Which is the best way to use 2 Mars 300's?

[AKgramma]

Need some opinions:

Next week my second mars300 Hydro will arrive. My inventory will include 2 Mars 300's and about 2 dozen or more 23 W CFLS in both daylight and soft white. I have 2 active 9 SF grow areas, one for veg and one for flower.

What is the best way to use the mars units?

Do I use them together, supplement with CFLs and use only CFLs in the other tent?

Or do I use one mars unit in each and supplement with CFLs to bring up to the required watts per square foot?

And if I should use them together, which tent will benefit the most?

In any combination, I will have to supplement with CFLs, so that is not an issue. I just want to get the most out of my new Mars units.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Mars 300 coverage is :growth 2'x2' bloom 1.5'x1.5',if you got two tent,you can use Mars unit in each tent with the CFLs.Mars 300 will provide more specific spetrum which plants needed.

 

[TorturedSoul]

So the two panels could provide adequate illumination in the flowering chamber for a space 1½'x3'. If used along the middle of that space, it would leave a strip that was ¾' (9") along the full length of two sides. That might work well, using your CFLs - perhaps at a ratio of three 2700K to one 6500K - to illuminate those sides. If you then notice that the growth and density of the buds along that 1½'x3' space is significantly more than what you observe on those two sides, you can always move the plants around occasionally if you wish to end up with all of them being approximately the same. That is assuming the plants are all from the same mother, of course... If you have some plants that appear as if they "want" more light than others, you may wish to move the 1½'x3' footprint over to one wall so that you have one side illuminated by the LEDs and the other side illuminated by the CFLs.

You do, of course, have other options. As the flowering footprint was stated to be 1½'x1½', and your space is 3'x3', you could divide the space into four smaller squares (draw a line down the middle and then one across the middle, so to speak) and then center one panel in the middle of each of two diagonally opposite squares. And then fill in the other two squares with CFLs.

Notice that nowhere above did I suggest using one of the LED panels in your vegetative growth area, lol. I would continue to use CFLs there - either all 6500K if you wish to keep the internodal spacing as short as possible, or a mix at a ratio of three of those to one 2700K (the opposite of the ratio I recommended you use to fill in the "extra" space in your flowering room) if you wish to allow a little bit more space between nodes.

I also did not suggest you add more LED panels because I know that you are not able to purchase more at this time. However, perhaps you - and your family - will notice a significant enough difference that they will buy you a couple more for Christmas or your birthday next year .

 

[AKgramma]

OK, then. Use both LEDs in the flower unit and go back to all CFLs in Veg. Check!

I can do that and achieve the correct watts per SF recommended by growers. It will require my relocating all the ladies, so that I don't have to move so many light cords again.

I have a lighting pattern figured out, that will adequately cover these three, and be ready for a couple more, after I harvest the one who is almost ready. I don't see that one needing more than a week or two, and will probably be ready for full harvest when the second unit comes in.

BTW, I think I will repost this topic in my journal. I dont think there is an easy way to do this, just copy n paste.