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LED and BUD QUALITY

doc_loomis

Well-known member
Sure, you can define your climate using temp and rh.

Using the vpd and the temperature makes more sense from a physical point of view. The VPD basically dictates how much moisture is extracted over time, and the temperature can control the amount of terps retained.
We're still in the development phase, but it looks like 0.8 is a great value for living plants and for drying and curing. Basically, it's much easier to steer using the VPD value, and also kind of more meaningful.
 

SaveTheBrains

Active member
No, but the concept of vpd is not "ideal cannabis environment" its about the environments tendency to make the plant transpire. Which is really important to the plant, especially with leds which dont heat the leaves in the same way as the sun or HID which means that you have to tweak the environment a lot more than with "hot" light sources in order to get it to drink properly, which in turn determines how much nutes the plant draws.

It is temps and RH as a combined measure, to see how much water in absolute terms could be absorbed by the air before it reaches full saturation. RH is relative humidity, how many % relative to total saturation. But the amount of water that can be dissolved in the air increases with higher temps. So say (just using example values here) that we have a situation of 10C /75% rh and just for this example lets say you could dissolve 10ml in a liter of air before it reaches 100% RH and reaching the dew point; where water from the air creates due in your grow space.

Now say we got another situation of 30C / 75% rh and (again just example values to demonstrate) here the air could dissolve another 40ml per liter of air before reaching 100% rh.

In both examples we have 75% rh but in the high temps situation you could dissolve 4x more water; thus making the air "more thirsty" and forcing the plant to transpire more heavily in higher vpd environments. The charts you see online gives you an indication where youd like to be for different stages of growth: if you have too low transpiration then the plant gets saggy and wont take up all the nutes it needs. If you have to high transpiration there are troubles aswell, the stomata can close due to draining too much water out of the plant and again youll see the plant looking unhappy.

Transpiration is a complicated issue cause its not only influenced by this, its also influenced by light intensity, spectrum (blue opens the stomata while green closes it) co2 levels (the higher the co2 the more the stomata closes which inhibit transpiration) and i think even the airpressure influence it.

So its a good idea to think of vpd as a tool rather than a goal: if you can see your plant looking low and saggy then look at your vpd for your grow space. Adjust accordingly and see how the plant reacts. For a fully happy looking plant (like the ones in your pics ;) ) there is little need to adjust it.

Another issue would be when you see nute deficiencies: if your vpd is on point then you can deduce that the deficiency isnt transpiration related but down to either low nute levels or ph being slightly off. But if your vpd is out of wack (and consequently you see saggy sloppy leaves) then your best bet is try push it towards the ideal. With leds youd also want to keep an eye on temps if you are running really intense light since the temps will also affect the plants metabolism; cold plants cant take full light intensity even if you have your vpd in order.

I hope this helps, and also encourage you to not to worry too much about it until you actually see problems in your grow. Maybe experiment a little but do not think that vpd supercedes what your plant is telling you with its own behaviour. A tool, not a goal.

There are also sometimes reasons to abandon the whole concept: for example towards the end of the grow, if you care more about quality than yield, you may wanna run slightly colder and less rh than vpd would indicate just to not lose terps and thc, as heat and high rh tends to diminish them both.


I dont know if theres a better way of explaining this and i might be wrong, anyone with a better definition or explanation is very welcome to correct me :)
Very well explained !I love it ;) I easy to understand the science behind

I wish to had also your flow in writing, the huge dictionary and talent to explain. I have not such advanced knowledge in the matter but I share my 2 cents from my experience and observations.
Thanks for sharing.
 

PlastikeRubba

Active member
How do you use vpd with drying material? It's not just Rh and temp...

Right. Cuticle transpiration becomes a bigger issue, especially with these poorly grown crops that are the norm today. Protein signaling to stomata probably isn't strong in molybdenum deficient plants. Guard cells won't fully close without ample K. And co2 levels and starch levels are determining factors.

But pot growers hate nutrition and love da environment. It's all you hear about, "da environment".
 

Rocket Soul

Well-known member
D
Right. Cuticle transpiration becomes a bigger issue, especially with these poorly grown crops that are the norm today. Protein signaling to stomata probably isn't strong in molybdenum deficient plants. Guard cells won't fully close without ample K. And co2 levels and starch levels are determining factors.

