The far red thread

[WeedSexWeightsShakes]

Yepp, that works perfect! I've done the same many times actually for all my g-buddies. But you need a 3-10v/900mA driver because this COB's takes only 5,5-6,5v depending on current flow. 9-12v drivers does not work with this chips! You can get them from e3ay and they look the same like the build-in 10w drivers(28-42v/300mA).
The rest in only changing parts and done in 10mins, you only need a screwdriver and a soldering iron. The cheapest 10w floodlights costs me ~7$US. The driver another 5$. I'm pretty sure you can get the 3-10v/900mA drivers from the same seller.

This save much money vs going with growmau puck?

 

[Randomblame]

This save much money vs going with growmau puck?

Hmm! I don't know the costs of his puks but you can do such a 10w floodlight for less than 20$. When I would use discret diodes like on the puks I would spread them out for better coverage. The Floodlights have a poor reflector and a 3mils thick glas plate and the chips are anyway not really efficient when running at 900mA(maybe 25%). You need probably 4 of them for an 4x 8' growarea.
Discret top bin Cree or Osram diodes in far-red are nearly 50% efficient. You could use small c-channels to mount the stars on an integrate them into your fixture. Those channels are cheap to get(scrapyard, metal store, walmart). Better coverage means each plant get the same intensity. With only one 10w floodlight(6,5w) for a 4x 4' the plants on the outer edge do not even get 50% intensity. At the end you get an uneven canopy, because the plants stretch to different degrees. Granted, I used it myself for a long time(2 of them), but now I'm using only 6 top bin Cree's, which I operate at 270mA. That's ~5w over a 2x4 'and I only need 4 minutes (2 + 2) to achieve the desired effect.
My canopy stays nice an even and I reduced the consumption 4 times. Instead of 13w for 4 + 4 minutes, I now only need 5w for 2 + 2 minutes and I can use the Cree diodes probably for the rest of my life while the floodlight drivers do not even last 2 years. And if you consider what the conversion of 4 flood lights costs, you probably drive cheaper if you spread 5 or 6 Cree diodes on a 4x 4 '. You can run it at 700mA, that would be 1.6w per diode. 10 pieces would be 16w, which you can easily arrange over your grow space. You could take two 90" c-channels and distribute them in parallel across the whole area and for 10 pieces a Meanwell APC-25-700 (15.95$) is enough. 10 Cree far-red's cost $ 25 and the C-channels do the same. If we take the small parts and wires to it it costs about the same, but provides a better result.
It's probably a bit of work so it's up to you. I would just put on discrete brand diodes. Once built, you will never have to worry again! At the temperature range we usually drive them, they are expected to run for 80-100k hours.

 

[WeedSexWeightsShakes]

Hmm! I don't know the costs of his puks but you can do such a 10w floodlight for less than 20$. When I would use discret diodes like on the puks I would spread them out for better coverage. The Floodlights have a poor reflector and a 3mils thick glas plate and the chips are anyway not really efficient when running at 900mA(maybe 25%). You need probably 4 of them for an 4x 8' growarea.
Discret top bin Cree or Osram diodes in far-red are nearly 50% efficient. You could use small c-channels to mount the stars on an integrate them into your fixture. Those channels are cheap to get(scrapyard, metal store, walmart). Better coverage means each plant get the same intensity. With only one 10w floodlight(6,5w) for a 4x 4' the plants on the outer edge do not even get 50% intensity. At the end you get an uneven canopy, because the plants stretch to different degrees. Granted, I used it myself for a long time(2 of them), but now I'm using only 6 top bin Cree's, which I operate at 270mA. That's ~5w over a 2x4 'and I only need 4 minutes (2 + 2) to achieve the desired effect.
My canopy stays nice an even and I reduced the consumption 4 times. Instead of 13w for 4 + 4 minutes, I now only need 5w for 2 + 2 minutes and I can use the Cree diodes probably for the rest of my life while the floodlight drivers do not even last 2 years. And if you consider what the conversion of 4 flood lights costs, you probably drive cheaper if you spread 5 or 6 Cree diodes on a 4x 4 '. You can run it at 700mA, that would be 1.6w per diode. 10 pieces would be 16w, which you can easily arrange over your grow space. You could take two 90" c-channels and distribute them in parallel across the whole area and for 10 pieces a Meanwell APC-25-700 (15.95$) is enough. 10 Cree far-red's cost $ 25 and the C-channels do the same. If we take the small parts and wires to it it costs about the same, but provides a better result.
It's probably a bit of work so it's up to you. I would just put on discrete brand diodes. Once built, you will never have to worry again! At the temperature range we usually drive them, they are expected to run for 80-100k hours.

