I have a basement that is relatively large but only 6 feet high. I was planning on getting 1000w HPS lights. How closely can i attach these lights to the ceiling without it becoming a safety concern? I understand that i am to keep the lights around 2 feet away from the plants if i am using 1000w HPS. If the light has to be a foot from the ceiling (just a guess without knowing the facts), then that means my plants can only grow 3 feet maximum from the ground.I am concerned i am not going to be able to achieve a decent harvest with this vertical restriction. I am planning on using training techniques to make the plants more bush-like, but in terms of my lights:What would be the best way to produce as much as possible while dealing with this problem? Is there a type of light that is ok to be closer to the plant? or closer to the ceiling? basically, are there any factors regarding lights that, given my situation, would allow me to grow a taller plant without compromising the quality of the plant?
If you run a cooled hood, you can get that 1k as close as about 8 or 9 inches away as long as the spread still covers the canopy. I would get the largest 8" cooled hoods I could find then run one 1k lamp for each 4 x 4 area I wanted to use for flowering.
You can hang your lights a couple of inches below the ceiling. Use an extra large Adjust-a-Wing and a proper extraction fan to counter the heat. Grow your plants in veg a couple of weeks (5-8 weeks) and construct a scrog at around 2-3 ft. Scrog your plants on the net and provide enough wind. The Adjust-A-Wing will devide the light across several square metres of growing space. I think you can fill up a nice scrog of 6ft by 6ft without much effort. You can top the 1g/W ratio easily when doing a scrog. (screen of green, look that term up!) You can keep your plants low and maximize your efficiency. a 1000W light will always penetrate deep into the canopy, so the lower buds will develop aswell. Go for it! And keep us updated with some pictures