Quote Originally Posted by Dogznova
I think you just answered for me in the previous post.... "Far Red duration of one timer goes ON at or just BEFORE the (Red) PAD timers go OFF".... So no (SID) gaps in between the two spectrums...
Yes, a SID gap after a Red duration start out acting like Red on time and then SLOWLY goes throu a transition to SID like behavior. And if that wasn't fun enough this kind of thing is sensitive to temperature, pH and secondary genetics.

In this .5/.5 example.

A (short) SID gap following Red acts similar to Red, effectively lengthening the Red duration and shortening the Far Red duration in terms of plant responce, making the plant go slower. The overlap in Red plus Far Red acts as a third mixed spectrum duration depending on wattages.

A (short) SID gap following Far Red acts similar to Far Red, effectively lengthening the Far Red duration in terms of plant responce while subtracting from the Far Red duration, making the plant go slower. The overlap in Red plus Far Red acts as a third mixed spectrum duration depending on wattages.

Small wonder we recommend Inverters rather than the lesser of these two evils.

Your other questions:

1. Yes, you can use Incandescent Blacklights for Far Red sources. How much wattage is determined by your canopy depth, but plant hight is the easiest thing to measure and use. Check the Intensity Chapter on Minimum Intensity recommendations it should cover it, but if it still isn't clear, post me and I'll review the chapter for you in my responce.

The other questions:

Blue spectrum data is provided to help growers understand "Day" lighting spectrums and is basically needed for secondary the photoperiodic timing considerations. I'm not quite sure what you mean by "(on time) spectrums", could you clarify that a bit so I can be a little specific. Not quite sure what the question was there (it'll probably come to me later).

Yep, those half hour timers are the most common kind, that's why we use them as a standard in the manual.

Those cycle timers on the other hand are an over price nightmare to use. Not recommended.

Take Care, Sal.