Hello once again,      Today I'll discuss lighting requirements for setting up a successful grow room.  When I design grow rooms for my customers I try to think on the smaller scale.  A lot of my customers come in and say "we've got an 8' x 8' room we want to put into use".   That size doesn't seem large, but what would it take to produce the 40 to 50 watts per square foot which is necessary for dense heavy yields.  You might be surprised to know that the 1000 watt lighting system would not work as you would be only realizing 15.62 watts per square foot!  That's a far cry from the 40 to 50 watts required.  Now don't get me wrong, 15.62 watts per square foot would be fine for overwintering, or to grow short crops like lettuce or spinach, but tomatoes will require much, much more.  To achieve the desired numbers you would need to set up four 600 watt lights to bring your totals up for those large tomatoes.  Now that seems like quite an investment doesn't it.  But, here is another school of thought.  Lets say we were to take the size of the room down to a 5' x 5' room.  A 1000 watt system would now be producing at 40 watts per square foot.  Obviously when looking at your initial investment a single 1000 watt system would cost considerably less than four 600 watt systems.  But now let's go back and look at the 8' x 8' versus a 5' x 5' room and address the final yield.  Some would say that even though we have less light in the 8' x 8' room, they could put in more plants and produce a lot of tomatoes.  Yes, your right, but only in the sense that you would have more plants.  When it comes to growing indoors, it's all about yield.  The 5' x 5' room would produce 50% more final weight with less plants than the 8' x 8' room with more plants.  It's the size of the fruit, not the amount of plants that will bump up the yield.       Next time I'll be discussing ventilation.  Although the calculations can be daunting, I'll attempt to make it as understandable as I can and eliminate most of the math from the equation.  In this case bigger is better!! Till then, happy growing from: The Grow Store Traverse City, MI 231-421-5191 ...read more

Consulting Services:            Designs of Environmentally Safe Non-Toxic Homes&Buildings.;            Innovation of Air lock Systems for Non-Toxic Homes. Blue Print Analysis for Environmentally Safe Non-Toxic construction.            Educational Programs for Schools and Institutions.            Environmental Management Programs.            Energy Saving Management Programs: (Conservation). Environmental Analysis / (Environmentally Safe Home construction.)            Energy Analysis / Implementation of (Energy Saving / Green Building).            Renewable Resources: Solar Energy, Composting, and Solar Greenhouse Designs.            Lighting Analysis / Energy Efficient and Color Corrective Lighting designs,                         (Including 12 V and Solar Landscape Lighting Systems&Designs) Energy and Environmentally Safe Building Products. Non-Toxic Catalog upon request.   Energy & Environmental Management Consultants: Owner / Pesident:1981 to 1991. Conducted 1600+ Residential, Commercial & Industrial Energy Management analyses throughout the United States. Coordinated Lighting analysis programs for 3000+ businesses and resorts. Conducted 300+ Solid waste analysis - established and implemented programs for schools and businesses. Designed Lighting analysis for City of Petoskey, Emmett County, Traverse City, Garfield Twp, assisting implementation of establishing city and county wide ordinance for Dark Sky Energy Efficient lighting applications that have been used throughout the U.S. Coordinated neighborhood recycling, curbside pick-up for Traverse City, Petoskey and Cadillac Recycling programs.   Energy and Environmental Consultants:(self employed) 1980 to present. *Architectural design and construction of the first Solar Greenhouse in Michigan & have designed 27 additional Solar Greenhouses to date.            *Energy Code blueprint inspections on new safe home construction.            *Renovation - exterior and interior of 100 year old home in Traverse City.            *Organized first recycling center in Northern Michigan for glass,                                   cardboard, and newsprint 1971-1973.            *Organized first curbside recycling program in Northern Michigan in 1985.            *Organized composting programs for counties in Northern Michigan.             *Organized Energy and Environmental management programs for resorts                             and institutions throughout the U.S. ...read more