Need more light, but how should I do it?

[Olive Drab Green]

They look good, otherwise. I might go a bit easier on the N this late in flower. It’s definitely just the PPFD and such.

 

[whytewidow]

If you pull a board from each driver and throw them on another driver. Another 320. And lower your lights run an even canopy you can put the lights 8-10" above the canopy. That will give you better intensity you lose less light before it gets to the canopy. Which will make your buds bigger. 4 320h across 16 boards will flower 12 plants easily. And that way your not running the boards super hard to get better efficiency as well. If you had A series drivers you can get a little more than 320watt per. Meanwell is underrated. My hlg320h-24A will push 341w maxed out.

Edit: nvr mind I see it's a 10×10 I agree 2 more boards per row. So 8 more boards and 2 more drivers

24 boards 6 drivers. 4 per driver.

 

[fragileassassin]

They look good, otherwise. I might go a bit easier on the N this late in flower. It’s definitely just the PPFD and such.

Yeah after they stopped stretching they started showing the signs quick and I dropped it. Most of the damage is 3-4 weeks old and theyve actually lightened up a bit since then. Part of my learning experience.

I have all B type drivers as I didnt really understand the difference when I got them.
Ill probably get A ones for the new ones.

 

[Olive Drab Green]

Yeah after they stopped stretching they started showing the signs quick and I dropped it. Most of the damage is 3-4 weeks old and theyve actually lightened up a bit since then. Part of my learning experience.

I have all B type drivers as I didnt really understand the difference when I got them.
Ill probably get A ones for the new ones.

You know more than me. I don’t keep the driver stuff in mind. Like, I understand Ohm’s Law and stuff, but I don’t understand the driver designations and how to apply different drivers of the same or similar specifications, I bought my lights premade. I definitely plan to look more into DIY in the future, but I only understand it in theory.

 

[fragileassassin]

You know more than me. I don’t keep the driver stuff in mind. Like, I understand Ohm’s Law and stuff, but I don’t understand the driver designations and how to apply different drivers of the same or similar specifications, I bought my lights premade. I definitely plan to look more into DIY in the future, but I only understand it in theory.

Pretty much the A just have on board dimmers thatll let you fine tune your outputs a bit more.
I have a little bit of an electrical background. I know a good bit about electrical theory and that type stuff but I had no idea about any of this when I first started looking at them.
Had to take myself to school for a bit before I bought anything. I had a hard time at first then eventually it mostly fell into place.

Its all about matching board needs to driver outputs. Getting the right output voltages and making sure you have enough current.
My 320s put out a constant 2800ma, since my boards have 110v inputs they are wired in parallel they split that 2800ma evenly between them. The driver adjusts its output voltage automatically based on its load so you just have to make sure your board inputs are within yoru driver output range.

For example, the 288 boards have a 50v input. With my drivers 90v min output, I would have to run pairs of these boards in series or get different drivers that had an output in the 50v range. I could also run multiple series pairs wired together in parallel

The board guides that HLG put out have been a huge help in understanding all of it. The ones I have a pretty close to their 304 boards so I just had to do the adjustment math.
https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/pages/qb288-board-guide

 

[Airwalker16]

Ya those seeds are bunk... Get some good genetics.

 

[fragileassassin]

Ya those seeds are bunk... Get some good genetics.

Yeah they were cheap and I didnt pay for them, I just wanted to start with seeds and get a good grasp on everything the first grow. I wasnt expecting much from them, but the bruce banner and skywalker plants have actually surprised me, those 2 are as tall as I am and they seem to grow well together.

There are a few Hazeman things im looking at picking up once its all dialed in. Got his strain list and been thinking about what I want. Specifically looking at putting a good portion of my grow to his grape stomper/sour grapes. Hands down my favorite strain ive ever smoked and id love to get my hands on that.

I want a good grape and a good kush or OG for sure.
Been thinking about some white widow or northern lights too. One of my recent local favorites it cornbread, that stuff is one of the few that puts me to bed.
I prefer heavy indicas, I like a mind emptying, couch lock, sedative type smoke. Ive had good luck with most kush strains for both pain relief and head effect.

 

[Airwalker16]

Yeah they were cheap and I didnt pay for them, I just wanted to start with seeds and get a good grasp on everything the first grow. I wasnt expecting much from them, but the bruce banner and skywalker plants have actually surprised me, those 2 are as tall as I am and they seem to grow well together.

There are a few Hazeman things im looking at picking up once its all dialed in. Got his strain list and been thinking about what I want. Specifically looking at putting a good portion of my grow to his grape stomper/sour grapes. Hands down my favorite strain ive ever smoked and id love to get my hands on that.

