Supplemental Far Red Timing

[Dusted]

I grow under 1000 W MH for veg and flower. Since I had an extra light and ballast sitting around I hung it as well. I will be using a HPS bulb in this lamp, probably set to 450 W to supplement the spectrum during flowering. Should I run it 12/12 with the MH or only run it for 3-4 hours in the morning and evening to simulate far red exposure in the wild?

 

[Dusted]

I think I will supplement for 3 hrs first thing in the morning and 3 hrs in the evening. I would like to hear from @TorturedSoul @Emilya @Pennywise since they usually have interesting input. Maybe I should have put this in the lighting section.

 

[Emilya Green]

I think I will supplement for 3 hrs first thing in the morning and 3 hrs in the evening. I would like to hear from @TorturedSoul @Emilya @Pennywise since they usually have interesting input. Maybe I should have put this in the lighting section.

I ran both MH and HPS together for a number of years and had great results with them, but I would make the following suggestions. Since the far red input you are looking for is not necessary for 3 hours in the morning and evening, I would shorten that up a bit to maybe an hour or so, and I would add a time slot around their noon hour to run both lights to simulate the brightest time of the day in nature. Running the second light for 6 of the 12 hours of light, would provide quite a bit of extra photoactivity.

 

[Dusted]

Thanks Emilya. You are right that 3 hrs morning and night is too much. Thinking about it I have decided to try:
1 hr 600 W HPS
10 hrs 1000 W MH
1 hr 600 W HPS
This should help stimulate flowering with twice daily far red. It seem closer to nature with low intensity red light in the morning and evening and high intensity wide spectrum during the day. Something just seems lacking with straight MH and I hate the monochromatic yellow of HPS lamps as a single light source. I can see that eventually I will have to get some LED’s but they are still too pricey for what I want