irishboy
Well-Known Member
ya water quality is important. their is still a issue though and i would keep the lights high and let the plants grow into on their own. their are still others that have pulled nice grows with the 2011's so it can be done with no issues. i am thinking one key thing is to not feed as much PPM'sone of the factors that contibuted to my plants' failure under the Spectra 290 may be the water quality. i was actually giving them pure R.O. water with 0 degrees hardness. this was convenient because of the PH that was constantly low. but water is a source of minerals by itself and my practice may have aggravated certain nutrient deficiencies (including cal and mag as you all seem to agree). i switched to tap water (8 degrees German Hardness), increased fertiliser and added some extra minerals and enhancers. i now have 2 pannels with 6x55W tubes each, they produce a lot of heat, but inspite of the high temperatures, the plants look happy. when i switch to the spectra 290, i will place it at maximum height (37'') and observe the plants closely. since my headroom isn't that big, if the light is still too strong i can add a wooden frame hanging between light and screen with a semitransparent material mounted on it. this filter difuses the light very evenly and cuts 0.5 EV, that is approx. 33% less light to the plants. there are also numerous gelatin filters used in photography that one could experiment with if height is a limitation.
buying leds for veg is a big waste of money IMO and i would just go with T5'sthanks for the info, i decided on my lights, what do you think. The LED for veg would be the all blue extreme LED from advanced LED lights, i think i only need one of those. Here's the link for my veg light if you guys want to check it out, http://www.advancedledlights.com/pro...Made-LEDs.html . if i need more please let me know. for the flowering stage i will be using a 240w Lighthouse Hydro Blackstar grow light 6 band 3w chips, here's the link to check it out, http://www.amazon.com/Lighthouse-Hyd...5124398&sr=8-1
i am not impressed with either light you said but i think BS would be the better option from the grows ive seen, it will produce quality buds but yield seems to be lacking from grows ive seen. i do think their one of the better lights but i havent seem many grows with advanced. their dimond light look cool but you have to really look for journals and not listen to what the companies claim or say, look for what the real growers say. but for veg save ur money and just get some T5's it will do great and save you allot of money