TOO MUCH LIGHT!

[Horselover Fat]

I moved last year and had to get out in a hurry, due to douchebag buyer of old house. Somewhere I have a meter that will show actual draw. Chinese seller on ebay said they were 200 actual watts, but recently have found many people to be full of shit. Just got screwed buying 2 dogs, that are not what they were supposed to be.

They'll probably grow just fine, but most likely not very efficient. Most blurples have a lower efficacy than hid lighting.

 

[Loc Dog]

I will use them initially, right after cuts root, and then to 400 MH for veg.

 

[Koondense]

Which type of those scatterings would have any measurable effects inside under artificial lighting with meter of space between light and canopy?
I've had humid (or even dusty) tents before, but not to the point of fog, clouds, haze, smog, or color shifts

I think with growlights there won't be any measurable scattering at one atmospheric pressure. If gas density increased significantly, there would maybe be something to measure(for example on Venus surface).
High humidity would maybe allow some Mie scattering but not Rayleigh.


Cheers

 

[CannaRed]

I think with growlights there won't be any measurable scattering at one atmospheric pressure. If gas density increased significantly, there would maybe be something to measure(for example on Venus surface).
High humidity would maybe allow some Mie scattering but not Rayleigh.


Cheers

Thank you!
I just can't see how it could have measurable effects under a grow light.

 

[f-e]

The defraction and refraction discussion can be better quantified with a laser pointer. Beam divergence over distance is generally visible but scatter from atmospheric interaction is very minimal. You can pop a pin hole in some paper to send the beam through across the room, then blow smoke in the beam and I imagine see no scatter on the paper. However in the most polluted cities laser based data transmission has seen limits of a few miles iirc. It's a while since I read about the Japanese guy doing the research.

We must of all stood in awe of the roboscan cutting through the fog of the smoke machine. It's reasonable to ignore atmospheric losses for our purposes.

 

[Greenheart]

That daylight white is a pretty good light spectrum. Maybe the green goes through the canopy and lights up the cover crops too. Cheap on ebay.

This bulb is only available in a 5 watt model. I posted it mainly to represent how LED can be customized into desired spectrums. I'm sure it will do well in the micro grows. I found it after I discolored the leaves on some seedlings with a 32w LED porchlight.

I have never put seedlings 8" from my 1k HPS but I did get them that close to my B.F.B's (105w actual draw CFLs) and never had issues. I stopped using those after I saw an old one finally blow a ballast.

I've read something about green influence on photosynthesis. You are correct it should better penetrate into the canopy.

I started using the korona lux app on my phone. Even if it isn't entirely accurate it does give me a reference when placing bulbs and judging intensity over distance.

I would just like to make it clear CFL's do work. I definitely am not slamming them. I do however doubt they will every be strong enough to provide too much light. I was running around 1k of them in a 3x3 shower stall when I first started. My plants were kind of dwarfed but it might also have been strain and grower related. I definitely did not see any leaf discolorations from them.

I did have issues getting within 8" of my 1k hps. That I think was more from heat than light.

 

[Loc Dog]

This is end of week 4 flower (saturday). Do you think the leaves are pale from lighting, or is it normal for that phase. I have not grown in 3 or 4 years, I am hoping to get a halfway decent bud set. I screwed up a lot, and hope to get it down next run. Cold as shit, and have not been heating enough, or heating nutrients. It is coco grow of GG4.

 

[Koondense]

The yellowing can be helped with some calnit, i would do it asap. Looking good.



Cheers

 

[Chevy cHaze]

Oh yes you can have too much light!

I'm seeing the same issues in my grows, but more pronounced only now with the advent of the latest Samsung and Osram chips.
Super intense lights, Ca and Mg hunger with no end in sight and if not at end of flowering I better dim them down (I'm using a pair of the new Mars Hydro TS1000).
Curious to see what these lights will be able to do in my tent in terms of buds now that the insane Ca and Mg needs have been satisfied.
CC

 

[GoatCheese]

This is end of week 4 flower (saturday). Do you think the leaves are pale from lighting, or is it normal for that phase. I have not grown in 3 or 4 years, I am hoping to get a halfway decent bud set. I screwed up a lot, and hope to get it down next run. Cold as shit, and have not been heating enough, or heating nutrients. It is coco grow of GG4.

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That’s damage from the COBs but it’ not the worst you see around the webs. I don’t have a photo but my plants looked about the same during my first COB grow when I was running my light abit too hot.
I think your nutrient strength looks fine, I wouldn’t change anything regarding NPK nute strength but keep giving them calmag just a little more than usually in coco.

When the light is running too hot the leaves will feel very dry and even brittle but after you’ll get the light dialed down abit, in few days the leaves will start to feel “softer” ( more normal) in your fingers, if you get what I’m trying to say.
But once you get proper leaf yellowing from COBs/leds the plant won’t fully fix them during the rest of flowering cycle even if you’d get the light issue sorted (dial watts down abit) cause the energy will go into bud production not fixing the leaves so much= the leaves will feel a little dry and ruff till the end cause the damage has already been done.

They still seem to be budding quite nicely. You will get a decent harvest no worries.
Cannabis can take a lot of beating and still yield fairly ok.

