Fonzarelli
Active Member
I've been running HPS1000w+630/660nm red led 128w and getting some major density. But I still initiate flowering with more blue(MH) because the plants are still requiring chlorophyll to produce leaves. I try to time it so that I switch to the HPS/red spectrum when they stop "growing" veg leaves for the most part.Hey SDS,
For vegging, the spectrum I used with the GG was nice and worked fine.
Usually i'm using for veg: 1royal blue/1 coolwhite around 6000K (for CRI and blue)/3 red 625 or 660 (660 LH CP7P is better because more efficient and its efficiency decrease less with temperature than 625; and the 625 LR CP7P peak is narrower). 3 coolwhites/3 red 660 is fine too, but the coolwhites are a waste of energy for vegging, they are just fine for CRI. Blue/red works fine but i don't like a purplish spectrum, i can't see the green and the health of my plants.
I'm using this 1RB/1CW/3R spectrum for veg, seedlings and cuttings since 4 years and i will never change it, except for a grow with a versatile engine as this last one.
So yes, your 8WW/4LH was lacking of blue for veg.
yes, it makes sence, the plants needs to cool her leaves, so she will increase perspiration with an higher leaf area.
Just a thing:
imao, colder water is in bottom, not in top soil.
not storing more water imao, but increasing perspiration to cool her leaves.
This is a fact that the blue/red ratio influence the stretching or the branching, or the rooting.
MJ grown outside is often leafier than indoor MJ and bud quality is better. There is often a debate about the lightings MH against HPS. Even about blue enhanced HPS vs straight HPS.
for sure it will work great for veg too. Oslon CC is an high IRC led, 95CRI, that means very high cyan/green/yellow in the spectrum. The 2700K KR is 89lm @25°C @350mA, the 4000K KT is 104lm @25°C @350mA, certainly the spectrum will be very vast, but a lot of energy will go to cyan/green/yellow photons, and those wavelength are only useful for our plants when the light intensity is very high (as for HPS), because at high intensity the photons can cross the leaf and be used. So at present i think that if we use high green/yellow light, it must be with very efficient emitters (HPS has high yellow content in spectrum and plants use it for flowering, HPS 600W is around 160lm/W). And personally i think that OSLON CC has not enough efficiency. The spectrum I'm trying to build is blue (but it must be measured well), yellow/amber/red/hyper red and a hint of deep red and far red (so I need absolutely Warmwhite).
I had very good results with the 3NW4000K rebel ES/4reds spectrum, and 3x4500K/4reds, the plants were not especially leafy but yield could be improved i think. The think i don't like (maybe i'm wrong) is that in neutral white there is a lot of green. I tried two lamps with 3NW/4R, both had lenses (55° and 62°), so intensity of light was very high. I had apical chlorosis at 18cm from light! I used very high efficiency neutral whites, around 140lm @350mA 25°C.
Veg and bloom phase have a diffrent photoperiod, 18/6 and 12/12, so this is logical to have two spaces, so logical to have 2 lamps. So i'm searching for a bloom spectrum working fine for all strains. At present, the example is the HPS, so i'm trying to reproduce HPS spectrum, with an high efficiency, without reflector losses, and add 660nm to it and maybe some royal blue, but how much 660 and how much 450 to make a light available for all strains?
It seems that sativas loves a bit of blue and that indicas don't like it (it's logical because of the natural sun light is different under the tropics and under northern latitudes. But we mostly grow hybrids!
I will always prefer efficiency VS spectrum anyway, but when we see the reactions of plants to blue light in bloom phase, spectrum seems to be important too.
One last thing about blue:
because i'm growing in a cool place, I used more blue in spectrum to increase perspiration. Plant metabolism is related to perspiration. But it maybe it could be better to use infrared. Warmwhites will give some far red and infrared. I'm almost sure that the future of led lighting is very efficient warmwhite leds, with nothing else.
Anyway i will try a 3WW/1R/3HR spectrum, with very low blue, we will see. But unfortunately i didn't kept a GG mother.
I apologize for my english! it is hard for me, i can't say half the things i would like to say.
grtz
The blue light I had on during the last half of budding didn't seem to do anything but heat the area up more so I shut it off and still got a huge yield. It's possible they lost some flavor, but they seemed to finish faster and tighter.
I like your NW/red/dr spectrum BECAUSE the NW have a hefty amount of deep blue. I think it works well for low watt conditions.
Initiating flower formation with only WW and red may decrease yield since plants are still trying to grow fairly rapidly at the beginning, but the less blue later on towards the flower formation may increase density.
I still think the use of near UV is a better choice than 450nm blue for flavor/resin production because it does not effect the spectral balance of a red heavy spectrum.
Will be nice to see the outcome.