Maximum Yield USA 2016 January | Page 22

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Grower Gains Confidence After Reading After my first curious visit to a hydroponics grow store, I left with a little more confidence in my plan to switch from soil to hydro gardening. I later found out the most useful tools I acquired that day at the shop were the two Maximum Yield magazines I left with. Last month, I successfully completed my first self-sustaining Zachary T. Van Nostrand aquaponic system, which is fed by the organic fish I am raising and powered by the lights my plants use every day to grow. Zachary T. Van Nostrand Editor’s Note: Zachary has won $100 to spend at his favorite indoor gardening shop, HTG Supply in Charlotte, North Carolina, for telling us why he loves Maximum Yield. Could you use an extra $100 to spend at the hydro shop? Enter Maximum Yield’s I’m a Fan contest at maximumyield.com/contests for your chance to win! Light Advice Goes Far After reading “A Beginner’s Guide to Calculating Lighting Needs” by Eric Hopper in Maximum Yield, it got me thinking about my current lighting arrangement. With two 400-W lamps (one HPS, one MH) giving me 60 W per square foot, I assumed everything was as good as could be. But all this talk of micromoles and PAR piqued my interest, so I took the lamps down to my local hydro store, where Peter tested each lamp’s micromole output. He then compared them to a 315-W LEC lamp. I was speechless. My 400-W lamps were putting out around 500 micromoles each, whereas the 315-W was putting out 700 micromoles using 20% less power. That’s why I love Maximum Yield! Knowledge is power, but in this case, knowledge means less power. I have ordered two 315-W LECs and ballasts. Craig G. Reader Wins $1,000 Worth of Grow Gear Congratulations to our 2015 Maximum Yield I’m a Fan Grand Prize winner, Cris Sanchez from Ontario, California, who has won a grand prize of $1,000 to be spent at his favorite indoor garden shop, Green Thumb Garden Supply. “Maximum Yield is where I learn about all of the products that are Cris Sanchez good for growing, and all of the new products coming out. Maximum Yield has taught me tons of new things. In fact, I’ve learned more stuff in one year reading your magazine than I have in the last three years of gardening without Maximum Yield. I love all of the topics you guys cover in every issue. I sometimes travel nearly 60 miles each way just to get the magazine, but it is worth the G&