Hey you all. Lots of good data on this site. Consolidation and streamlining is a tick of mine.I’d like to make a thread about How, Why, and your application of UVB.
As with all of us twitchy fuckers, I try to improve my game from the season before. Application of UVB is my next focus. I have some frost monsters planned after my lady is done forcing me to travel.
Sooo. UVB. I dont want to argue. If you think its snake oil just pass this thread on by.
Works outdoors. Ive used a 24w cfl reptile more uvb ratio seems to trigger more frost indoors.
I use them a few weeks into flower til the end. 5 minutes every hour when the lights are on. I start with 15 mins a day and work my way up to 1.5 hours a day, then stop before I burn stuff. The tips of buds can get wrecked.
It pushes a lot of monoterpenes, so I get a nice sweet vanilla cream flavor out of a lot of plants. I feel like it adds a lot of character to the finished buds. The sugar leaves also get coated in trichomes.
UVA just tends to turn stuff purple. If used in veg, it’ll cause a lot of branching, and stuff will stay short. Opposite with IR lights, they’ll cause things to stretch.
UVB LED’s are great. used them for 2 grows now, and they’re just as good if not better than the T5’s and more durable, less likely to break. The 24w CFL’s work enough to trigger plants in a tent. They’re usually labelled 10.0 for 10% UVB light, and 25% UVA light, and the rest is white visible light.
Some strains hate UVB, and don’t tolerate it well. Fan leaves die quick, then the plant shuts down. So… watch the responses. and you’ll probably have to feed on the heavy side. it’ll suck the color out of them. more nitrogen and mag.
Light meters are useful. I figure that I can’t improve things that I can’t measure. So. I have a couple different meters, in addition to PAR meters.
whole bunch of ON/OFF schedule entries for the UVB lights on the kasa smart wifi power strip. makes it easy to set the schedules
I just got my spiderfarmer bars in the other month. I’ll set these up to run 3 hours in the middle of lights on to mimic peak sun UV.
I also have deep red which will be set 15min before lights on and 15min after.
Now if only I can get the blue bars up here in 
!
It very hard to get good uvb in a led diode gey you some t5 fixtures and pure uv bulbs ther a miw 75 b 25 a very impresive bulbs i use them in all 3 tents start off with 3 -15 sesions a day and build up i end up with about 6 ,20-30 min sesions a day by end of grow definitely brings out full expression of the plants terps,flavors,colors
I run my uva led in veg and flower they love it fuller spectrum
@jj520az Would you care to explain why UV LEDs are inferiour to traditional bulbs and fluorescents? Are the emitting angels not wide enough or radiation levels not on par (pun intended)?
I work with components (building audio/effects units) and never heard of bad UV LEDs.
Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for your thorough response.
Please let me know how you find their performance.
I have 2 solacure bulbs… they are a higher uvb than reptile etc… i havent used them but i hear the trick is to get the response to happen… so not full time uvb… do it in small brackets through the day… for 10 of the 12 hours during flowering it would be 15 mins on 45 off each hour… just trying to trigger the response… not degrade thc @Censord
Ive been looking at
Seems fairly cost-effective. If I see good results I can always upgrade. Im one of those " Proof of concept " guys.
Hello SaitinsSatyr. Its not that the LEDs are bad its that they only can produce UV-A, currently. UV-B LEDs are expensive and don’t put out much radiation. A decent UV-B bulb can produce that spectrum with usable radiation levels. UV-B will get a strong response from the plants protective system as UV-A is not very strong and will not get that level of response.
If you think about these spectrum and their radiation effects. You can safely have a UV-A bulb in your blacklight room with all the glowing posters and all, with no harm done. While UV-B is usually used in tanning beds where the radiation can burn you if prolonged. That’s really the difference in how it will effect you plants.
That’s what I use in my greenhouse for supplemental radiation. The greenhouse has plastic windows and UV radiation is greatly reduced by plastic, as it absorbs it. Those bulbs work great.
Also make sure to get a ballast with a aluminum reflector, because if the reflector has a plastic coating it will reduce the effectiveness of the bulb.
Me too. I am a sun worshipping pagan.
Before skunkman sam croaked that was one of the things he falsified was the uvb and thc. Lol Always bitched when someone said it.
Ultra violet radiation is really good to detect mildew colonies. The mildew colony glows bright white under UV where the plant is a dull red. As for uhh any other mystical property to do with the cannabis plant, No.
Ah, got it!
You can also use an Ozone generator.
Lightning is one example but amazon is easier.
UVB makes ozone in small amount when hitting air.
Ozone triggers a similar response in plants.
I had no idea.
Wow. I did not know that ozone had that effect.
