Hey All!
I’m about 1/2 of the way through veg on a few plants and thinking about upgrading my lighting going into flower. A little about my grow- 3 plants (wedding cake, do si dos, Jenny Kush) in a 3x3x72 tent, currently lit by an SF2000.
I’ve been thinking about upgrading to the SF4000 to get more wattage and a bit more even spread. In doing so, would I disrupt or harm the plants/cycle in any way? Also, would that light be overkill for the tent size?
Thanks!
The SF400 would be needed for 3 plants in a 9 sqft floor space. I generally stay at 40-50 watts per sqft depending on how many plants and the space I’m growing in. The 200 will get you through veg but bud development will suffer 
Flower them as early as you can. Three plants in a 3x3 leaves on 1.75’ x 1.75’ for each plant. It going to get really crowded. I expect you would have a better yield if you only run 1 plant - maybe 2 at the very most.
Thank you for your insight guys!
Are there any lights you would recommend that may be better, but in the same price range as the sf4000?
The SF series isn’t bad. An HLG light would be a little better, but not a whole lot. The difference is that the SF4000 has LM301b diodes and the HLG products have the more efficient LM301h diodes. HLG also has good warranty and outstanding customer service.
An HLG 320 would be a choice that is a bit better. It is about $20 more expensive; however, HLG almost always has a discount code that knocks off ~10% or so, so you would save a net ~$20.
That’s great info. I’ll check it out, thank you!
I run 450w in my 3x3.
You could simply add another sf2000. You end up at the same place.
That’s a really great idea. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks, man.
I don’t know enough about lighting to really know the difference, but I’m afraid that with the SF lights I may be missing some level of quality or configuration that could make a great deal of difference. Hopefully that’s not the case.
This^ for sure. Two lights will be more versatile especially if you have one plant that wants to stretch.
Two of the SF2000 lights would output a total of 400 watts. Do you think that would still be better vs the 450 watt output of the SF4000? Cheaper for sure, but would the extra power be negligible?
This is what I would do. Spread out a bit the canopy would bet better light distribution.
Plus early growing would require only one light for a while until the plants get bigger and need to be spread out.
While we’re on the topic, are you guys dimming your lights at all during veg or just regulating with height?
I use a separate light for seedlings through early veg. It is only 65w veg spectrum light so it is 100%. I adjust height to control the distance between nodes. Once they are large enough or transplanted to larger pots they go under the main grow light. Again I run them at 100% or close to it. I raise lower light based on spacing and how the plant reacts. They stay 100% until late flower. I’ll back off 20% +_ to minimize foxtailing.
If I run into height problems I supercrop rather than backing off light.
Post pics of your grow journey. 
I’ve been leaving mine on 100 and just adjusting height to suit as well. It’s amazing how sensitive some of these ladies are to even just inches of difference in height. That’s awesome, I really love the supercropping idea for dealing with height!
I ended up ordering another SF2000 per your recommendations. Thank you all very much again for sharing your wisdom. I appreciate it very much!!
Looking good, @Skid2 ! I don’t know anything about that strain. Looks like it’s gonna be a good one.
Here are my 3 ladies. New light should be here today. A few more weeks and we’ll be ready to flower!
Looking good.
