Cannabis Cultivation Tips: How To Set Up The Ideal Grow Lights?
Cannabis Cultivation Tips: How to Set Up the Ideal Grow Lights
As a cannabis cultivation enthusiast, you must know that most strains of marijuana are photoperiodic. It is, as such, paramount that your plant receives abundant lighting for intense growth. But you may wonder, what is the ideal way to set up grow lights for cannabis?
Call it weed, marijuana, cannabis, or the holy herb; the truth is that advances in technology have made the plant relatively easier to cultivate. Ask any number of seasoned growers, and they’ll tell you that an LED grow light setup is your best friend where cultivation is concerned. But again, you may inquire, “What is the most suitable light for my plant?”
The truth is, there are multiple answers to this question, depending on who you ask. Nevertheless, it all comes down to your budget, goals (bumper harvest versus easy-to-manage yield), the space available to you, and the plants you intend to fit in that space. There is, however, the need to find that sweet spot where your marijuana grow light is neither too little nor is it in excess.
Cannabis Cultivation 101: The Grow Room Design
As we’ve just mentioned, space is one of the factors that dictates your choice of cannabis grow lights, and some may say that it’s the most critical variable. Of course, a larger space provides more lighting options compared to a limited one, but the good news is that once you figure out your grow room design, you’re well on your way to getting the hang of an indoor grow light setup.
An important point to keep at the back of your mind is that no matter how you set your lights up, the space has to be adequately ventilated to avoid overheating. While your crops won’t die of excess heat, the high temperatures may frustrate a cultivator by slowing down the plants’ growth process.
The space available could be a closet, a spare bedroom, or an entire garage. Whatever it is, map it out and decide on the number of plants you want to fit in there. Now, let’s get started on some useful tips on how to set up your cannabis grow lights, shall we?
Understand the Basic Light Principle for Cultivating Marijuana
While we’re all about hyping up the grow lights setup, we are also conscious of the fact that although growers know that their plants need light. Nonetheless, not all are familiar with the principle that governs the cultivation process, especially if they are beginners.
Fortunately, it is not as complicated as it may seem at first glance. Whatever source you choose to go with (and we highly recommend an LED grow light setup), your lights will cover your plants in a collective footprint of light, which is a combination of each bulb’s coverage.
Since these footprints overlap, you have to be keen on how far apart you space your LEDs. If they’re too close to each other, the overlap will be excessive, and the setup may burn or bleach your crop. And if they’re too far apart, you’ll not get the value for the money you put into that lighting investment.
Without a doubt, a weed grow light setup that allows the illumination to uniformly cover your canopy is what you should go for. In most cases, a 4′ distance between your lights works, but you may need to account for footprint, size, and wattage before moving forward.
Of course, the intensity of light reaching your crop is more concentrated in the middle of the collective footprint and diminishes as the light wanes outwards. Most LEDs try to maintain the uniformity, but as seasoned cultivators will tell you, some loss is unavoidable.
The distance between the lights and your plants also counts, especially on matters concerning footprint intensity. Hanging your lights too high up raises the footprint but diminishes the intensity, and vice versa is true. Naturally, determining the optimal distance between the light source and your crop speaks to whether your cultivation process will be a hit or a miss.
Lucky for you, there are different methods to hang your grow lights, and devices such as a photosynthetically available radiation (PAR) meter will help you measure the effectiveness of your indoor plant light setup.
Identify, Distinguish, and Appreciate Different Types of Setups
While understanding the principle grow light setups use is one thing, putting this knowledge into practice is a different ball game. The declaration should, however, not scare you – any experienced cultivator will tell you it’s not as difficult as you think. Needless to say, different spaces call for different types of setups, and we’ve got you covered on this front.
In truth, choosing a grow light setup for indoor plants could be a thoroughly exciting venture. The joy lies in the endless options you have as a cultivator – and remember, you hold all the cards. Let’s have a look at the two common ones below.
- Single Light Setup
You may have already guessed it, but just so we’re on the same page, the single grow light setup is ideal for the first-time grower. While there’s no harm in going full throttle from the word go, you’ll learn that slowly learning the ropes in your cultivation journey is the better option.
Just as it says in its name, the single light setup is one grow light towering over what should be a small number of plants. The process is a straightforward DIY, but you need to be sure to use a full spectrum grow light to account for the photoperiodic nature of your plant.
For a small canopy, a full-spectrum LED will support intense growth across the veg and blooming stages. And the best part? You’ll still retain the light if you increase the number of plants you’re growing.
