Too close and too intense is same under most context.
Let's talk DIY lights
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Too many photons bouncing around. Could be intensity as a result of distance from the light, or intensity from the light itself. @Myfriendis410 so far I have flowered two grows out now at 500W instead of my full power 630W, and I’ve still had that late foxtailing. I have some other thoughts on it, but not full formed yet. I might try going with 400W this grow and see what happens.
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I second this, @Bogleg
I know we don’t have the same exact fixtures, but similar.
I flowered at only 500W (Out of possible 817W) and then the last 3 weeks I was at only 200W to slow the foxtailing a little. It didn’t seem to help at all. They just finished when they wanted.
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I pulled my QB’s out of the flower tent and use 1 light@390w per plant. I was hermeing may plants." They sure grew good thought ".
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I’m running 220 watts currently and don’t expect to go higher. That’s for a 2 X 3 footprint.
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Is foxtailing all that bad if it’s useable herb? Maybe just squish it for oil?
I’m planning on flowering 2 plants in a 4x4 with 2x250w LEDs. Is it overkill?
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There’s good and bad foxtails. Usually at harvest you can see them starting to erupt from the cola, giving it a lumpy look.
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Depends if it’s actual wattage used, or “equivalent” @OG_Kenobi
At this point I’m not seeing foxtailing as a bad thing. It’s building flowers, making everything heavier, and adds weight to the final product. Some foxtails are more desirable than others.
Foxtailing all over is more desirable than foxtailing on top of foxtails. Which produces uneven results.
@Myfriendis410 220W is respectable for that area, especially the higher efficiency DIY lights.
I’m starting to come around to dbrn32 thinking that if you have high efficiency, wattage doesn’t matter that much.
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Probably gonna affect flower density and overall weight of yield. But MAN! I like my lights.
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I would only agree with you on that if it were the blurple equivalent wattages.
DIY higher efficiency gets you more lumens per watt yada yada, but I haven’t seen anything negative in density so far at running lower wattages.
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They’re similar to the HLG Quantum boards, but mine are from budget grow lights and are Series 2+ 250W XL.
I’m currently using one 250W lamp which has the 2 led panels on it like so:
Definitely going to add another 250W XL to flower these 5 plants out, but should I still use both 250W lamps when flowering 2 plants?
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I would use them both, that would provide adequate flowering coverage which would be recommended for that sized space. @OG_Kenobi
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Harvest Still hanging. Hoping for elbow or 2. Best bud I’ve grown so far.
Here’s the reply email I got from the Chinese lift people.
Is parallel a more “dangerous” way to wire?
If so is there a series driver?
Thanks @dbrn32
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IMHO and uneducated opinion (having never tested a foxtail as compared to the rest of the bud in a lab or anything) is that a foxtailed flower smokes, tastes, and gets you high just as well as a dense nug with no foxtails. It might take an extra toke. 
I think it’s really just a bag appeal question.
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They use constant voltage driver that takes full driver current and divides between all the boards. So instead of running at roughly 2.1 amps per board on constant current driver, they run roughly 2.5 amps per board.
Parallel module wiring is considered less safe due to greater risk of thermal runaway situation. If you have a module fail or wiring issue that causes a module to go out, the whole driver current would be available to remaining modules. In this case, board current could go from 2.5 amps to roughly 3.3 amps. Which is roughly 20% more current than the boards are rated for.
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A friend in Colorado went hps in early 2018. I pleaded him not to. I explained spectrum and ppfd. Absorb less light matters nothing else. Upfront cost was all he saw. Now he’s going qb. Stating he didn’t believe or realize ballast, bulb replacement costs are part of running a room. Lol. He’s at 4K watts(4 1k watt bulbs) . He said switching to 16 of the 288s in a 8x8… at full blast he will be at half electric costs. And won’t need to buy new bulbs and ballasts bulbs every other grow
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- Early 2019. Lol. I showed him my room. Bud etc. he then buys a hydro system with the lights from a guy saying 2lbs no work. He said electricity is cheap in CO. Now he knows farming is work even when it’s small. And electricity isn’t cheap
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I’ve been working on someone with the same mentality. All the see is the upfront cost and the have only ever used HPS. He wants to take his grow to the next level and asked me to invest. I told him if he were to rethink his position on Led’s and he would not budge, so I left my $ in my account. Plus the power company will not bring in anymore power for him so he is tapped out with the HPS.
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@dbrn32 got a question I’m waiting on all my stuff to finish coming in the mail to finish my plc light but am getting a little behind on my time schedule. Is the red in the r specs used beggining, end or whole flowering cycle? Was gonna start flowering my plants im vegging now under my 8 132 boards (4000k) then switch over to rspec and plc in 2 weeks after finishing harvest but i need this run to count and carry me through summer. Another thought is i put my 2 1/2 plants finishing up flowering under my 132s for last week or 2 and put new ones in flowering tent under r specs.
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The r-spec boards can be run start to finish, or switch to them later.
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