All COB Users - Lettuce Grow Challenge!!

[PicklesRus]

Alright Any of you have tips for successfully producing Cilantro on a consistent basis?

If I recall correctly my cilantro did better when I gave it lots of headroom. It didn't do so well in my tiered vertical system because there wasn't enough space - it wasn't hard to grow though.

 

[OneHitDone]

we have a 1kw hps for test light as well as heat for the room...our 160w of leds over4 x4 definitely out perform the 1kw in the wattage dept..the quality is better..the growth is good enough..i dunno about growing head lettuce though ..we have not tried..
we can grow 6 @4 x 4 areas with the same wattage..sure the 1k hps will grow fast ..but only covers a 4x4 plus area
but not that much area

I feel confident in saying an 1000W SE HPS or MH lamp will grow lettuce well in a 6x6. a De would probably stretch it to 8x8. But we know hps is not the preferred spectrum for "quality". It does crank out the biomass though. So it you are only growing for pre-cut product and not pretty heads maybe it is the way to go?

 

[PicklesRus]

I feel confident in saying an 1000W SE HPS or MH lamp will grow lettuce well in a 6x6. a De would probably stretch it to 8x8. But we know hps is not the preferred spectrum for "quality". It does crank out the biomass though. So it you are only growing for pre-cut product and not pretty heads maybe it is the way to go?

I've now got two sets of the eb strips - hopefully I can fix the two broken strips to work properly.. but that's all different temps of white from 3500k-5700k

I know colour has a big thing to do with it, and from the side by side tests I've seen so far a strip of blue, red and white leds perform better than 3000, 4000 or 6500k for basil, 3/65k is poor, 4000 was ok.

 

[OLD MOTHER SATIVA]

i am sure colour helps but all of the colours i used works..even the "evil for lettuce" 3500k......get em close enough ..turn em on..

it'll happen...sorry for being so scientific

 

[PicklesRus]

i am sure colour helps but all of the colours i used works..even the "evil for lettuce" 3500k......get em close enough ..turn em on..

it'll happen...sorry for being so scientific

I want to have a side by side by side setup for perpetual testing - I think there are some fundamentals that can be learned with different LED colours and temps for different stages of growth of different plants

I'd like to be able to record that data and use it to figure out optimal configurations. Honestly I don't know if my idea of different temp white eb strip leds was worth it but I think isolated test beds with different colours and temps will be good

 

[muleface]

i am sure colour helps but all of the colours i used works..even the "evil for lettuce" 3500k......get em close enough ..turn em on..

it'll happen...sorry for being so scientific

I'm not sure if this is true, but i heard if you use 3500k for lettuce you get put on the lettuce offenders registry, and can't live within 1 mile of a vegetable stand.

also, are you British?

 

[PicklesRus]

I'm not sure if this is true, but i heard if you use 3500k for lettuce you get put on the lettuce offenders registry, and can't live within 1 mile of a vegetable stand.

also, are you British?

 

[muleface]

looking for a suggestion, my lights for my lettuce patch are as close to my plants as i want them. But i want a bit more light. I found if i cover the top of my lighting frame with some white paper, i get the exact amount of light i want. But in doing so, my fan no longer blows over the plants. Can anyone think of a solution for providing some kind of white or reflective cover on my light frame that would also allow for airflow. I was thinking if they made plastic white screen, that might do it. but i can't seem to find any.

 

[PicklesRus]

looking for a suggestion, my lights for my lettuce patch are as close to my plants as i want them. But i want a bit more light. I found if i cover the top of my lighting frame with some white paper, i get the exact amount of light i want. But in doing so, my fan no longer blows over the plants. Can anyone think of a solution for providing some kind of white or reflective cover on my light frame that would also allow for airflow. I was thinking if they made plastic white screen, that might do it. but i can't seem to find any.

Where is your fan located? Is it just somewhere above the rack far away or is it directly above the rack? off to the side?

