Okay, so as a recently disabled young father of two, I came into a lot of time on my hands. Thankfully it became legal in CT for medical patients to grow our own plants and boy was I excited. I educated myself, i prepped, I got a grow tent set up kit and all the right nutrients and everything. The one downside to the tent purchase was that the ratchet hooks didn’t fit the tent poles to hang the light from.
So I didnt think twice and just ziptied the light to the top of the tent. Problem solved and I didnt think twice. Not realizing that this keeps my light as far away as possible from the buds so thats why I was only yielding half an ounce to an ounce AT MOST for my autos! Like I know autos dont yield much but this seemed unreasonably small in yield. So I finally rigged up the light PROPERLY. Think this may help my yields? Fingers crossed.
I believe it will, i often just sit a young plant atop a 5 gal bucket to close the gap on my photo fem
Rather than zip tie your light to the top of the tent, make a zip tie loop around the thick tent pole with enough slack that you can slide your ratchet through it. Then you can still raise and lower your light. Also get a free app called PHOTONE, it can measure the light intensity at the canopy level. You can tell it your light cycle (18 hours, for example) and it will calculate the DLI (Daily Light Integral). There are charts you can search for that will tell you what the DLI should be for each stage of the plant life…less for seedlings, more for veg, and even more for flower. Plants will only use so much energy per day, so you don’t want to give them more than they can handle, but you also want to make sure they get enough to thrive. I went away for 2 weeks and had my DLI at around 24, which is a bit low for early veg but I didn’t want my son to have to deal with burning plants and as they grew upwards, the DLI increases naturally (closer to the light). Now I’m back, I cranked the light up to full power and DLI is about 35. I’d like it a bit higher, maybe in the 40’s, but I can’t lower my light any more to get it closer. But now they are growing a couple inches per day, so that will get there soon, then I can turn my light down. Or as they grow bigger and I spread the pots a bit farther apart, I can raise the light to get a wider coverage.
Autos you can run 24/0 light schedule, but most living things do like some rest. A lot of growers use a 20/4 light schedule for autos so they get 4 hours of rest at night to recover.
But get the app…with iPhone’s you need to use a piece of paper or something like that to act as a diffuser, but you tell it what type of light you have (Metal Halide, LED, CFL, etc) and then it’ll do all the readings for you, can display the DLI (calculated) or PPFD, lumens, etc. And read up on light requirements for different stages of growth! Too much is not a good thing, but neither is too little!
Hope this helps! If you can’t find info on it, tag me back and I’ll see what I can find for you. Good luck!
Yes, the height of the light is important, I agree with spudgunner, great advice! You’ll need to adjust the lights to get the desired DLI/PPFD, I’ve been using the Photone app, it’s a great tool to have. I’ve been getting 1/4 lb - 1/2 lb per auto, but you can increase your harvest with Low Stress Training (LST), dialing in your lights, humidity, and CO2.
Are you growing in soil/soiless or Hydroponic?
My best advice is keep it simple…unless you are trying to make a living out of this. DLI/PPFD are not at all important to you, nor does the photone app work anymore than any other. CO2 isn’t necessary either there is plenty in your environment as well. IF you really know what you are doing you can look at your plants and know if they need more or less of anything. Do your research and don’t just take someone’s word for it without a second or 6th opinion. I research everything to a degree of insanity.
In your situation maybe just a better environment or light is necessary, you don’t tell too much about your environment so it is really hard to really dial in the problem.
Thankfully I fixed the light issue. I actually Jimmy rigged a clothes hanger between two poles and was able to hang the ratchet hook from that. Lowering the light down already seems to have made a small change and I hope it’s a sign of things to come! Also some more information people were asking about (gonna cut and copy this comment to the few applicablereplies to save time lol) I’m using happy frog soil in 5 gallon fabric pots in a 4x4 mars hydro tent. The light is is Mars hydro tsw2000.
Thankfully I fixed the light issue. I actually Jimmy rigged a clothes hanger between two poles and was able to hang the ratchet hook from that. Lowering the light down already seems to help a bit. I’m using happy frog soil in 5 gallon fabric pots in a 4x4 mars hydro tent. The light is is Mars hydro tsw2000.
FYI… for easiest mounting, just use the zip ties to secure the ratchet hook direct to the tent pole.
Gonna have to do this in my photo grow for sure, she is good now but out can’t hang any higher.
“Waiting for sunasun to jump in and tell me my plants are light stressed” LMFAO
You have room, why not train her out? She’d explode putting more into branching giving you more beautiful tops. Pics blurry on my phone but she looks good. 
look nice… I’ll check them out. Thanks for posting. I do like the ratchet end secured on top though as it makes adjusting easier.
She’s looking full and healthy. I haven’t done photos in a few runs now but have been thinking about it to brush up on my photo skills. We definitely don’t see a lot of photoperiod posts anymore. Looks like you’re gonna need to break out the trellis :). I’d probably want to have enough room in the pot for a good 3-4" top dress to take her through stacking. In a 4x4 by herself i’d do a 75-90 day veg, transplant to a 20-30 gal, trellis and then flip to flower. Maybe just do a cubic foot earth box where I could mound the top dress later… Just curious what your plans with her are.
Now I’m remembering how much easier autos are to deal with :). I kind of miss photos but then I don’t. Good luck!
My last photo run got through without the trellis with a fairly early flip of about 6 weeks… the photos sure are pretty though.
Not a good idea . . . when ratchet is at top you can bend poles/loosen hooks, when pulling cord to raise lamp, extra pressure is on hanging point unless you use free hand to support weight. Ratchet on bottom and you lift the weight when pulling cord upwards to raise lamp rather than pulling down against hanging point.
I always pull up on the opposite string to create slack when raising lights and I feel it maximizes light height.
That’s cool, not saying your wrong . . . but like I said, takes two hands to avoid extra stress on hang point that way. And maximizing height . . . do away with top carabiner and tie ropes to hang point gains a couple inches. If I need max height I hang directly from hooks, no ratchet/carabiner at all gains me another 3".