Is this lighting sufficient?

[kennebbiss]

I have 3 3x3x6 tents. One has a 250w metal halide light with a digital ballast. The other two have 250w high pressure sodium lights also with digital ballasts. I am using four five-gallon SmartPots in each tent. I am keeping the tent with the MH bulb in permanent vegetation and I am flowering in the other tents after cuttings establish proper roots. I am using a ratio of 9:5 Pro-Mix to Happy Frog grow medium and feeding them only liquid organic nutrients. The temperature of the tents is about 75 degrees with the lights on without the use of fans. There is an open vent at the top of the tent for ventilation but without the use of a fan.

Do you feel that this set-up is adequate and that the results will yield good results?

[mscaboo]

in a 3x3 tent i would be running atleast a 400 watt light....ideal would be a 600 watt.those 250 will work ok i guess,you are going to want to keep the plants pretty short as the penetrating power of the 250's is going to be weak

[kennebbiss]

Any estimates as to what it would yield? The previous method included a 432 watt 8 light t5 system with 3000k and 7000k tubes. The plants were in a twelve (3") pod aeroponic system situated in a 2x4x5 tent using BC Nutrients "Recipe for Success" kit and I would say it yielded approximately 1 oz per plant. This time the total power is 750 watts so do you think it will yield substantially more than the last setup?

[bobjob4u]

in a 2x4x5 using 500 watt of mh,hps,cfl With 20 autoflowers . Good one, A person could get close to a pound. Have seen this done with royal queen royal auto's in 62 days. But light is very important when it comes to yeild, but so are other factors

[kennebbiss]

Do you think 750 watts of total power is sufficient for 12 plants?

[bronc76]

I am running 1000w hps with only 14 in two eb and flow systems and have been getting close to 2oz per plant dry with a 5 to 7 week veg time. Ive always been told lumens = yield so the more you give them the more they will give you. Hope this helps. :rasta:

[kennebbiss]

I have one issue with MH and HPS in that I seem to get much closer branching of nodes with the T8. Why does it seem that I'm getting too much stretch and flimsier plants with the HIDs. The light is relatively close so it doesn't burn the plants. I don't have it as close obviously as I did with the T8's but there was a substantial difference in the thickness of the stems. So far I would have to say the T8's seem superior. I had 40,000 lumens with 432 watts whereas the 250 watt MH as about 20,000 and the 250 HPS has about 32000 lumens. I mean it was only 8,000 more lumens than the HPS though even at half power with half the tubes off I was getting much better growth with the T8 system. I'm hoping this improves with flowering where the HPS really is supposed to shine. What do you guys make of this?