LEDgardener

Hi people. I've been growing under LED now for a good few weeks and the first thing I noticed when I switched over from Halide/CMH was the sudden drop in health and general vigour. I attributed this to a couple of things and was helped by some people more experienced with LEDs than me.

Long story short, I adjusted my nutrient regime to include more calcium and backed off the power a bit. I raised the humidity and temps by lowering the extraction and the plants grew healthy again. I've now got some fresh clones under the same strips, the Bridgelux EB Gen 3 90 CRI 3000K, and the plants are nice and green and generally healthy.

But... There's not the same type of lush vigorous growth as there was under the Halide, and definitely not the CMH. That thick stemmed big leaved growing you get when the plants are really motoring along.

Since I mentioned this over on another forum, quite a few people got back to me saying they'd experience the same thing, but that they had generally good results in flower so it didn't bother them too much.

But I'm wondering, is there more potential to be had by altering/fleshing out the spectrum beyond just the 3000k gen 3s?

Some people suggested that spectrum might be the issue, one in particular believes strongly that the 3000k alone is deficient in what plants need to be at their healthiest.

So, what are your thoughts on this and, most importantly, what can I add which will be most beneficial to the basic 3000k?

I've got 4000k 90CRI strips here and I just ordered some more of them in 80 CRI. I'm thinking of going 50/50 with those. But what about UV, Deep red and Far red? Are these overall beneficial to plant health, beyond their yield boosting effects?

Thanks very much

Adding suppliments can help
More blue for veg and more red/far red for flowering.

I would focus more on your environment and nutrients before spending more money on lights though

There are alot of guys around that love the spectrum you have for full cycle and the spectrum you have is pretty good as it is.
Take your time and read through forums regarding environment and nutrients is my suggestion before spending more on lights that may not necessarily improve your results.

Thanks Tek. Appreciated.

To be clear though, the plants are healthy now and I'd be generally happy with them to carry on this way unti they get flipped.. but... they're similar to when you veg under HPS light, which is understandable given the red dominant spectrum.

I'm just wondering what I could add to it to make it better, and I also want to know how I'd go about adding UV and Deep and far red to the fixture for flowering.

And what is the effect of deep blue and how could I add that?

Thanks again

Wookie wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 22, 2020 2:12 pm

Thanks Tek. Appreciated.

To be clear though, the plants are healthy now and I'd be generally happy with them to carry on this way unti they get flipped.. but... they're similar to when you veg under HPS light, which is understandable given the red dominant spectrum.

I'm just wondering what I could add to it to make it better, and I also want to know how I'd go about adding UV and Deep and far red to the fixture for flowering.

And what is the effect of deep blue and how could I add that?

Thanks again

You dont need any more red/far red. Your current spectrum has plenty.
There are still trials being done on near UVA but so far the results have shown that by using blue in the 400nm to 430nm region dramatically increases THC and CBD. More tests need to be done to reach a conclusion that can not be argued with though. Not alot of light in those wavelengths is needed also. I'm making a product soon to target that wavelength of light. I have made samples but I'm not happy enough with them due to the poor efficiency.
I test for efficiency unlike pretty much all others selling suppliment lights. Showing a spectrum isnt good enough and efficiency needs to be used. Probably in about 2 months I will have a new product that can easily be added to any existing light. Price will be really good too for the performance. Its easy to make cheap products, making cheap high performance and high reliability products is quite difficult.