LED Without LEDs -My First T5 Grow

Fonzarelli said:

Don't buy from that company. All they do is drop ship, so if Wavepoint doesn't have them in, which they don't, then they can't get them. Call Wavepoint if you want the latest update. But, just go with the Florasuns. They are practically identical, at least half the price, and if you want more deep red add a UVL 660nm lamp.

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PetFlora said:

UVL shady? How did you come this impression? The idea of 660 was promoted by Prof, who started this thread. UVL happened to be in production of a 660, but not for mmj. probably for algae though I am not certain of that specifically. I happened to contact them after Prof mentioned he was developing his own 660. (It never materialized) and he disappeared.

I got one from UVL, but did not help my plants. To the contrary, just 1/8 prolonged the finish (I finally just pulled the plants). If you are going to use it at all, it should be used in combination with FAR Red ala, Coral Wave, but that's a mixed bag, better left out of the equation IMHO.

I stumbled upon Profs thread early in my second grow using an 8 bulb Bad Boy + Quantum V & Flower bulbs, and ran with it. I learned a lot for sure, but I overreacted and got a wide variety of bulbs in search of the magic bullet.

Taking a page from recent developments in led (WHITE diodes), which provide a broad natural light spectrum (including the mid-band ~550-610, ignored by most led manufacturers), white is the most efficient for growing mmj. I argued for this from < midway in this thread. One of the subbers was getting excellent results using UVL Aquasuns (broad spectrum bulb), and I had 2, so I combined them during both V + B, but later added Red Lifes and finally the 660

So, do you need the wide variety of aquarium bulbs to grow excellent mmj? NO! A combination of ZooMed Florasuns + UVL Aquasuns should be plenty good. Keep in mind, if you are growing Indicas they like 'more Blue' than Red, and vice versa. F1 Hybrids (like my cross) are a different story as there is no telling which will dominate until the plants are ~ 6 weeks old. If you know what your plants express than you can tailor the basic mix from the start with a bit more B or R but not by much ~ 10-20% max.

I have a new thread over on IC. I have 2 tents; one is my DIY Bubbler, which I used to start 8 of my F1 Sat/Indica cross seedlings. I moved the strongest 2 to my proven DIY 21st Century F & D system, under 2 HO T5s. A few days later I put the next 4 hardiest seedlings in my hpa, also under the T5.

The 2 remaining Runts of the 8 I kept in my DIY Bubbler (4 large cylinder oxystones pumping mass quantities of oxygenated bubbles via a 900L/hr pump). At first I was using 4 @ 13 & 23w cfls (daylight and warm white).

I am also a led enthusiast, although I got burned paying $360 for 90w ufo, which is probably only ~ 50w ~ 9:1 R/B. I believe the R is a mix of several different nms, so I added it to the cfls. but ^ 12" above to start, then slowly lowered.

I bought the Quantum Bad By because 1 I was unsure led had come of age and 2 the high price of leds 2 years ago to cover a 2 X 4 footprint. Anyway, I added the ufo 90 to the cfls in the Runt Room/tent. The 2 Runts had an immediate growth spurt, but the plants under the BB not so much.

At the same time I subbed to a recent RIU thread Astir Grow LED Panel Project which is all about low watt WHITE leds; mixing cw + nw + ww https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/563118-astir-grow-led-panel-project.html

I mixed in an 8 watt ww screw bulb led which provided a lot of mid-band nms missing from the ufo. The Runts loved it. THEN I bought a Utilitech 7.5w led, Day Light, with globe (total ~ 60w) and the Runts are runts no more. They are just as tall as the 2 hardiest plants under 324w, but have much bigger primary leaves AND secondary leaves. Is the difference LED? NO. It's spectral balance based on genetics.

KISS DIY LED coming soon: Where most guys are buying diodes, heat sinks, drivers... I'm going with low watt screw bulbs where all this has been done for me. I bought a bunch of parts from Lowes to make a ~ 3' fixture with 3-4 sockets + Y adapters (to double the light) and ordered 6 low watt leds from www.chinabuye.com I expect this to cover my 2 X 4 tent quite nicely. Stay tuned

If you click on Astir link you will see my latest pics posted today as well as get up to speed on how to mix light spectrums for max benefot and mnimm hassle

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captainmorgan said:

Need some input on my first grow.Do these look like they're were they should be for day 16 of flower?
8 lamp 4' T5 with 2 flora suns,2 aqua suns,2 red suns and 2 quantum 2700k
2' x 4' scrog screen in a cabinet.
4 plants in 5.2 gal airpots with FF soil

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kpmarine said:

Looking good from here. Good thought clipping those leaf tips a bit. Should help with airflow. Just to check, you do have a fan on this right?

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captainmorgan said:

I have a 4" inline fan with a carbon filter,air intake at bottom and exhaust at the top of the cabinet.Cleaned up most everything under the screen and have a tower fan laid on it's side blowing up through the screen.

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kpmarine said:

The one on your plants is what I was asking about. Scrog is badass, but the PM loves that dense canopy if you don't keep good circulation through it. My only suggestion would be to keep an eye on it. If it's not oscillating, then there is a potential risk of windburn. Not a guarantee though.

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captainmorgan said:

Weather has cooled here so the fans are on low,what does windburn look like?
I assume PM looks like a white dust on the leaves?

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falcon223 said:

I use fans, and never had wind burn, never even herd anyone bring it up before?? And they look great.

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savage007 said:

What's up all...been following and have a quick question. I have built this grow cabinet, well frame, my mother area is 16.5" x 34.5" x 44" and I want to use T5's, been hunting through this thread and was looking for the best unit to cover this space, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! The amount of info in this 480+ thread is almost overwhelming! LOL Thx, and I will be starting a thread myself with HP Aero, prob going to need help there too, a Lumigrow Pro 650, ect in my cabinet grow!

Here's a few snaps, don't mean to highjack or be off topic, just a curious little fella!

Tossed is a few budz from the outdoor crop just for fun...PERFECT! Thanks in advance...I want to finish this cabinet and have her running this weekend...

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savage007 said:

I want 3-5 mothers able to supply cuts 6-8" for a SOG setup. Looking to take 20-40 cuts every 4 weeks. So i want nice size stem diameter and good size clones, few extras and take the best to go from the cloner to 12/12 under the Lumigrow...

I am trying to find a light setup for the mothers to promote the type of growth I demand to produce the clones. Fixture/bulbs, I for sure want to use T5, just unsure/trigger shy i guess...so to RUI I have come!

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Maybe I misread your dimensions then. Are they length x width x height? If so, I'd try to make it long enough to fit a 4 foot t5 setup in there. You'd need about 24"x47" roughly for an 8 bulb T5.So it would need to be a bit wider than that. That light should have the footprint to cover you for 3-5 mothers.

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savage007 said:

Thanks kpmarine,

You read correctly, I was limited on space and that's the size the mother area ended up being. Space restricted the mother/clone partition (went with max flower area i could). So the dimensions are the usable space I have for the mothers. Just unsure what will fixtures would fit in there and provide me the proper support/growth ect. I would then ask what bulbs would be recommended, from others experiences, to load up with.

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