Lighting IS IT WORTH GETTING A COB LED??

[Tyler_Durden88]

Yes, geothermal rocks!

Lol sounds like you're building a god damn Garden of Eden to me, I'd love to be a part of it! What's the ppm on your well water? I've been using a reverse osmosis filter but it's wasteful and slow af... The good news as far as The Cannon goes is that you can drop each unit down to 50% if the power goes out and you're using a generator. You'll still have even coverage and it'll be decent enough to keep the girls growing, albeit slowly. You'll be able to cut most of your fans too.

Dude I hear you on the unexpected expenses being the worst ones, lol PayPal/Visa essentially own 3% of my gross and they didn't even buy me dinner

My well ppm is around 150-200 but its mostly iron and a bit of sulfar but the ph is a high 8.8 witch is a pain in the ass.The spring up the mountain is at 50 ppmand the ph is around 5 to 6. It was a old natural spring house that supplied the whole area around 5 houses and my basement still has the plastic hose that comes from it its just not hooked up. it needs to be cleaned and the spring needs to be dug out a bit and rebuilt with stone its all there but a tree fell on it years ago and needs to be cut up and moved. Im planning on rebuilding it this week. Reverse osmosis isnt ideal for the reasons you stated slow and tedious. Im going to either buy or just make a big sediment filter with sand and other things for good measure. My dwc is all bubble buckets with a recirculating system. So when I move plants from one place to the other I can just move the net pot lids or the whole bucket ideally.

 

[The Iconoclast]

Flower Initiation

Flower Initiation is awesome for photos, but it probably won't make a difference with autos. For photoperiods, flowering is triggered by a pigment called phytochrome. It has an ctive state(Pfr) and an inactive state(Pr). In the dark it takes about two hours for all the phytochrome to switch from its active form (Pfr) to its inactive form (Pr). When it all stays inactive (Pr) for 10 to 12 hours every night the plant goes into flower.

If you give the plant 730nm far red for 15 minutes after lights out, all the phyotochrome switches to its inactive state in 15 minutes instead of two hours, effectively lengthening your dark period and speeding up the flowering process. This shit really works! I've seen it with my own two eyes, check out my IG @blacksailfarm. Especially during the stretch phase, photoperiod plants will go through this phase in 1 week instead of 2. Since the dark cycle doesn't effect flowering for autos you probably won't get the same results.

If you want to try flower initiation you can get a 7 Watt (you don't need much!) growmau5 far red puck for less than $40 at Rapid LED, it's plug & play and it'll cover a 3'x3'.

The Emerson Effect

Photosynthesis is a two step process. Chlorophyll A absorbs ~660nm light into an electron, does its thing, then passes the electron off to Chlorophyll B. Chlorophyll B absorbs ~730nm light into the same electron, then finishes off the cycle:

View attachment 964165

Emerson figured out that since the two systems work together, when you give the plant 660nm + 730nm together you get almost twice the results!

View attachment 964166

3000K 90CRI

Higher CRI comes at a cost in efficiency, but it shifts the light more towards the red end of the spectrum. So, in the case of 3000K you might get more growth from the increased red even though the total amount of light is a little bit lower. 80 CRI is usually your best bet, but for 3000K the difference in far red between 80 CRI and 90 CRI is pretty huge:
View attachment 964168
As you get below 3000K you lose efficiency and barely get any gain in far red, so 3000K is the lowest Kelvin I'd go for. 3000K 80CRI is a great flowering light, but if you want that extra far red go for some 3000K 90CRI. Mixed 50/50 with 3500K 80CRI either one will rock out.

Happy growing!

