400 Watt HPS/Mh enough? (Naga Morich)

[Julian]

Hey!

I just bought a 400 watt HPS/Mh convertible light, and i'm growing some Naga Morich peppers. I wanted to know if one light above 3 plants is enough? It's all i can afford at the moment, and seeing as how i'm in the Montreal region... it's hard to grow these interesting little peppers outdoors

Can anyone help me?

I need to know the best way to set up my indoors pepper growing operation! haha


Thanks!

 

[POTAWIE]

Your light should be more than fine for 3 plants, or you can start all you plants early next year and grow them outdoors in the summer.
Do a forum search for hydroponics or indoor gardening, you should find lot of info.

 

[qbvbsite]

Hey,
Thats more then enough for 3 plants, you can probably get 6 plants under there. I have ten 1 1/2 month old plants under a 400 and its enough (will have to upgrade l8r tho for all ten plants). For a 400W your looking optimail light in a 3'x3' square or ok light for a 4'x4' square. Get a good reflector and your set.

--James

 

[POTAWIE]

and some mylar or other reflective material will increase your lighting too

 

[LGHT]

I have 8 plants all doing great under my 400mh, but it is a small closet about 3x3.5, but it's tall at 8' so I will eventually setup the larger 1000 watt full time. As a result a few plants are taking over so I have a feeling I may end up with 1-2 as I plan on growing these under the lights ONLY. If you do a 1000 watt setup, heat will be an issue so you will have to get a good grow fan to push out the hot air. I picked up a 10" 735 cfm fan, but realized it was too big after I got it so i'm looking for a small fan around 300 cfm. Here are a couple of charts that show the typical output per lamp and how much light the plants will need for specific stages of growth.

 

[Julian]

Ok, sounds great, but now i have a few other questions.

With my 400 watt light, i have a window in the room i'm doing them in. Will i need a fan for the heat, or will the window open do fine?

Also, if i decide to grow them fully indoors, let's say 18/6 with the Mh, and then switch down to 12/12 with the HPS, is that ideal for peppers? Will my nagas become fierce? I would like to keep them under 4 feet, so is it possible to switch to fruiting stage quicker? And what about pollenating them? Is there a method or do they do it on their own?

Sorry for all the questions

Thanks!

 

[Blister]

Research has shown that chili peppers can make good use of 24 hours of light for the first 5-7 weeks. After the initial 5-7 week period there is little to no benefits in running the lights longer than 14 on and 8 off.

Clip or pinch off new growth if you want to keep them under 4'

Giving the flowers a light misting with a water bottle works extremely well for pollination. Much easier when you have a ton of flowers on the plant as well.

 

[LGHT]

With my 400 watt light, i have a window in the room i'm doing them in. Will i need a fan for the heat, or will the window open do fine?

A window will help get fresh air into the room, but if it's not blowing directly onto the plants I would suggest a good fan to keep the hot air off of them. How close is the light to the plants? The closer the light is to the plants the better, but it will also make them hotter. I have mine about 18" above the plants and have a good floor fan on them until I get a fan made to suck air off the hood to the outside. Here is an old pic of my setup before I moved out all, but 8 plants.

If you have them in a wide open room your loosing a LOT of light. You typically want to put them in a closet or grow chamber that is enclosed & lined with reflective material (mylar) to keep the light on the plants from all angles. Here is a sample grow chamber.

Also, if i decide to grow them fully indoors, let's say 18/6 with the Mh, and then switch down to 12/12 with the HPS, is that ideal for peppers?

Yes that would be fine for peppers just follow the chart above.

Will my nagas become fierce?

Depends on several other factors like soil, nutrients, ferts, etc etc. Light is just one aspect of several that need to be good to perfect for fierce peppers.

I would like to keep them under 4 feet, so is it possible to switch to fruiting stage quicker?

I have several plants that are only 2' and have already started producing buds. If you want to continue vegetative growth just pinch the buds and the plant will get bigger and bushier, if not switch to a HPS or full spectrum bulb to get the best of both, but with a focus on HPS.

And what about pollinating them? Is there a method or do they do it on their own?

They self pollinate so you shouldn't have to do much expect put a light fan on them.

 

[wordwiz]

LGHT,

IMO, your data is wacked. I have a 150 watt HPS lamp and at six inches, I'm going to get 30,000 lumens per sq. meter. Plus, University and other web sites say that for good vegetative, flowering and fruiting, one needs about 45,000 lumens.

Yeah, I got a pepper from a plant that was getting 2,000 lumens, but not dozens of blooms and fruits.

JMO, YMMV.

Mike

 

[hydrojunkie]

Wordwiz,Unless there is something I am missing I have never seen a 150 watt lamp with that kind of luminous output. If you are looking for those kind of numbers I think you need a 1000 watt light. Remember how light diminishes as you get farther away from the source.

