Blackstar ??? Is it just me

Hi All,

So I have 1 Blackstar 240w flowering model. I used it 3x3 tent for 2 plants....they seem to bleach the plants at 12 -13 inches. Also don't seem to make the bud very big at all ???? Not here to bash... just asking for some HELP ! I am totally behind LEDs and am new to the LED world. I want to find out what I may be doing wrong so i can give these lights a good review. Any suggestions on distance of light from plant/ or any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

look at my led journal, mine has been at about 8 inches for quite some time, no bleach!? I have the 2012 model. Did you look at your plant under normal light without the LED on to be sure it's not nute burns or other defficiencies? I am having good result with the 240 at the moment, still have 40 days to go.

I have a BS180 that's about.... 3 inches from the top of my plants... I also have a PG180 which is more powerful than a BS240 that's about 3 inches away from the tops of the plants, with no bleaching....

If I can jam 270 actual watts of LED into one plant @ 3" away.....

I'm not sure your plants are actually being bleached.

Certain models and generations of led lights can cause this. I know the new spectra (glh) had problems with intensity early on, could be the same here.

I am doing a grow with a blackstar 500 and my leaves were curling when I had it at 7 inches. now I have it at 14 and all is well. maybe its something else that made it curl but at 14 inches the plants are growing fast and I don't see any stretching. I will swing a guess that with the 250 watt model you can go closer. not sure about this though because regardless the leds are 3W in both models.

Hey purp you ever find a solution? I got the same problem with my blackstar 2ft above canopy bleached all the way down to grow medium. Switching to them has cost me a whole grow...

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I am having a problem with plants not flowering under them! I bought 4 which was 1200 freakin bucks, switched out one 3x3 tent and kept my other 3x3 with a 400 hps for comparison... good thing I did! The plants at 4 weeks in the LED tent have not even got buds on them yet, while the HPS is fine as usual. I feel I got screwed. After looking at so many great grows with them, I wanted to change. Disappointed that I did.

I tried putting seedlings and clones under my blackstar 240 & the plants just turned yellow and didnt really grow at all.. from personal experience, CFLs work way better for clones, seedlings, and even veg. i had the blackstar 10" away the whole time and I even tried to raise the light to reduce yellowing. i have the flowering model and I will be using it in 12/12 but i certainly do not like using the flowering model for clones or seedlings. IMO

I'm using a 240w blackstar that i got last year, I used from seedling to flower (i'm nearly 3 weeks into flowering) and they vegged magnificently under it..I have three plants(too many for just one of these) under them and I have yet to have problem with Veg or Flowering not occuring....I will be upgrading soon to a better L.E.D. this summer, but for 270 this light is doing its job.

good luck all.

ps- check out my grow in the sig.

Yea everything looks just fine with your grow. I have no idea what happened. Maybe I will give the clones a try under it to give it another chance before ebaying them. I just don't know what could have happened.

Yeah I really hope it does work out for you, especially with four lights you should get some really nice bud.

This is day 15 for me. Im running a blackstar 240 (new model got it 3 weeks ago). Next to the blackstar is a no name china model led panel. I don't know the "claimed" wattage or specs as i bought it used at my local hydro shop. it has a weird led panel ( blue orange red yellow) Im also running a sunshine45w glow panel horizontally. As you can see i am growing multiple plants here in multiple stages (veggies and herbs). My babies are in the white pots directly under the blackstar. I also have a bit of "camber" if you will on the china panel so there is overlap. I rotate the plants each day, sometimes twice a day. soil: fox farms ocean forest. no nutes yet, i feel this soil is HOT. The blackstar is 8 inches above the canopy, the china one is one inch higher @ peak of camber.

it says in your grow journal that you are using several CFLs in addition to your blackstar. I used only the blackstar when the yellowing occurs.. Who the hell knows, i could be doing it wrong. But they do sell a seperate veg blackstar for a reason... I understand people have used only a blackstar from seed through flower, but like i said from my personal experiences, I have not been able to put seedlings or rooted clones under only the blackstar 240 2012 flowering model. I started using CFL's and they saved my plants from yellowing and theyre now growing green. The clones i had put under it were in Coco. Im not sure what the problem is, and I spent $280 to buy one so I would certainly like to figure it out! Again, I had my blackstar 10"-12" from the clones and they started to get yellow within days. I would appreciate suggestions if anyone has any. Thanks!

thehazeman said:

I just don't know what could have happened.

