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Ever heard of a 600w MH bulb giving serious problems to plants before?

i was under the impression that glossy leaves manifest when a plant wants to protect itself so the theory of high uv seems credible given the evidence provided. cheap lights generally prove to be a false economy...go for quality every time...

good luck

Very interesting, I'll research this further. Thankyou.

Trev
 

Tonygreen

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Is this a known phenomenon Tony?

I can see it could bear out, but I've never heard of these problems before. Stupid, I cheaped out on the MH bulbs, but bought top of the range flowering HPS's

Trev

ya man uv at high intensity kills plants and people. lol.
Did you see the link to that pic I posted? Plants will blister and die under too much uv. When a MH can go bad/defective it puts out alot of harmful uv.
 

Tonygreen

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ICMag Donor
Veteran
Broad mites and VPD/heat stress. Quit soaking them.

The main issue going on there is not vpd or the other plants would not be healthy and he would not see a difference moving plants back and forth from the good bulb to the bad one.

I'd bet my last butterfinger that bulb is defective and pumping out harmful uv that is killing his plants under it.
 

Tonygreen

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
That being said he could have broad mites too. lol.

But uv is the main issue in there i bet from a bad bulb.
 
Wild ..I never seen a bulb do this type of damage...I usually buy the cheap 400 w MH for mothers but still I pay around $ 40-50. Always use hort eye for flower . :tumbleweed:

It sure is mate, but it looks like its at least part of my problems, if not the main one. I think my bulb was cheaper than that, I can't remember exactly how much as a mate ordered stuff online for me (safe address an all ;-) ), but I'll find out.

I can't believe I've been shafted so badly by a bad bulb though, who would have thought of that? Its only since adding another light that the problem has shown itself.

I'm hoping everything will get back on track and only hope that the plants aren't too damaged tpo recover from their near death experience.

Good to see you here Some Old Dude ;-)

Thanks, Trev
 

furrywall11

Member
I just remembered when I bought my bulbs at the grow store they asked do you want the good ones or the cheap ones? and I went with the cheap ones because I didn't have a lot of $ -- the cheap bulb was skinnier than a regular MH and looked very cheaply made. I like the UVB theory....
 
Thanks guys, I had no idea this was a possibility!

Hey, you know I did think Broad Mites and pages 78 to around 88 in the Broad Mite "sticky" shows this. Checked with scopes, including USB scope camera, on the worst affected leaves and stunted new growth. If it was BM's causing the level of damage to my plants that was apparent I've been assured that there would be many eggs under the leaves, there are none and nothing moving either. To say I was relieved it wasn't BM's is the greatest understatement I could make right now.

Also as Tonygreen says, the difference of the plants when switched over would not be shown.

What is VDP by the way.

Its a strange one to me, this for sure, but given the evidence, I am also thinking the most likely cause is a bad bulb and the UV theory. Its the last time I buy a cheapo bulb.

I'll hopefully be able to show some good progress photos next week after they have a week under a HPS. They're still putting out new growth, fairly slowly though, so they're not out for the count yet.

Any idea if the plants can fully recover from this, or whether they're likely to remain week and low yielders due to the substantial damage sustained?

Thanks for getting in here to help guys, you're really appreciated here.

Thanks, Trev:tiphat:
 
Thanks guys, I had no idea this was a possibility!

Hey, you know I did think Broad Mites and pages 78 to around 88 in the Broad Mite "sticky" shows this. Checked with scopes, including USB scope camera, on the worst affected leaves and stunted new growth. If it was BM's causing the level of damage to my plants that was apparent I've been assured that there would be many eggs under the leaves, there are none and nothing moving either. To say I was relieved it wasn't BM's is the greatest understatement I could make right now.

Also as Tonygreen says, the difference of the plants when switched over would not be shown.

What is VDP by the way.

Its a strange one to me, this for sure, but given the evidence, I am also thinking the most likely cause is a bad bulb and the UV theory. Its the last time I buy a cheapo bulb.

I'll hopefully be able to show some good progress photos next week after they have a week under a HPS. They're still putting out new growth, fairly slowly though, so they're not out for the count yet.

Any idea if the plants can fully recover from this, or whether they're likely to remain week and low yielders due to the substantial damage sustained?

Thanks for getting in here to help guys, you're really appreciated here.

