Your Personal Yields In Soil With A 250 Or 400 Watt Hps?

[vitaminG]

Hey guys, just looking for some details on your 250 or 400 watt HPS soil grows. I've collected a lot of knowledge but have only about three seasons of actual experience.

I'm shooting to grow between 7 and 9 ounces per 2 month flowering cycle.

Do you guys get numbers like that? If so, it'd be awesome if you could go over how you do. For instance, what's your favorite fast strain to balance quality with weight? Do you use inline fans? Techniques like SoG or training? Other tricks?

My plan so far is to run two tents and a small clone area, with all sections going simultaneously. I'd flower with 4 - 6 plants (in ~3 gallon pots) under the 400 using a fast finishing strain under ScroG (haven't looked into strains). While flowering, the other tent would be vegging under a 250 HPS and maybe some supplemental CFLs. (This is just because I already have those lights - I realize a metal halide would be better for veg). I'm thinking with this setup I can make that goal, but just hoping if others more experienced could weigh in.

A chart on ilovegrowinginvalid.com shows "An average of around 4.5 to 9.0 oz (14 oz for advanced growers) with a 400-watt HPS lamp in a grow room that measures 3.5 x 3.5 x 7 ft."

This seems like a lot to me - their low average is .315 grams per watt. The most I've gotten is about .47g/watt with my 250 HPS(9 week flower). That's cutting it pretty close.

I guess I'm just hoping to read about what you guys do with your 400s so I can get some ideas. Thanks.

 

[DismalDude]

When I had my air cooled 400watt hps about 7 years ago I think,the best I did in a 4x4 tent was 9oz. I went from that to a 600watt pretty quickly and now I'm Cobs all the way. Good luck!

 

[Toaster79]

You can grow 9oz in that space with 250-275W of cobs in soil. At least that's whay I'm getting growing from seed not clone on a square meter. With a monocrop of a heavy yielding strain I can see doing 14oz in there.

 

[Monster762]

I think you can do it. What kind of hood. Main thing is covering the entire area solid. Then keep your tops close to level. You’re talking a 60 day cycle. Plants will have plenty time to be trained and already be beasts in veg. 60 day veg should be able to pull 4-6 oz a plant easy. If not wasn’t a healthy veg. Most higher yield 60 day indicas are 500-600g per sq. Sq meter is less than a 4x4 just slightly. Whole thing is gonna be the veg work. Setting em up. I think you can hit your numbers in a 4x4 with like 3 plants on 60 day veg.

 

[Toaster79]

There is still bunch of room for the bud left in there. Thats 315W from the wall or about 275W of light of some older tech leds. 9 oz dry. 3 different strains with 3 different phenos each.

 

[crimsonecho]

I think you can do it. What kind of hood. Main thing is covering the entire area solid. Then keep your tops close to level. You’re talking a 60 day cycle. Plants will have plenty time to be trained and already be beasts in veg. 60 day veg should be able to pull 4-6 oz a plant easy. If not wasn’t a healthy veg. Most higher yield 60 day indicas are 500-600g per sq. Sq meter is less than a 4x4 just slightly. Whole thing is gonna be the veg work. Setting em up. I think you can hit your numbers in a 4x4 with like 3 plants on 60 day veg.

Agree with you on most things except 4x4 is equals to 1,44 m2 so it is not a very slight difference.

 

[crimsonecho]

View attachment 833562

There is still bunch of room for the bud left in there. Thats 315W from the wall or about 275W of light of some older tech leds. 9 oz dry. 3 different strains with 3 different phenos each.

Ok now this is good, i am taking on another diy challenge and was designing a 600w cxb1830 3000K 90cri fixture for my 4x4. Are you in a 4x4? Do you think 600w is overkill?

 

[vitaminG]

I think you can do it. What kind of hood. Main thing is covering the entire area solid. Then keep your tops close to level. You’re talking a 60 day cycle. Plants will have plenty time to be trained and already be beasts in veg. 60 day veg should be able to pull 4-6 oz a plant easy. If not wasn’t a healthy veg. Most higher yield 60 day indicas are 500-600g per sq. Sq meter is less than a 4x4 just slightly. Whole thing is gonna be the veg work. Setting em up. I think you can hit your numbers in a 4x4 with like 3 plants on 60 day veg.

I'm not sure what to call the hood, but it's old for sure. Like a shop light hood. There's no opening for vent tubing to attach, for instance. It covers the whole tent I have now, 2.6 feet x 2.6 feet, almost wall to wall. I'm thinking of getting another from a friend, 3.9ft x 3.9. I scrogged with my 250 watt. I plan to do the same with the 400.

 

[vitaminG]

View attachment 833562

There is still bunch of room for the bud left in there. Thats 315W from the wall or about 275W of light of some older tech leds. 9 oz dry. 3 different strains with 3 different phenos each.

Looks awesome man. I'll have to look into this tech when I get my system going.

