Just found this site today. I have taken inside my 8 plants I grew outside in eastern PA. I don't think they are ready to harvest so I want to use a hps agro light on them to get them to finish flowering. I found a place in my basement that is 3' by 2.5' and 4' tall. I have a need to hide them from my twenty something daugther who is living with me. So I was hoping not to have to use a fan or anything that will make noise and call attention to where the plants are. Is there a big heat difference between a 430 agro hps and a 250 agro hps? I am also wondering about the difference of the height difference to the tops of the plants. With only 4' of height it might not be smart to use the 430 hps since I have seen at some sites the need to put a 430 hps bulb 2-3 feet from the plants. I suppose I could bend back the tops and use chicken wire or some kind of netting that would make the plants shorter. If the 250 hps is enough lite then I would rather go with it so maybe I can get away with no fans or venting. I want to get my lights fast as I now have my shop light shining in on the plants. What would you suggest for the amount of light compared to darkness. I am thinking that these plants would have been ready to harvest in about two weeks before I dug them up as the weather was going to a near frost with 7" of rain the other day. Right now I have the light on 12 hrs a day. I was also wanting to clone/regenerate if this is still possible at this stage of the game. Thanks for any advice you may be able to give me!
Any HID light is gonna be bright as hell. You'll have to lightproof either way to hide it. From what I understand, if you do everything exactly right in a grow, the best yield you're gonna get is 1 gram per watt. I haven't even come close to that and I'm on my 3rd grow. I'm hoping for 10oz (280g) from a 400w light this time. I'll let you know how it goes. So thinking about that, you may want to then consider how well you'll be able to cool the area. If you have really good ventilation, you can go higher wattage, cause you can get rid of the heat. If it's so-so, or you're having to hide it so you don't want too many huge fans, maybe stick w/ a 400w. Also, cloning and revegging at this stage.....cloning could be done, but it'd be considered tricky cause it'd take a lot longer to root then if you'd taken the clones in veg. Re-vegging would work, but it can be very stressful on the plant, and in the time it'd take you might be able to grow one out from seed again and start w/ a fresh, unstressed plant. Just my .02.