Thanks, Trev:tiphat:

I wonder if there should be a sticky about bad/cheap/inferior bulbs, as there must me 100's if not 1000's of this brand of bulb, not to mention other brands from China that will most likely come from the same or similar manufacturer, in use and hence many people trying to solve all sorts of other things to cure the ill effects of a dodgy bulb. The plants show many nute deficiencies that make the problem look very similar to other known growing issues. It might save an awful lot of anguish for many fellow growers.

Trev
 

Gelado`

Active member
Veteran
MH are known to give out UV and many are only sold for use in enclosed fixtures where the glass will filter the UV emanating from the bulb. The good ones filter out much of the UV anyway. The cheap Chinese ones are meant for use in outdoor fixtures and are really astonishingly cheap at wholesale (around $1-2 a piece).

I unknowingly bought a fake Philips 400W Son-T for cheap, and fortunately it hasn't caused any problems. It was only $6!

There should indeed be a sticky for the crappy bulbs. Do you guys remember the offgassing Chinese grow tents that were causing problems a few years ago?
 

Tony. . . . . . Dooooooooood!! Great info and shows it so clearly. I'm sorry I'd missed the link altogether (think sometimes I miss them thinking they're part of someones signature), but that sure does convince me to 99.999999999% that this is my issue. Apart from the leaf shape and species, they are my affected leaves.

Nice one mate, really nice one! :tiphat:

Trev
 
T

trichster

Have you used the Trilite bulb before this cycle? Maybe the bulb is defective and only putting out super high K like 10000 and above or UV is crazy high. Buy a digilux MH 600 if you can offord it next time, its the only true MH 600 out that I know of rest are conversions.
 
MH are known to give out UV and many are only sold for use in enclosed fixtures where the glass will filter the UV emanating from the bulb. The good ones filter out much of the UV anyway. The cheap Chinese ones are meant for use in outdoor fixtures and are really astonishingly cheap at wholesale (around $1-2 a piece).

I unknowingly bought a fake Philips 400W Son-T for cheap, and fortunately it hasn't caused any problems. It was only $6!

There should indeed be a sticky for the crappy bulbs. Do you guys remember the offgassing Chinese grow tents that were causing problems a few years ago?

Oh man, do I remember! I had an off gassing room, carpet/glue, and my gf bought one of the tents with the smelly plastic, plants looked nearly dead in 5 days. Luckily due to my lengthy research on off gassing we were straight on it. Had to chop all of the offending white flexi plastic bits out, then things were fine. Had I not already been involved in research on off gassing prior to this I'd have been clueless. Although having said that, I couldn't stand to breath in the awful plastic smell myself when lights were off, never mind when they were on, TOXIC!

I didn't realise what you said about bulbs made for enclosures where the UV is filtered out. Top info. A sticky could be very useful I think. Only needs to be brief, with some images of the damage, which I can happily supply, so that people can help recognise the problem, the glossy deformed leaves would be a good indication I think.

Thanks for your input mate:tiphat:

Trev
 

Gelado`

Active member
Veteran
No worries Trev, happy to help! Some UV-B is actually a good thing and some of the guys on here (myself included) are supplementing with UV reptile bulbs to boost our THC/trich production. :)
 
No worries Trev, happy to help! Some UV-B is actually a good thing and some of the guys on here (myself included) are supplementing with UV reptile bulbs to boost our THC/trich production. :)


Ooh, I'll look into that some more, I like extra trichs/thc. Are there any good threads about it here that you'd recommend?

S.O.D. Could shorten it to that, lol. Maybe change yer name to some kinda Not Ever So Old Dude tho eh? ;-)

One day after the change of bulb and I can see a difference already ;-)

Cheers, Trev:tiphat:
 

LEDfoot

Member
Be careful about your eyes and exposed skin if you're around UV. As I recall, there are A,B, and C types.
 

Gelado`

Active member
Veteran
Yup, the further along you get the worse the radiation. The C is seriously damaging and the B is what boosts trich production. I wear sunglasses when working under the lights!
 
Good points, I spent quite sometime in there whilst trying to figure all this out, hope no harm has been done.

Shades are a good idea, but I need reading glasses for anything nearer than a meter from me, so it can be difficult for many.

It really would be good to have a sticky about this, any chance mod's?

Thanks Trev
 

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