Using UVA/UVB Reptile Lamps during flower

I've been reading a lot about using these lights during flowering to promote resin production.

Does anyone here do this? Is it worth the hassle?

I'm just wondering if I should bother or not.

It's not worth the cost in my experience. Any increase in THC is negligible. They're too small.

hotrodharley said:

It's not worth the cost in my experience. Any increase in THC is negligible. They're too small.

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Thanks man, I have such OCD about my grows, just want to optimize everything.

Justin Freidman said:

Thanks man, I have such OCD about my grows, just want to optimize everything.

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Then quit changing the environment and let the microbes adapt.

And if you listen to rap music plants prefer reggae

LinguaPeel said:

Then quit changing the environment and let the microbes adapt.

And if you listen to rap music plants prefer reggae

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Best plants I ever raised had Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Ronnie James Dio rocking them. Had my 18" Peavey Black Widow subwoofer hooked to the receiver. Vinyl. Led Zeppelin for a lullaby.

Check out Solacure, Agromax, ATI.

if you really want to go this route, run closed fixture rated MH bulbs in open hoods. wear sunglasses and sunblock. Open fixture bulbs have a coating that bloçks uv but closed fixture rated bilbs dont becausr fixture glass is exepected to

Ive been contemplating this as well and there’s an interesting study/grow journal that utilized 10.0 UVB bulbs with promising results.

Incipient said:

Ive been contemplating this as well and there’s an interesting study/grow journal that utilized 10.0 UVB bulbs with promising results.

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Forget UV, pointless

Solacure Flower Power bulbs

2 x 34w for each 1000w, and 4 x 4 area.

They do work.

Some plants respond more than others.

Plants with origins with high UVA/UVB will benefit.

Skylab proved back in the late 70s that the cannabinoid profile can be changed wit UVA/UVB, and they also experimented with Xenon.

Notice I said Cannabinoid Profile. Not just THC.

jimihendrix1 said:

Solacure Flower Power bulbs

2 x 34w for each 1000w, and 4 x 4 area.

They do work.

Some plants respond more than others.

Plants with origins with high UVA/UVB will benefit.

Skylab proved back in the late 70s that the cannabinoid profile can be changed wit UVA/UVB, and they also experimented with Xenon.

Notice I said Cannabinoid Profile. Not just THC.

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Doing a whole slew of things changes the cannabinoid profile not just UV, i think these studies miss sell and id rather just buy the exact profile in seed form from repetable vendor save the time effort money and inevitable dissapointment at thinking you are creating some ultra dank like some mad scientist.

Outdoor plants get tons of uv, still bud be bud...

How much UV doe LED's produce? I have some new HLG 550 V2's here and would be interested to know if they produce much UV A/B

Not enough to matter.

If you don't wear protection around the Solacure, it will blind you Its like a tanning bed bulb.. Its 30+ times more powerful than an Arcadia Desert Dragon 54w bulb, which is the most powerful Reptile bulb.

Also Plant UVA/UVB Bulbs, and Animal Bulbs have different % of UVA/UVB.

The most potent strains in the world come from regions with tremendous UVA/UVB. I try and replicate Equador.

It makes no sense to me to not supply it, when the sun has it, and the plants evolved with it.

Doesn't make sense to me for people to be anal about spectrum with LED, but don't add powerful UVA/UVB when it is just as much a part of the profile, or even a very huge, and overlooked part of the equation.

Doesn't matter a rats ass if anyone else uses it or not.

Ive been using it for 3 years, and will never not use it, unless its jjust not available. Started with Arcadia Desert Dragons 4 in a 4 x 4 area 54w. Solacure Flower Power I use 2, and is magnitudes more powerful.

I also use it on seedlings/veg, and is on 2/3 of the time.

12 hours flowering gets 8 hours UVA/UVB.

I also don't feel they need more than 8 hours in veg/seedlings. I veg on 24 hours. and 1000w Hortilux. Still 8 hours UVA/UVB.

Justin Freidman said:

How much UV doe LED's produce? I have some new HLG 550 V2's here and would be interested to know if they produce much UV A/B

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Thats just the ocd talking buddy, you can beat this... lite, inhale and chiiiiillll

https://www.htgsupply.com/products/agromax-pure-uv-t5-bulb-4-foot

This bulb is dangerous but is truly 75%UVB and 25%UVA. It's very powerful and is not to be messed around with. Needs to be hung high, and used for maybe 5 mins, 3-4 times a day while your lights are on.