I want a good grape and a good kush or OG for sure.
Been thinking about some white widow or northern lights too. One of my recent local favorites it cornbread, that stuff is one of the few that puts me to bed.
I prefer heavy indicas, I like a mind emptying, couch lock, sedative type smoke. Ive had good luck with most kush strains for both pain relief and head effect.

I'm telling Ya, stuff from breeders like symbiotic, dungeons vault, in-house, archive, rare dankness, they've got the real true serious dank. Humboldt Seed Organization though as I said also has some crazy stuff now too.

 

[fragileassassin]

I'm telling Ya, stuff from breeders like symbiotic, dungeons vault, in-house, archive, rare dankness, they've got the real true serious dank. Humboldt Seed Organization though as I said also has some crazy stuff now too.

Yeah Hazeman was the first real breeder ive looked at and I only got there specifically looking for that grape stomper, thats a MUST have for me. All the choices at the beginning were just kind of overwhelming at the time on top of lights, building my system, choosing nutrients ect and I figured id murder my first crop or two, so genetics werent a huge concern when I started. I went in to it to learn and figured whatever smokable bud I got out of it would be just a nice bonus so i just used the ones my friends gave me.
I will look into all of these for sure though. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[fragileassassin]

What Airwalker said is true, they are a bit light and stretchy. You’re definitely going to want more light like he said. Or downsize or lower the lights to 12” and hope it covers 12 plants. You said they’re near harvest? They have a lot of exposed white pistils.

I didnt see this earlier!
Id say 7 of the 9 are close. All 7 of them are showing mostly cloudy trichs and a couple of them are starting to push a few amber ones in there.
Two of the ones I posted pictures of are the other 2. One of them is a bruce banner that got stunted for some reason, I expect itll need several more weeks. the other bruce banner one is wayyy bigger and flowered faster.
The other one is that massive lemon haze plant in the corner. It just kept growing and growing so it took a while to start flowering as well and those are mostly white pistils still too.

Most of them are pretty close to this so i figured theyre getting close. Just starting to get the hang of this cheap scope thing.

 

[Olive Drab Green]

I didnt see this earlier!
Id say 7 of the 9 are close. All 7 of them are showing mostly cloudy trichs and a couple of them are starting to push a few amber ones in there.
Two of the ones I posted pictures of are the other 2. One of them is a bruce banner that got stunted for some reason, I expect itll need several more weeks. the other bruce banner one is wayyy bigger and flowered faster.
The other one is that massive lemon haze plant in the corner. It just kept growing and growing so it took a while to start flowering as well and those are mostly white pistils still too.

Most of them are pretty close to this so i figured theyre getting close. Just starting to get the hang of this cheap scope thing.

The trics are mostly still really clear and no amber. Beautiful formation, but it needs longer, for sure. It’s more personal preference, but you want around 5-15% amber, the rest milky, and as little clear (immature) trichomes as possible.

 

[fragileassassin]

The trics are mostly still really clear and no amber. Beautiful formation, but it needs longer, for sure. It’s more personal preference, but you want around 5-15% amber, the rest milky, and as little clear (immature) trichomes as possible.

Thanks for the input, im being patient with them I guess theyre just not quite as far along as I thought they were. I hadnt asked for any input on them yet was just going off of pictures and thought these were considered mostly cloudy.
Yes im going for a good bit of amber, from what ive read about it thatll get more of of the effect im looking for.

I think this is one of the grape plants?
The black widows look more like white plastic and starting to get a few amber heads.

And when I say close I mean a few weeks close.

 

[whytewidow]

You know I got to thinking. You might be better to wire groups of boards in series then the groups in parallel to spread your current out. Be alot easier to the 1200mA you wanted per board. If you wanted to run them 100% max.

 

[fragileassassin]

You know I got to thinking. You might be better to wire groups of boards in series then the groups in parallel to spread your current out. Be alot easier to the 1200mA you wanted per board. If you wanted to run them 100% max.

This would work with the 288 boards and their 50v input, but not with these 304s and their 110v input. To run them in series id need a 220v outlet put in down in the basement (at least I think this is the only way i could do that). My drivers can handle that, but not my available power. Ive never really messed with 220v though so I may be wrong.
I probably SHOULD have done it with 288s in series parallel but I had to be special and get the 304 boards with 660nm in em.

This was an option I was considering though. Using my current drivers to run new 288s boards.
The heatsinks rest on the tracks and not the boards, so as long as I can get the same sized heatsink I could just drop those boards in the same tracks.

 

[Thundercat]

. Obviously doubling the light in the room will help alot. From what I've seen over the years the size, and density of the buds is pretty directly related to the number of watts you can put as close to your plants as you can get them. I run a 1khps 12-14 inches away from my canopy and the plants love all the light. I suggest everyone get their lights as close as their plants will let them. If you want more coverage buy more lights, but the farther away the plants are the less light they are getting. Everyone needs to read up on the INVERSE SQUARE LAW. Having your lights 18+ inches from your plants literally cuts your light intesity in half, and then in 1/4s the rather you get.

