Growing & Lighting Your Crop

Soft Secrets
29 May 2019
For those of us that have smoked marijuana, the thought of growing some yourself has flitted through your mind - everyone wonders about growing a crop of their own grass eventually. It can be as simple as sticking a few seeds in some soil or as complicated as a purely hydroponic set up. Part of the reason people wonder and think about growing so much is because you can dictate how the process will unfold purely by yourself, with a few external tips from experts that will make the process simpler and more intuitive. The first thing you have to think about for a grow operation is simple space. Do you have enough? The amount of planting area you have is proportional to the power rating of your grow lamp. A 1000-watt lamp will obviously cover more area than will a 400-watt lamp, so we’ll delve first into lighting options. You basically have four general lighting options – fluorescent lighting, metal halide lighting, mercury vapor lighting, and high-pressure sodium lighting. Each has its own pros and cons, and you should be familiar with them. The intensity of any light may be measured in lumens. Each type of lighting has different light intensity values per watt of power, and in different spectrums. By spectrum I mean the color of the light that is produced. This is important later on, as are a multitude of other things. Read On. A fluorescent bulb at 40 watts will put out 3000 lumens. The light is pure white, with very little heat generated. A mercury vapor bulb at 175 watts will put out 8000 lumens. The light has a tinge of blue to it, and there is a lot of heat generated. A metal halide bulb at 400 watts will put out 36000 lumens. The light has a lot of blue to it, much higher in the spectrum than is the mercury vapor. The metal halide bulb puts out less heat than does the mercury vapor, which is a good thing. A high-pressure sodium bulb at 400 watts will put out 45000 lumens. The light has a visibly orange color to it. The high-pressure sodium bulb puts out about the same amount of heat as does the metal halide. Now some might say that 7000 lumens per square foot is an overkill, but the simple fact remains that this plant loves a strong light source. You’ll get more plant with more light, and the concentration of the good stuff will be amazing. This set up will get even the most impotent of strains into the couch glue potency range.
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Soft Secrets