 

[Toaster79]

Ok now this is good, i am taking on another diy challenge and was designing a 600w cxb1830 3000K 90cri fixture for my 4x4. Are you in a 4x4? Do you think 600w is overkill?

I'm on a 1m square so a bit smaller footprint. I got 4 3500K CXB3070 running at 1.9A each and 2 obnoxious Bridgelux BRXA25 somethin or something at 2700K about 20 something W each. About to rip those Bridgeluxes out and put a 320 chip chinese board in there running at about 100W 2700K. Borad in the center and cobs on the edges. Should be about 400W out the wall with fans and driver losses.

 

[crimsonecho]

I'm on a 1m square so a bit smaller footprint. I got 4 3500K CXB3070 running at 1.9A each and 2 obnoxious Bridgelux BRXA25 somethin or something at 2700K about 20 something W each. About to rip those Bridgeluxes out and put a 320 chip chinese board in there running at about 100W 2700K. Borad in the center and cobs on the edges. Should be about 400W out the wall with fans and driver losses.

Ok, i am planning on usin 24 cxb1830 at 700ma which equals to about 25w for each cob 600 total. I will be driving them very soft because, first of all, it runs more efficiently also they are not as expensive as cxb35s so i can get more of them to create a better light distribution. Lastly, i am planing on using a 1 meter long heatsink with 1,25 cm thickness and 10,9 cm width (not very thick at all). I am trying to get away with using this heatsink passively. When i use some calculators about heat dissipation, with my windy grow tent, i should theoratically get away with it if i run them super soft like 700ma. 3 of these 1 meter bars with 8 cob on each. The dedicated heatsink space for every 25w cob comes out to 12,5cm to 10,9cm to 1,25cm. Currently running a 90watt cob on a heatsink (3,5x25x16) passively. It works but gets a bit warm for my liking. Well anyway, what do you think? Should i use fans?

 

[G gnome]

I think you can do it. What kind of hood. Main thing is covering the entire area solid. Then keep your tops close to level. You’re talking a 60 day cycle. Plants will have plenty time to be trained and already be beasts in veg. 60 day veg should be able to pull 4-6 oz a plant easy. If not wasn’t a healthy veg. Most higher yield 60 day indicas are 500-600g per sq. Sq meter is less than a 4x4 just slightly. Whole thing is gonna be the veg work. Setting em up. I think you can hit your numbers in a 4x4 with like 3 plants on 60 day veg.

Veg time has nothing to do with it.
Its about filling the space. Whether it be with one big plant or a lotta smaller ones.

It a very common misconception around here that more veg = more yield and imo its quite the opposite when u consider all the extra resources u devote to a longer veg

 

[Monster762]

Veg time has nothing to do with it.
Its about filling the space. Whether it be with one big plant or a lotta smaller ones.

It a very common misconception around here that more veg = more yield and imo its quite the opposite when u consider all the extra resources u devote to a longer veg

True. I personally do like 25-30 day veg but I think the way he’s planning to run he will be doing 60 day vegs. I was mainly saying that in 60 days he should have plenty time to train them for that canopy filling the space. Even time for mistake or 2 in veg.

But like you said it’s all about filling the space with close to even canopy as you can. Which I still suck at.

 

[vitaminG]

Veg time has nothing to do with it.
Its about filling the space. Whether it be with one big plant or a lotta smaller ones.

It a very common misconception around here that more veg = more yield and imo its quite the opposite when u consider all the extra resources u devote to a longer veg

So do you suggest running a shorter veg time with the HPS? I have to account for getting another set of clones ready off that veg as well. I hope the 250 HPS will put enough growth on the clones in two months (while flower tent is going) to take enough clone off them and still have them beastly enough to be ready to flower. I have gotten pretty good veg off HPS before. But In terms of plant health and vigor I'm not sure how the HPS will compare to a metal halide. Obviously the latter is better but I wonder if it's significant enough to worry about... I tend to overthink things.

 

[vitaminG]

True. I personally do like 25-30 day veg but I think the way he’s planning to run he will be doing 60 day vegs. I was mainly saying that in 60 days he should have plenty time to train them for that canopy filling the space. Even time for mistake or 2 in veg.

But like you said it’s all about filling the space with close to even canopy as you can. Which I still suck at.

That's indeed what I was thinking. I'll be taking clones from the veg tent as well, something I'll have to consider if it sets back the plants much.

 

[Dbear180]

I average a little over 20 oz of good solid buds per 600 se hps in "hammerhead" hoods (like Raptors but just the reflective aluminum inside no heavy steel body, weighs like 7 pounds assembled) (Sorry I dont know much about 250s or 400s)
Run 4 lights get 5 lbs. Run 8 lights get 10 lbs. Pretty consistent.
Hps is a lil bit older tech (some people call them dinosaurs) but I still yield right around a gram per watt with every strain I run, so until my ballasts quit or I run out of bulbs I'll stick with hps.

My next setups will most likely be cmh. But for the price you can get hps stuff now it's hard to argue with if your trying to save a buck up front.