But pot growers hate nutrition and love da environment. It's all you hear about, "da environment".
I agree up to a point, the caveat is that transpiration is the source of all nutrients and with led transpiration tends to be deficient.
For someone who has a very good grasp on nutrients and a possibilty to add in micros and macros individually you can probably fix most issues by adjusting nutes. But that is not the case normally as you point out yourself and its quite hard to give good actionable advice on that end; the signs of "enough or lacking of X nutrients" is usually not so easy to see for the less advanced, while healthy transpiration is very easy to see: most growers know how to recognize that "all leaves standing out leaf boner" youre looking for rather than track down deficiencies.
Its just generally easier to try the "ocean lifting all ships) approach than the more tinkering one of playing around with nute strength and individual elements. In my experience its also easier to fuck up with nutes than with transpiration; with much more long lasting consequences. Who hasnt seen a led grower with deficiency problems tried to fix it with more a nute based online advice, only to go over board and get lock out of another element, with finger pointing pointing towards who ever advised him?
Transpiration based advice are just easier to give, and easier for the advised to get right. But you are of course right that there are two ends to this issue; strength and composition of the juice and how much juice your plant is drinking.
 

doc_loomis

Well-known member
Actually, the vpd is not about any transpiration, it's just a climate measurement value. It's literally the difference (deficit) between the amount of moisture in the air and how much moisture the air can hold when it is saturated. We link it to plant transpiration, but you could also use the vpd to control how quickly you dry your clothes.
 

Rocket Soul

Well-known member
D
Its the charts (seedling/veg/flower) that are plant related but he actual concept of vpd is as the doc explains: a measure of how much water in absolute terms fits into the air at actual temps.
 

Scfarmer

Active member
No, but the concept of vpd is not "ideal cannabis environment" its about the environments tendency to make the plant transpire. Which is really important to the plant, especially with leds which dont heat the leaves in the same way as the sun or HID which means that you have to tweak the environment a lot more than with "hot" light sources in order to get it to drink properly, which in turn determines how much nutes the plant draws.

It is temps and RH as a combined measure, to see how much water in absolute terms could be absorbed by the air before it reaches full saturation. RH is relative humidity, how many % relative to total saturation. But the amount of water that can be dissolved in the air increases with higher temps. So say (just using example values here) that we have a situation of 10C /75% rh and just for this example lets say you could dissolve 10ml in a liter of air before it reaches 100% RH and reaching the dew point; where water from the air creates due in your grow space.

Now say we got another situation of 30C / 75% rh and (again just example values to demonstrate) here the air could dissolve another 40ml per liter of air before reaching 100% rh.

In both examples we have 75% rh but in the high temps situation you could dissolve 4x more water; thus making the air "more thirsty" and forcing the plant to transpire more heavily in higher vpd environments. The charts you see online gives you an indication where youd like to be for different stages of growth: if you have too low transpiration then the plant gets saggy and wont take up all the nutes it needs. If you have to high transpiration there are troubles aswell, the stomata can close due to draining too much water out of the plant and again youll see the plant looking unhappy.

Transpiration is a complicated issue cause its not only influenced by this, its also influenced by light intensity, spectrum (blue opens the stomata while green closes it) co2 levels (the higher the co2 the more the stomata closes which inhibit transpiration) and i think even the airpressure influence it.

So its a good idea to think of vpd as a tool rather than a goal: if you can see your plant looking low and saggy then look at your vpd for your grow space. Adjust accordingly and see how the plant reacts. For a fully happy looking plant (like the ones in your pics ;) ) there is little need to adjust it.

Another issue would be when you see nute deficiencies: if your vpd is on point then you can deduce that the deficiency isnt transpiration related but down to either low nute levels or ph being slightly off. But if your vpd is out of wack (and consequently you see saggy sloppy leaves) then your best bet is try push it towards the ideal. With leds youd also want to keep an eye on temps if you are running really intense light since the temps will also affect the plants metabolism; cold plants cant take full light intensity even if you have your vpd in order.

I hope this helps, and also encourage you to not to worry too much about it until you actually see problems in your grow. Maybe experiment a little but do not think that vpd supercedes what your plant is telling you with its own behaviour. A tool, not a goal.

There are also sometimes reasons to abandon the whole concept: for example towards the end of the grow, if you care more about quality than yield, you may wanna run slightly colder and less rh than vpd would indicate just to not lose terps and thc, as heat and high rh tends to diminish them both.


