UV LIGHT ON DURING NIGHT DURING FLOWERING PERIOD THEORY!

Pinworm

Pinworm

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
More HPS light will yield diminishing returns after a certain level of overall intensity is reached.

I've seen so many highly respected growers get eyebrow raising results with them that it's not a matter of IF it works, it's more a matter of quantifying it and finding ways to add it most efficiently.

So I'm with you on the side by side testing thing, but I'm not nearly as skeptical about their effectiveness as it sounds like you are.

UVA- this is the spectrum nearest to visible light, and the one emitted the most by MH lamps. Its effectiveness tends to be limited and benefits turn to detriment rapidly as intensity increases.

UVB- the sweet spot. next up the spectrum from UVA, this is the part of the spectrum that apparently gives the most benefits.

UVC- this is hard and damaging radiation, and should be avoided on both plants and people. I haven't seen any evidence suggesting that supplementing with it is desirable at all.

ALL of these spectra WILL damage skin and eyes, leading to macular degeneration among other ailments. I suspect we'll know the old growers by their degenerative eye diseases when we get to the old folks' home.

Soooo... wear your sunglasses and shut those fuckers off when you work around them!
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He seems passionate enough. Maybe he'll teach us all something with his upcoming garbage can grow. I'm not adverse to being proven wrong.
 
a senile fungus

a senile fungus

Well-Known Member
Pinworm said:
Read Sativied posts about 'em. They are gnarly. I think Chuck Esteves just finished a pretty successful run with one, too.
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I know I was on on that convo, or there were two convos going on about them between two similar threads at the same time. I think I'll bite the bullet, it eliminates light as a limiting factor lol
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
nomofatum said:
http://www.amazon.com/Exo-Terra-Repti-Glo-Fluorescent-Terrarium/dp/B00101GDIG

Shows $15 right now.

If you have a big space these are not cost effective to provide UVB. Just a perfect test bulb to try one of. If you want to try a larger space I would go with T5/T8 or Tanning bulb options. They will cost less per watt/lumen/umol and give better coverage.
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I'm trying to supplement a pretty big area. Do these come in six foot lengths, since they're made for tanning beds?
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
a senile fungus said:
I know I was on on that convo, or there were two convos going on about them between two similar threads at the same time. I think I'll bite the bullet, it eliminates light as a limiting factor lol
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There's not much debate; DE lamps rock, especially on overboost settings. After having looked around, the strongest argument I can find for Gavita ballasts to run them is that they're the only ones that overboost to 1150W, and utilize the preferred ultra high frequency.
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
I'm trying to supplement a pretty big area. Do these come in six foot lengths, since they're made for tanning beds?
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They have a couple of different lengths, but right around 6ft. Easiest ones to buy are from sams club online, combine them with a workhorse 8 ballast and you are GTG, I bought the sockets from homedepot and made a DIY fixture of that length. Workhorse 8 runs 2 100w tanning bulbs.
 
a senile fungus

a senile fungus

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
There's not much debate; DE lamps rock, especially on overboost settings. After having looked around, the strongest argument I can find for Gavita ballasts to run them is that they're the only ones that overboost to 1150W, and utilize the preferred ultra high frequency.
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OK so here's a scenario, nonofatum, however I spell your name, I'd like your input as well.

Would you rather have a 1000w gavita in a 5x5x7 space

-or-

600/1000w HPS and a 315w CMH hung one on top of the other vertically in 5x5x7 space

I'm not set on those exact dimensions of space either, but just probing out there.

I think I'll get the gavita and use it as a standard to compare vert against, that's my 5yr plan lol

But I'd still like input. Thanks.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
a senile fungus said:
OK so here's a scenario, nonofatum, however I spell your name, I'd like your input as well.

Would you rather have a 1000w gavita in a 5x5x7 space

-or-

600/1000w HPS and a 315w CMH hung one on top of the other vertically in 5x5x7 space

I'm not set on those exact dimensions of space either, but just probing out there.

I think I'll get the gavita and use it as a standard to compare vert against, that's my 5yr plan lol

But I'd still like input. Thanks.
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I smell a side by side coming... it smells gooooood.
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
a senile fungus said:
OK so here's a scenario, nonofatum, however I spell your name, I'd like your input as well.

Would you rather have a 1000w gavita in a 5x5x7 space

-or-

600/1000w HPS and a 315w CMH hung one on top of the other vertically in 5x5x7 space

I'm not set on those exact dimensions of space either, but just probing out there.

I think I'll get the gavita and use it as a standard to compare vert against, that's my 5yr plan lol

But I'd still like input. Thanks.
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I would have to look at the spectrum chart for each of the bulb options. CMH with 3100k + UVB is about ideal for flower. But some of the new bulbs have much better spectrums than normal HPS. Post bulb choices and I will give my favorite combos from them.

