Reflectors and General lighting question.

Right now I have these really nice, and rather large, spun polished aluminum Parabolic reflectors. The bulb is situated base up, and is vertical. I have read that the parabolic reflectors are not that efficient. Would I be better off making some "bat wing" type reflectors with the bulbs installed horizontal?

I can get some aluminum squares about 20" x 26" that are powder coated flat white. I have already made one, you can see it in the pic, along with the other parabolics. Plants are about 3 weeks old in this pic. They are now at 5 weeks, and about 5 times that size.



Needless to say, the bulb in the homemade reflector is off. When it's on, it seems to cover the same area just as well as the parabolas, but not really "better" that I can see.
These big assed reflectors are really nice looking (and expensive as fuck!!) but are they maximizing my light? I have 5 MH lights and 2 of them have this big reflector, 1 has the white one thats just a bit smaller, and then you can see the reflector I made myself. I don't really "see" a difference in light distribution, but then I am trying to compare REALLY bright with REALLY bright. I don't have a light meter, other than my 35mm dinosaur (Nikon F100) I'd like to know the intensity of the light at the top and the bottom.
Also, I am not doing an SOG or SCROG, the plants will get kinda tall (5' or so) and bushy. I am wondering how many 5' plants I can realistically keep under each light and still maintain adequate light at the lower branches.
They are about 12" to 14" at this point, and crammed in there, looking alot like a SOG grow.
I am using these reflectors thru the whole grow, only switching out the bulbs and ballasts to HPS when I flower them.

You dont have enough light for that many plants....you're gonna have to step up you light to hps and mh during veg...1000 watt system...whats you daily temps like in you basement..that is your basement right? You might not need a vented hood for down there but if you get a vented hood I believe you can keep your light even closer. If you're reflectors are only good for like one plant so by using you bat wing design you can use your light more efficiently over a larger area..

Oh and you should have filled your soil to the top of your containers

Microracer87 said:

Oh and you should have filled your soil to the top of your containers

Click to expand...

It's whats left of our spare "guest" room, not the basement. Overnight guests are highly over rated and nowhere near as important as this anyway. Right now, temps are staying between 70 and 80 during the day with the door and window open. it gets a bit warmer at night with the window and door closed. (My blower fan bit the shitter) But with winter almost here, it's getting colder, and should be easier to keep the temps in line.

It's all about the learning. This is my second grow. I'm gonna go ahead with the batwing design, even tho I hate to scrap those aluminum reflectors.

I didn't go all the way to the top of the pots for a reason. I left about 2 inches to keep water inside the pot when I water. I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt an inch or 2 either way of soil will drastically affect anything.

So you're saying that I can do 1 plant per light? I was kinda hoping for 2. I know that 1K lights are the preferred light, but I get a killer deal on the 400w lights. Guess I need a few more. They are hard to find, but I do have a couple of 1k lights (HPS), however it's all but impossible to keep the temps below 90 with them. I am eventually getting a 30x40 metal bldg (this winter) and will set it up with growing in mind!! I got a great deal on a 1 ton A/C unit, and plan to hook it up to the new bldg.

what size bulbs are you using ?

nice work on the bat wing... just make sure its alright to put the bulbs you are using in a horizontal position before doing so. i've heard that its dangerous to do with some bulbs... and have heard that danger downplayed, so who knows. Better safe than sorry if the bulb seems to indicate its only to be used in a vertical position.

(4) 400w's ? you should be able to easily cover an 8ft' by 8ft' area with 16 good size plants.

but if you want to upgrade.. grab a 1000w HPS for a vedge/flowering chamber and use the MH for the clone/vedge chamber.

DaGambler said:

(4) 400w's ? you should be able to easily cover an 8ft' by 8ft' area with 16 good size plants.

but if you want to upgrade.. grab a 1000w HPS for a vedge/flowering chamber and use the MH for the clone/vedge chamber.

Click to expand...

Thanx for the complement on the batwing. It was a piece o' cake!!! And all my bulbs are universal. (any position)

Actually, I have 5 MH and 5 HPS ballasts, all 400w. I also have 2 1k HPS ballasts. All things considered, I wish I had all 600w fixtures, but for what I paid for them, believe me, it's all good. So you think that once they (the lights) are at ceiling level, the lower branches will get sufficient light, and I can realistically bring the 16 to harvest? I did try and top them (FIM) but I'm not sure i did it right. it slowed the top growth, but I now have some disfigured tops on some of them, and others look like I just topped them normally. I really only expected to keep 8 or 10 of the strongest, most healthy ones. I am gonna breed them, I'll force a hermie if I don't get a male, but I damn straight want to keep whatever this strain is going. It seems to be a hardy strain of a random Sativa, and is about as good as it gets THC wise.