captainmorgan
Well-Known Member
Arcadia is Europe based and Zoomed is USA,they are both German made bulbs so get which ever is cheaper for you.
Unless you grow the absolute most fire weed, I wouldnt go out of my way for UV, get your growing skills dialed in first. I tried a reptile lamp once and it was putting out so much heat, didnt make any sense, plus I didnt notice any difference. There might be some UV in some of my lamps like the old AF600s but I have just finished a full cycle with nothing but COBs and everything came out fire. I just want to make sure newbies reading this dont feel like they have to run out and buy UV lamps.
to the OP, I have been growing weed with leds for a long time and I believe its as good or better than HIDs... weed is weed... you get what you put into it, overall wattage dictates the yields and intensity dictates the quality, imo.
point is you are wasting effort deploying cfls for UV. to get enough UV to get anywhere close to sunlight, you will need to power your whole grow with just CFLs.I just want a mild form of UV. I know you can't really see much in the way of UV in the spectral graph of a CFL but there must be some. I also think the added wattage may help. Anyway, I'll try these cool white CFLs for now and see if that suffices or not. I'll look around in the pet section next time I'm in Walmart though, just to see what they have. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.
What your losing is $$ for electricity, efficiency wise CFLs are worse than T5HO, HIDs.Really you have nothing to loose by adding in some cfls, but plenty to gain.
a few CFLs ain't going to add diddly squat of UV light.You really think a few 12w cfls are even going to make a difference on your electric bill?
great charts suggest anybody considering reptile bulbs or CFLs look at the graphs.http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/led/spectra7.htm
I just found a site showing spectrum analyses of different cfl bulbs. Not much uv that I can tell. It says at the bottom that you can send in lights to them to be tested.
I'm gonna move slow on this anyway UV is not simple as throwing up a UV lite assy & letting it burnI did not do UV specific UV supplimentation, just 6500k cfl's hung close around plant.
Consider this. Could increases to the amount of blue in light signal the plant that harmful UV is also increasing and that it should protect itself.
Not opposed to supplementing but I am happy with led results myself. Have fun!
No not frosty enoughYa know I always thought UVB increases THC quality not quantity . I'm telling ya peeps when a UVB source increases the amount of trichomes on your bud it may very well be that your primary source was lacking to begin with or at least that's what I saw in my limited experience trying to use UVB. And just because someone posses a great cut doesn't guarantee a great crop every time, right? Especially when a grower deviates from what they usually do, like changing your mix recipe or nutes or say like having been growing for years with CFLs and then less than a year with LEDs. Perhaps something like that????
Also, IMHO, when you run your COBs too easy, and I'm not saying that's the case with the OP, but when you run soft the extra spectra created isn't as prevalent, intense or as energetic as what the manufacturer is showing us. There are other factors, like blend/phosphors used by the manufacturer, that will alter the light sources output too as I'm sure you cobsters probably see when you run your SPD numbers. I like efficiency like everyone but sometimes too soft is....too soft in my book and any additional extended spectra may not be working in your favor as well as it should.
I've always doubted COBs as far as a complete cannabis grow spectrum go, and there may be some truth to what the OP is saying so to finish, besides the fact that I can go back and pull up a photo or two of bud grown with just LEDs that will put to doubt any of that "LEDs don't grow frost" stuff, some strains that I've previously grown don't seem to be as frosty as to what came out of my tent with the Chinese diodes I previously used but that the overall product is much better now with the addition of COBs replacing inefficient mono wattage + CREE bulbs. That's the paradox I see and I do wonder if that it is related to spectrum, excessive blue in the flowering area now with all the COBs or simply the limits of my environment and my growing skills atm?
Pineapple Snow
View attachment 3593879
Frosty enough 4 U ? IDK but it tastes like Pineapple hashish and by hit 2 I've forgotten what the hell were we talking about.
Were you running the t5 reptile bulbs or the t8?Unless you grow the absolute most fire weed, I wouldnt go out of my way for UV, get your growing skills dialed in first. I tried a reptile lamp once and it was putting out so much heat, didnt make any sense, plus I didnt notice any difference. There might be some UV in some of my lamps like the old AF600s but I have just finished a full cycle with nothing but COBs and everything came out fire. I just want to make sure newbies reading this dont feel like they have to run out and buy UV lamps.
to the OP, I have been growing weed with leds for a long time and I believe its as good or better than HIDs... weed is weed... you get what you put into it, overall wattage dictates the yields and intensity dictates the quality, imo.
Interesting that only HPS has a similar amount of near IR as sunlight. It does have very little UV though. The CFL blacklight has massive amounts of UVA but not as much UVB. Still over 100 times as much UVB as a cool white CFL, which itself has only about 1/40th as much as sunlight. The HO fluorescents look like the best UVB source in a white grow light. CMH has much less than regular MH. Thanks for posting that link.OP , CMH having the highest test potency had NOTHING to do with UV-a-b, their is a reason why those hid bulbs have an outer envelope
https://www.cycloptics.com/sites/default/files/GB USU Spectral Characterization link.pdf
good luck grower and time to pheno hunt for something stronger