I dont know if theres a better way of explaining this and i might be wrong, anyone with a better definition or explanation is very welcome to correct me :)
Low temps and low humidity is an impossible combination for me 😭.
After 10 years this is the first time I'm paying attention to VPD. Must be because of the switch to LEDs.
 

Rocket Soul

Well-known member
D
Low temps and low humidity is an impossible combination for me 😭.
After 10 years this is the first time I'm paying attention to VPD. Must be because of the switch to LEDs.
We have the same problem. We cannot find the amps for the machines that would make this possible, also even if we had the possibility to run copious amount of AC it would draw unnecessary attention, need for privacy and discreteness always trumps what we can do for the plants. But atleast winter time we have some options.
 

Scfarmer

Active member
nice to see this kind of discussion on this thread. everyone trying to find answers rather than attacking one another. very cool!

on the subject of organics and ec meters. ec meters read mineral salt content and organics don't usually contain any mineral salts and so don't create a usable reading.
Yea I'm glad I've moved over to this server now.
Regarding organics as I've just made a switch. How would one measure EC / get the feed correct or is it just a case of hoping the manufacturer doses are correct. I've just switched from Canna A/B for Coco to Budda's Tree Organicus all in one
 

Ca++

Well-known member
I can see an IR camera in my future. Spot measurements of RH, don't clearly define the whole area. The camera would help a lot with circulation fan positioning. Finding the colder spots, for example.
 

Ca++

Well-known member
Get an israeli model. They don't have the pesky export restrictions that american brands put up with.
I have no idea about that. I'm UK (Robin Hood) so just looking at $50 Chinese stuff. The market is moving fast, so the used market is too dated to consider. There is some huge stuff in tough carry boxes, that was recently 1000s but now a museum piece. Yet $50 seems to beat it, and they get a lot of reviews on youtube.
I would really like to get hold of an old cmos camera phone, and try to peel the IR filter from it. Even in place, my old phone would take pics of my turbo, lighting up the area around it. I need more sensitivity than that, but it showed potential. A cmos sensor had to have the IR filter, as it was just too good at IR reception. We have been close to $50 for a while. It's perhaps the need to double as an IR thermometer that's slowed progress.

Bud vs leaf temp is worth studying I think. Along with IR distribution from the lights, which the leaves transpire more to hide from a simple thermometer. It's going to be useful I think, but I just need something basic.
 

Scfarmer

Active member
Oh in terms of temperature/humidity sensors I use X sense app controlled ones now which allows me to view graphs of changes throughout the cycle aswel as setting alarms for too high or too low . Straight to my phone no matter where I am.
Amazing tech and quite cheap.
 

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Scfarmer

Active member
As you can see im suffering with humidity right now . Despite drawing air from my hallway with a dehumidifier running 24/7 near the intakes.
Looking at getting some more dehumidifiers to help out. Week 6-7 and I can see bud rot starting in places 😭 if I wasn't running any humidity control I'd be in the high 80s 24/7
 

greyfader

Well-known member
As you can see im suffering with humidity right now . Despite drawing air from my hallway with a dehumidifier running 24/7 near the intakes.
Looking at getting some more dehumidifiers to help out. Week 6-7 and I can see bud rot starting in places 😭 if I wasn't running any humidity control I'd be in the high 80s 24/7
if you increase air flow with fans to the point where a bic butane lighter blows out anywhere in the room you won't get bud rot.

also, if you run your room a/c on the low fan setting it will remove more moisture from the air than on the high fan setting.

i know this sounds counter-intuitive but i learned it from a pro hvac installer. what happens is the slower airflow over the a/c coils creates a longer contact time and therefore removes more water from the air.

if you have a programmable grow room a/c you should have it begin dropping temperature 2 hours before lights out to help remove a little more moisture before the dark period begins.

airflow is critical. every leaf on every plant should show some slight movement. this laminar flow helps keep what moisture there is from accumulating on the plant and mixed into the air mass of the room instead.

i you are using led lighting the lights on ambient temp should be around 86f or 30 c.

i like rh to be around 60% lights on and 50% lights off but the quicker you pull the rh down upon lights off the better.

i like that app. i'll check it out. i need one that reports co2 as well.
 

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