LED Without LEDs -My First T5 Grow

PetFlora said:

You can bug Quantum. I gave up after like 4 attempts. I got the charts but in a format I cannot upload. The Grow bulb is actually pretty decent, the 3000K not so much. Unless you can get a super deal on the Grows I would go with Aqua Suns or something similar.

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Thanks for the response! I have tried bugging Quantum, but the people acted like they had no clue what I was talking about.

Where did you get the charts from? I am really interested in seeing what the spectrum for those bulbs are.

So the grow looks decent, but not the bloom? I saw a guy use those bulbs with pretty decent results.Thanks.

That is pretty cool Professor. I like the LED hat. I will have to make one of those.

Amerinada Dist. owns Quantum . I heard today that C.A.P. / Discount Hydro recently bought Quantum. So if thats true. They were probably busy or what ever.

48" 55w T5
3000k bloom, WavePoint Coral Wave, WavePoint Red Wave, 3000k bloom
6500k daylight, WavePoint Blue Wave 460nm Actinic, Wave Point Reef Wave 420nm Actinic, 6500k daylight.




any suggestions? I think I have a pretty decent blend of heavy blue's for veg and heavy reds for flowering.

After being in my room for awhile, with practically 0 green light emitted by these lights, Ill walk into another room and the regular light bulbs appear to have ALOT of green in them! I think my eyes become super sensitive to the absent green wavelengths, so when I see the lights in another room that would normally appear pure white or warm white, they have a definite green hue to them, I can only assume its because your eyes are used to having that green light in the blend, but when its removed (such as in PAR specific fluoro's) they become more sensitive to those color freq's. Kinda interesting lol.

Undercover Cop said:

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Lookin nice. Good work.


The same thing happens to me. I don't know if it is the absent of green or if it's because of the uv or infrared or all of the above. I usually wear sunglasses now when I go in there. Everything still looks the same under the light while wearing them. But when I leave the room. No more hazy shade of green.... You should wear glasses. Over time the light will screw up your eyes other wise. It is almost like staring into the sun .

Just got back from the holidays guys... got to feed 'em, then I'll update with pics.

hyroot said:

Lookin nice. Good work.


The same thing happens to me. I don't know if it is the absent of green or if it's because of the uv or infrared or all of the above. I usually wear sunglasses now when I go in there. Everything still looks the same under the light while wearing them. But when I leave the room. No more hazy shade of green.... You should wear glasses. Over time the light will screw up your eyes other wise. It is almost like staring into the sun .

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prolonged exposure to these lights may harm your eyes..wear glasses people... the light these bulbs emit is @ the FAR end of the human spectrum and may stress your cornea and damage the rods and cones... just sayin..

Ohhh man. Okay, so this is day 50 of flowering.

I wish I had an idea of what ripe flowers really look like. Unfortuntely, I can't figure how to get consistent pictures... the lighting is so different depending on where/how I photograph so I'm having trouble getting good shots to ask about ripeness. I guess I'll just have to keep gambling and do what feels right. I still feel most of these are not ripe, BUT, I am starting to see a tint shift on the trichomes overall, from a distance. With the 30x glass I think I am still seeing only about 20% amber maybe, if that... and that's on the ripest. But, I do feel I'm starting to see the hairs "recede" and that the buds are starting to swell a bit. Still, noooo idea. Haha. So if any of these look like they need to be harvested soon, let me know... haha. Otherwise, I guess I'll keep waiting!

8x7=56 so I guess 1 more week and I'll be right at 8 weeks. I guess that is when I'm going to start looking real close.

Am I right in my understanding that indica dominant strains tend to be 6-8 weeks and sativas are considerably longer? I'm sure most if not all of these are crosses, and it's all bag seed, so I have variety galore. No idea what I'm doing!!! Ahhhh!!! hahaha.

I'm NOT itching to harvest early, like most newbs seem to... I'm on the other side of that coin, going "Oh no, what if I let them overripen?!?!"

Haha.

Here are some pics guys, cheers.

These ones are taken under the lights:



Some more of the same plant, in different light:



I believe these are another plant... not entirely sure what's what here, I suck at organizing pics:



And another:



Yet another, I believe this one is ripening ahead of the others. It was the autoflower that got a week or so jump on the others: (Oddly, I've noticed that this one has significantly less trichome development):




Some shots with flash for a different interpretation of the colors:



Errrgh... accidentally deleted like 7 photos due to silly key command setups in Lightroom. Oh well, this will have to do for now! Hope you all enjoy these.

