Bringing up your lumens for cheap!

The amount of lumens bouncing around your space are about the most important factor for indoor growers. I read in the Marijuana Grow Bible that "light" is the most important thing that effects growth. That sounded a bit crazy to me back then. I guess it means you can have the baddest kick ass strain and come out with lame results with poor light.

I'm a nut about trying to figure out ways to keep those lumens from being wasted. I read of one suggestion a while back that said to use mirrors on the floor. Actually that's not a good idea beacuse lumens are lost going into the glass and bouncing back.

Flat white paint seems to be the best for walls, floors, and everything else in your room except the FIRE EXTINGUISHER (LEAVE IT RED SO YOU CAN FIND IT IN AN EMERGENCY). The floor of my garden is dirt so I can't have it painted. To bring up the lumens that normally soak into the dirt. I paint plastic things that are flat (no tripping over them) and place them around the room - keeping them out of the dirts when watering so they don't get dirty.

I would like to hear of tips you have on this line.

One thing that is a NO NO is to paint your electric lines white. That encases the heat on the lines more and voids any warranty you may have should it go bad.


Be safe and enjoy your garden.

Hi there and welcome. Just a couple of things...you'll prolly get differing opinions on the lumens thing...which generally will go up with the number and types of bulbs used. Personally I think lumens tend to be more of a "human" trait, although you can't go wrong with a lot of light as long as the temps and humidity are correct. I know, all you asked about are lumens.

Also pix are generally a good idea. So let's start with questions...what are you using for light source? I'm always interested in ventilation, so what do you have? How many plants and what strain(s). What's the size of your space? I'm not asking for a theme paper, just more to go on LOL.
Good luck and keep us posted. Also, if anybody flames...just ignore them and go on.

Does the light really get to the floor with enough light to really reflect back? I know it doesn't seem that much light gets to the bottom of my plants.

Thank you Brother Numsi for your interest.

I enter my closet and am in the garden under the house in 10 seconds. Outside door under house is bolted from the inside.

Space 8 X 30 - including mother room
Lights - Veging - 45 26W CFL's, one duel 4' flourecent, 5 14W LED panels, and 12 2W LED mini spot lights
Flowering - 4K 1000W HPS/Metal, 2 - 400W hps, and all CFL's and LED's
Strains: Sweet Tooth, Sweet God, Chewbacca, BC Blueberry
Ventalation: Central heat when needed, Three floor fans and two wall mounted
Exhaust: The heat leaves from an old heat vent in bedroom (great for spot checking) other bedroom closet entrance, and one 9" exhaust with a thermostat regulator
Plants: 48, 24 almost ready now and 24 12"ers for next grow.

Plants go right into the dirt floor and soil replaced each grow.

I own the house so that's why I could make the changes easily... Also mountain altitude helps let me grow without heat problems...

IMO the light does get everywhere, it just is diffused the further is gets away. I cut of the tops of gallon milk jugs, paint them flat white and place them in the soil areas around each plant to make a little light bounce back into them.

don't worry about lumens. google it. a lumen is a measurement of light visible to the human eye. plants don't have eyes. it's an old measurement for the strength of a bulb when bulbs were only used for human viewing purposes. plants don't use lumens. be more concerned with footcandles (fc), PAR value, and obviously spectrum.

Okay, I'm hearing you ScoobyDoobyDoo,. Hmmm, will look into footcandles and PAR value. I have the spectrum down "I think" I'm using 1 Hortilux HPS bulb on an old regular ballast. Also using 3 1000W NexGen digital ballasts. The maker claims in writing that the digital ballast creates 30% brighter light (kind of hard for me to believe) and using 3 Digilux digital bulbs rated at 155,000 lumens. The old 400 hps are jusy X brand "hi spectrum" bulbs.