What type of light you use has ABSOLUTELY ZERO effect on your weed's potency....

I see the question asked so much here and I see it answered incorrectly just as much.

LISTEN UP: THE ONE AND ONLY CONTRIBUTING FACTOR TO HOW POTENT YOUR BUD TURNS OUT ARE YOUR PLANTS GENETICS. PERIOD.


QUANTITY: More light, bigger pots, perfect growing conditions(temp, nutrients, light cycle, air quality, use of light(reflectors)
These are the things you need to be concerned about if you are after QUANTITY

The rest is really down to genetics and technique.


QUALITY(for the sake of this article I am using quality to term the physical nature of the bud): I have seen FAT, DENSE buds come from cfl grows. I have seen STRETCHED, AIRY buds come from 1000watt hps grows. It still has a ton to do with technique and a ton to do with genetics.

"I'm thinking about growing. Should I get cfl's or an hps? What's the difference?"
Here's the REAL difference. A 400 watt HPS bulb penetrates like a porn star. Put your plant in a pot, water, harvest, smoke.

Does that mean it's the best route to take? Not necessarily. If you are going to use CFL lighting then you need to be ready to work for it. Ideally you will need to use LST at least and a SCROG at best. This allows you to cover more bud sites with more light therefore evening the odds with those HPS grows. You can still let them grow naturally but you will have to use your lighting in a more creative way(placing many bulbs all around the plant to give the best coverage possible.

EITHER WAY YOU DECIDE TO DO IT, THE POTENCY OF YOUR WEED WILL STILL BE THE SAME. IF YOU SMOKE A 1 GRAM JOINT OF WEED GROWN UNDER HPS, OR IF YOU SMOKE A 1 GRAM JOINT OF THE SAME WEED GROWN UNDER CFL, YOU WILL BE SMOKING THE SAME AMOUNT OF THC, CBD, KFC, PCP, AND MF-E.T.


I'm not hating on anyone in particular, or anyone for that matter. I just want people who are stepping into the world of growing to stop being so intimidated to do one versus the other. Not everyone is trying to do some big 5lb yield commercial grow so let's stop being so aggressive when pushing people to choose their lighting. Give your plants some light and smoke the results. Isn't that what we all want anyways?

Word!!!!!!!!

i disagree that ONLY genetics = potent plants.. but in regards to lighting, hps lights just make it easier to utilize lumens--you dont have to get so effin close, you could prolly get really potent plants with cfls-if you utilize your light well enough

just my opinions though not preaching er nuffin

Peacce

ZeeBuds said:

i disagree that ONLY genetics = potent plants.. but in regards to lighting, hps lights just make it easier to utilize lumens--you dont have to get so effin close, you could prolly get really potent plants with cfls-if you utilize your light well enough

just my opinions though not preaching er nuffin

Peacce

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"Here's the REAL difference. A 400 watt HPS bulb penetrates like a porn star. Put your plant in a pot, water, harvest, smoke."

Not trying to be a dick at all. It goes against my nature. Just wanted to make sure you read what I wrote up above to see that I agree with the opinion you stated as far as HPS making it easier. They DO make it easier due to the sheer intensity but beware. The further you move the HPS away to deal with the heat output from it, the more you even the odds with the CFL's. The big argument for cfl's for some time has been that they don't run quite as hot and they deliver most of their lumens in the correct PAR range.....HOWEVER.....HPS bulb manufacturers have clued in on this and are making more bulbs that produce more lumens in the correct par range than they used to. That's a good thing because of the lumen production they are capable of.

My current CFL total wattage if running all bulbs is 300-true watts which puts out 20,600 lumens for me. The good thing is that most of those lumens are in the correct par range. I just have to keep them close to the plants.
A 250 watt HPS will put out an initial lumen count of around 26,000 up to 30,000 but a good percentage of the par is out of the plants usable range. But as I said before, they are getting better. That, and they Penetrate Like a Pornstar.

potency and yield are geno-limited, yes, but that limit is only reached with very bright light, ideal water and humidity, and perfect nutrition. so, in practice, light does matter

