AutoFlower Lighting - Do you follow the MIGRO philosophy?

[ExNavyInSTL]

This "grow" I have really been dialed into the benchmark settings that are touted about the internet.

One source I have particular respect for is MIGRO. Shane Torpey seems to be a straight-up guy that opens up the technology for public scrutiny.

In one of his videos, he says that when running AutoFlowers on a 20/4 cycle with a modern LED all you need is "40 DLI." (see graphic)

Is this a standard that most agree with?

I want to believe this because this is a moderate lighting scenario. In fact, it means running a PPFD of 556 for 20 hours.

This seems low and conservative from some of the videos I've watched that have you pushing 1000 PPFD, or more with CO2.

What are your thoughts, or techniques?

 

[olbobcat]

I am a total believer in DLI. I run 24/7 so I usually run my light at less than full. I read somewhere that late in flower they need less as well, but can figure out where I saw it. I am at day 46 and have the lights up a little higher right now believing that there are those 3 weeks where the flowers really grow quickly and put on a lot of their size so I am giving them more light. I have a new ppfd meter and am going to try and get things dialed in better. Somebody just had this up with the DR Bigbee study that says crank it up, it's hard to against what Bruce says but I have to decide what is best for me.

 

[ExNavyInSTL]

Huge Fan of Dr. Bugbee. I watch his videos as though he is a cult leader.

 

[Death The Cultivator]

This "grow" I have really been dialed into the benchmark settings that are touted about the internet.

One source I have particular respect for is MIGRO. Shane Torpey seems to be a straight-up guy that opens up the technology for public scrutiny.

In one of his videos, he says that when running AutoFlowers on a 20/4 cycle with a modern LED all you need is "40 DLI." (see graphic)

Is this a standard that most agree with?

I want to believe this because this is a moderate lighting scenario. In fact, it means running a PPFD of 556 for 20 hours.

This seems low and conservative from some of the videos I've watched that have you pushing 1000 PPFD, or more with CO2.

What are your thoughts, or techniques?

View attachment 1411158

I wouldn't say it's low for a 20 hour cycle, in a 12 hour cycle you would run at 930ppfd for nearly the same. For perspective, at work we run our veg room at 300ppfd 24/7 with c02 whereas in our flower room it is 1000+ for a 12/12 cycle reaching around 45 DLI with c02. You can get away with between 30-45 DLI in flower, 15-25 in veg, and around 3-10 in clones/seeds.

 

[Olderfart]

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Those have to be the most sativa leaves I have seen on a Kush strain, but I am pretty new at this. Nice plant regardless!

 

[MIAutomatic]

I am also a big Dr. Bugbee fan and following information from his videos I try to keep my DLI around 60-70 with 24 hours lights and then back it down off to DLI 30-40 once the flowers start ripening. I found out if you keep the DLI too high in late flowering/ripening that it causes lots of little foxtails and slows down ripening.

According to Dr. Bugbee full sun peak season is about 60 DLI, so that’s what I am aiming for. I am using a Sunsystem 315 watt CMH so it’s always a little higher right beneath the bulb, about 70, then drops of to around 55 and the edge of the canopy.

My temps are mid to high 70s, I keep airflow high and the plants use a lot of water but I haven’t had any problems with heat or light stress.

 

[olbobcat]

I am also a big Dr. Bugbee fan and following information from his videos I try to keep my DLI around 60-70 with 24 hours lights and then back it down off to DLI 30-40 once the flowers start ripening. I found out if you keep the DLI too high in late flowering/ripening that it causes lots of little foxtails and slows down ripening.

According to Dr. Bugbee full sun peak season is about 60 DLI, so that’s what I am aiming for. I am using a Sunsystem 315 watt CMH so it’s always a little higher right beneath the bulb, about 70, then drops of to around 55 and the edge of the canopy.

My temps are mid to high 70s, I keep airflow high and the plants use a lot of water but I haven’t had any problems with heat or light stress.

I read about lowering the lights in late bloom but I don't remember where.

 

[MIAutomatic]

I read about lowering the lights in late bloom but I don't remember where.

I raise the light late bloom, but really when they have stopped producing and are mostly ripening. I keep my light at 14-15 inches until the end of flowering and then raise it to 24-30 inches for the last 1-2 weeks. Having too much light at the end of flowering seems to make a lot of strains develop fox tails, which is not terrible, but also not ideal.

 

[Delps8]

Big fan of Bugbee here, as well. Re. a DLI of 40 - cannabis will grow well in that but Bugbee and others demonstrate that yield increases as DLI increases. The law of diminishing returns does kick in, no surprise, but, given the value of the crop, the additional yield may well offset the increased cost of electricity (search for "
The Profitability of Growing Cannabis Under High Intensity Light"). If you haven't already, search for the paper by Chandra et al at U of Mississippi. I've got links to other papers if folks are interested in a discussion. It would be nice to be able to upload documents…

"Professort DeBacco" has very approachable videos on YouTube and his video on lighting is helpful but it discusses PPFD and is aimed at photos rather than autos.

Between Bugbee, Chandra, and deBacco (sounds like a law firm, eh?), my thinking is to go to 900 PPFD.

I've attached a chart from Chandra as well as the graph that Photone uses on their site. Chandra is research but I don't know the source for the DLI chart. One other thing - YouTube has a transcript feature. It's machine generated so the formatting is off but the content is good. The menu item is "…" icon to the right of the Like and Dislike icons.

Re. Migro - check out the PPFD charts here. I'd like to see more red in the spectrum but the uniformity from that array is the best of all the lights that they tested. Really something.

 

[olbobcat]

My point has always maintained that we are not running 12 hour cycle. I am running 24 hr cycle. If you were running 18/6 you would have 50% increase in hours therefore your ppfd would be less for same DLI. I am at 100% increase of hours. I am running lights at 75% equal to 100% at 18/6. I will have to check the ppfd again because I can't remember what it was.