I use CMH (3100k Phillips) + LED (3500k 60%, 6500k 40%) + tanning 10% uvb.

I have no knowledge to comment on ballasts with except my Chinese CMH ballasts seem to rock so far. I was laying naked under the CMH it felt so good, before plants went in there, lol.
 
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a senile fungus

a senile fungus

Well-Known Member
nomofatum said:
I would have to look at the spectrum chart for each of the bulb options. CMH with 3100k + UVB is about ideal for flower. But some of the new bulbs have much better spectrums than normal HPS. Post bulb choices and I will give my favorite combos from them.

I use CMH (3100k Phillips) + LED (3500k 60%, 6500k 40%) + tanning 10% uvb.

I have no knowledge to comment on ballasts with except my Chinese CMH ballasts seem to rock so far. I was laying naked under the CMH it felt so good, before plants went in there, lol.
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I have no idea what is a good bulb for the gavita but here is the Philips 1000w DE. I could find any more specific info about UV, spectrum etc.
http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/prof/oem/hid-systems/high-pressure-sodium/horti/928196305116_EU/product

And here is the CMH that I'm using.

1424156321272.jpg

Its spec sheet can be found on advanced techs website. http://advancedtechlighting.com/cdmmw.htm

And I'm not sure what kind of 1000w bulb I would hang vert, open to suggestions.

LOL and yes, CMH does feel amazingly good on my skin. I enjoy working in the morning in the barebulb garden shirtless.
 
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nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
a senile fungus said:
I have no idea what is a good bulb for the gavita but here is the Philips 1000w DE. I could find any more specific info about UV, spectrum etc.
http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/prof/oem/hid-systems/high-pressure-sodium/horti/928196305116_EU/product

And here is the CMH that I'm using.

View attachment 3353202

Its spec sheet can be found on advanced techs website. http://advancedtechlighting.com/cdmmw.htm

And I'm not sure what kind of 1000w bulb I would hang vert, open to suggestions.
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I don't think I would use a HID for vert. Makes you waste a big circle of space around the HID bulb. I think vert is where distributed lighting really shines, it wastes less space since it can be much closer to the plants. That would be florescent or low power LEDs and a lot of them on the walls or even hanging or stranded through the space. Save the HIDs for overhead lighting where a gap can be maintained without costing grow space.

The stupid attachment only grabbed part of the chart, but I don't really like the chart from that bulb you linked to (SON GreenPower Plus), big spike in green and almost no blue, zero UVB from that bulb based on the chart.

I would go with normal HPS over that bulb.

I look for something like 50% red spectrum, 35% blue spectrum (including UVB), and 20% green spectrum. That hits the all the key targets harder than the rest of the spectrum, but also hits every wavelength in visible and a bit beyond.
 

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Pinworm

Pinworm

Well-Known Member
Overhead HID vs Strategically placed CFLs or low power LEDs? Sounds like and expensive risk to take considering all the time and money and risk most people take growing on a large scale IMO. It would be cool to see if the traditional method (the one that's worked for however long using those pesky overhead HIDs to get done the job, for now that is what? A few decades+) would do better than rigging a bunch of separate and intricate bulb panels to achieve the same outcome. Especially in a space larger than a garbage can. Say maybea 12x12. What's being sacrificed by using something more intricate, yet, elegantly placed, and/or what's being gained?

Also, don't forget once you have your new panels of fluorescents and/or low power led's placed, that you're going to need to upgrade with some UV lights to increase you trichome production.

Worth the extra dough and effort?

All good questions.
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
UVB doesn't pass through glass very well, so if you are running in an enclosed hood don't bother counting the UVB. Even in a CMH, you would want to run the single glass bulb and an open fixture if you wanted usable UVB, note that is also a fire/injury hazard.
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
Pinworm said:
...
Worth the extra dough and effort?

All good questions.
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I don't think it is, I think vert takes longer and requires a more complex system to really only break even (over time) with the more simple top lighting system. But if you want monster plants then you want monster plants, who am I to judge.

What's gained is instead of having a 16 inch zone of proper lighting for good bud development you have 8 foot zone of proper lighting for good bud development and no wasted floor space.

You waste at least one full big plants worth of space by hanging a HID down low and vertically without a reflector for a HID vert design.

We are talking about mostly T5/T8 or strips of 1w or less LEDs. These are distributed light sourced that the plants can touch or almost touch. Smaller HIDs can still be used for the ceiling lights. And if you want you can get into floating CFLs, LED bulbs, or rope lights for a perfectionist approach.
 
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