Wattage Question for Mothers

[AcesFull]

Hi,

I'd like to move away from 1000w lights for my mothers because of the high energy cost. I want the mothers to recover and able to clone from again as soon as possible.

The question is how much do I lose switching to 600w or even 400w? Will it take THAT much longer to be able to clone from them again?

I can light a lot more mothers under (8) 400w (3200w total) lights as opposed to (3) 1000w lights for just a couple hundred extra watts consumption, but does that slow recovery time to make it a wash?

Space is not an issue.

Thanks.

 

[Droopy Dog]

Depends on the size of the host plants and how fast/often you need cuts. I'd say I throw about 75% of my cuts away from trimming the host plants. I keep bonsai moms, so keeping them cut back and down to size is a must.

Right now, they are under T-5 HO's, because I'm not using them at the moment. They are GREAT for vegging and I retired my 400w MH from that duty. They work better @1/2 or less the power.

Other times, my host and cuts are under T-12's and do fine. Host plants just don't need that much wattage unless you need a lot of cuts, constantly.

Even if you do, I would still suggest the T-5 HO's. About 220w of T-5's simply blew my 400w MH out of the water. I haven't tried flowering with them, but as far as vegging, I am more than impressed.

DD

 

[AcesFull]

Thanks for the reply. I am indeed looking for them to recover as quickly as possible to get more cuts as fast as possible.