what are your dementions? id think the more watts the better. im thinking even at the low end you will be fine. as to which will yeild more faster, its anyones guess.

several years ago i read a university research report on plant photosynthesis (not mj specific) and they said that most plants max out between 50-60w/sq ft

Yeah if you are above 50w/sqft you should be fine.

ok thx alot so basically, the more area will yield more as long as its above 50 (which is like 58w per sq. ft)...i was stuck between thinkin that the smaller area with the more wattage(88w per sq. ft.) wud make fatter buds(more yield) but i guess the 16 extra sq. ft. is tha way to go to get more weight...Right? thx ahead...GoG

yeah i also have heard photosnythesis maxs out at 50-60w sq/ft

why is doubled using 1000watters and getting such crazy results? thought they were super charged due to lights...

split the difference or giveem at least 60 watts per square foot but i would be more concerned with lumens per square foot

edux10 said:

why is doubled using 1000watters and getting such crazy results? thought they were super charged due to lights...

Click to expand...

the method /style of his grows produce monster yields

plus as you take height and canopy into consideration. he leaves no part of his plant with out light. the whole thing is tops. as you get farther away from the bulb the lumen's diminish. light also dose not reflect off of leaves. naturla sunlight from what i have read is roughly 100 watts a sq foot on most of the plantet if not all of it.

the sun produces 1600 watts per square meter im not gonna do the math but its pretty high

You will get more yield by spacing the lights out over a larger area, but I advise to keep your 50w/sqft as the baseline. Anything over that is hard to utillize.

DoubleD's is still at 50w/sqft, he just grows big wide cylinders with lights on four sizes of a circle, and they are 3ft wide x 6ft tall plants x 3.14 = area of his grow per 4 lights. Three dimensions.

For a flat garden, go 4.5ft x 4.5ft per 1000w. Reflecting back the wasted light effectively is the big deal for flat gardens

yea thx alot guys im gonna go with the bigger area i think...especially just starting even though i have THOUSANDS of hours of research and planning...lol..thx alot guys..i do read alot that anywhere from 50-80 is best...GoG

MASSES 420KING said:

split the difference or giveem at least 60 watts per square foot but i would be more concerned with lumens per square foot

Click to expand...

the bulbs im using are (5)600w-90,000 lumens each.

90,000 * 5 =450,000 =

over 36 sq. ft = 12,500 sq. ft.

over 52 sq. ft = 8,654 lumens per sq. ft.

is that good enough lumens for the 52 sq ft. area...whats a good number per sq. ft for lumens? thx. GoG

gogetta said:

the bulbs im using are (5)600w-90,000 lumens each.

90,000 * 5 =450,000 =

over 36 sq. ft = 12,500 sq. ft.

over 52 sq. ft = 8,654 lumens per sq. ft.

is that good enough lumens for the 52 sq ft. area...whats a good number per sq. ft for lumens? thx. GoG

Click to expand...

i would say anything over 10,000 lumens psf is wasted energy imo your 52sq. ft room sounds like its the write move to make brotha good luck on your endeavor:passingjoint:

gogetta said:

can u guys tell me if im most likely to get more yield outta having 3000w over 36sq. ft. at 83.33w per sq. ft.....or 3000w over 52sq. ft. at 57.69w per sq. ft?

Click to expand...

Um. There are alot of variables here besides wattage and square footage.

How far away from the canopy are your lights going to be?

How many plants are you planning on growing?

Lots of small plants or a few big plants?

How are you going to orient your lights? Vertically or horizontally?

KidTwist said:

light also dose not reflect off of leaves. naturla sunlight from what i have read is roughly 100 watts a sq foot on most of the plantet if not all of it.

Click to expand...

Sunlight weighs in at a bit under 1400 watts/square meter at the upper regions of the stratosphere, so after it travels through the atmosphere, you are left with a bit more than 100watts/square foot.

This is reasonable, but a lowball estimate to be sure, particularly when PAR ratings are calculated in.

gogetta said:

is that good enough lumens for the 52 sq ft. area...whats a good number per sq. ft for lumens? thx. GoG

Click to expand...

Lumens for humans, PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) for plants.

Lumens, as a rating, is directly tied to the spectral response of the human eye - not the photosynthetic response of plants.

For example, LED lamps produce just a few thousand lumens (3000 - 5000 lumens for the biggest panels) - but PAR ratings on -ahem- par with 600 and 1000w HPS bulbs.

To that end -

ugmjfarmer said:

You will get more yield by spacing the lights out over a larger area, but I advise to keep your 50w/sqft as the baseline. Anything over that is hard to utillize.

Click to expand...

Hard to ultilize? Absolutely not.

Since we already covered that the sun kicks out more than 100watts/square foot with massive PAR ratings, the idea that artificial lighting, subject to the devestating impact of the inverse square law, (which, the sun, at 93 million miles away, is not subject to) would be somehow maxed out at an anemic 50w/sq ft, is really not accurate.

Cannabis will make use of light well upwards of 150w/square foot depending on other environmental factors.

ugmjfarmer said:

DoubleD's is still at 50w/sqft, he just grows big wide cylinders with lights on four sizes of a circle, and they are 3ft wide x 6ft tall plants x 3.14 = area of his grow per 4 lights. Three dimensions.

Click to expand...

I'm not going to dig out DD's schematics, but methinks he's probably at something like 2.5 times that - like >100w/sq foot.

Anyway, DD's system is *alot* more than lamps.

Bottom line gogetta:

Any arrangement using 6x600w bulbs in that space would produce good results, but optimization here requirs alot more info than you've provided.

More information for a proper analysis here:

How are you orienting your lights and what are the dimensions of your grow room?

How many plants and what size plants?

If you are using reflectors, how big are they?