Calling out to Weezard for LED advice

[oldmac]

mac, are you just letting them get roots and then flowering?


-shake

Roots??? darn I knew I forgot something. Yup Shake that's one that as soon as it showed roots (1/2"?) it was poted and placed in the bloom room @ 12/12. You know that growth spurt (2-3times original size) that happens when they go to flower, it happens below ground also. This was a cutting from a plant 3 weeks into flower, that was grown from fem seeds (NLXjackherer and NLxhawian) normally used outdoors that grows 7-9 ft tall. Indoors I grew it 3' in a 4" square pot (just to prove it would grow even if rootbound).

That plant actually shoud be in a 4"square pot, with 9pots/sqft and 144 per 4'x4' area. The pictured plant finished at 4.5grams dried and manicured. With a little fine tuning it could go 7-8 grams. I know it don't sound like much per plant...but do the math. It's all a numbers game.

[oldmac]

Hello ledtime,

In this dirt grow I'm envolved in, I use blue light over my cloner and seedlings. I get it by using a super actinic white T5 HO, first few days that bulb only then 6500K T5s are added. Found it cheaper and easier then LEDs in this case, but i'm loking forward to seeing what you get with an all blue LED setup.

[headshake]

that makes perfect sense to me oldmac! i mean don't get me wrong, it would be nice to grow a monster bush, but it just doesn't make a bunch of sense. unless outdoors of course.

it's kinda like growing an AF strain minus the ruderail genetics (which is obviously good!). i think next grow round i'll put them into flower when they are wee lasses and see what happens.

they don't give you any problems in those 4" pots?


-shake

[oldmac]

Hi, I've been following this thread for a bit and happened upon this:

LEDs used to produced plant antioxidants - UPI.com

Hope this isn't too off topic - I wasn't sure where to post. In any case, you can just check google news for "UVB led lettuce" and you'll see there are a few different news outlets showing interest.

I recognize that we're not trying to grow lettuce here (it's tomatoes, right?). Regardless, the theory that resin is, in part, a defense against solar UVB radiation lends plausibility to the supposed benefits of UVB.

Thanks to everybody who has been posting. I'll be sure to contribute more once I've started work on my own LED arrays.

Hello LushBuddy, and welcome to the Cdot boards.

Your first post is a winner, at least with me. Thanks for the link to the news story "UVB LED lettuce", seems to indicate a positive result of some added UVB. Who'da thunk!

HEY WEEZE, I hope you read this....to your plants so they know what theys suppose to do when they see uvb. lol
(Hey it's the main stream media, I don't trust them anyhow)

[DreadedHermie]

Hello LushBuddy, and welcome to the Cdot boards.

Your first post is a winner, at least with me.

I gotta agree. The author of the paper has some other credible looking research out. I want to check some of that, and, of course, all these results are specie / strain specific. But at least he mentioned a quantified flux density at the plant surface. Like 10 micro-quadroons per square hyper-freckle or suppin'. :i feel stupid: At least it suggests a starting value for similar experiments with other plants. :weedpoke: Of course, he may be secretly on the take from the Albacore lobby. They are everywhere. :tin foil hat:

I get it by using a super actinic white T5 HO

Mac, some of those actinic tubes look like they're covering royal blue wavelengths. You thought of this already, yes?

[oldmac]

they don't give you any problems in those 4" pots?
-shake

A 4" pot is plenty for SOG with a less then 18" plant, it's about maxium density you can get.
The original plants grown from seed in the 4" pots where origninally going to be transpland to 6" rds, but my partner got all kinds of bent out of shape when we didn't transplant on time. So just to prove a point, I left them in the 4"pots and I showed him what would happen when it got rootbound
.....nothing, it just kept growing and budding.
We are feeding chemical nutrients, the plant really doesn't need lots of roots as long as the ones it has gets good nutrition and PH. I probably gave up some wgt per plant with that stunt, but now he knows better. (Main pain in the ass with that size pot, plant needs feeding everyday, pots dry out too fast. Also when they are dry and light, the plants like to fall over, I don't reccomend growing that large in that small a pot, but it can be done.
I also took those same 3' plants and harvested the top 1' and left the bottoms to fatten up another 10 days. (Partner thought you can't top that much, without the rest of the plant just going into shock and shutting down). Plants instead concentrated on fattening up it's lower buds. He has come around to my way of thinking.

