basically take off the big fan leaves from the middle to the top and don't worry about the ones on the outside because you only have one plant. This is one of the most controversial topics in the weed growing world. To de-leaf or not to de-leaf... I am new to the indoor grow scene but it has done me pretty well so far. As for the sex, give it a little more time. I'm growing blue cheese and it showed flower in a week exactly but they're clones. From seed may take a bit longer. I know it takes a while outdoors but that's to be expected for obvious reasons. I'm sure you're to have several replies and the people here are helpful and courteous. Again, welcome to 420magazine!

 

[KarlJay]

On my 1st grow I didn't remove any of the lower branches not even the small ones. After harvesting them, I realized that they really didn't add up to much.

This time I'm taking at least a few of the plants and removing the small lower branches.

They say when you remove the lower small branches, more growth energy goes into the main bud sites. instead of being wasted on the small branches.

The prime light area for HPS lights is about 36" and if you have the light about 18" from the plant, that gives you 18" of prime light.

You can add side lights or use drop down CFL lights to get light to the lower areas.

 

[Rodrigo]

I agree, there's always that controversy.
I for one chose to do some defoliation, but not too much, after all it is the leaves that provide the energy (less leaves = less energy = less/smaller buds)but I also added several (seven) CFL bulbs to hang in the foliage and this provides a lot of light to every corner of mi plants and the buds are thriving everywhere and my yield has gone up by about 35-50%. The power bill goes up a little but not enough to matter.
This worked for me.

Good luck and happy growing!

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

The square law of light effect basically means the greater the distance of the source of light equals less light energy at distance...


This may mean your lower bud sites will be more popcorn fluff & less density...

Such is growing a medium sized bush under hps... some what old school method !



Defoliation around the 21 day mark in flowering cycle will improve light penertration to lower branches & can improve yield by X %, which can be applyed to many grow sytles...

Others may use LST training normally trained with in the veg period for optimal results which can help form a lower canopy, greater area of bud sites & better light penertration, some may include topping to form more cola bearing sights these are all methods of super cropping to improve yield !



Sexing of plant grown from seed may take upto or around 2 weeks tho

 

[mosin]

ok cool thanks all, ill try takin a few leafs off n ill add a couple of lights at the sides ASAP ( well will wait till tomorrow now though as she is asleep for the night now ) Thanks all

Mosin