Hello, I’m starting my second grow and have learned a bunch since listening to your podcast during the last few weeks of my flowering for my first grow. I have a Viparspectra PAR1200 light now in a 4×4 tent and I’m adding 2 300w 3000k boards. I know the viparspectra does have some red leds and IR leds. Is it enough to trigger the Emerson effect or would I have to add another light to reap the benefits of the Emerson effect? The light includes 12 of each of the 730nm, 660nm and 630nm LEDs.
Emerson Effect in a 4×4 Grow Tent
by 50shadesofGreen | May 20, 2019 | Grower Questions | 13 comments
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Skip the fancy Emerson board stuff and save that money towards upgrading your main lights instead. Exotic lighting boards are an optional add-on for when you’ve already got top tier lighting.
Save that money toward replacing your viparspectras with some top tier lights like HLG quantum boards, rapid led pucks or some spectrum kings. You’ll get a much better return on your investment.
I already have a set of quantum boards that are new for this grow
Oh i see that now… my bad…
so you are using two quantum boards and a vipar spectra? why are you still using the vipar spectra?
I guess the original point I was trying to make is that the vipar spectra isn’t a very good light and replacing it would be a much better investment. You’ll definitely get more for your money replacing the vipar spectra with bette lighting instead of buying luxury addons like the emerson kit.
I would also guess the emerson board probably won’t have as pronounced of an effect if you are using it with the vipar spectra. Maybe I’m totally wrong, but my understanding is the emmerson effect is the plant responding to a shift towards far red near the end of the photo period.
if your main lighting is already pinkish red… I dunno if you’ll see the same effect.
Hopefully someone with experience with the emerson boards will chime in. I’ve actually never used one, but they definitely seem like a luxury / optional extra to me. Having the best main lighting would be my priority for sure.
50shades, are you saying you’ll have 600 watts of QBs in your 4×4? That’s pretty damn good, and if your environment, training and feed schedule are on par, you’ll be able to pull some heavy weight. People are pulling 2g a watt with QBs, so I don’t think you need more yield if you’ve got 600 watts in there. Also, the jury is still out on Emerson effect and cannabis yields. Increased THC has been proven with UVB bulbs. Are you after yield or quality?
Yes, adding the 2 300w boards with the PAR1200 Viparspectra. I think I’ll have to turn the 300w boards down a little bit. I’ll take a pic of my set up when I get home.
yes please clarify which lights you are currently running and what exactly you are thinking of changing.
If you are really running 600w of quantum boards + your vipar spectra 1200 (~520 watts) that is an absolute shit ton of light. Thats way too much too much light for a 4×4 area.
If you want to do the emerson effect stuff thats totally cool… but you should get your main lighting sorted out first.
There is a ratio of red watts to far red watts to total watts for the emerson effect to take place, the added 660nm and 730nm should help round out your spectrum none the less. I’ll see if i can’t dig it up.
Looks like 3:1 red to far red. Less than 10 percent of total wattage of added red. I bet you could run just spectra bloom switch leaving the blue switch off, achieving the bump in red and the far red together you might not get total emerson effect. Should reap some benefits of the added red.
I’ve got 532 watts of QBs in my 4×4. Basement is 65F right now. I’ve got a humidistat and thermometer hooked up to exhaust fans, and they both kick on depending on the weather. You have your temps under control?
I’m still not clear how the Emerson Effect works.
Deep Red = 660 nm and is like an alarm clock for plants
Far Red = 720-750 nm and signals them to go to bed
If you use 660 nm in the morning and 730 nm at night, wouldn’t you want to cut the 660 before lights out so they aren’t getting the signal to be awake? It just seems like running these two spectrum simultaneously would cancel each other out.
The sufficient amount of 660nm red with the highly active far red induce a cycling effect increasing the photosynthetic process greatly. The far red is like the sunset’s last rays only the far red to put them to sleep. Controlling the different wave lengths separately allow for running emerson effect and flower initiation.
That makes a little more sense. So in order to utilize the Emerson Effect you need to be able to control each spectrum separately/on its own channel?
The added red and far red together on during full light cycle create the emerson effect. The flower initiation is the average of 15 minutes of only far red(usually 730-735nm seperate driver) when lights first switch off for sleepy time. So they run the whole grow then for an extra 15mins after the white and photo red cycle off. Cycling the plant to its sleep cycle faster allowing it to feel the effects of the dark a little more. Similar to running the 11on/13off(suggested by many to show better phenotypic expression) schedule but with the benefit of an extra hour of photons with same lights.