I love the line "let's replicate nature" indoors. Thanks anyway, I like to think I can get the plants to do things they would never do in nature, for my advantage.

[oldmac]

Hi Hermie,

I went the actinic white route years ago after taking my first horticuture course in college. (oldest in my class) We studied the need for certian wavelenths of light, at various times of growth. Besides the need for blue light to stimulate hormones related to the roots it was my first introduction to the need of abt 660nm for photosyntheis but also the need of 730nm far red. Learned a bunch of other usefull stuff, like willow water for clonning.

Kinda led me down the slippery slope of LEDs.
The idea to use a actinic florescent bulb came from a glasshouse operator in my area, that I spoke to about his asexual propagation via cuttings (see what they learned me). It's what he was using and I adopted.

SIDE NOTE: I recently found out you can't mix T5 HO bulbs with NO bulbs in an ice cap ballast set up. You can run all NO or all HO but not a mix of both, if you expect the NOs to last more then 12hours. lol Live/learn.

pis of actinic in action. Royal blue is a good thing, I hope.

[headshake]

right oldmac! isn't that the whole point of this? to make the baddest ladies on the planet. it's no different than cross-breeding for hybrid vigor or mulitple desireable traits.

we are trying to push the envelope. to take cannabis to where it's neve gone before......outerspace! j/k about the last part!

thanks for all of the wonderful info!



-shake

[ledtime]

Weez,

I have been looking for ten minutes and can't find your results of when you dismantled the UFO.

I've got this manufacturer in China (one of a thousand I'm sure) that is making these things. They can make their own LED's to exact specs. Which is how I'm able to get my dual blue UFO made.

I asked what the current draw was and he said:

When the voltage is AC120V, the current is :
90w/120V=0.75A (90W UFO) 120w/120V=1A (120W Rectangle)
When the voltage is AC220V, the current is : 90w/220V=0.41A (90W UFO) 120w/220V=0.55A (120W Rectangle)

The lamp current will be in different voltage stye(120V/220V), and the lamp actual current will be a little fluctuated from figures above.

What other information should I get from this manufacturer to be sure I'm getting a quality product? If you can shoot me an email at [email protected] I'll forward you the coorespondence that I've had with them. Maybe with a little of your guidance we can get them to produce a pretty decent light for a lower cost.

Should I be concerned that they make their own LED's?

ttys,
L

[Weezard]

There were no photos to find.
I just opened the pup and described the innards to Hermie.
Did not bother to take and post photos because there is just not that much to see.

3 small black boxes. 3 small fans
The box that powers the fans, is prolly an unregulated 12Vdc supply.
The other two drive the red and blue series strings of leds.
They are true black boxes, no markings, so I hope they are constant current supplies.
(could be just a bridge rectifier and a dropping resistor.)
Anybody know a friendly dentist who will do a "bitewing X-ray" of the BBs?

The answer you got on the current draw was boilerplate, but, of course, accurate.
Mine actually draws 650 ma. at 120v. and that includes the 3 fans.

In spite of that, it does veg. very well. :thumbsup:
Almost too well.
DWC'd momma got too big for da room,
hadda put her in bloom.


I'd say, order the dual blue and buy one of those cheap KWH meters.
For ~$20. They will tell you the actual current draw, power factor, KWH, real-time voltage, etc.

Then you can test all your appliances to see which one have their hand in your pocket.

"Should I be concerned that they make their own LED's?"

Not if they make good leds.

If you have a decent lux meter, we'll compare notes and measurements
If you don't have a light meter, a calibrated eyeball will tell you if they are crappy.
The relative "brightness' should be the same for all leds of the same wavelength.
And they should be way too bright to look directly at.

So, get a money-back guarantee and place your order.
That's why we buy "samples", yah?


How 'bout, title your veg. log.

Two blue?! Who knew!?


Aloha,
Wee Zard