Adding more light,

[Farmer Stealth]

All things being equal, if you go from 600w to 1200w in a grow area how much increase in plant size and harvest size might you expect to realize? Double?
I've been using 1 600w for a 3x5 grow area, if I ad another 600w should I stay with the 3x5 area? I have room to go to approx a 3x12 area with plenty of hight.
Any opinions?

 

[Homebrewer]

A 600 should easily yield a pound. I say hang them side-by-side illuminating a larger area, two 3x5 areas perhaps? With 12 feet, you could even move to three 600's if you wanted.

 

[Farmer Stealth]

Just thinkin' bout mabey adding a 2nd 600 over a 3x8 area and trying for 8 good size girls. I kinda' like trees. : )

 

[Farmer Stealth]

Any other opinions?

 

[supermanlives]

i use 2 600s in a 4x4 in one area.love it . i dont grow bigger plants just more of em.its my test tent. if you want bigger plants get bigger lights. having 2 600s dont allow taller plants unless you go verticle. it just covers the area better. long as i get 33 i stop counting after. last run with sb was pathetic . i plan on turning it all into hash. i will be the guy in a kayak with the sweet smell trailing me

 

[señorsloth]

2 600's would be good side by side in a 3X6 foot area or as supermanlives suggests 2 in a 4X4 area would also work, the best basic footprint for one 600w lamp is 3X3 feet. basically you want to divide the watts by square feet, and you want to stay in a range of 50 to 75 watts per square foot.

you may want to be careful, you mention you are growing in a 3 by 5 foot space with a 600w...that is way too much space to cover with one small light! it would take about 1000w to get your 3X5 foot space up to an acceptable level of light. i say you must be careful because your getting low on light, around 40w per square foot, it's not too terribly bad, but your plants would certainly benefit from a lot more light per foot(they would definitely be a lot denser!). if you get much lower than the levels you are at you may start to see buds stretching and getting excessively fluffy, and can cause enough stress to form male flowers.

as for plant size...that's not really up too the light, lumens don't add, so putting 2 600w lights right next to each other wont mean brighter light, and YOU need brighter light,lol, but you get that by putting the light closer to the plant, making the footprint of light smaller, so you have the same amount of lumens over a smaller space, but more space to add a second light next too it, in that way you end up strengthening lumens all over, even though you technically don't have any more lumens than you already did. adding additional lamps don't double the amount of light, it doubles the amount of space you can cover. therefore the plants growth rate wont increase by adding another light, you can just add more plants, or, if you choose, veg longer for bigger plants. for you however, since you have such low light already you will probably see much more growth if you were to keep your grow almost the same size (3X6 is perfect!) but adding another light. i would guess your plants are probably a little tall and stemmy, by getting up to that magic 66 watts per square foot you will end up with much more dense growth, less space between nodes. longer, thicker, denser buds.

personally i prefer to grow as many small plants as i can possibly fit in a space with no veg at all but to each their own, if growing big bushes works for you then go for it, but if you aren't pulling at least 8-10 zips off the one light you have you may want to do some more research on different grow styles.

 

[joe fresh]

personally i would go with the whole 12 feet, use 4ft to veg with a 400w and 8ft to flower with 2 600w

 

[softyellowlight]

as for plant size...that's not really up too the light, lumens don't add, so putting 2 600w lights right next to each other wont mean brighter light

This is absolutely completely ludicrous stoner lore you are passing off on the unsuspecting, dude! Adding more lighting MAKES THINGS BRIGHTER, PERIOD.

 

[Homebrewer]

This is absolutely completely ludicrous stoner lore you are passing off on the unsuspecting, dude! Adding more lighting MAKES THINGS BRIGHTER, PERIOD.

I think he means that when hung above the plants, the canopy penetration of two lights vs one light is not improved which means you cannot grow taller plants, which is correct.

 

[softyellowlight]

Except that's not right. Light "penetration power" does not exist. There is only brightness, and for obvious reasons, we have multiple-lamp fixtures in our daily lives: I assure you they would not exist if they were not brighter than fixtures with a single lamp of the same type.

Light is streams of photons. If a lamp puts out a certain amount of light, two of those lamps puts out twice as much of that light. There is no other possibility, because otherwise where would that extra energy go?

 

[Homebrewer]

Light "penetration power" does not exist.

The intensity of light observed from a source of constant intrinsic luminosity falls off as the square of the distance from the object (The inverse square law).

In lamens terms; a 1000 will still fall off just as quick as a 400, but it sure helps to start with more initial lumens in regards to 'penetrating the canopy'. This can be observed with a light meter.

 

[Farmer Stealth]

Thanks for the input y'all, and the lively debate, LOL!

Like I said.
The closet is 5'x10', I've been using a 3'x5' section at one end as the grow area. I've tried to keep the plants close together as long as possible under the light, heres a few pics of my last grow.













I guess I'm really only using a 3'x4' area for most of the grow because there is a circulation fan directly to the left of most those pics till the last 3-4 weeks. So I guess now I'm wondering if I get a second 600w would it be better to just add it to my current area but add the one foot, (I could come up with a diff location for a fan), or I could turn it sideways and run a 3'x6' area. If I turn it that will only leave me 2ft walking room on the 6' side.
Best to concentrate 1200w on a 3'x5' or spread out 3'x6'+?

Agian, thanks for the responces everyone.
Peace.

 

[Cannabinoholic]

If you like trees you should REALLY consider making the switch to vert. The fact that you are using the full 360* of light coming off you bulb sold me.
Look at it like this: The 'optimum foorprint' of a 600w is, as stated above, 3'x3', equating to 9sq/ft. Compare that to having a circle of plants 3 foot in diameter. Grow the plants 3 feet tall. Diameter x Pi = Circumference. 3 x 3.14 = 9.42. If you open that circle up, the area being reached by direct light with 3 foot tall plants turns into a staggering 28.26sq/ft.
Think about it duder, IME this has helped me out a lot without having to buy a bunch more gear.

Cannabinoholic