Quote Originally Posted by runitbyron
I put the LED panels on movers so I can get the most light intensity to the flowers (hung 1 in. above the canopy)and give all the plants an even hit of light. I keeps the canopy flat and all the bud develop well even 12 in. below the canopy. It's working, I'm getting 8 oz. per light right now with a 7:2 Red:Blue ratio. Sounds like I can do better by using your blue dominate formula. So how about 50% 460nm, 10% 420nm and 40% 660? Does that sound about right?
That sounds like it might work, although newly-gathered information regarding my quad-band with 420nm suggests that 420nm might be pointless altogether.

I need to retract a prior statement about 630nm diodes. I keep forgetting they've got the higher photosynthetic efficiency rate for just basic phytochemical processes (just love looking at dichroic grows, though!) But DO avoid the 610nm diodes.

Quote Originally Posted by sunotorp
khyberkitsune:
So just so we're clear, you found that you got more trich formation with the Blue dominant lights, while retaining density/mass? Or did it increase mass as well?

Would you still reccomend a more "traditional" red dominant LED panel that uses like an 80/20 split of 660nm red's and 460nm blue's, for vegging, and then switching to this blue dominant panel for flowering?

If that is the case, if you were to do it all with just one panel in the same room, then couldn't you do this with a panel of approx 50/50 split 460nm blue / 660nm red? During Vegging, you shut off a bunch of the blue's to get your 80/20 red/blue split, and then during flowering, you shut off some of the red's to get a 40/60 red/blue split? Would this be ideal then? This would also increase light output during flowering which is ideal if anything correct?

Also are you a fan of just using dual band lighting in the 460/660 range and forgoing any other wavelength's for veg and flower?

I'm trying to formulate some plans for some DIY LED panels I'm making for a friend's 8 pot hydro setup that I intend to run fully off LED. I appreciate your input or any one elses as well! thanks.

1. For what I was doing and for the stress I incurred during the run, I got more trich formation with approximately equal mass. There's a fine line of blue/red I've been tweaking and still not hit the perfect spot.

2. For veg, those would work fine, and I would suggest switching to a more blue-dominant panel (the 40:60 r:b I've got right now has the best all-around performance I've seen from a panel using 1w diodes) for the fruiting and flowering phases.

3. Such a complicated setup like that only adds costs and more points of failure. I would not recommend it at all, just beam as much light as you can onto the plants. Also, just shutting off sources of usable light isn't a good idea. More power, more light, more penetration.

4. Not at all. My particular lights were meant more for seedlings and cuttings, so going dual-band was the simpler method. I just wanted to test these babies out for flowering and got some interesting results that were unexpected considering the very similar regimen given to other plants, minus the light balance. I think quad-band for certain plants might be a waste (cannabis being one that so far I've seen no added benefit in quad band versus tri-band with the same ratio of red:blue) I think for basic starter stuff a dual band is ideal, and for more complex stuff, tri-band will do most everything. Perhaps more complex plants would benefit from some deeper blue but most of my herbs and fruiting plants have had no noticable difference between many different bands and just a few bands.

5. I can give advice but I can't give out my specifics on my panels internals. Business secrets and all that.