Too Much Light ?

[Mike63]

Hi y'all. Long time grower outdoors forced to move indoors recently. I'd like to pick up on a couple of points, apologies if basic. mad5387, you have 16 plants, cull the males yes but why cull females unless you are light limited? Garden Knowm, 20in for sativa should be flowered? Outside I used to clip them if they were in danger of poking over the 6ft fence, only on a good UK summer though but 3ft was common. Quantity over quality yes. Indoors, I have 3ft sativa in pots, natural window light. They have small shoots at each fan leaf junction. They could continue vegitative growth but should I force them into 12:12 flowering? Put another way, why force flowering on a 20in sativa?

Mike63 Reviewed by Mike63 on 07-01-2006. Too Much Light ? I have 16 plants on day 2 of 12/12. Tallest is 20in (sativa). Soon down to 4-6best girls. Can The plants get too much light. I have 3x6x6 closet grow. Starting to flower with 6x40watt = 240watt flo = 18000. Plan to add 6 more for total 36000 lumens. Can I flower the entire time with this setup. I know a drawbact to flo is effeciency.The new growth is light colored and exploding. I like the 9 sets of leaves on the new growth. ( pic1,2 -sativa pic3,4 -indica. The indica grew 6 in in 2 days Rating: 5

[Garden Knowm]

Hi Mike,

great questions.. and there are no absolutes..
but here it goes..

Most cannabis plants will double, tripple and sometimes even increase in size by 5X's there vegetative size once flowering is induced (12/12 lighting). The younger a plant is forced into flowering, usually the more it will grow when flowered (proportional speaking of course).

A plant that is flowered at 4 inches tall may get 24 inches tall upon flowering(6 times taller).

Where as a plant that is 10 feet tall may only get 15 feet tall (.5 times taller) upon flowering.

So why flower at 20 inches.. strickly speaking of indoor gardens....
HID lights are nearly usless at more than 24 inches (unless you just want to shp at costco underneath them)... Every 12 inches these lights loose half of their GROWING power (lumens)... SO if you FLOWER a plant at 20 inches.. and it grows another 20 inches.. you now have a 40 inch tall plant... to adequately light a 40 inch tall plant you need lots of side lighting.

THAT being said.. many many people grow 10- 60 inch tall plants under 2 - 1000 watt HPS bulbs and harvest 3-5 ounces per plant... once every 3-5 months... it can be done.. it is just not the most effcient method of growing in my opinion...

I also come from a background of growing plants very very close together.. making it IMPOSSIBLE for any light.. even the SUN to penetrate more than 6 inches from the highest point in the canopy.

iloveyou

WHEW!!!!!!


BUT wait, there is MORE.. LOL

MAD is growing with FLUORESCENTS.. he should have flowered when the plants were 10 inches tall... Fluorescent have VERY VERY minimal penetration and must be kept DIRECTLY in the area of desired growth..

iloveyou

[Opie Yutts]

You can actually burn a plant with light, not heat, but I don't think it is possible with fluoros.

Should I or Can I line the walls with tubes. 20 tubes = 60k lumens.
I dont have HPS $$ now.

For the price of 20 tubes you can have HPS.

[Jdog7000]

Unless you have all those lights already.
Otherwise your waisting your money.
You could just buy an HPS.

[Opie Yutts]

I witnessed this "TOO MUCH LIGHT" scenario with 4 - 600 watt HPS bulbs that were used ina 4x6 grow room... the lights were kept about 8 inches from the plants...

Holy crap. I just re-read this. It's a wonder the plants didn't start oozing nutrients then burst into flame. This is an example of too much light.

[iwantFUEGO]

yea man you should be fine with what you have.
I got just one with 4 CFLs and shes doing great... very healthy so far.
Some will laugh at the idea of trying to flower a plant with 4 CFLs but we shall see how it goes. Many people have great yeilds with them.
PEace

[Jdog7000]

OK,well if you had enuogh co2 and nutes then that wouldn't be too much light.
But the heat would be a problem.
You will never match the intensity of the sun indoors.
There for never too much light.
Just a waist of light and electricity.

[mad5387]

Thanks ALL

Sweet Leaf Dreams

[Opie Yutts]

You will never match the intensity of the sun indoors.
There for never too much light.
Just a waist of light and electricity.

I'd like to have a disagreement. Plants that get too much light shut down or reduce respiration and transpiration.

[9mmpistl]

Ive read in more than a few places that the suns intensity is equivelent to 20,000 lumens per square foot, if true, you can easily double that with hps bulbs prolly triple, talk about nugs