Lighting Tips

alright I am going to try and give you guys quick tips about lighting I already covered a huge amount of tips in the: Commonly Asked Questions & Answers. selction of http://www.simplyhydro.com/ so I will try to not cover the same stuff in there or at least not as indepth of answers.

1. T-5 Flourescent bulbs: I love t-5 bulbs. they are awesome for seedlings and growth stages, while I do not personally like them for use in he bloom stage it can be done, but you DO NOT want to use all red bulbs. In order to keep the plants at there best health you want to use a 2 blue (6500K) to 1 red (3000K). T-5's do not produce the same amount of heat as the HID (high intensity Discharge).

2. 6500 kelvin is growth spectrum (blue), 3000 kelvin is bloom (red).

3. Seedlings do not need high light levels they cannot even see light until they have there first set of leave. Once they have leaves you want to keep them under low light level like the compact flourescents or T-5's, you can use the smaller Metal Halide but keep in mind t-5 and compact flourescents run a lot cooler then the MH. Putting the seedlings under to big a light or to much light will burn them they will die.

4. How high should the light be? this one is easy. your room should be around 75 degree's with this in mind this is how high your light should be per lamp size. Agrosun flourescents (T-12) style bulbs should be kept 2 to 4 inches off the top of the plant, T-12 do not have much light output the farther away the bulb is from the plant the more stetching you will see in the plant. Compact flourescents (the ones that twist and bend) these good grow compact flourescents usually come in a couple sizes 125 Watt, 150 Watt, 200 Watt these produce more heat then the T-12 agrosun bulbs and cost more but they have way more light lumens spectrum and output. The compact flourescents need to be kept 1 foot to 1 1/2 feet off teh top of the plant canopy or they will sunburn the plant causing permenant tissue damage. T-5 should be about 1 ft to 1 1/2 feet from th etop of the plants. 100 watt up to 250 watt HID lights need to be kept around 1 ft off the top of the plant canopy. 250 watt to 400 watt around 1 1/2 feet.

"A quick tip in between: you get 4 times more light output every foot you are able to drop you light and still keep the plant canopy at 75% no higher. So air cooling your lights allows you to get the light closer without damaging your plants. "

okay back to how high lets see 600 watt lights should be around 2 ft to 3 feet. 1000 watt should be around 3 feet or above. This is a rule in thumb and the cooler your lights run the closer you can get them.

6. How much light should I use for my area? you need to figure out watts per square foot. do not worry it is easy take the size of the room you are going to light up ex: a 4x4 ft area 4x4=16, now lets take a 1000 watt light and divide it by 16, that would be 62.5 watts per sqaure foot. That is a great watt per square foot coverage. Rule of Thumb you do not want below 35 watts per square foot you are not going to get good growth at all.

7. Sometimes you want to put more light in a area then you are able to cool. this is bad if you are not able to keep your room at (avg) 75 degrees yo are going to hurt your yeild. each degree over 75 degrees hurts your over all yeild 5 to 10%. Also you need to keep your night time temp and day time temp within 5 drgrees of each other. SO, you are better off making your room smaller and going with less lights then allowing your room to over heat.

8. How often should I change my bulbs: Flourescents 6 months to year, MH every 8 months, HPS at least once a year. if you do not replace the bulbs this often or more they will loss spectrum output and usable light. these bulbs will work for year and NOT give off proper light needed for best growth and yeild. yes high pressure sodiums (HPS last longer the MH or compact flourescents.

okay as I come up with more stuff I did not already cover in this blog post or Simply's Most Commonly Asked Questions & Answers. which I also wrote I will post them in lighting tips part 2.