Ive been looking at a lot of peoples grows for a long time on many different sites. I have come to the conclusion people who grow with 200 watts have very nice outcome, very nice yeild and very nice potency, compared to 700 watters, which is virtually an identical grow. Ive been lurking atleast 15 different grows for a while ( may not seem like a lot, but it really is a shit load) and I cant help but feel the wattage does not matter unless you are comparing 10 watts to 1000 watts. This is coming from someone who has never grown full plants and harvested them, but all the information I have retained from peoples grows gave me this impression. And I cant help but believe its true. Right now I'm just looking for someone to prove me wrong because I really don't want to be walking around with knowledge that is not true. And please, spare me the "yeah man its true" and "dude 700 is wayy better than 200" type of posts. I need knowledge here, not blind reinforcements.
There are many factors that play a part in overall yield. You can't isolate just the wattage and dismiss everything else. The comparison is false unless the 2 growers had total identical skill level and grew the same strains from the same mother plant with same exact environment, etc. With that being said, with all other variables being equal yield is directly proportional to wattage. The more the better.
So you could grow on 50 watts until its time for the buds to start growing, and then place a 500 watt?
In theory yes, but that ratio isn't the best. Imo it's good to have at least 25% of your flowering wattage allocated to veg. So if you flower under a 1000 watt hps you would want at least 250 watts for vegging. That's just a general rule, hardly anyone goes by it, but it gives a good generalized number. This is what I do personally. Start seedlings or clones under low wattage CFLs, under 75 watts total. After about a week I move them under a 150 watt HPS, once they outgrow that (usually about 2-3 weeks), I add an additional 150 watt HPS. They finish veg with those 2 lights, then I switch to 1000 watt HPS and induce flowering.
That sounds like a good plan. How does that affect your electric bill? I dont think my whole house runs on more than 1000 watts of electricity hahaha
Didn't change it that much because when I started using the 1000 I also started conserving energy as much as possible throughout the rest of my house.
Since you seem pro, I have this other thread that is unanswered maybe you could help? Question 1: I have 2 baby plants, 1 has a very thick stem and is about 5 days old, the other one is like 2 1/2 weeks old and its stem is skinnier than the new one. I have reason to believe they are the same strain but not sure. Is there usually a reason for a younger plant to be way thicker than an older plant? Question 2: I heard about some plants being 11 to 20 feet tall. How common is this? I really really dont want to top my plant, but if they are going to be taller than my ceiling, I guess I must. Input?
I'm not pro, haha. Just have done a lot of research. The seedlings you have may be different strains, or one is just a much better plant overall in health. Some plants are just runts and there's nothing you can do to change it. Lots of variables. Plants can get to around 20 feet outdoors, yeah. That doesn't matter to indoor growers though. Almost every strain can be grown indoors and kept short enough to not cause problems. Sometimes you need to top/lst/scrog if you want to grow big bushy plants and keep height down. Also if you flower as soon as you see pre flowers they will likely not get very tall unless it's a heavily sativa dominant strain. Even then it won't get anywhere near 10 feet if you flower as soon as possible (e.g., when pre flowers first appear).
theres so many diffrent things that change yield... soil, tempature, water, nutes, training, genetics, how old it is ( veg time)., ventelation if you have more watts than the lumens penetrate further into the canopy meaning less popcorn buds.. obv 200w willl get you a nice garden but 700w will just increase yield by % i have grown 200w grows with cfls and 700w grows with cfls and the 700w beat it bigtime... ive also done a 150w hps plus a 50w cfl and a 600w hps plus a 100w cfl and the 700w setup owned the 150w hps setup
1)Plants do get a nutrient lock (if ph is wrong ) and as result they might stop growing as they should . 2) The longer you veg (18/6 Light/darkness) the bigger they become.During the flowering plants WILL double-triple in size , so if your plant Is 1ft tall by the and of 18/6 expect it to grow as high as 4ft by the end of 12/12.... If plants are getting out of control use supercroping (bending stem until its snaps and then moving it back to the original position