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Light leak in the tent? Got a surge protector or something in there that has one of those really bright on/off switches? It's just very weird to me something like that would happen. I'd be disappointed too!

oftheCosmos said:

I'm using a 240w blackstar that i got last year, I used from seedling to flower (i'm nearly 3 weeks into flowering) and they vegged magnificently under it..I have three plants(too many for just one of these) under them and I have yet to have problem with Veg or Flowering not occuring....I will be upgrading soon to a better L.E.D. this summer, but for 270 this light is doing its job.

good luck all.

ps- check out my grow in the sig.

Click to expand...

Have you kept your light like 6-10" away the whole grow? Do you think the yellowing can occur if the light is too far from the plant? Im not sure if its too close or too far.

wolfpack4ever said:

Have you kept your light like 6-10" away the whole grow? Do you think the yellowing can occur if the light is too far from the plant? Im not sure if its too close or too far.

View attachment 2079708

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i think if that was the case the lower leaves would be yellow as they would be further from the light. I feel like your plant is outgrowing the cup.

ya i have two 900 watt black stars... they may get booted. i only use them for vegetative growth now. HPS rules.


good luck. can you get buds with those?

squarefodder said:

i think if that was the case the lower leaves would be yellow as they would be further from the light. I feel like your plant is outgrowing the cup.

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theres no way my friend... I rooted this clone in rapid rooter, rooted in a week but let it go for 9 days, once finished, I gently put in coco. I added a little perlite to the mix as well. That picture was taken less than a week in that cup.

wolfpack4ever said:

it says in your grow journal that you are using several CFLs in addition to your blackstar. I used only the blackstar when the yellowing occurs.. Who the hell knows, i could be doing it wrong. But they do sell a seperate veg blackstar for a reason... I understand people have used only a blackstar from seed through flower, but like i said from my personal experiences, I have not been able to put seedlings or rooted clones under only the blackstar 240 2012 flowering model. I started using CFL's and they saved my plants from yellowing and theyre now growing green. The clones i had put under it were in Coco. Im not sure what the problem is, and I spent $280 to buy one so I would certainly like to figure it out! Again, I had my blackstar 10"-12" from the clones and they started to get yellow within days. I would appreciate suggestions if anyone has any. Thanks!

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My first panel was BS240. I germmed, vegged and flowered 2 Magic Bud and 1 SLH plants with that panel, and just that panel. I had no idea how close to the plant it should be when I bought it, so since it was a "400 watt replacement", (fucking marketing assholes), I hung it about 3 1/2 feet from the pots. The only problem I had germming was that after a few days I learned the meaning of the word "stretch" and had to keep burying the stems . Ultimately I discovered that once I got to a distance of a about 2 feet, they didn't stretch anymore. They were ugly assed plants when I was finished with them, but I did use that panel from start to finish. And they did produce good smoke, though not a lot. And that was my first grow in a nutshell.

So if there is one thing you believe I say here, please believe this. You do not need to have a modern LED panel 6 or 12 inches close when germinating. Seedlings are not plants and the amount of light they need are not the same as plants. That's why they call them seedlings after all . What you do need to do is to start farther away and then slowly bring the panel closer to your seedlings as they mature. I've seen a lot of people get their panels way too close to their seedlings on this site and then wonder what happened. Flowering panels work for all stages of cannabis growing. You just need to respect them a bit. Also veg panels are for large growers IMHO. They're great for replacing HIDs in vegging, but LEDs aren't really ready to replace most HIDs when flowering. Anyway I hope some of this helps you guyz. Happy Growing!