To avoid these problems, James started experimenting with light schedules in the flowering rooms where the light regimen was set at 12 hours on and 12 hours off. He tried turning one half of the lights on for the first hour of the day before turning the other half on. Then he tried turning half the lights off for the last hour of the day. “We noticed no real difference in growth or production, and we were saving a few kilowatt hours of electricity. But we still did not solve our heat and odor problems” said James. “That is when I got radical and put my engineering background to use!”

James spent 14 years as an engineer for Grodan, the Danish rockwool substrate company. Most of those years he visited greenhouses in the Netherlands solving problems. They still call him “Willy Wortel,” Dutch for “problem solver.”

“You know about the two Dutch guys that invented copper wire, right?” inquired James. I answered with a blank stare. “Yes, they were fighting over a penny! This is what we have found, a new invention that makes the same penny twice as valuable as it was before.”

James took a look at the data he had amassed over the years troubleshooting in the greenhouse industry and found that plants need bright light, but they react slowly to it. Greenhouses are dependent upon natural sunlight. Artificial light is used when natural light intensity levels drop below a specific level. Different plants require different light levels. When plants are given less artificial light, it is similar to growing them in shade and they mature slower and lack vigor. But what would happen if he simulated the greenhouse environment indoors?

In the Netherlands, direct sunshine is intermittent. Intensity drops every time sunlight is blocked by clouds. Plant growth slows somewhat, but it does not stop. Plants grown under intermittent bright light coupled with less intense light still grow as big and strong, but they take longer to mature. James used this same simple principle as the foundation for more grow room experiments. The results were extraordinary!

The attic grow room had two banks of lights overhead, each containing 5, 600w HP sodium lamps, 10 lamps total. He tried many different experiments with light levels. The most productive was to turn every other lamp on to form a zigzag light pattern in the room. He turned half of the lights on for two hours. At the end of two hours, he turned off the first 5 lights and turned on the second 5 lights to reverse the zigzag light pattern. He maintained this schedule for 12 hours, alternating every two hours. Only five lights are on at any one time, which cuts electricity consumption in half.

The first descent crop employing the new zigzag scheme with only 5 lamps on at any one time produced about 80 percent as much dry harvested buds (4.8 kilos, 10.5 pounds) in 9 weeks. This was pretty good, considering that after 9 weeks of growth under 10, 600w HPS lamps he harvested 6.6 kilos (13.2 pounds). James continued to refine the schedule conducting many more experiments. Yields continued to climb incrementally.

James and I have kept in close contact since we met more than a year ago. I have been on grow room tours every few months so as to keep abreast of his consistent progress. The results are very, very impressive!

Although they would not appear in the magazine, the beautiful babes are two of the best growers that work with James. They are a bit paranoid and would not let me visit their operation. I handed my camera and sat tight while she went to their grow show for some pot shots. We repeated this scenario a couple of times.

The crop looked good at first, but caught a virus during flowering. Of the 150 plants, 40 died as a result of the virus, 110 plants remained. They were forced to harvest the remaining 110 plants two weeks early, after flowering for 7 weeks. When dry, the harvest weighed in at 2.185 kilos (4.8 pounds). They harvested 397 grams for every 600w lamp, or 0.66 grams per watt on a 7-week crop.

They harvested the other room with plants that weren't pre grown as well. It produced 3125 grams from 150 plants, or 20,8 grams per plant, or, 67 grams per watt. The quality was so good that they had it sold within 24 hours of being dry.

Light is only half the equation. Many small details make up the balance. For a heavy harvest everything in the grow room must be integrated into a precise system. Lamps must be fixed overhead at 1.4 meters (55 inches) and exactly one meter (39 inches) apart and set up in a matrix so that illumination is even below. Ultimately the plants will grow up toward the static lamps. But lighting is only half of the equation.

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