No way. Like they say. “Last 3 weeks of flower” and even then, you want your plants ready for the extra light stress. Like you saw… yellow leaves go dead. green go yellow. its kind of a ‘finish her off’ move. I won’t use the UVB lights for another month probably.
I’m on the other side right now. flipped to flower 2 weeks ago. Had way too much light on them for 18 hours of light. got a lot of males next to the undercanopy light. It was too much for them.
Then the IR light. 15 mins is about all I want. otherwise they stretch like they’re in the undercanopy. That’s after lights out. I had it at 30 mins, and a few of them stretched a bit more. some 8" node spacing. bit much.
Unfortunately the strain i started my uvb journey with, is my first time growing it, so i don’t know if the uvb is making a difference, but the flowers look pretty frosty, and im noticing stronger scent, than previous grows.
My main light fixture, has uva, and ir diodes. They’re on constant, along with the other diodes, and they dint seem to do any damage, but they also don’t seem to do much, beneficially, at least from what i can tell.
I might try a diy thing, where i can control the ir, and uva. Id also like to try a sunrise/sunset schedule.
I still have about half of my floor space. 2 cherry tomatoes are out of the way. Transplanted 3 plants from windowsill boxes to 5 gal growbags. Today I moved the ‘Basement’ camera to the other wall. The hydro plants grew tall & quick, and blocked it. Plus it puts off a lot of IR light.
I got more shiny stuff, and panda film. so I can finish off my other wall.
1 more wall done, with panda film. 1 small section to go. with the 10" box fan there. and then the “Control Board” to get setup. Small dehumidifier is on.
As for now… all windowsill plants have been transplanted to 5 gal growbags. The size fits well. It’s an easy way to have some spare plants ready to go when growing Regulars.
1 plant in the hydro-tote looks like it didn’t get fed much last time. I’ll have to pour a gallon of the nute mix into each side of the tote. Or just change my reservoir. Should I be swapping out all the water at some point? I use Coco A/B and hydroguard.
I feel like I should use something like this for the brand image of my Cape Goat crosses.
Otis from Andy Griffith Show. He’s got a snoot full, and the goat ate some dynamite.
Other notes. Hooked the RJ-12 phone cord up to the FloraFlex 700w light. It’s on the AC Infinity AI controller. Port 1, with all the lights. same dimmer cord going to the undercanopy light.
Dehumidifier season, with all this rain. Temps go up to 74F, but RH goes to 59%. Drains into the yellow lid tote now. 2nd smaller dehu on the shelf. It just keeps raining lately, and I’m about 2 weeks into flower. I like to keep it <60%
Moved some plants around. 4" Filter fan is running again. Also… setup 4" carbon filters/fans next to the 2 litter boxes in the house. Works really well. better than the regular ‘air purifiers’.
250w Finnchy light is on in the corner. It’s pretty cool having all the RJ-12 dimmers connected. I might retire the 500w Szhlux light. it’s LM281 diodes, and kinda wavy with the light. I have a couple other better lights. 2 x 240w Cannagrow lm301b’s. and another 125w Finnchy light. The ones that are off in the pictures. Other lights are a FarRed/IR, and 2 red PAR38 bulbs, and another PAR-style Red LED grow light, clipped on that szhlux light frame.
I need to re-hang the UVB light on the right. Tested them out the other night. UVB LED is on the Floraflex. I’ll be mounting that with clips on the frame.
Uv does in fact kill bugs… uva i doubt… but uvc will kill spider mites and their larvae, uvb can cause skin cancer in humans and will kill bugs and germs … uvc treat skin conditions etc
Here’s a decent quick explanation link, instead of me repeating it. I have a UVC bug zapper in the other room, and a 3w UVC light in the water reservoir. both are outside of the grow room.
I replaced the 500w Szhlux light with 2 x 240w Cannagrow lights. Hung a second T5 UVB light. both 5.0 UVB bulbs this time. Finnchy 250w & 125w are both on the smaller plants. Got the 8" carbon filter going. That thing is huge. about the same size as a 5 gal grow bag. Next up… cleaning the clutter shelf.
These leaves on this pheno are RIDICULOUS!!! They just get bigger and BIGGER… its staying decently squat Especially when compared to the other 1 thats easily x2 taller but still holding huge fan leaves just doesn’t look so sawtooth
i know right. I flipped mine around the 1st of May. about half were male. transplanted the windowsill boxes to 5 gal’s. the root size is about the same. it’s a pretty smooth move.