Well this thread is total bs Light color can effect potency I can't believe you are telling people it doesn't
There have be studies done on the side of a mountain where the plants were at different elevations and this proves the color idea!
Plants at lower hights on the mountain grow bigger but less potent then the higher elevations higher up the mountain plants grow smaller and are more potent and this is all from the same cut of genetics so how do you explain that?
Simple the higher elevations receive more ultra violet light improving potency and reducing yield!
The same goes for a mh vs hps hps grows bigger but less potent bud mh grows tighter less yield but more potent Fact!!!!!!
So anyone reading this dissregard anything mentioned above as it is false!!!!!!!

sorry there big fatjoint and here's the thing.
1. i'm talking about growing under artificial light, NOT the side of a mountain.
2. Plants cannot use infrared irradiation. As for UV light, they cannot use it as an energy source (for photosynthesis), but they can sense it by specific pigments (cryptochromes and some unidentified UV receptors).Ultraviolet light produces more energy than plants can handle during photosynthesis. As a result, plants produce pigments to protect them from UV light. These pigments allow only visible light to be absorbed by the plant cells. so umm.....yeah
3. As far as comparisons go, I HAVE smoked a side by side when a friend flowered his plant under HPS after he gave me a clone which I flowered under CFL's, and while the HPS grown plant's nugs WERE more dense, there was absolutely(as far as I could tell) no difference in the highs, flavors, or the length of stone. As I said before though, 1 gram is 1 gram and 1 gram is 1 gram. DENSITY does not affect POTENCY.

Have a nice day hate monger.

I am a firm believer that more mature, larger plants create better bud than 12/12 from seed, auto flower, or a regular plant forced to flower early under a ft.
Now, I am mainly speaking towards light size here but it can be thrown into the debate depending on your views.. I do not think a basic cfl setup will produce the same quality bud, potency wise included, as bud grown under several thousand watts of different spectrum, HPS, MH, UVB or LED xtra lighting.


Maybe not the Type of light(given you are using SOMETHING made for plants), but deff the light intensity counts. lumens & wattage.

NnthStTrls said:

sorry there big fatjoint and here's the thing.
1. i'm talking about growing under artificial light, NOT the side of a mountain.
2. Plants cannot use infrared irradiation. As for UV light, they cannot use it as an energy source (for photosynthesis), but they can sense it by specific pigments (cryptochromes and some unidentified UV receptors).Ultraviolet light produces more energy than plants can handle during photosynthesis. As a result, plants produce pigments to protect them from UV light. These pigments allow only visible light to be absorbed by the plant cells. so umm.....ye

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I'll agree with you on most points, but the "pigments" that cannabis uses to protect itself from UVB aren't "pigments", they're trichomes, the little things we love because they produce THC. It's been shown that plants grown under higher UVB levels put out more trichs to defend themselves, and more trichs = more potency, thus the side of the mountain comparison.


So basically, it DOES matter what kind of light you use as far as potency goes, because UVB increases potency.

NnthStTrls said:

sorry there big fatjoint and here's the thing.
As for UV light, they cannot use it as an energy source (for photosynthesis), but they can sense it by specific pigments (cryptochromes and some unidentified UV receptors).Ultraviolet light produces more energy than plants can handle during photosynthesis. As a result, plants produce pigments to protect them from UV light. These pigments allow only visible light to be absorbed by the plant cells. so umm.....yeah

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1two3 said:

I'll agree with you on most points, but the "pigments" that cannabis uses to protect itself from UVB aren't "pigments", they're trichomes, the little things we love because they produce THC. It's been shown that plants grown under higher UVB levels put out more trichs to defend themselves, and more trichs = more potency, thus the side of the mountain comparison.


So basically, it DOES matter what kind of light you use as far as potency goes, because UVB increases potency.

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What I know is that UV is essential for the creation of thc and cannabinoids. it may not use it as a energy source but is used to create reactions

it is uv that helps with the chemical reactions in the head of the trichome which in turn is related to potency.
however genetics is a big part of it too

What type of light you use has ABSOLUTELY ZERO effect on your weed's potency....

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I have to disagree there.
If you're using insufficient lighting, or poor spectrum lighting, your buds won't develop properly, and potency can suffer.
Are you going to claim that buds grown under an incandescent light are going to be as good as ones grown under a HPS?
We know this isn't true, and consequently light spectrum DOES matter.
Note that I actually do agree with your fundamental principle here.
I believe that you *CAN* get buds from CFLs that are just as good as ones grown under HPS. Its just that your lighting technique will have to be a little different and you're going to need more watts to get there.