That's a very interesting post. My viparspectra PAR700 has both the 660 and 730, however it appears to have an overabundance of blue light. It has both warm and cold white, but a fair bit of blue. I'm just going into flower and I've turned the blue down to 25%. Does this sound like a good idea? Do you have any information on how an excess of blue would affect an auto period that has started flowering? I mean I see that blue light is still good quality par and of course turning up the blue doesn't not make the red less, so it's really a matter of balance. Do you think I should keep the blue at 25% or move it up to 100%? I've added the spectrum and LED config, if that helps, I presume that the spectrum is with all lights at 100%

 

[Black Sail]

That's a very interesting post. My viparspectra PAR700 has both the 660 and 730, however it appears to have an overabundance of blue light. It has both warm and cold white, but a fair bit of blue. I'm just going into flower and I've turned the blue down to 25%. Does this sound like a good idea? Do you have any information on how an excess of blue would affect an auto period that has started flowering? I mean I see that blue light is still good quality par and of course turning up the blue doesn't not make the red less, so it's really a matter of balance. Do you think I should keep the blue at 25% or move it up to 100%? I've added the spectrum and LED config, if that helps, I presume that the spectrum is with all lights at 100%

How much space are you covering with this light? If it's bigger than a 1'x1' I'd recommend running the blue diodes as high as you can. Even at full power your PPFD is going to be pretty low, and the extra blue light will help you get some more weight and increase your terpene and cannabinoid levels.

I haven't seen it for myself, but Growmau5 says that once you get above 25% blue light (out of your total spectrum) you might start to see some weird growth and unhealthy plants. From the spectrum graph I'd say set the blue to 50% and keep an eye on how your girls react. You might be able to turn it higher but it really depends on how the ladies like it.

I recommend getting a full spectrum COB in there man, 3500K 80CRI or 3000K 80CRI would be perfect:smoking:

 

[The Iconoclast]

How much space are you covering with this light? If it's bigger than a 1'x1' I'd recommend running the blue diodes as high as you can. Even at full power your PPFD is going to be pretty low, and the extra blue light will help you get some more weight and increase your terpene and cannabinoid levels.

I haven't seen it for myself, but Growmau5 says that once you get above 25% blue light (out of your total spectrum) you might start to see some weird growth and unhealthy plants. From the spectrum graph I'd say set the blue to 50% and keep an eye on how your girls react. You might be able to turn it higher but it really depends on how the ladies like it.

I recommend getting a full spectrum COB in there man, 3500K 80CRI or 3000K 80CRI would be perfect:smoking:

Thanks for the reply. Well I can say this, it does have both 3000K and 7500K White LED's so it's getting a full spectrum there. And I can also say that the micro moles per meter per second at 24 inches is rated at 780 in the centre. However I have the lights at 13 inches, so I would expect a pretty good PPFD at that range. The plant is currently taking up a space of 1.5 feet x 1.5 feet with the two banks of lights separated by the fans. Judging by how my camera exposes the shots, it looks like it's getting about the same amount of light as a sunny day with very diffused cloud cover that still casts a shadow, and that's with the blue at 25 %, so because it looks like enough PPFD, I'll take your advice and not up the blue.

Nothing is looking strange and it's growing fast and healthy, but it's been in preflower for a week now without really budding up. Not sure if I have a weird phenotype or what. I have found a chart at 24", so would this indicate to you enough light to leave the blue down at 25%, especially considering that it also has cold white light as well as warm.

 

[Black Sail]

Thanks for the reply. Well I can say this, it does have both 3000K and 7500K White LED's so it's getting a full spectrum there. And I can also say that the micro moles per meter per second at 24 inches is rated at 780 in the centre. However I have the lights at 13 inches, so I would expect a pretty good PPFD at that range. The plant is currently taking up a space of 1.5 feet x 1.5 feet with the two banks of lights separated by the fans. Judging by how my camera exposes the shots, it looks like it's getting about the same amount of light as a sunny day with very diffused cloud cover that still casts a shadow, and that's with the blue at 25 %, so because it looks like enough PPFD, I'll take your advice and not up the blue.

Nothing is looking strange and it's growing fast and healthy, but it's been in preflower for a week now without really budding up. Not sure if I have a weird phenotype or what. I have found a chart at 24", so would this indicate to you enough light to leave the blue down at 25%, especially considering that it also has cold white light as well as warm.

Awesome, yeah if it ain't broke don't fix it:smoking: I think you'll be fine anywhere from 25%-50% but it depends on the strain, the environment, etc... so I can't give you a definite answer. Sounds like you've got a handle on it though, just keep an eye on the girls and they'll let you know.

Happy growing brotha!