These guys have made some great LED lighting suggestions, so I"m gonna make take a different route to help you improve the next round.

We've talked about genetics, but another huge factor is training the plants. If you train the plants you can avoid a lot of the huge crazy growth. Especially growing indoors with limited light its important to maxamize your canopy and bud sight. You can grow giant bushes if you want, but growing medium sized trained plants will almost certainly provide nicer buds and higher quality medicine since the plants are able to reach their potential. Using training to grow a structured strong plant that is prepared to grow big heavy buds. Use training to control the canopy so your lights can be as close as possible to all the plants for maximum penetration and intensity.

 

[whytewidow]

This would work with the 288 boards and their 50v input, but not with these 304s and their 110v input. To run them in series id need a 220v outlet put in down in the basement (at least I think this is the only way i could do that). My drivers can handle that, but not my available power. Ive never really messed with 220v though so I may be wrong.
I probably SHOULD have done it with 288s in series parallel but I had to be special and get the 304 boards with 660nm in em.

This was an option I was considering though. Using my current drivers to run new 288s boards.
The heatsinks rest on the tracks and not the boards, so as long as I can get the same sized heatsink I could just drop those boards in the same tracks.

I didnt know they were 110v on the 304's. My bad. Apparently I missed that somehow. If you go to 288s that's buy all new boards. What about buying the 288s as the remaining boards. Instead of the 304 110v buy 8 more boards of the 288s. And two drivers. Run em 4 on each. Leave the setup wired the way you have it. Jus slide the 288s inbetween. That will give you the extra light sources plus spread out the light even more. And lower them some. Run an even canopy. You should be able to smash it. Idk the prices of the 288s. But I know they are Amazon constantly in 4 pack alot of the time. That might be the cheapest route.

 

[fragileassassin]

.
We've talked about genetics, but another huge factor is training the plants. If you train the plants you can avoid a lot of the huge crazy growth. Especially growing indoors with limited light its important to maxamize your canopy and bud sight. You can grow giant bushes if you want, but growing medium sized trained plants will almost certainly provide nicer buds and higher quality medicine since the plants are able to reach their potential. Using training to grow a structured strong plant that is prepared to grow big heavy buds. Use training to control the canopy so your lights can be as close as possible to all the plants for maximum penetration and intensity.

Yes I had read some on the inverse square law when I first built these.
I was originally going to do 2 separate 5x9 spaces with 6 plants in the middle with a path down each side with 8 boards each and run them close at around 80% which should have been enough for that ~3x8 canopy
For the most part I kept them really close through the grow, around 12", but as they got big I took them up a little bit more for better spread.

I completely did not mean to go the big bushes that I did. I want to keep 4 long narrow canopies down my tent. I let most of them veg way too long waiting for a couple to catch up some more before flip and I under estimated how much bigger they would get after the flip
With this grow I played with a couple different methods. All of the plants got grown to 8-9 and topped to 6 nodes then tied down on their sides. Some of them I left alone after that and some of them I let those branches grow to 6 nodes and topped a few of them them to 3. A few of them I fimed just to try it. There were a few colas I super cropped early just to see how long they took to recover. I snapped one of them nearly in half tying it down so got to experience that.
I did a lot of defoliating through veg, to the point that i was taking buckets full of leaves out of the tent at a time, but I was fearful of taking too much off the plants at once and hurting them more because I didnt start trimming early enough.

This is pretty much the method I plan to use, but I have screens that will go in there next run. I figure training them like this under long screens would give me the uniform rows im looking for.

I didnt know they were 110v on the 304's. My bad. Apparently I missed that somehow. If you go to 288s that's buy all new boards. What about buying the 288s as the remaining boards. Instead of the 304 110v buy 8 more boards of the 288s. And two drivers. Run em 4 on each. Leave the setup wired the way you have it. Jus slide the 288s inbetween. That will give you the extra light sources plus spread out the light even more. And lower them some. Run an even canopy. You should be able to smash it. Idk the prices of the 288s. But I know they are Amazon constantly in 4 pack alot of the time. That might be the cheapest route.

I was saying I could add 8 288 boards and run those with the drivers I have and that would let me buy new drivers for the 304s that I have that are better suited for them. each of the 4 drivers I have is pretty much perfectly suited to run 2 288s in series maxed out. Then doing pretty much exactly what you are saying. Id want to keep the panels with the 660 diodes evenly spread still and I guess stagger the 288s out across the empty spaces? If that makes sense. something like
[ 304 288 304 304 288 304]
[--P---------P----------------P--]
My holes are ofset to one side of the totes. so the back one would be trained in to the middle.

