Veging under flower bulbs

[Bgreenheadband]

Vegging with old flower bulbs

I recently broke down my room, and rebuilt. I am two weeks from flower and have some nicely established legal medical plants.My plant are already in the flower room, but with conversion bulbs in the hoods. My question is would you recommend turning on the rest of the unused lights, or a few of them in addition to the conversion bulbs? Or would it be useful, or harmful to switch to the flower spectrum a week or two before actually switching to flower.



Question simplified: When plants are in veg does is more light in the wrong spectrum better than less light in the right spectrum? Or a combination?

Thanks.

 

[Bgreenheadband]

ok..Don't need to stress out about it.
It was just a question....in the NEW growers forum.

I obviously meant red and blue spectrums...and there is a lot of literature about why using each, for the corresponding light cycle is beneficial. Just haven't found much, about mixing them.

sorry to bother you so much...thought this a place to learn.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Don't let mean members drag you down.

How much light to use? 50 watts per square foot is considered standard, 100 wsf the point of diminishing returns. If using smaller lamps, given their smaller footprint, I don't know what mixing lamps would do for the "garden" you'd just have some lamps under red and some under blue. Larger lamps with a larger footprint may react differently.

 

[stihgnobevoli]

i was simply trying to inform you that there isn't really a bulb for veg and a bulb for flower they both can grow your plant through the whole grow, i didn't think i was being mean in my post, i even edited it a couple of times cuz it might sound like that.

i didn't think you were that much of a noob considering you have 121 posts, but yeah you don't need 2 bulbs, one of each will fill out the spectrum of the sun (a little more than just one anyway) and be slightly better than just one or the other.
most people just use one or the other or a CMH which is a combination bulb with close to the full spectrum of light, i assumed since you have so many post you must have read a lot of threads and should have seen by now most people just use one bulb. i assumed you wondering about a bulb for flower and one for veg being mandatory was the resut of you reading some site where everyone tells the noobs to go out and buy a bunch of shit they can't possibly know how to make the best use of and end up fucking their shit up.

also i did not know this was the newbie forum i just clicked one of the latest threads.

 

[Phaeton]

I veg with 4 different light spectrums, the budroom has 6.

It is hard to get too much light, the leaves will canoe when the light gets too strong, usually because the lights are too close. Too close gives no penetration. Up the wattage until the top leaves do the roll or turn sideways to reduce light absorption, then move the lights away (this is assuming the correct spectrum). I have found that about a plant height above the top gives effective penetration, and motivation to keep the plants short.
A 3 inch clone with a light 3" away is cheap, a 20 watt CFL will give the equivalent of 80 watts a square foot at that range. When the clone reaches 6" the light needs to be 6" away and upped to 100 watts to keep the photon density the same. 400 watts with a reflector at 12" puts the same light on top of the plant as 1600 watts at 24". From 3" to 24" the plant goes from 20 watts to 1600 watts. This adds up really fast and completely destroys the watts per square foot rule. My budroom runs over 150 watts per square foot, but with 30" plants it comes out just right. If the lights were 15" away I would have nothing but brown dust in the pots.

The science forum has several threads on spectrum, timing, intensity, light falloff, max and min energy per day and per second, and more. Major amounts of useful information to be gone through but worth the time.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

i veg usen mix color CFL's on each end of the 2x4 is a 65w = 300w 2700k orange spectrum. in between are 2 fixtures which hold 2 bulbs each a 45w=150w 2700k, and 25w = 100w daylight


then 48 days of 12/12 flowering under 1k hps hortilux bulb look like this



so yes you can mix the color spectrums up during veg, heck the better LED pannels have 1 watt white, 1 w blue, 1 w red spectrum bulbs. i have a friend who has a fancy 300w = 1k LED pannel set up with 1 watt bulbs he dose nice with it i give him that

 

[Bud Light]

I personally think cfl's increase veg time versus HID lighting .I use multiple 400 mh and hps in a 2weeks veg time i can have plants ready to flower versus 4 weeks with foro's

 

[Maj.PotHead]

I personally think cfl's increase veg time versus HID lighting .I use multiple 400 mh and hps in a 2weeks veg time i can have plants ready to flower versus 4 weeks with foro's

yes 400w mh or hps vegs faster but i need min 50 days between runs so hid isnt my optian. i have 400w mh and hps ballasts collecting dust currently.

 

[Bud Light]

Hey major
I agree its on what suits an individuals needs or options.
If i was going strictly cfl's or t5 ,t8 I would stick with blue for veg red for flower instead of mixing spectrums .My size and space allows HID and mixed spectrum is the way to go if possible.

 

[OjoRojo420]

I am extremely happy with the performance of Sylvania's Grolux (I use 600W HPS) for the whole grow cycle.

My mother plant was LOVING it until she went back to the MILF's den... LOL

Ojo

 

[Phaeton]

Oh yeah, the original question, is having more light, even if it isn't totally the recommended spectrum, better than less light?

So, lights are on the plant, veg lights, and the unused bud lights are not. Yes, using the bud lights in addition to the veg lights will be good for the plants. The plant will use the frequencies it can and turn the rest into heat. There are limits, but up to the limit, more is better.

Depending on the operation, vegging can take less time than budding and the fastest growth possible is unnecessary. Maj.PotHead needs 50 days, I need 65. The clones I use only take 30 days.

Timing, not fast growth, is what works.