- Multiple Light Setup
Experienced growers will know that a single light source won’t provide the bumper harvest they seek. The same is true for those with large growing spaces. Fortunately, the permutations of multiple light setups are almost infinite. If, for example, you graduate from a closet to a 4’x8′ tent, you will need two lights providing a 4’x4′ footprint. Needless to say, the larger the space, the more lights you require.
Of course, LED grow lights for cannabis should be your go-to option, but there’s room for experimentation on account of experience. CMH lamps may not have the lifespan LED bulbs offer, but they may surprise you with larger buds. While a bigger yield isn’t guaranteed, the point is that there’s no harm in trying out different types of grow lights. Who knows, you might even strike gold with the experiments!
If you’re looking to go into perpetual harvesting, the experience goes a notch higher. Go for a veg-specific setup for your veg chamber, a flowering configuration for the flower chamber, and for the clones, a fluorescent grow light. Truly exciting stuff, no?
Combine Different Lighting Spectrums
As we very well know, light is arguably the most vital ingredient for abundant plant growth. In cannabis, different light spectrums stimulate different results, and it is, therefore, critical that you are well-versed with what light elicits your desired effect.
A red light will have your back during the flowering process, while blue light is best for the vegetative phase. Red light will reduce maturation time and promote bud production, as its blue counterpart promotes sturdy growth, improved bud quality, and more leaves in your crop.
But let’s be honest; you know that your plants won’t attain optimal growth just by you choosing a different color spectrum for each phase. What we are after is replicating the full range of light hues these crops would enjoy if they were growing in natural sunlight. The sun is a full spectrum light source, and your indoor plant grow light setup should be as close to this as possible.
If your space allows it, you can achieve the full spectrum by combining different light technologies such as LEDs and CMH lamps. If your limit lies in room capacity and you have a single light setup, go for a grow light that has a full spectrum and a wattage of between 300 and 600. It may be a bit pricey, but the investment is worth it.
Make Use of Supplemental Lighting
If you want to go into cultivator overdrive (and which grower doesn’t?), you won’t just stop at a multiple-light setup. Exploiting the perks of supplemental lighting will have you enjoying a bumper harvest. But what exactly is it?
As it says in its name, supplemental lighting is that which complements your initial light source. In addition to the standard plant grow light setup in place, you’ll have small bar lights hitting areas of the canopy that are entirely starved of light or do not get the required intensity from single or multiple light sources. Hang them on the sides of your growing space for maximum output.
The principle in supplemental lighting is almost similar to that of combining different light spectrums, where the idea is to replicate the plants’ relationship with the sun in a natural environment. If you think about it, the sun spreads its intensity across all the parts of a plant on account of rising from the east and setting in the west.
Because of this rotation, light rays hit at different angles throughout the day, and the entire plant receives coverage by evening. This phenomenon is what you achieve with additional bar lights, and if you don’t already know, an LED grow lights setup is your frontrunner for supplemental lighting. For growers with vast spaces and who are of the opinion that auxiliary lighting just won’t cut it, the option of using grow light movers exists.
Again, Dote on LEDs
An LED grow lights setup, as has been repeatedly mentioned, is your best lighting option. Sure, these lights may chew a bit more out of your pocket, but their benefits compensate for the extra bucks you spend.
LEDs provide good light yield, consume less power, and emit little to no heat. Remember the point on overheating and proper ventilation? With these lights, you won’t have to spend more to ensure adequate air circulation within your grow room, regardless of its size.
Also, the fact that LEDs emit little heat means that you won’t need to overly irrigate your crops because the rate of evaporation in your grow room is low. All things considered, these lights are sustainable and favorable to both the grower, their plants, and to a larger extent, the environment.
Final Thoughts
Having gone through several tips on how to set up the ideal grow lights for your plants, what do you think is the main takeaway? As we said early on, it boils down to your goals as a grower, the budget you have to work with, the space available, and the number of plants you want to fit in it.
Fortunately, you have infinite options where grow lights are concerned, and there’s something available for each price point at Batagrowlight.
If you’re a beginner looking for a satisfactory experience upfront, you’ll need to find the sweet spot between staying within budget and having an optimal marijuana grow light setup. If you’re a seasoned grower, you’ll agree that it doesn’t hurt to go over the basics from time to time. After all, we all know that growing cannabis is a continuous learning curve. For more tips and resources, visit batagrowlight.com.