Great info man! Looks like the growmau pucks are $37.
4 x CREE XP-E Far red (top bin) LEDs, 1 x Mean Well LDD-700LS driver, 7 watts
Maybe I’ll go with 4 of them.

 

[Randomblame]

Great info man! Looks like the growmau pucks are $37.
4 x CREE XP-E Far red (top bin) LEDs, 1 x Mean Well LDD-700LS driver, 7 watts
Maybe I’ll go with 4 of them.

Hmm! Would be the same situation, the outer edge would get only half of the far-red light which leads to uneven stretch.
These LED's have also a 120° beam angle and the intesitiy decrease to 50% on the outer edge. At least these puks are more efficient and you can get away with only three of them!
Is there no way to integrate some c-channels into your lamps. You could also use smaller pieces and simply screw them to the case. Take a picture of your lamps, please, so I can see how I would attach them.

 

[WeedSexWeightsShakes]

Hmm! Would be the same situation, the outer edge would get only half of the far-red light which leads to uneven stretch.
These LED's have also a 120° beam angle and the intesitiy decrease to 50% on the outer edge. At least these puks are more efficient and you can get away with only three of them!
Is there no way to integrate some c-channels into your lamps. You could also use smaller pieces and simply screw them to the case. Take a picture of your lamps, please, so I can see how I would attach them.

The qb 260w kits don’t have room for anything else on them and the 132s are just free hanging since they don’t need a heat sink. Couldn’t the pucks just be free hanging as well?

 

[Randomblame]

The qb 260w kits don’t anything else on them and the 132s are just free hanging since they don’t need a heat sink. Couldn’t the pucks just be free hanging as well?

Sure! But these puks gets quite warm unfortunately because the driver is also mounted on the board. Add some short pieces of c-channels on the puks backside to increase the surface area and they should stay cool enough. The "fins" would act as a heatsink.
But QB's are big enough to glue 2-4 additional mono's in the corners of the board. The star PCB's have only 16-20mm diameter and especially the 132's have more than enough cooling capabillity for additional 3w heat. Also the insulation layer would not disturb, at 700mA one diode produce only about 0.85w of heat!
Especially if the boards are not running at full load, you would not see much elevated temperatures.

 

[Old ninja]

Hi, would somebody tell me how to use far red light during early flowering(the stretching phase) to keep the plants as short as possible?

 

[nachooo]

Hi, would somebody tell me how to use far red light during early flowering(the stretching phase) to keep the plants as short as possible?[/Q

Hi, would somebody tell me how to use far red light during early flowering(the stretching phase) to keep the plants as short as possible?

Far red promotes stretch, so you should not use it if you want shorter plants. Use blue light instead. Think you are a little confuse on the use of far red....

 

[Randomblame]

Keep the end of day treadments as short as possible. 2000μMol per day cause only a little stretch. If you use it during the day or for a longer periode you will get more stretch. Higher kelvins like 4000k usually keeps the plants short an bushy, EoD threatments of 2x 2mins with 10w far-red/m² should do the trick!

 

[WeedSexWeightsShakes]

Hm I decided to go with 4 pucks. Thinking 5 mins towards end of lights on and 5 minutes for after they’re off. Or should I go 5 and 10? Or something different lol. I got plenty of room for stretch but not exactly looking for it lol

 

[Rocket Soul]

Hi, would somebody tell me how to use far red light during early flowering(the stretching phase) to keep the plants as short as possible?