 

[lavish]

LGHT,

IMO, your data is wacked. I have a 150 watt HPS lamp and at six inches, I'm going to get 30,000 lumens per sq. meter. Plus, University and other web sites say that for good vegetative, flowering and fruiting, one needs about 45,000 lumens.

Yeah, I got a pepper from a plant that was getting 2,000 lumens, but not dozens of blooms and fruits.

JMO, YMMV.

Mike

What kind of superlighting is that? My 250W HPS puts up roughly 25,000 LUMENS if i remember correctly.

 

[wordwiz]

Lavish,

Lumens are measured a foot from the source. If you have a bulb that is emitting 25,000 if you cut the distance in half, the light will be twice as strong. I measured my light and got 35,000+ lux but the light was close to the plants.

Another example - I have a 105 watt CFL, rated at 6,900 lumens. Held the light meter about 3" away for it. It read 31,700 lux.

Mike

 

[POTAWIE]

Peppers do not need to be forced into a bud stage like certain other plant so basically the more light the better, although some darkness is beneficial after the first couple months. I believe 18-20 hours of light is ideal

 

[hydrojunkie]

So let me get this straight, if you cut the distance in half from your light source your light will be twice as bright, i.e. 6,900 lumen light source will give you 31,700 lux at 3" away. I had to look up the relationship between lumens and lux and it appears as though they are basically the same,just lux is a measurement over area. If you got 31,700 lux at 3" away from your lamp I can only imagine you aren't in a dark room taking the measurement. I could be wrong but I think what you are suggesting is incorrect if you think about it, at any distance away from your light source you are getting brighter.

 

[wordwiz]

hydro,

Lumens is the amount of light a foot from the source. So if a light is rated 7,000 lumens, at two feet away, one would get 3,500 lumens, at six inches 14,000. At three inches, 28,000. I might have been a bit closer than three inches, I didn't measure but guessed; I might have been 2.5"

To check, this time I laid the sensor on a board and measured the distance ~5". The reading was 16,700 from a bulb rated 6,900 lumens. At 6" I would expect 13,800, perhaps a bit more since the boards are painted white and I am getting some reflection. But if the sensor is two feet from the light, I get about 3,200 lux - as expected.

This is using a LX1020B Digital Lux Meter.

Mike

 

[lavish]

wordwiz: ok, i understand, but still, even though the statistics ive seen measures different lumen outputs that are measured for a specific distance, i believe its the most pracitically useful way to measure, the measure is roughly for the nearest distance possible. Of course the LUMEN rate is higher 1mm away from the bulb but i believe thats of no help. I know that the lumen shrinks exponentially with the distance away from the bulb.

 

[qbvbsite]

A bulb will output x amount of lumens (400W is about 50k). Now how you distribute it, thats up to you. You could have a 4x4 grow area that produces 4000ish lumen per square foot. If you move the light down to 3x3 foot grow area your lumens would be 5500 lumen per square foot. Lux is the mesurement of lumen per square meter but a bulb rating for 50K lumens wont outout 100K lumen is it closer to the plant. The lumen rating on the bulb is the total amount of lumens it produces regardless on distance. The greater the distance away, the less lumen per square foot.

 

[qbvbsite]

hydro,

Lumens is the amount of light a foot from the source. So if a light is rated 7,000 lumens, at two feet away, one would get 3,500 lumens, at six inches 14,000. At three inches, 28,000. I might have been a bit closer than three inches, I didn't measure but guessed; I might have been 2.5"

That is incorrect. A bulb with a rated lumen output is the total amount of lumens the bulb produces regarless on distance. The only thing that changes is how many lumens you get per square foot based on the distance of the light

 

[qbvbsite]

Hey also (right from google)

1 lux = 0.09290304 lumen per (square foot)

so if your reading is 30K lux its only 3000 lumens per square foot. He was correct in saying that you need 45000 lumens per sq. metre which is about 4500 lumens per square foot

 

[qbvbsite]

I have 8 plants all doing great under my 400mh, but it is a small closet about 3x3.5, but it's tall at 8' so I will eventually setup the larger 1000 watt full time. As a result a few plants are taking over so I have a feeling I may end up with 1-2 as I plan on growing these under the lights ONLY. If you do a 1000 watt setup, heat will be an issue so you will have to get a good grow fan to push out the hot air. I picked up a 10" 735 cfm fan, but realized it was too big after I got it so i'm looking for a small fan around 300 cfm. Here are a couple of charts that show the typical output per lamp and how much light the plants will need for specific stages of growth.

These are about right since its lumens per sq. foot. Great table