LISTEN UP: THE ONE AND ONLY CONTRIBUTING FACTOR TO HOW POTENT YOUR BUD TURNS OUT ARE YOUR PLANTS GENETICS. PERIOD.

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Again, I disagree.
Genetics are the MAIN determinant of end potency, but hardly the "only" one.
Length of flowering time matters. If you want peak potency, you have to harvest at the right time.
Proper curing also has an effect on potency.
Nutrient content and growing technique probably have some effect on potency as well.
For example, buds from plant TOPS are more potent than buds from plant BOTTOMS. If you concentrate on creating more tops, you may end up with better buds.

As a blanket statement, its probably fairer to say that genetics determine your MAXIMUM potency; quality of lights, growing technique, harvest, and cure all potentially have some role to play in REALIZING that maximum potency.

I did not resort to calling you names I am not a child so I will take the high road and debate this like an adult!
I just put the facts out there whether you like it or not!
My mountain example was to show you the difference in color spectrum fed to a plant and what it does to yield and potency!
The difference in light color at differing altitudes is just that UV! Light at higher altitudes the atmosphere blocks out less uv light giving the plant a sun burn which slows down growth but makes it grow more trics to protect itself!
Now this can be applied to indoor lighting by simply looking at each lamps spectral output!
MH vs HPS Mh wins out in uv output thus producing smaller more potent plants! I use a Hps for yield but the fact is the strongest plants I have ever grown were with a 1000 watt Mh lamp!

Now to your side of the argument genetics yes better genetics = better bud but you can't possibly believe environmental factors don't play a role in potency! With your reasoning it would not matter who grew what seed all the bud is the same potency I call BS!

big fatjoint said:

Now to your side of the argument genetics yes better genetics = better bud but you can't possibly believe environmental factors don't play a role in potency! With your reasoning it would not matter who grew what seed all the bud is the same potency I call BS!

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I have to agree with this, although I think the main point of the article is to say that you CAN, despite what a lot of folks say/believe, grow excellent bug under all CFL. Water, light, neuts, these are all environmental factors, and all would defiantly effect potency. If you don't believe that then take a healthy plant just about to flower and throw it in a dark room and stop watering it. But again, I do not think this was what the thread was trying to imply.

DB

Throw a UVB bulb in your grow, and then tell me about potentcy

And maybe some red to go with the UVB, oh, that's right, it won't help.

This is silly indeed, a rack of T12's would save money and grow just as well.

These are only sold to the gullible, if its a bright light its a good light.

Gimme a room full of tallow candles, the carbon dioxide will make it win-win.

Every MJ plant has a peak potential potency level that can be achieved by providing optimal lighting, nutrients and environment. Whether you reach that highest potential is determined by the quality of these environmental components (ie. lighting, nutrients, etc.) that you provide to the plant during growth and flowering. How MJ is cured can also have an effect on reaching this potential highest potency level. I have grown a plant under incandescent light but it did not reach anywhere near its potential for potency or size because I did not provide optimal lighting conditions even if all of the other variables were optimized during its growth and curing. In my experience, MJ will grow just fine under CFL's but it will not reach optimal yields or in my opinion, optimal potential potency.

Hi

I am on my sixth grow using a 250W Red CFL (plug and grow, ten inch tubes giving 19,500 lumens).

I grow four autofem plants, each in a 2L (half gallon) pot, using organic soil and nutes.

My first few grows were crap but my fourth and fifth netted me four ounces so i now have a working system guaranteeing me four ounces every 70-90 days.

I have one problem - lack of potency. I've grown a few diffrent strains and only two had any effect at all, they were World of Seeds Afghan Kush Ryder and Dutch Passion AutoBlueberry.

I'm not harvesting too early, so i'm wondering if some strains just don't put out under CFL or is there something else i'm mising ?

Ive bought bud from a dispensary and bought a cutting from the same plant, thy flower under 1000w hps..i flower under 12 23w cfls... I can honetly say there was no difference fom their grow and mine but te size.... I think you cant grow under 3 cfl and expect to get full resin production, but cfl at full capiticy will give the same potency