BlueB
Active Member
What was your final bulb mixture that you liked best? I can't find where you list the names and order of the lights in the fixture. Your buds look real nice, it doesn't look like you did anything wrong to me! I've been playing with bulb mixtures for some time now, and there is for sure an optimal and not so optimal bulb mixture. I can tell you that for sure if you have a red sun in the fixture, that there should be at least 1 straight blue bulb to even it out. So far I'm REALLY liking the Giesemann Actinic Plus. It is an absolute perfect bulb for the blue. The Actinic Plus goes really well next to the Red Suns I have found and am now starting to get positive results from the red suns with those next to them. Instead of using any 6500K lights in your flower mixture that I believe was suggested by someone recently, use the 6000K Midday's because they add quite a bit of red to the mixture and they also have really nice coverage in the light blue zone! They are really working well for me! Anyway, what bulb combo did you use for your last harvest and what was the bulb order? That photo you have with the light tubes looks really blue heavy! I think that it is going to make your buds airier if you don't get some more red in there. I made the plunge and bought some RED LEDS to try out as supplemental 660nm. Damn expensive for only 40 watts. It's like paying $100 for only 1 T5 bulb! I wish someone would make a straight far red bulb for the T5 world. That will be the day! I think the added red will increase bud growth rate and might help in size.
) I am shooting for a little higher up the bar.
. I feel like all the bulbs do a great job so don't take what I say as the absolute, this is just what is working for me so far. Instead of not using certain bulbs, it would be better to just buy another fixture for side-lighting, and as far as getting that 6:1 red/blue ratio, the only way to keep it high in the 660nm range is to use LEDs for now. The Flora Suns are a 1:1 red blue so adding more Flora Suns, although will add more 660nm, will not boost that 1:1 ratio. The higher red ratio is what's going to make for bigger, denser buds. A lot of people are having pretty good luck with the red sun even though they are only 630nm. I remember the first UFO LEDs only consisted of 630nm reds and didn't work that well. Now that they've switched to the 660nm reds they are working according to other users. All in all, I'm still up in the air with the red suns, but they are currently the only way to keep the 6:1 ratio and still use T5s alone. Hope this helps ya.
