Lighting (which type and how much)

[BassheadGrowsWeed]

Saw another thread on here where people are saying to run full power throughout and entire grow. I’ve been running a Mars hydro reflector 96 (480 watt) so far through veg. I transplanted a mandarin sunset clone 4 weeks ago and have just been running the growth light 18/6. I’m planning on letting her veg for at least two more weeks, possibly up to another 4 depending on how quickly she fills the screen. She’s got pretty tight node spacing and 9 solid branches growing off the main stem. She’s starting to fill the screen nicely but I want to make sure I do everything I can to get the most out of her.

Once I switch to flower, I have this extra 300 watt light I plan to hang in the tent as well (no name came with the tent). I guess what I’m wondering is, will adding the bloom light screw up my veg growth with a new light spectrum or will it be more beneficial to run the light full strength for the last two weeks of veg (light manual says run just growth then both when you switch to flower). Also is it overkill adding my extra light once flowering starts or will that help her get all the light she could need?

One plant, 5 gallon soil, nectar of the gods nutes, 2.75 x2.75 x5’ tent.

 

[1212ham]

Companies like mars play all sorts of BS games with the power numbers. The actual wattage is 185.
https://www.mars-hydro.com/buy-mars-reflector-480w-led-grow-light-for-medical-plants-mars-hydro-for-sale

With blurple lights, you want around 50 watts/square foot for flower, so 380 watts for your tent.
It's common practice to turn on both switches on blurples, all the time. I'd add the second light for flower.

 

[BassheadGrowsWeed]

Thanks for the reply about once I get to flowering, my thought was that the additional light would help then. What are your thoughts regarding turning on the bloom and veg lights for the reminder of veg? Would the new spectrum disrupt the plants current vegetative state and cause it to want to do flowering things or would the extra light be more beneficial during the remainder of veg?

 

[StareCase]

One blurple growers experience ….

… What are your thoughts regarding turning on the bloom and veg lights for the reminder of veg ...

I fully recommend using both VEG and BLOOM simultaneously. Once they are big enough to start on their full veg cycle, they can handle the entire spectrum a Blurple can throw at them. I use two LED's - blurples - putting out 580 wall watts to veg two plants at about 22" - 24" covering a 2 x 4 space. They fill in quite nicely and rather quickly with both switches turned on and the full spectrum enabled.

… Would the new spectrum disrupt the plants current vegetative state and cause it to want to do flowering things or would the extra light be more beneficial during the remainder of veg?

As long as you stay on the 18/6 cycle, the plant will keep on veggin'. The growth may slow for a couple of days as the plant does some internal adjusting to start processing the additional red side of the spectrum. But it will take off again before you know it.

When I first received my two blurples, my first run was a trial to test stuff like this out. So I grew one with the VEG only until I flipped to 12/12 when I turned them both on. It's a good thing it was a test plant cause it grew like shit. The nodes were minimum 4" apart and there were not a ton of bud sites. She just ended up being a bit of a leggy and spastic looking thing ...

Using both switches, I found it really helped in keeping the nodes much tighter - about 1.5" and less - which also helps to keep the plant sturdier.