LED and autoflowers question

[pZychedelic]

Hey guys.

I understand most lights have recommended height and schedule for photopheriod plants but not for autos. Thats my problem, I will be doing an autoflower batch this grow and I can't really figure out how to introduce red lightning at which time...

I got an Optic 8+, it has 2 white COB's for vegging and 6 for flowering phase which have dimmers, should I start at recommended vegging cob's % and increase as autos grow first 2 weeks to 100% vegg? should I increase the red bloom lightning after they start showing signs of flowering or give autos more red flowering specter light from the start? :S

the distance should be the same I suppose first week or two till they get bigger and start showing signs of flowering? I should bring the light down when they enter that phase?

If anyone can help me understand that would be great!

 

[The_Imp]

Re the height, I'd recommend that you follow the guidance you have for the photos during veg & flower as the plants need the same photon density at the canopy regardless of whether they are autos or photos. Autos generally start to transition into flower from the third week, give or take but I personally wouldn't drop the lights until the plants have finished the stretch.

I use 2x hanspanel 180's and I ignore the veg / flower settings, I just give them full power 24/0 from the start till they finish and they seem to really like that, prob not the most economical way to do it but it works for me. I only run two at a time but I pulled 12z of dank off the last two I ran so Id say the 24/0 on full power has some merit to it.

If you want to be more economical with the electricity then you'll be fine to run them in veg mode for the first few weeks (20/4 lighting during flowering will save a bit too without affecting yield too much) you may notice some difference in the node spacing doing it this way but I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you're new to growing then I'd advise you keep it as simple as possible to start with and remember to go easy on the feeding during stretch as you don't want to stunt them! Good luck!

 

[Death The Cultivator]

Hey guys.

I understand most lights have recommended height and schedule for photopheriod plants but not for autos. Thats my problem, I will be doing an autoflower batch this grow and I can't really figure out how to introduce red lightning at which time...

I got an Optic 8+, it has 2 white COB's for vegging and 6 for flowering phase which have dimmers, should I start at recommended vegging cob's % and increase as autos grow first 2 weeks to 100% vegg? should I increase the red bloom lightning after they start showing signs of flowering or give autos more red flowering specter light from the start? :S

the distance should be the same I suppose first week or two till they get bigger and start showing signs of flowering? I should bring the light down when they enter that phase?

If anyone can help me understand that would be great!

I start my lights 40" above for seedlings and clones, then I'll slowly bring it down while the plants are growinguntil my leaves start to taco then I'll raise it up a few inches and leave it. During flower I'll adjust my lights several times to compensate for stretching and I'll continue until they are done stretching.

You could use both the veg and bloom sections of your light for maximum power. I would start with an 18/6 light schedule and you can adjust to 24/0 if you feel that 18/6 isn't enough light.

Here's an article explaining light needs in different stages.

 

[pZychedelic]

Re the height, I'd recommend that you follow the guidance you have for the photos during veg & flower as the plants need the same photon density at the canopy regardless of whether they are autos or photos. Autos generally start to transition into flower from the third week, give or take but I personally wouldn't drop the lights until the plants have finished the stretch.

I use 2x hanspanel 180's and I ignore the veg / flower settings, I just give them full power 24/0 from the start till they finish and they seem to really like that, prob not the most economical way to do it but it works for me. I only run two at a time but I pulled 12z of dank off the last two I ran so Id say the 24/0 on full power has some merit to it.

If you want to be more economical with the electricity then you'll be fine to run them in veg mode for the first few weeks (20/4 lighting during flowering will save a bit too without affecting yield too much) you may notice some difference in the node spacing doing it this way but I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you're new to growing then I'd advise you keep it as simple as possible to start with and remember to go easy on the feeding during stretch as you don't want to stunt them! Good luck!

Hmmmm nice. So you run the lights 24/0? I heard that diminishes the productivity a bit, that 20/4 is the optimal regime?

Do you run the light on 100% power from the start or you are using dimmers? What height do you keep the lights on from start?

I don't really care about electricity consumption, its not that important at the moment I don't use any electrical appliance except for my PC so its not that bad moneywise.

Yea my plan is to keep it as simple as possible for the first run, thats why I wanna figure out the lightning settings beforehand to an extent.

I grew before but not indoor :S

I start my lights 40" above for seedlings and clones, then I'll slowly bring it down while the plants are growinguntil my leaves start to taco then I'll raise it up a few inches and leave it. During flower I'll adjust my lights several times to compensate for stretching and I'll continue until they are done stretching.

You could use both the veg and bloom sections of your light for maximum power. I would start with an 18/6 light schedule and you can adjust to 24/0 if you feel that 18/6 isn't enough light.

Here's an article explaining light needs in different stages.

Hmmmm so you think autos wont suffer much from increased reds at the start of the grow? By tacoing you mean curling of the leafs? Yea I figured gonna be harder with LED's since there is no heat to determine if the light is burning the plants :S

so I could start with 18/6 and increase the light gradually to 24/0? Didn't know that could be done but makes sense. Gonna go 20/4 tho for the simplicity, maybe give it a week full of light before leaving it dark 24-48 hrs before chop.