Justin Freidman said:

How much UV doe LED's produce? I have some new HLG 550 V2's here and would be interested to know if they produce much UV A/B

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Almost nothing! You need at least two or four 4ft good reptile bulbs like Arcdadia D3 desert or dragon or better you take two 4ft Agromax PuveUV bulbs. Each to cover a 2x 4' area.

UVA / B works 100%, forget the stupid nonsens from haters. They have no clue what they talking about. Argomax bulbs with reflector come at 2ft distance on 170μW/cm² and at 1ft they deliver ~440μW/cm².

Reptile bulbs delivers ~170 @1ft distance and 440 you'll get 5-6" away from the bulb.

200-250μW/cm² should be safe! Last run I have used 170μW/cm² for the last 4 weeks at 12/12h and startet to use it in veg for 3+3h. Not a single issue! Only difference was they started foxtailing earlier..

Funny thing, one of the plants was a hermie (not caused by UV) and produced a few nanners and later I found a few seeds and they were partly a bit deformed but only around 10% of them.
I used the same cuts as before(Green Poison, SweetSeeds) and the quality was so much better that many of my friends thought it was something new. I have no lab tests but trust me it has a noticeable effect. They tasted it blind means I did not tell them that it was UV treated weed. But all of them came back and asked for more, lol.

This is a UV deformed seed:


And here you can see how intense UVB is arould the would in mid summer.

Randomblame said:

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Damn bro! Thanks, that's some awesome information right there. So in veg run it the equivalent of 11am-2pm and then in flower build it up until 12 of the 12 hours of light for last four weeks. I'm on it...

Justin Freidman said:

Damn bro! Thanks, that's some awesome information right there. So in veg run it the equivalent of 11am-2pm and then in flower build it up until 12 of the 12 hours of light for last four weeks. I'm on it...

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While I am on the side of possibly using UVB as there’s quite of a bit of evidence that it works, I don’t see the benefit of running it in veg. The entire purpose of utilizing UVB is to stimulate the plant to produce more resin and THC as a reaction to the rays correct? It’s not yet producing flowers or resin yet so just stressing out the plant and possibly getting the plant used to the UVB light so it may not produce as much if just introduced in flower.

And a rebuttal in advance to those who would cite to replicate nature in its entirety as outdoor plants are exposed in every stage, nature doesn’t always do it better. In fact nature’s philosophy is just good enough. Cannabis plants were extremely weak before people decided to selectively breed them as well as corn, fruits, flowers, etc.

I’m going to run some UVB as an experiment side by side two identical strains and then get them lab tested as pure speculation really doesn’t help anyone.

Justin Freidman said:

Damn bro! Thanks, that's some awesome information right there. So in veg run it the equivalent of 11am-2pm and then in flower build it up until 12 of the 12 hours of light for last four weeks. I'm on it...

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Yea, I'm starting to use it already in veg because I want they get used to it from the beginning. With a reptile bulb you can literally use it all the time but it's not needed and wasted energy. In nature they get also only UVB for a few hours.
I've started with 3h when main lights go on and 3h before it goes out again and a distance of 12"/1ft. This way they have a 6h break to recover. In bloom stage I would increase it from the third week to 12/12h simply because the resin production begins around the third week.
The Agromax bulbs are at least 4 times stronger like @Airwalker16 metioned ealier in the thread! I'll start using it for the same 3+3h but with 24"/2ft distance to get almost the same UVB intensity I got from the reptile bulb at 12"/1ft.(~170μW/cm²).
From this point I'll lower the distance slowly to 16-18" which is my prefered hanging hights for the LED fixture(see signature below). Intensity should go up to 200-250μW/cm². If I see no signs of stress like burned leaf margins and tips or curled leafes I will increase the time when it's on until they get stress. But with an Agromax PureV I can easily imagine that this is already too much. It's like try and error to figure out how much is needed and what is already too much. A equatorial sative or an indika strain from hindukush can probably handle more UV like a HollandsHope.

If you carry a fiber hemp strain with only 0.3% thc for example to jamaica and continue breeding it for several generations you will find that it becomes more and more potent again. The exact opposite happens when you bring potent strains like jamaican lambsbreed into the northern hemispheres. They will loose potency over the time.
All because more or less UV radiation!!! No effect..?! Bullshit!
Not for nothing the most potent varieties come from places with highest UVB intensity.
At 2000m above 0 you can easily measure over 1000μW/cm² timewise.