This is a good question which i havent seen a definite answer. Standard logic says no-no. But far red also seems to speed up the transition process. When @Rahz did his cri shootout the 90 Cri spectrums, with more far red, had more stretch in vegg but had less stretch in the transition phase: plants went to flower about 12'' taller than the 80 cri, but after stretch they were only about 6'' taller and strech stopped quicker. That is not to say adding only far red to 80 cri will do the same.
I havent tried myself, but id be looking at incorporating end of day far red the last week of vegg, to speed the transition.

 

[Old ninja]

Thank you very much.
Yes, I'll use blue till the end of stretching. And I want farred EoD to make the transition faster, but I'm afraid of the extra stretching. I don't want extra farred during lights on, 80 Cri is good for me, it keeps plants shorter, I think.

Keep the end of day treadments as short as possible. 2000μMol per day

Where did you get that number? Because I want to know how much Eod I can use without promoting stretching. I'm looking for a sweet spot, faster flowering without extra stretching, if it's possible.

 

[Randomblame]

It's strain dependent and slightly different from strain to strain. Usually 2000-4000μMol per day are enough and it's up to you to find the sweet spot.
I've only 5w far red well distributed by 6 XP-E top bin diodes 12-16" above a 4x 2' area and 2+ 2 mins is already enough.
1st. 2 weeks I start with 12/12h & 2+2mins far-red EoD.
2 or 3 weeks later when the stretch is done, I increase to 3+ 3 and and 13,5/10,5h and in the last 1 or 2 weeks it's get back to 12/12h but with 5+ 5 mins far-red to promote ripening.
That way I can get a 5-7% increased total DLI and additional stretch is minimal.

 

[Old ninja]

5w far red well distributed by 6 XP-E top bin diodes

It is approx. 450mA per led, isn't it? It's 11 μmol/s and 15 μmol/s/m2.

1st. 2 weeks I start with 12/12h & 2+2mins far-red EoD.
2 or 3 weeks later when the stretch is done, I increase to 3+ 3 and and 13,5/10,5h and in the last 1 or 2 weeks it's get back to 12/12h but with 5+ 5 mins far-red to promote ripening.

This protocol increases yield, but doesn't make flowering faster, as far as I know. And that's what I'm looking for. Can you tell me what difference it makes?

 

[Randomblame]

Nope, it's a cheap inefficient driver. It's more like 3,5w net. and 5w at the wall. ~10μMol/s/m² PPFD.. ~2400μMol in 4 mins.

 

[Randomblame]

You can use it strickly 12/12h and it should make flowering faster.

 

[Old ninja]

far red also seems to speed up the transition process. When @Rahz did his cri shootout the 90 Cri spectrums, with more far red, had more stretch in vegg but had less stretch in the transition phase: plants went to flower about 12'' taller than the 80 cri, but after stretch they were only about 6'' taller and strech stopped quicker. That is not to say adding only far red to 80 cri will do the same.
I havent tried myself, but id be looking at incorporating end of day far red the last week of vegg, to speed the transition.

Faster transition=less stretch, that's my theory. But is it beneficial to use Eod before the switch?

 

[Old ninja]

1st. 2 weeks I start with 12/12h & 2+2mins far-red EoD.
2 or 3 weeks later when the stretch is done, I increase to 3+ 3 and and 13,5/10,5h and in the last 1 or 2 weeks it's get back to 12/12h but with 5+ 5 mins far-red to promote ripening.

This protocol increases yield, but doesn't make flowering faster, as far as I know. And that's what I'm looking for. Can you tell me what difference it makes?

I meant better yield was more important than faster flowering.
Randomblame?

 

[Rocket Soul]

Faster transition=less stretch, that's my theory. But is it beneficial to use Eod before the switch?

I am not sure. But it seems like having some far red in the mix makes flowering start faster. Youd have to try out what works for you i guess.

 

[Randomblame]

Both leads to better yields at the end of the year! Let's assuming you save a week every run you could probably make an extra run every year. So in the ends it's up to you what you prefer.

I meant better yield was more important than faster flowering.
Randomblame?