acidking
Well-Known Member
One of my last grows... (4) of my C99s, and (4) of my (Bubblegum x Killer Skunk cross) had some of the weakest trichome production I'd ever seen, they were growing under a mix of (2) 600w Digilux HPS bulbs, and a 400w Philips CMH MasterColor Retro White. The (4) plants directly under the 400 watt CMH, two of each strain, had tremendous trichome production, and had already finished... not nearly the bud size of the ones under the 600 watt lights, but harvested at peak levels (mix of milky & amber trichomes). The plants under the 600's had very large buds... but the sparsest trichomes I've ever seen, even though they were the same two strains, started at the same time, and grown under the same conditions (except light source), they were nowhere near ready, seriously almost no trichome production at all.
After searching RIU for options on increasing trichome production... the two main suggestions were carb based nutrients/supplements, or adding some UVB bulbs. Well I've tried several different carb based solutions over the years, every single time they've severely screwed up my hydroponic system. Within two days I'd have bacteria/fungus/mold taking hold in the reservoir and root systems, even with fairly strong maintenance levels of H2O2... pH levels would climb to 8 or higher and refused to be kept down for more than a few hours with pH down. The only solution was to drain my reservoirs and shock the system with R/O water and high levels of H2O2 for 24 hours.
So I ruled out carb based solutions, that left adding some UVB light. I went out to my local pet store and got a few of these - Repti Glo 10.0, 26 watt compact fluorescent bulbs. I'm glad I did. I ran them for the full duration of lights on, during the last two weeks, next to the 600 watt Digilux reflectors. By day 3... trichome production started to kick into high gear, and just kept coming right up to harvest.
The picture is from one of the C99 plants, just five days after adding the UVB bulb, it went from almost no trichomes to this in five days!!!
I will now be using these every time I go into flower under HPS bulbs.
Try them for yourself, when they only add 26 watts... what have you got to lose?
I hope this helps others trying to increase trichome production under HPS lights.
Cheers,
Acidking
After searching RIU for options on increasing trichome production... the two main suggestions were carb based nutrients/supplements, or adding some UVB bulbs. Well I've tried several different carb based solutions over the years, every single time they've severely screwed up my hydroponic system. Within two days I'd have bacteria/fungus/mold taking hold in the reservoir and root systems, even with fairly strong maintenance levels of H2O2... pH levels would climb to 8 or higher and refused to be kept down for more than a few hours with pH down. The only solution was to drain my reservoirs and shock the system with R/O water and high levels of H2O2 for 24 hours.
So I ruled out carb based solutions, that left adding some UVB light. I went out to my local pet store and got a few of these - Repti Glo 10.0, 26 watt compact fluorescent bulbs. I'm glad I did. I ran them for the full duration of lights on, during the last two weeks, next to the 600 watt Digilux reflectors. By day 3... trichome production started to kick into high gear, and just kept coming right up to harvest.
The picture is from one of the C99 plants, just five days after adding the UVB bulb, it went from almost no trichomes to this in five days!!!
I will now be using these every time I go into flower under HPS bulbs.
Try them for yourself, when they only add 26 watts... what have you got to lose?
I hope this helps others trying to increase trichome production under HPS lights.
Cheers,
Acidking
