Is there a Min/Max length between the light and plant? At what point does the light energy really fall off? I am basically trying to optimize the height of the plant and size while not starving the lower branches.
Ive always been told keep all light as close as you can without causing stress to the plant. We are imitating the sun, and plants require lumens, ive heard with even the best setups the sun is still 25x more grow output. This next part ive read on another post of another site somewhere: "The only difference is the height of your room at this point. A 1000w light has 4 feet canopy penetration, as a 600w has 3 feet of canopy penetration. With this said, indicas generally double in height, where as sativas are know to tripple in height in flowering. Knowing this, how tall can we grow? Ideally getting a plant to 16'' to 18'' for a 600w light as we know our plant will finish about 3' tall wasting no canopy penetration space/time vegging. And the same goes 20'' to 24'' for a 1000w, again as we know our plant will double in height making a 4' plant. Plants any taller than a lights canopy penetration is lost time and money. A 1000W light generally covers a 4' x 6' space where as a 600w covers a 3' by 5'. It comes to room size and utilization of light. Not how many watts to put into one space. Hope that helped some folks"
Thanks for the input. I figured due to the height of the ceiling, it was better to go with 2 600's than a single 1000. While a 1000 may have more penetration, I would think that you would lose some of that space just due to being too close to the plant.
I'm of limited experience bro, but from what I can tell so far, put them as close to the light as possible, without spiking the temps or RH. I use cool tubes, so mine can pretty much touch the case and be fine, but for a standard HID you probably want to keep them at least a few inches away.
No matter what light all the buds that matter are in the top two feet. it makes little sense to grow tall plants indoors as it just a waste. Regardless of strain, light of anything else you need to train plants to optimize light usage. I run 1.000's and still use LST.
The other day i was talkin to a guy who had his 1000w like 12-16 inches away. Shocked me, cuz my 600w is often 4-8 inches from the canopy without burning, but ive got fans and vent fans cooling things. 1000w as good as it gets imo, but ive grown some amazing plants with 600s. Found some ol pics last night of colas that were as big as soda cans and 2-3 ft long that i grew couple years ago.
Yep, another vote for 1kw'ers. Fucking thrilled that I'm getting 78-80f canopy temps in mid summer with 6" fans, at most I'm 8f above ambient
Is it showing up small for you, or do you mean that shows further distances? Honestly I dug er up on Google ^.^