One of my major problems is the 110v input of the 304 boards. As far as I can find, the 480-C3500 is the biggest driver with a 110v input and output. This will only get me 73% per board with 4 of them.

The panels I have now are 3500K 561Cs + the 48 660nm diodes per board.
This is strictly for flowering now so im thinking that i would make the 288s 3000k and stick with the 561Cs for cost and keeping them all the same.
I was very happy with this order from meijiu, I will probably price everything I need out through them first.

 

[Airwalker16]

Yes I had read some on the inverse square law when I first built these.
I was originally going to do 2 separate 5x9 spaces with 6 plants in the middle with a path down each side with 8 boards each and run them close at around 80% which should have been enough for that ~3x8 canopy
For the most part I kept them really close through the grow, around 12", but as they got big I took them up a little bit more for better spread.

I completely did not mean to go the big bushes that I did. I want to keep 4 long narrow canopies down my tent. I let most of them veg way too long waiting for a couple to catch up some more before flip and I under estimated how much bigger they would get after the flip
With this grow I played with a couple different methods. All of the plants got grown to 8-9 and topped to 6 nodes then tied down on their sides. Some of them I left alone after that and some of them I let those branches grow to 6 nodes and topped a few of them them to 3. A few of them I fimed just to try it. There were a few colas I super cropped early just to see how long they took to recover. I snapped one of them nearly in half tying it down so got to experience that.
I did a lot of defoliating through veg, to the point that i was taking buckets full of leaves out of the tent at a time, but I was fearful of taking too much off the plants at once and hurting them more because I didnt start trimming early enough.

This is pretty much the method I plan to use, but I have screens that will go in there next run. I figure training them like this under long sc
One of my major problems is the 110v input of the 304 boards. As far as I can find, the 480-C3500 is the biggest driver with a 110v input and output. This will only get me 73% per board with 4 of them.

The panels I have now are 3500K 561Cs + the 48 660nm diodes per board.
This is strictly for flowering now so im thinking that i would make the 288s 3000k and stick with the 561Cs for cost and keeping them all the same.
I was very happy with this order from meijiu, I will probably price everything I need out through them first.

Yes I had read some on the inverse square law when I first built these.
I was originally going to do 2 separate 5x9 spaces with 6 plants in the middle with a path down each side with 8 boards each and run them close at around 80% which should have been enough for that ~3x8 canopy
For the most part I kept them really close through the grow, around 12", but as they got big I took them up a little bit more for better spread.

I completely did not mean to go the big bushes that I did. I want to keep 4 long narrow canopies down my tent. I let most of them veg way too long waiting for a couple to catch up some more before flip and I under estimated how much bigger they would get after the flip
With this grow I played with a couple different methods. All of the plants got grown to 8-9 and topped to 6 nodes then tied down on their sides. Some of them I left alone after that and some of them I let those branches grow to 6 nodes and topped a few of them them to 3. A few of them I fimed just to try it. There were a few colas I super cropped early just to see how long they took to recover. I snapped one of them nearly in half tying it down so got to experience that.
I did a lot of defoliating through veg, to the point that i was taking buckets full of leaves out of the tent at a time, but I was fearful of taking too much off the plants at once and hurting them more because I didnt start trimming early enough.

This is pretty much the method I plan to use, but I have screens that will go in there next run. I figure training them like this under long screens would give me the uniform rows im looking for.

I was saying I could add 8 288 boards and run those with the drivers I have and that would let me buy new drivers for the 304s that I have that are better suited for them. each of the 4 drivers I have is pretty much perfectly suited to run 2 288s in series maxed out. Then doing pretty much exactly what you are saying. Id want to keep the panels with the 660 diodes evenly spread still and I guess stagger the 288s out across the empty spaces? If that makes sense. something like
[ 304 288 304 304 288 304]
[--P---------P----------------P--]
My holes are ofset to one side of the totes. so the back one would be trained in to the middle.

One of my major problems is the 110v input of the 304 boards. As far as I can find, the 480-C3500 is the biggest driver with a 110v input and output. This will only get me 73% per board with 4 of them.

The panels I have now are 3500K 561Cs + the 48 660nm diodes per board.
This is strictly for flowering now so im thinking that i would make the 288s 3000k and stick with the 561Cs for cost and keeping them all the same.
I was very happy with this order from meijiu, I will probably price everything I need out through them first.

It's too bad those boards are such high voltage. CV drivers are outta the question

 

[fragileassassin]

It's too bad those boards are such high voltage. CV drivers are outta the question

yeah I really limited myself with the 304 boards. Had I known then what I do now I probably would have just gone with 288s.

 

[Airwalker16]

yeah I really limited myself with the 304 boards. Had I known then what I do now I probably would have just gone with 288s.

288s from Meiju still?