This is a fun thread, let’s try and keep it cannabis related though.
If your here it’s because you are wondering something… Do you not fully understand something? Have a tough question? Or a topic that doesn’t get spoken to much on the forums that you can recall?
Let’s get into the weeds, not sure what the ideal is of something, or why everyone is saying to do this or that?
Well here is your chance, you ask anything and I will answer it. If you stump me I would be more than excited to say so because that means we can learn together!
Genetics & DNA mapping are something that I know about but it’s still very early, but even then I’m all ears.
Yes, this is a complicated topic but very interesting and it’s something most most growers don’t understand which leads them to buying genetics without understanding what they have, however sometimes this is due to lack of transparency from the seed seller.
For those of you reading this that haven’t went down the rabbit hole the quick summary is:
Unless it’s a clone it’s not the same, when you buy a genetic that says it’s “strain X” even though everyone’s selling it they are all different. When a handful of seeds are dropped from the same breeder and the same strain they will all be different, how different depends on the type of breeding done. Most are F1’s, the further down the stabilizing route seeds are the less vigour they have.
This is why the best practice is to grow 100 (no joke), or more, of a quality breeders genetic that you know the linage of. Then pheno hunt and throw all but the best female away. Then keep this female and clone off of it.
However this is highly impractical for most home growers, and thus it is often just simpler to find a quality breeder and ignore strain descriptions. Instead just grow everything and keep clones of everything in case you want to re grow it.
DNA sequencing and GMOs will soon change this, but we aren’t there yet fully.
How much far red spectrum is required to trigger the Emerson effect?
So far I’ve found suggestions for basing it off percentage of light
(up to 40%) or W/ft³ (~4W per). But those suggestions don’t match; e.g.
6ft³ floor space
240W full spectrum LED
40% FR = 96W or 16W/ft³
4W/ft³ FR = 24W or 10%
Is one them right and the other wrong? Is there more too it? Should I just start with the average of the suggestions (60W)?
I would say 40%, why?
Because this was studied and the study details 40%, so the only true scientific data we have tells us 40%. Anything beyond that is non scientific data.
Now the issue with this is that from my understanding no light company is providing lights with 40% far red.
So this is where building your own light or having lights + supplementary far right would be the ideal way to go.
I definitely like seeing legit research. It avoids the “bro science” discussion and opinions and emphasizes data instead. I had one of these debates just yesterday.
Yeah I got my 40% from the same. If you look at the spectral distribution of commercial lights with built-in FR it looks like they are mostly in the 10-20% range and FR add-on lights are 10% or less.
Another reference on the general topic is:
That’s what I’m up to. I have a DIY lamp I’m modifying for a new space and figured may as well add some FR while I’m in there. Seems 40% is as solid a choice as possible for now. I’ll throw a dimmer on there so lower doses can at least be tested.
So what wave length diodes are going to go in your supplementary light? 720nm and 650nm.
And you want to run these at the same time as your regular 3500k lights (hopefully that’s what your board is)
As for pre built boards, yeah they have some lights with reds, far reds and IR and it does help but it’s not really enough wattage to make a huge difference.
Also this will work best on regulars, the light setup is not designed for autoflowers however if I personally was making a setup I would make it this way because it’s the best… I just don’t know if the yeilds are worth the cost.
Also I would suggest you use the Search and search @Stonedrus he had some amazing threads and did alot of playing around with lights. Great read but the data you have to build your lights is not going to be in there.
Is there a light i can use to see with that will not affect the plant during dark hours? I run my lights at night but there are some things i would like to do to my rooms during the day if im off or on the weekends.
I haven’t worked out what yet to do about deep red. I guess that is
the next question. If the light already includes 650nm do you need
even more? About 12% of the current wattage goes to deep red.
The light currently covers 435nm-660nm with a mix of Samsung LM301H,
LM301H Evo and Osram GH CSSRM4.24.
It’s been said a lot that pot plants do not up take nutrients during dark hours.
But do they up take water?
I had a clone get a little dry on me yesterday (hardening off) and I brought them in after dark and watered. When I went out b4 sun up this morning they was all praying for light
Great thread @Nicky , we will keep ya busy. Cool seeing ya around
Have your thoughts changed on DLI in the last couple of years? This new chart kinda throwing me for a loop. Always ran higher than what they are showing here. at least until my current grow. Taking my time building up.
No, not really.
Plants can see much more light than you can see with your eyes… Leave your plants alone in darkness and ensure its true darkness hide every little led power bar or light crack that you need to.
I recommend standing inside your tent before you put plants in, let your eyes adapt over a couple minutes. Put aluminum tape on tent walls and electrical tape on everything else.
You’ll need to add more to get the full potential according to the study. Is it cost effective? I don’t know, if your growing photo periods over a long time aka many years then yes. If you want to engage this theory and use the benefits though you’ll need to do that, 12% is not going to be enough considering they were using 40%.
Again it’s all what your budget is, do I think the average grower should worry about this? Na and me as well as the light guru himself have spoke on this topic.
I would get 3500k led boards and call it a day, you Wana sink more money buy supplemental lights, I don’t think the cost of buying premade boards with reds, far reds and UV is worth it.
Then again should build the light from scratch and then you could build in 40%.
Correct, is my understanding of the most effective way to run lights.
Plants don’t know its sunrise or sunset… You tell them what they know, unless you believe in Stella Natura or whatever it is but to my understanding there is no solid data that shows it works when it was tested a couple times.