 

[muleface]

View attachment 3869340

ill be honest, that might have been too quick of a response to have just come up with that...

 

[muleface]

Where is your fan located? Is it just somewhere above the rack far away or is it directly above the rack? off to the side?

its wall mounted above the rack

 

[PicklesRus]

ill be honest, that might have been too quick of a response to have just come up with that...

I used to do graphic design and I had photoshop open for the diagram I was making of the EB strips. I have some leds not lighting so I was mapping out the circuit.

That was honestly what I understood from what you said so I thought it would be funny.

 

[PicklesRus]

its wall mounted above the rack

why dont you just make reflectors that go alongside the lights only - what kind of lights are they? strips? cobs?

 

[muleface]

I used to do graphic design and I had photoshop open for the diagram I was making of the EB strips. I have some leds not lighting so I was mapping out the circuit.

That was honestly what I understood from what you said so I thought it would be funny.

that is what i was going for, its like you were in my head.

i have 9 rows of 1 inch wide lights, that are 8 feet long in a 4x8 frame. so they are about 8 inches or so apart.

 

[PicklesRus]

that is what i was going for, its like you were in my head.

i have 9 rows of 1 inch wide lights, that are 8 feet long in a 4x8 frame. so they are about 8 inches or so apart.

All you have to do is find a way to reflect the light without blocking the airflow ha ha

 

[OneHitDone]

looking for a suggestion, my lights for my lettuce patch are as close to my plants as i want them. But i want a bit more light. I found if i cover the top of my lighting frame with some white paper, i get the exact amount of light i want. But in doing so, my fan no longer blows over the plants. Can anyone think of a solution for providing some kind of white or reflective cover on my light frame that would also allow for airflow. I was thinking if they made plastic white screen, that might do it. but i can't seem to find any.

A few more lights?
How much of a slope are you running on your channels?

 

[muleface]

A few more lights?
How much of a slope are you running on your channels?

i was running a 3 inch drop over 8 feet, but the channels didn't seem to have the right flow in them, the water seemed to zig zag. now its about a 1 inch drop. I really haven't gotten the lettuce to grow very will in the channels yet. I am hoping in about 2-3 weeks my new seedlings will have enough growth and roots to go into the channels and do well.

I could do a few more lights, but i was hoping to keep in the spirit of less is more we are shooting for, so i think if can find a way to add some reflection and still get airflow, i might go that way. Lettuce is pretty cheap, so i don't mind doing some experimentation on it.

 

[PicklesRus]

i was running a 3 inch drop over 8 feet, but the channels didn't seem to have the right flow in them, the water seemed to zig zag. now its about a 1 inch drop. I really haven't gotten the lettuce to grow very will in the channels yet. I am hoping in about 2-3 weeks my new seedlings will have enough growth and roots to go into the channels and do well.

I could do a few more lights, but i was hoping to keep in the spirit of less is more we are shooting for, so i think if can find a way to add some reflection and still get airflow, i might go that way. Lettuce is pretty cheap, so i don't mind doing some experimentation on it.

What about side reflection have you already covered your bases on the walls of the grow space?

 

[PicklesRus]

Formmy test beds, I think I want 6 18" x 12" spaces that will fit three plants each.

I calculated my large bed is rounded down to 17lumens per square inch so that let me calculate each test beds would be a good match to my main grow areas at 3,750lm per 18" x 12" spot. I'm going to look at a shallow Chrome wire shelving addon kit that can attach to my existing shelves. I could even get a much higher shelf for the test beds and squeeze an extra two out of it.

You know. I think red and blue LEDs will grow better than white leds.

I have three Philips photo red/blue bars on one level @ 105w and 4 3500k-5700k white on another level at 150w.... so what I should do is plant 12 seedlings all at once tomorrow and put them under each level and let the lettuce games begin

 

[muleface]

off subject.

you think i could grow squash with t5 lights?