Oh, P.S. Some of you may remember me complaining about cat hair in my grow because my cats LOVE to hang out in my plants. It was not a problem during veg, but now I watch them like a hawk and have a screen from a window rigged into the doorway to keep them out. I felt bad because they liked it so much, so I picked up some oat grass seed and have this comin' up in my garden... going to give it to them as soon as it thickens up:



Cheers, e'rybuddy!

pr0fesseur said:

prolonged exposure to these lights may harm your eyes..wear glasses people... the light these bulbs emit is @ the FAR end of the human spectrum and may stress your cornea and damage the rods and cones... just sayin..

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Thanks for the tips Pr0f... I usually don't spend too much time in there, but I occasionally do my watering in the room... I think I'll stop doing that, or I'm going to pick up some good shades to protect my eyes in there. I didn't realize it was risky with these, but I love my eyes!!

AltarNation said:

Thanks for the tips Pr0f... I usually don't spend too much time in there, but that is pretty useful information. I'm going to pick up some good shades to protect my eyes in there. I didn't realize it was risky with these, but I love my eyes!!

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remember the actinics have UVA+B protect your eyes...

pr0fesseur said:

remember the actinics have UVA+B protect your eyes...

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eek, can't say I was realizing that at all. Time to get some good UV shades.

remember the actinics have UVA+B protect your eyes...

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So does this mean that additional UVB supplementation is not needed? I was looking into the effects of UVB and it seems really good...or are we already providing enough with the current bulb set?

Redoctober said:

So does this mean that additional UVB supplementation is not needed? I was looking into the effects of UVB and it seems really good...or are we already providing enough with the current bulb set?

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I thought that we were providing plenty of UV. remember these aren't your grandma's fluorescent tubes! These are meant for growing water/sea plant life.

Look mostly sativa to me but hard to tell from pics. You got a good 3 or 4 more weeks I think. I would start flush in 2 weeks.

Altair, your plants look amazing! Great great job! I would also say you have a few more weeks to go. Hopefully they'll fatten up even more They quality looks teriffic, super frosty. You should have a very happy holiday season; you timed it nicely.

eek, can't say I was realizing that at all. Time to get some good UV shades.

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I use welders shades, but I bought Shade 5 where I probably should have bought Shade 3. They're a bit dark but not to the point where I can't see anything. Admittedly I don't wear em as often as I should. It's important to protect your eyes. I also wear glasses so I had to find a pair that would sort of fit over them. I think there's a better pair out there but mine were only like $8.

One of these might work for you:

http://www.safetyglassesusa.com/s212.html

Here's the ones I have but in Shade 3 instead of Shade 5:

http://www.amazon.com/Spirite-Safety-Glass-Shade-Welding/dp/B000GUN9JS/ref=sr_1_6?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1322433654&sr=1-6

or just do a google search for "Shade 3 welders"

falcon223 said:

I my self am not a big fan of CO2. I like lots of air flow. I have not bought my T5s yet. hope there are some good Xmas sales.

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You have no idea of what you are missing out on.
Try it and see your yield increase to 2 to 3 times what you get now. It's more 'jaw dropping' than switching to T5's.
I can't even imagine the yield when they are combined.

Redoctober said:

So does this mean that additional UVB supplementation is not needed? I was looking into the effects of UVB and it seems really good...or are we already providing enough with the current bulb set?

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the fiji purple and coral wave have 5% UV-A and UV-B. anymore than that and you couldn't keep the lights on for a full 12 hour cycle. It would damage the plants. The fiji purp has 5% infrared and the coral wave has 35% infrared.

so no supplementation is needed

Ok guys, I saw some results from using aquarium lights. They are not even the good ones I ordered. I thought my plant was in late flower. After I introduced new lights, I found new growth. I know everyone here is probably familiar with the performance of these lights, but I'm new to this still. After 6 days, I found pink pistils growing on my top cola closest to my colirmax bulb. See my grow journal in my Sig for more details.

These lights are amazing. I just wanted to add the number of people using this method and reporting great results.

what proximity do you hang your light at?

jjthejetplane said:

what proximity do you hang your light at?

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10 inches minimum for spectrum blend. Usually about a foot away