I shouldn’t care about some of the things I do but I’m really picky and then my mind starts thinking of too many ways to fix it. Doctors call is ADHD. I call it being me. Kinda why I needs to get my grows as good as I can. I’m getting low on meds and I been having a lot of issues with my plants the last year. Got my first harvest of autos this week so things are looking up, so far.
I keep my light as close to the canopy as possible, as long as the tops aren’t bleaching to a bright yellow… but before that happens the leaves will point stiffly downwards.
The leaves may curl a little bit or get glossy, that’s a sign they are adapting, let them.
Your lamp is similar spec. to mine, and I run mine at:-
400mm above the canopy for seedlings, and right through veg. using the dimmer control, 25% power for seedlings then as they grow increasing to 50% power.
500 to600mm above canopy for flower. I increase the power gradually from 50% to100% during the first 10days and raise the lamp position as the power is increased.
I hope that helps mate, I light burnt my first grow experimenting so go easy, light burn can creep up on you.
The dimmer is under the drivers on my light. I need to use a screw driver to change it, kinda annoying but I forgot about the lights evening having one till you mentioned it
Once again, I love this place.
Thats a bit awkward with no scale to go by, you may need to use a light meter.
The reaction of the plants is the light meter.
And it’s free.
Yeah but that comes with experience not an instruction manual, I think its easier to have some reference points on the dimmer to match with various height settings as a basis to work from then adjustments can be made to suit the particular plants being grown.
Obviously with experience this all becomes second nature.
I have a meter that reads watts. That gets plugged into the wall and then the light plugs into the meter. The light I use runs 450 watts from the wall.
Here’s my solution to the to the light height /intensity problem, a ‘story stick’
hanging from the light.
This is a strip of FR4 (printed circuit board material) that I can write on it with an ‘permanent’ marker and wipe it clean with a bit of alcohol.
I can slide it across the length of the light, (normally it’s off left side).
I indicate the light intensities (measured with a meter) on the stick so I can see what the growing tips are getting and adjust height of the light as required.
Pro:
quick reference to see if the plants are growing into risky territory
Con:
If I change the intensity of the light - I must re-do the markings.
Assumes a flat, even light intensity map across the tent (mine falls off by 20% in the corners)
Cheers
G
What do you guys do to get the humidity up a little? It’s currently 35% and 32c.
I put two 5 gallon buckets of water in my tent. Some people hang wet towels or you can get a humidifier.
I got wet towels and a few buckets of water but doesn’t seem to be helping.
It worked for me brought my RH from mid 20% to 50%+. Then again I only have a 4x4 tent with a four inch filter and fan that I do not run over 50% power.
edit my temps do not go over 29C
You like to do things pretty complicated, don’t you?
That’s the same size tent and fan I use as well.
I currently have seven plants in my tent that could also be helping keep the RH up.
I tried the water/towels trick with no luck. I bit the bullet and got a portable AC unit, fixes temp and rh issues.
I will need an AC unit if I want to continue to grow this summer but today is the first day of spring so it wouldn’t make much sense to run an AC unit during the winter and spring here in Newfoundland. The towel and tubs of water brought the humidity up to 47-48% and temps are reading 27-28c so that’s a little better.
Ok but an AC unit will alow you to set your temp irrespective of ambient temps, they are a little power hungry though.