Light spectrum

Indoor Growing
1

I have 3 grow lights.
1 is a California Sun. It has no switches or controls.
2 are Chinese, and have BLOOM and VEG switches.
I’ve been running those two in VEG, which is a white light. Whiter than the Cali light.
a friend suggested I turn on both VEG and BLOOM lights on the switchables, saying that the cycle is more important than the spectrum.
All are LEDs and I run them 24/7.

What do you folks think?

Lob

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2

Those chinese are kind of crap, I tried using just vegg for vegging and the roots didn’t grow, on a second try I gave them all and not much difference, when I got the hps… Boom! Magic.

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This is my second year with these and they’ve been good…just trying to figure out if I can get more out of them.
My plants are 18-24" in about 6wks from seed, and dark green/healthy, unless I screw up the nutes.

Lob

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4

Until very recently when I shut down my third tent I was vegging with one of those cheapos with veg and bloom. Worked just fine. I only used the veg switch unless they stretched. I don’t think you need the bloom switch at all in veg it you have enough light from the veg switch only.

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It depends entirely. But when I’ve used meizhi lights in the past with a veg and bloom switch. I’ve had much faster growth rates with both switched on. Personal opinion is to have both on all the way after you’re at say the 5th node. When all is a said and done though the best thing I did with blurple lights. Is used the case/fans/drivers/heatsinks and mounted some more efficient COBs on them (citizen citiled cluo38 to be specific) hope this helps.

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6

I missed this part. On veg my light was blue not white. I’m sure that makes some sort of difference here. I’m telling ya though. Most plants I grew were perfectly content under that blue glow. I literally had a 135r sitting unused because the blue veg switch was vegging great for me. A few light hungry specimens would climb right up to that blurple though.

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Turn them on. Unless you are happy with the growth. I’d still turn them both on.

I have one with a veg and bloom switch and all they do is turn off half the LEDs

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8

It makes a massive difference. You’re right For veg you want closer to daylight. 6500k ISH. But most use 5000k. The closest you can get to UV with LED is 465nm spectral range. (Royal blue) for bloom you want 2700k. If you’re using LED from start to finish then I would recommend 3500k. “Blue” helps to keep internodal spacing tight. The “red” seems to help with flower. This is anecdotal from experience.

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I have a 3000k and a 4000k. The only difference I’ve noticed is that the 4000k is better for taking pictures :rofl:

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10

4000k will be better simply because you’ll be taking pics closer to daylight bro

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11

I notice my 5000K promote bustier plants, while my 2700K promote more stretch. It’s moat noticeable with smaller plants like my bonsais. That being said, I usually run both in veg and flower, just increase the intensity as needed.

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hope thing work out ! for very good quality (quantum boards) and cheap prices look at Elevated Lighting (was Budget LED’s) have two of their board excellant, USA made and by Vets’s, Love QB’s they are much lighter and NO fan noise and heat isn’t a issue. FYI

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13

To quote the plant master Bruce Bugbee from The Utah state university. " quantity of light is much more vital than quality of lights"

DLI is everything …

Daily light integral describes the number of photosynthetically active photons that are delivered to a specific area over a 24-hour period.

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14

Hear it for yourself fam

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15

all ways great stuff from the Doc !!!

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16

When I used mine I had both veg and bloom on the whole time. Just what worked for me. Many hate on these lights but honestly they did a fine job for me and I still have 3 of them in my closet in case of emergency.

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17

Lighting science is sorta complicated.

But, spectrum is less important than you might think. It’s a minor detail compared to most other aspects of growing. Don’t worry about it, as long as the plants are growing well you needn’t worry. It’s more about “enough” rather than perfect ratios.

Case in point, a 2000K HPS vegges and flowers plants just fine. A 4000K CMH does the same thing with only small differences in morphology. Spectrum is a consideration, but it isn’t everything.

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Plus the plants are more effectively /efficiently using the red spectrum

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19

I just love asking questions here.

They’re all ON. I was really leaning that way anyways…never hurts to ask.

Thanks,

Lob

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