LED lamps - Veg, Bloom or Both

[Spangle2010]

G'day

First a little background. I used to grow a fair bit using feminised seeds in a DWC bubbler with old-skool grow lights (MH and HPS) with plenty of success and HUGE bills. Now I've retired and just want a small grow with lower costs, so...

I purchased a DR40 and 2*300w LED lamps which are switchable Veg/Bloom/Both. I have 4*7.5 litre pots and I use BioBiz Allmix. I've purchased 3* Sensi Seeds Afghani#1 autos and got a freebie World of Seeds Afghan Kush Ryder auto... 4 plants in all. Germinated no problem and vegged them under both lamps switched to Veg only, all fine so far. After 3 weeks (roughly) they all started showing pistils and this is where my question comes in.

Do I do the same as I used to and switch from Veg light to Bloom light (as in previous MH off, HPS on) or do I keep the Veg switched on with the Bloom switched on i.e. Both? I'd love to know if it will make any difference to either the quality or quantity of harvested produce.

The total cost of a 12 week (84 day) grow using both veg and bloom is ~£52 whereas if I use only the bloom setting the cost for the whole grow drops to ~£40, not exactly breaking the bank here. Note that these costs include the air movement fan and the RVK extractor.

Any help/advice would be most welcome.

 

[MR magoo]

Howdy. 11 years of indoor led growing. the way I look at is, if you think the sun does a better job of growing Cannabis, then you would keep
both veg. and bloom going ALL the time. just like the sun does. this is what I believe. led panels with veg bloom switching was just a gimmick. this is an opinion, and as we all know " opinion are like assholes everybody has one"

 

[Growtogrow]

G'day

First a little background. I used to grow a fair bit using feminised seeds in a DWC bubbler with old-skool grow lights (MH and HPS) with plenty of success and HUGE bills. Now I've retired and just want a small grow with lower costs, so...

I purchased a DR40 and 2*300w LED lamps which are switchable Veg/Bloom/Both. I have 4*7.5 litre pots and I use BioBiz Allmix. I've purchased 3* Sensi Seeds Afghani#1 autos and got a freebie World of Seeds Afghan Kush Ryder auto... 4 plants in all. Germinated no problem and vegged them under both lamps switched to Veg only, all fine so far. After 3 weeks (roughly) they all started showing pistils and this is where my question comes in.

Do I do the same as I used to and switch from Veg light to Bloom light (as in previous MH off, HPS on) or do I keep the Veg switched on with the Bloom switched on i.e. Both? I'd love to know if it will make any difference to either the quality or quantity of harvested produce.

The total cost of a 12 week (84 day) grow using both veg and bloom is ~£52 whereas if I use only the bloom setting the cost for the whole grow drops to ~£40, not exactly breaking the bank here. Note that these costs include the air movement fan and the RVK extractor.

Any help/advice would be most welcome.

LEDs have come a long ways friend since way back in the day. Using the metal halide and HPS lights especially with a magnetic ballast...that cost a lot of money at a 1000 Watts. I know all too well.. I'm right with you brother.

I'm a studier of Light and artificial light and enhancing it

I'm not a super big fan LEDs yet because it start up cost is so much and you don't get that much bang for your buck.
So myself being a DIY kind of guy.
I've built my own hybrid 315 CMH and far red LEDs light. The led spectrum of 7:30 to 780 NMs
And the cmh 31k and 41k

The 315 CMH light is a superior light. it has a very broad spectrum you don't have to change the bulbs out very often they're good for two years and up to five years depending on how you use them they retain 92% of the Sun total value and their spectrum is very Broad...for their first 2000 hours of use. And only dropping down to 82% of the Sun total value after that. Where HPS AND MH starts out at 26%.. Then HPS and MH loses it very quickly and is useless pretty much after 9 months of use. As it's only about 20% of what the Sun can give you.

LEDs have come a long ways though if you got the money you can get into a good quality led for about 700 or more that will cover a 5x5 area with a quality LED light.
The start-up cost of the 315 CMH is approximately 250 little bit more a little bit less depending on where you get your equipment at.

I'm not trying to put down LEDs

I'm just saying the CMH is very very great light to use and start up cost is cheap the benefits are very positive and I converted my entire inside grow to 315 CMH about a 2 years or so ago. And I was able to convert all of my HPS hoods while I was doing it. For way still far less than that I would pay for LEDs of the same quality.
I'm not disappointed whatsoever. The Quality of my weed is equal or better than my HPS setup. As when I ran HPS I had magnetic ballasts and I went digital and I even drop down to digital 600w. Ipower set up. But still the bulbs only last about nine months.
So I was buying bulbs every year for 6 of my lights. As I run T5 lights if that time for my veg.

So just giving you some options to think about before you go spending your hard-earned cash. And if you want to know more about the far red LEDs. I suggest studying Apogee Industries Dr Bruce Bugbee at Utah State University Far red the Forgotten photon

Good luck

 

[Spangle2010]

Thanks for that. Initial cost for my LED lamps was ~£80 each and I managed to put the whole lot together including tent, lights, RVK and carbon filter for around £300. Unfortunately being on a basic state pension doesn't leave much to play with so if I can harvest enough for 3 months consumption (around 90 grams) I'd be more than happy.

 

[Spangle2010]

Howdy. 11 years of indoor led growing. the way I look at is, if you think the sun does a better job of growing Cannabis, then you would keep
both veg. and bloom going ALL the time. just like the sun does. this is what I believe. led panels with veg bloom switching was just a gimmick. this is an opinion, and as we all know " opinion are like assholes everybody has one"

That's a fair point, nothing beats the big grow lamp in the sky