Well, the old hydro motto proved true “It’s great til it goes wrong, then it goes wrong really fast.” I changed out the reservoir yesterday, and saw a fan was pounding 1 of the hydro plants… 2 out of 4 look like crap now. pH is at 5.4 right now after floating a bit high. fresh feed of Coco A/B and Hydroguard. Also turned down the new lights. They’re quite a bit brighter than the old Szhlux light was.
Other plants are flowering. half were the shorter windowsill “backup plants” for the 10 males I chopped. So they’re a bit shorter. I tried a different 2nd-topping training, but didn’t cut the other branches, so it didn’t push out those. I ended up with 4 large lower branches, and 8 smaller tops in the middle. I could have vegged a little longer, but I wanted to smoke test these cape goat crosses.
Strains I have going this grow are almost all Cape Goat crosses. Cherry AK, Cherry Pie, GMO x Purple sweets, Sour Diesel x Pineapple Express. Sour Orange (supernatural seeds). I had all males of Pineapple Chunk, Strawberry Haze, and Jr Mint BBC MAC1. Plus about 5 other strains I didn’t have room to start. So… 8 more to test out after these 5.
And the ones that aren’t Cape Goats are the Purple Lemonade x Orange Gogi and Luxor’s Chocolate CBD (purple caper)
I have 2 dozen Luxor’s Chocolate CBD clones that rooted. half are outside in 5 gal growbags in a small greenhouse tent. others are still in solo cups. It was 45F outside today. I’m waiting for that last frost, probably in the next week. idk how we got a Nor’Easter in May.
Hi synapse, could you tell me a bit about the IR leds? is any of your lighting diy?
Anything technical you can tell me about your setup here would be useful-- wavelengths, placement of the light source, and what effects you have seen after implementing this. Or if you can link me to some of your relevant posts if this has already been discussed a lot.
I’m curious about adding some ir led strip lighting.
In commercial cultivation there was a trend a while ago to add a 15 minute period of ir after lights off, and before lights on. At the time people said this simulated sunset and sunrise. The idea was that this reinforced the photoperiod triggers causing the plants metabolism to respond more quickly to the lights on / lights off photoperiod cues.
I’m not sure if any of this was ever scientifically validated, but it was an interesting idea.
I often work with landraces that have not been acclimated to indoor growing and are less sensitive to photoperiod triggers – it can take months for plants to respond to the flip to flowering photoperiod. I’m thinking of giving the IR lighting a try to see if it could encourage maladapted outdoor heirlooms to flower indoors.
I get a bunch of stuff ‘free to review’ hits as a gift on the income tax. So. at this point… I’ve run thru almost every grow light bulb, led fan-leaf light, COB bulbs, etc. Along with a smartswitch wifi power strip, and some smart plugs. and all the AC Infinity controllers.
The IR’s really don’t do much by themselves. I have 3 webcams in there, also have IR light from them. The real trick is combining it with some red lights. It’s called the Emerson Effect.
680nm is gonna be the reddest red you can see. and 700nm is just over the visible line. IR is usually up around 850nm.
The IR makes the plants stretch. they think they’re under a canopy, and grow more to try n get out of that. Careful, or you get 12" node spacing.
That’s pretty similar to the light I’m using.
For the other side, I’m using UVB 5% lights this grow. and the 10% UVB LED’s seem to do everything the T5 bulbs do… except they don’t break if I’m clumsy. idk how the lifespan is for regular use… but regular wear n tear, they’re good. It’s 10% UVB light, some 25-35% UVA light. and the rest is around 6500K.
Actually. These “adlite” lights seem pretty nice. They’re pretty new. I haven’t tried them… but. they seem to be the right range. like that Red is 660nm and the IR is in the 720-730nm range.
UVB lights are on for 5 minutes after Lights-Out.
Reds/IRs are on for 20 minutes after Lights-Out.
And now, night time. couple webcams have IR light. it doesn’t bother the plants, as far as light/dark flowering.
My light schedule is 8am - 8pm. Reds are on 20 mins before til 10am. so 2.33 hours in the morning. and about the same at night. A bit over 5 hours of red right now. halfway thru flowering. I’ll be increasing that as the weeks go by… towards the end I’ll keep the reds on all day. I want more red light in my spectrum towards the end of flowering.
Most all my plants this grow are Pineapple Express crosses.
Cherry AK Cape Goat tester buds from the hydrotote plant. It’s a very awake & active high. great for a wake n bake this morning. Time to plant the garden today. get some sunflowers & tomatoes in the ground. I hope yesterday was our last freeze.
