For a given flux, many light sources will penetrate more than a single one, because you'll be able to fool the plant phototropism. Thats why many "serious" grower use rails to move their HPS. That said, some talk about distance and inverse square law, but they obviously forget one thing: your walls are covered with mylar and as such reflect nearly all the light... If you have two 600W HPS, you wont run them at the same spot, will you? You'll spread them in order to have a more constant illumination. More spots = less shadow. The distance between the plants and the lamp is irrelevant. Most of the talk about penetration is bullshit but the concept still exists. Now if one is unable to understand the meanings... just let him go.
Swami, is ur name after the surf spot in san diego? Encinitas i think? Sorry dont mean to go off topic, just curious.
I used to surf a little in San Diego, but mostly just north of Santa Cruz until an acquaintence got munched by a great white. It was a nickname given to me because at times I have appeared prescient, but mostly it is by induction. The other night I was playing racquetball and told several people that one of two people was going to get hurt on court by the other. Five minutes later one of the two took a nasty shot to the eye by the other and had to go to the hospital. Not psychic, just reading the signs.
Spoiler alert, penetration is a nebulous but observable concept, and anyone who's grown under various lights has seen its effects. It doesn't have to fall into the same category as a scientific measurement like lumens to be significant. So before you hop up on a soapbox about something so silly, maybe you could, by induction, decide whether it's worth its own thread?
This "Penetration" you speak of is not bullshit, its physics. Even with the SUN the buds at the top are bigger/denser than bottom (popcorn) buds. Its really a matter of how you treat/train your plants to avoid getting those airy almost weightless nugs. I do think that most people underestimate the power of various lighting options tho.
Really? How many penetratons does your light put out? A property that cannot be clearly defined nor measured does not fall under physics. $1000 says the responded to poster never graduated college-level physics.
lol, this is entertaining. It's clearly obvious which people have grow weed before vs. those that would rather spend time theorizing about it. Reminds me alot of the guys that always chime in and say 'but plants don't use lumens, they use par radiation, photons...blah, blah,blah lumen are how bright humans percieve the light..(ad nauseam). You can tell me about PAR rating of lights all day....mean while, I'll be growing some weed. I'm pretty sure btw, if I was to major in physics, there wouldn't be a single class on growing weed. *popcorn*
That is all very well, but the knowledge about growing weed was borrowed from growing similar plants and that knowledge came about partly from trial and error and a good deal from science. Lighting, hydroponics, proper nutrients - you discovered all of these? Of course not. You ride the shoulders of those who put time into understanding what is going on. Without understanding, progress is slow and erratic.
I can give you the light penetration factor of my six hundred watt hps ...three feet then buds really won't grow...the whole reason growers worry about penetration is the upper canopy is thick and thus light cannot penetrate it to really fatten up the lowers...it's not silly...I can take a picture of it In the morning if you need me to..anyone whOse ever had popcorn buds knows this.
Usually when one goes pointing fingers they have 3 more pointing back at them and creating fallacies shows the miniscule intelligence of the OP. If light cannot be measured what about light years and light intensity? These CAN be measured, have you ever heard of a Lux Meter? How about instead of resorting to adhominem attacks you discuss the facts instead of acting like an immature 12 year old?!
Why did you graduate college with a physics degree? You are way over thinking it..it's actualy very simple..
A lux meter measures photon density. Nowhere will you read that as 'penentration'. Nice try come back later.
I'm still trying to figure out the point of this thread. Seems like you just want to argue physics with a bunch of growers. Physics is cool and all, and the way light travels is cool and all, but there's a ton of other aspects about growing. Please clarify the point of this thread, cuz it's starting to get kinda sassy. When ppl start arguing rather then considering the other person's point of view then it all becomes a waste of time.
I read every post in this thread and there seems to be no consensus on what exactly "penetration" is. So how do we define penetration? I always assumed that "penetration" was more of a slang term meaning, the amount of light that is hitting the plant, in other words, if a leaf is in the way of a bud site and is shading said bud site, I'm like to cut that leaf off to increase "penetration". 8 CFL's around a plant versus those same 8 CFL's above it, the circle array offers more "penetration". I never thought of it as a measurable unit, there are no "penetrons" to speak of, its just a matter of whether or not the light is hitting where YOU want it to be hitting.