Big or small plants?

Big or small plants? 6 big plants under a 1000w lamp or many smaller plants under lesser wattage lamp? Which could yield more generally. 1000w kinda scares me.

bigger the more the better

GanjaRastaMan said:

Big or small plants? 6 big plants under a 1000w lamp or many smaller plants under lesser wattage lamp? Which could yield more generally. 1000w kinda scares me.

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Yes but Keep trimming in mind. You can have a very mature plant, that produces very big buds if you just learn how to trim it properly from a large size down. And if you keep it trimmed you won't need to use as many watts.

I prefer more larger plants, smaller plants you get more frequent smaller harvests, what would you prefer?

1000w kinda scares me 2 but i wont one bad. small plants can be just as good as big plant. long veg periods give big yields, imo.

output increases directly with more light, whether or not you are growing many small or a few large plants. everything else even, more smaller plants produce more yield than a few large ones in the same space. that's why people do sog.

desertrat said:

output increases directly with more light, whether or not you are growing many small or a few large plants. everything else even, more smaller plants produce more yield than a few large ones in the same space. that's why people do sog.

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SOG would be hard with soil plants. I want soil it's simpler, and more earth like to grow in the medium plants naturally grow in. I'm kinda getting mixed responses though. I think I'd prefer larger plants, and bigger nugs over small measly nugs.

GanjaRastaMan said:

SOG would be hard with soil plants. I want soil it's simpler, and more earth like to grow in the medium plants naturally grow in. I'm kinda getting mixed responses though. I think I'd prefer larger plants, and bigger nugs over small measly nugs.

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Then thats what you should do, I'm not disagreeing with him really but you can do just as well with less larger plants too.

Damn I can't make up my mind. But a 1000w bulb in my apartment scares me. I mean I gotta get caught with that much wattage. About $100 dollars a month! Damn! But 1000 watts will yield more than a 600w or 400w

MY first 2 plants were kept small to get my feet wet. I could have gone with a couple big plants or a handful of small ones and decided to go with 1 or 2 big plants at a time and based on my space (24"dX48"wX84"h) and monthly budget I went with a 400w HPS. I would've like to have gone with a 600w but not bigger than that for heat reasons.

1000w isnt that much, most halogen bulbs run on 100-150w so its like having 10-6 halogens running watt wise. switch all the lights in your house to cfls and that will reduce alot of your wattage your using if youve still got halogen bulbs for lighting your house.

You're right, maybe 1000w isn't as big as I think, but it is a one bed room apartment after all.


Heat! What blower should I use? 6" or 8"? the room dimensions are 3.5'x7.25'x9' Heres a picture. I'm afraid heat will really be a problem. Must I get an air cooled light? Cuz that requires two fans, one for carbon filter and one for fan cooling

I will take out the wire shelves. There is a sprinkler in there though.

Damn those pics are upside down lol.

Im unsure of how those sprinklers operate, are you 100% sure you wont accidently set them off? cuz that would probally fuck you over BIG time.

you can run your ventilation: filter-->fan-->air cooled light -->exhaust. but you may need another fan to exhaust room air and possibly one for input as well.

I researched and they say it takes about 300-400 degrees f to set them off. but that scares me.

I'd be kinda nervous too, otherwise it sounds good. I would recommend getting air cooled, allows you to keep the plants closer to the lights, which is a good thing.

desertrat said:

you can run your ventilation: filter-->fan-->air cooled light -->exhaust. but you may need another fan to exhaust room air and possibly one for input as well.

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Yeah thats what I was thinking but no one replied to my thread about it on friday.

I had an idea there's a vent in the bed room and I can remove the vent and hook up a ducting system from the vent and run the ducting about 4-5 feet suspended from the ceiling to cool the input. Then have: Carbon filter suspended at ceiling-blower-duct-light-duct-exhaust-(possible extra blower to output exhaust)

But when the AC is not on the input air wouldn't suck out as well or it may be winter time and heat on a bit. So I may not hook up to the ac vent in the bedroom. Would I need the AC air, 1000w is hot!

That set up would be pretty streamlined and simple.

darkdestruction420 said:

1000w isnt that much, most halogen bulbs run on 100-150w so its like having 10-6 halogens running watt wise. switch all the lights in your house to cfls and that will reduce alot of your wattage your using if youve still got halogen bulbs for lighting your house.

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I replaced all the bulbs in the house with CFL before I started growing and only saw a minor drop in the bill, then I started growing and it goes up every month. It will stop soon though since I now have a pretty permanent setup.

Running you ventilation the way desertrat said is a good idea. Simple, effective.

I'm thinking:

Intake: (Fresh air from bedroom ambient air) ->6" blower fan-backdraft damper valve-Duct (in through plastic sheeting door)
Supplemental intake (only when AC on): Fresh air from bedroom air vent via duct hung from ceiling, approx 5 feet of ducting
Exhaust: (Stinky air from inside)-> Carbon filter-6" blower fan-Fan-Duct-1000w reflector-duct (out through plastic sheeting)

What do you guys think?

make sure your intake is near floor level, even if you have to run a little ducting inside the grow room.

you may be able to go with a passive intake if your exhaust fan is powerful enough to pull a vacuum. it's always a good idea to try and create a little negative pressure to make doubly sure no smelly air escapes before it is drawn into the filter, and it's always a risk to have an input fan that overpowers your exhaust creating positive pressure. i'd start without the input fan and add it if you need more ventilation for heat control.

you can gain a lot of flexibility in your cooling by adding a variable speed controller to your fans. great for controlling negative pressure and limiting noise by only using the power you need.

if you still have cooling problems you can trick your whole house a/c into cooling just your grow room: replace your wired thermostat with this: http://www.smarthome.com/30403A/Venstar-Wireless-Thermostat-System-No-Need-to-Rewire/p.aspx , then when you need cooling in your grow room but not the rest of the house, you place wireless thermostat in your grow room and close off other rooms' ducts.