Hey neighbor,
Been thru about 2 dozen of your Q&A pages, haven't found the answer I'm looking for. Here's the idea. I'll be veging 10 plants in a closet under 400w hps. Once big enough I'll be cloning 20.
I plan to vedge the 20 youngsters just outside the closet but within reach of the 400w. When I cut down the 18 vedging cycle for the closet mothers, and set the light to 12 hours to flower them, the clones will will still need add'l light to keep them vegetating.
Of course, that idea won't be worth ca-ca unless I can provide add'l hours of light to the clones to give them an 18 hr day. Here's the deal. After 12 hours of HPS it shuts off for the flowering plants. I then drop a full black plastic curtain to keep them in the dark. At the same time my clones are just outside the closet looking for more light.
And when the HPS shuts off I have a timer turn on a CFL fixture just for the clones to run for 6 more hours. It's a pain in the butt to raise and lower the curtain every day, but I'm space limited.
Given that scenario, here's the question -- If I give this idea a try, will my clones thrive, (all else being equal) with 12 hrs of 400w HPS, followed by 6 hours of a 4 bulb (160w) 4' fixture. You probably haven't tried it yourself, but give it your best guess. THX