my last 2 plants needs 2 lights to fully cover it 1 is not enough, i could use 2x 400w but they quite tall im not too worried about electricity cost of another 400w
personally i have found plants can be started off with just 250's until buds develop then the light can be increased
they do not need much light to start flowering if you have shading issues this maybe a problem
i would not expect dramatic improvement with yield but i would expect some increase when the plants become saturated with light
the colas become as dense as possible
peace
We have 2 different grows.. my plants go in pretty small and are expected to fill a bit of space. They take off, eat heavily and fill up space. In the first 5-6 wks they go from a small plant with LOTS of room to filling all available space and buds are all but complete. Those 6 wks take lots of water, light, nutrients and co2. The things that make a little tiny plant get big and full of all but complete flowers.
What needs to happen for the final 2-3 wks is trichs maturing and calyx swelling.. nothing that demands more light.. the opposite, less light, less nutrients, less water, less co2.. because the plant isn't doing much.
What is it in the final 2-3 wks that you find the plant needs more light for? Are you also using more nutes? water? co2?
I have noticed longer flowering sativas use more of the goods later in flower, but still a little less than early in flower.
If you take a plant and grow it into a larger space than you dedicated to it to start, then sure, more light will yield more.
But, that's just a style of growth.. not the plant using more light.. it is just more plant, because you grew big fucking plants that take up more space and use more of everything than they did when they started.
Like, with an 8-9 wk hybrid you would want the plants in the larger space by wk 4 or you are not going to get the benefits. It's still (say) 1200 watts over a 3x6.. you just only used 600 watts over a 3x3 to get the plant through the earlier parts of flower. You're not adding, you're taking from the earlier weeks.
Another way to do it is just spread the plants out under the lights.. large spaces and let them fill in the space.. If they overgrow it, remove branches. Ideally, you fill the space just right and don't need to waste water, nutes, light, etc on growth that will never produce buds.
sit the plant in one spot at Day 1 of flower and leave it.. in the corners.. then let the plant do its thing. With the right genetics, this way is very easy and works well.
condensing the plants for the early part of flower and then spreading the plants is a different way to do it that has its advantages. Like elec bill savings.
Giving the plants lots of space also has advantages. Different minds, genetics and setups will find a different "best" way.
Your grows have always been good Skunkdoc. I've seen some of your large plant grows. The large defoled sativa plants of yours come to mind. Great pics.
I wish I was still growing.. I'de try it out. I have tried it with a longer flowering sativa before.. I remember hitting pretty good yields. It worked well because the damn plant kept growing and growing. I could have let it go another month and got more weight. I just had to draw the line somewhere. Also, the smoke was good at 14 wks.