 

[Loc Dog]

One issue with my lights which were kits from someone who bought the cob's in bulk, is the dimmer has no scale on it, so just guessing when turning down. I just backed them all off a little bit. Probably running 90 watts. as probably running 110 to start which is what they said would happen if dimmer control was not even attached to ballast.

Is there some tape that sticks to the outside of tents well. I am trying gorilla tape, but not impressed with how it sticks, compared to anything else I have used it on.

I just decided to get PAR meter. I bought the LEDs to have optimum growth, and want to run them at max possible without doing damage. Now just have to find a cheap one that does a good job.

Found one from Photobio for $160 and one that sounds a little better for $190 from Lifees. Anybody have experience with these?

 

[GoatCheese]

One issue with my lights which were kits from someone who bought the cob's in bulk, is the dimmer has no scale on it, so just guessing when turning down. I just backed them all off a little bit. Probably running 90 watts. as probably running 110 to start which is what they said would happen if dimmer control was not even attached to ballast.

Is there some tape that sticks to the outside of tents well. I am trying gorilla tape, but not impressed with how it sticks, compared to anything else I have used it on.

I just decided to get PAR meter. I bought the LEDs to have optimum growth, and want to run them at max possible without doing damage. Now just have to find a cheap one that does a good job.

My dimmer doesn’t have a scale either and it isn’t actually fully linear; meaning if you eyeball it to mid way it actually isn’t at 50% but maybe at 45%.

Energy consumption/Watt meters cost about 15-20 euros/dollars and are quite handy if you don’t have a PAR meter.So they’re fairly cheap. PAR meters seem to cost quite a lot more.
I have a piece of masking tape on the dimmer where I put down the readings of the watt meter.

Trial and error showed me fairly fast how hot I can run the COBs in my tent, so an expensive PAR meter isn’t a must. The plants will show symptoms on the leaves (droop - start to feel dry – lose abit of color) quite fast if the light is dialed in too hot and you can’t raise the light fixture any higher.

 

[Horselover Fat]

^yeah cheap par meters are not very accurate. They are fine for measuring differences in your illumination, but not when comparing to other readings. Ie your 1000ppfd measurement may be quite different from other person's 1000ppfd. All plants will not like the same level of lighting either so in the end you will have to dial in the light levels your self.

Cheap par meters are actually even cheaper lux meters. They just add a couple of colour gels in there to change up the weighting of the meter.

 

[Loc Dog]

My dimmer doesn’t have a scale either and it isn’t actually fully linear; meaning if you eyeball it to mid way it actually isn’t at 50% but maybe at 45%.

Energy consumption/Watt meters cost about 15-20 euros/dollars and are quite handy if you don’t have a PAR meter.So they’re fairly cheap. PAR meters seem to cost quite a lot more.
I have a piece of masking tape on the dimmer where I put down the readings of the watt meter.

Trial and error showed me fairly fast how hot I can run the COBs in my tent, so an expensive PAR meter isn’t a must. The plants will show symptoms on the leaves (droop - start to feel dry – lose abit of color) quite fast if the light is dialed in too hot and you can’t raise the light fixture any higher.


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I have to search, I have one somewhere. Did not think about that.

 

[GoatCheese]

^yeah cheap par meters are not very accurate. They are fine for measuring differences in your illumination, but not when comparing to other readings. Ie your 1000ppfd measurement may be quite different from other person's 1000ppfd. All plants will not like the same level of lighting either so in the end you will have to dial in the light levels your self.

Cheap par meters are actually even cheaper lux meters. They just add a couple of colour gels in there to change up the weighting of the meter.

That’s a very good point.
..some plants show symptoms of Led/COB damage noticeably easier, esp. if the air is cold and dry already during winter months.
My keeper ChunkyCheese (UK Cheese x DeepChunk) doesn’t like dry air in general, hasn’t been happy in my grow tent during winter under any light and she is more sensitive to COBs too, compared to my CBD CriticalCure keeper which tolerates noticeably more COB light.


Plants tolerate the grow medium soil/coco going dry way more under 250w hps in my tent, than under the Cree COBs. Huge difference. Under COBs the leaves aren’t even drooping noticeably from lack of moisture in the soil and the upper leaves are already showing signs of yellowing from drying out. With the cool tubed 250w leaves could droop quite abit from drying out without much damage on the top leaf color, under COBs it’s almost instant damage esp. when I grow in smaller pots (2-3 litre).

..and that's when my three Cree CXB3590 are running 25-30 watts each at 60cm from canopy. For little seed projects i've had the COBs dialed down abit to 23-25 watts each @ 60-65cm to canopy cause i don't wanna stress the plants so much when they're developing seeds


Epsom salts and CalMag are a big help to the drying out damage issues too.

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I actually had to buy a small UFO fan with a controller in it (PrimaKlima), so I can have as little of ventilation going thru the tent (90x50x160cm) as possible, otherwise the plants would look really fukd up esp. during winter season under COBs, much worse than under cool tubed 250w HPS. Which heated up the tent more, so the moisture in the soil evaporated more into the tent. ..Now it’s much better, but still modern white Leds are abit problematic during drier, colder months. Very much different to hps light.