But first gotta get there

Thank you guys, this will help make some references

 

[Death The Cultivator]

Hmmmm nice. So you run the lights 24/0? I heard that diminishes the productivity a bit, that 20/4 is the optimal regime?

Do you run the light on 100% power from the start or you are using dimmers? What height do you keep the lights on from start?

I don't really care about electricity consumption, its not that important at the moment I don't use any electrical appliance except for my PC so its not that bad moneywise.

Yea my plan is to keep it as simple as possible for the first run, thats why I wanna figure out the lightning settings beforehand to an extent.

I grew before but not indoor :S



Hmmmm so you think autos wont suffer much from increased reds at the start of the grow? By tacoing you mean curling of the leafs? Yea I figured gonna be harder with LED's since there is no heat to determine if the light is burning the plants :S

so I could start with 18/6 and increase the light gradually to 24/0? Didn't know that could be done but makes sense. Gonna go 20/4 tho for the simplicity, maybe give it a week full of light before leaving it dark 24-48 hrs before chop.

But first gotta get there

Thank you guys, this will help make some references

I veg and flower at 3000k. I have no problems.

I would only increase the light if I believed I wasn't getting enough light at 18/6

 

[The_Imp]

I veg and flower at 3000k. I have no problems.

I would only increase the light if I believed I wasn't getting enough light at 18/6

I have the light on 24/0 predominantly due to the fact that my tent is in an unheated outhouse and it gets cold in there so any extra heat is appreciated atm. That said my friend grows the same genetics in the same fashion as me but gave them 18/6 and we found that I always yielded more than him so he's switched to 24/0 with good results so far.

It was a long time ago that I checked the science on this but my (admittedly befuddled) memory seems to recall that endo plants don't need a dark period to metabolise in the way that ecto plants do. I could be totally wrong but I think the only reason to have the dark period is for the photo gene to activate flowering and as the auto gene causes the plant to flower in 24 hr sunlight I didn't see the point in giving them a dark period. They seem to love it, I've been getting some excellent (by my standard) weights from the last few runs, largely down to good genetics of course but I really think that the constant light helps.

That said, I have had a couple of plants that seemed a bit stressed by the light in the past but nothing too bad that's affected the crop. I think certain strains thrive with 24 and others get a bit stressed (you might induce the odd hermie) although on the other hand I've found a little stress can increase potency sometimes, I guess it's down to what your strains will tolerate.

 

[Death The Cultivator]

I have the light on 24/0 predominantly due to the fact that my tent is in an unheated outhouse and it gets cold in there so any extra heat is appreciated atm. That said my friend grows the same genetics in the same fashion as me but gave them 18/6 and we found that I always yielded more than him so he's switched to 24/0 with good results so far.

It was a long time ago that I checked the science on this but my (admittedly befuddled) memory seems to recall that endo plants don't need a dark period to metabolise in the way that ecto plants do. I could be totally wrong but I think the only reason to have the dark period is for the photo gene to activate flowering and as the auto gene causes the plant to flower in 24 hr sunlight I didn't see the point in giving them a dark period. They seem to love it, I've been getting some excellent (by my standard) weights from the last few runs, largely down to good genetics of course but I really think that the constant light helps.

That said, I have had a couple of plants that seemed a bit stressed by the light in the past but nothing too bad that's affected the crop. I think certain strains thrive with 24 and others get a bit stressed (you might induce the odd hermie) although on the other hand I've found a little stress can increase potency sometimes, I guess it's down to what your strains will tolerate.

These reason he probably yields less if we were just going based on lighting could be that you both have lights with lower PAR levels. There are a lot of variables though.

Plants have a total amount of photons they can absorb before diminishing returns, regarded as DLI or Daily Light Integral

 

[The_Imp]

These reason he probably yields less if we were just going based on lighting could be that you both have lights with lower PAR levels. There are a lot of variables though.

Plants have a total amount of photons they can absorb before diminishing returns, regarded as DLI or Daily Light Integral

Fair enough, but I don't think my two hanspanels are saturating the plants capacity to absorb photons as they are not that powerful (2x180w) I may be wrong tho.

My friend uses exactly the same lights as me, the only difference in our set up is his tent is 20cm smaller which could account for some of the extra but tbh my buds are regularly nicer than his too, lol.

 

[Death The Cultivator]

Fair enough, but I don't think my two hanspanels are saturating the plants capacity to absorb photons as they are not that powerful (2x180w) I may be wrong tho.

My friend uses exactly the same lights as me, the only difference in our set up is his tent is 20cm smaller which could account for some of the extra but tbh my buds are regularly nicer than his too, lol.

You could just be a better grower. Temperature, humidity, method, etc. Sometimes it's the little things.

 

[The_Imp]

You could just be a better grower. Temperature, humidity, method, etc. Sometimes it's the little things.

Yeah possibly, his tent is in a nice warm house unlike mine so the humidity / temp ect levels are very different. I guess that doesn't make our grows that comparable. Maybe in the summer I'll try 18/6 for a comparison with the same strains but it's too chilly in the winter and I need the extra heat in there atm!