Brand new grower here. Was in law enforcement for almost 15 years in New Mexico. Went back to school and became a Registered Respiratory Therapist but then COVID happened and now I am a stay at home dad. I suffer from PTSD and depression everyday and use cannabis to medicate and make my day more manageable. I would love to be able to be self sustainable.
I ruined my first grow because I do not know how to manage the light. I have nothing but contradicting responses when Ive asked people I know or from things I’ve read.
I am running an AC Infinity 3x3x6 with a Mars Hydro TSW 2000. Manufacturer recommendation says seedling should be 24 inches away from light. 18-24 for Veg and 12-18 for Flower. I cannot afford a PAR meter or anything like that so I just convert a LUX reading to PAR. Its just such a gray area for me because I have no idea when the light should be raised or even lowered and at what PAR. Its extra hard on me because I have to fight the depression demons and try to stay motivated to grow my own medicine when things go wrong. Help me out DGC please. Thank you in advance.
I have the same light in the same size tent. I have my light 24” above my seedlings and at 40%. My last run I noticed that the light set at 100% was a little too much light even in flower. This run I’m going to keep the light at 24” above the canopy and adjust the dimmer as needed but won’t exceed 80% for veg and keep it at 80% during flower but adjust the light to 18-20” above the canopy. Hope this helps, happy growing!! And thank you for your service
Thank you. I appreciate it. That’s the first straight forward answer I’ve gotten. I thought I wasn’t speaking clearly.
New LEDs are really powerful and can kill your plants or stunt your output if ran improperly. For small plants, sprouts and clones, Id try and keep it higher off them about 30” or so and keep it dimmed down; I use an HLG 60 watt with no dimmer at about 32” from the tops of my clones and they love it. PAR meters are really expensive but a cheap alternative is the Photone App for your phone. Check out this vid by MIGRO on youtube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K3grFZs8spc&t=28s He compares the results to an apogee par meter and it does get pretty close. When I switched over to all HLG leds a few months ago I ran into a few issues and this app helped immensely. Like a lot of people the instinct is to run these lights brighter (full strength) thinking it will give better results but thats not the case unless the conditions are right. Ball park recommendations would be to keep your light about 48” off the canopy when your plants are vegging and maybe have the dimmer on about 40-50% (for vegging plants you want around 400-500 PPFD). When you switch to flower, Id still aim to keep the light 48” off the canopy but then turn the dimmer up to between 70-80% (flowering plants want between 500-800 PPFD give or take, depending on cultivar and environmental conditions such as CO2 PPM). My overall recommendation would be to measure the maximum height your plants could reach while maintaining 48” from your light in your tent, then go down 12” and note the height. If you veg your plants out to that height and then flip to flower (if running photo periods) you will have left room for your plants to stretch the usual 12-13” in the first two weeks of flower and still be at the right distance from the light. Id also recommend using the SCROG method to maximize yield and help control canopy height. Hope that helps.
Cheers,
GMT
Hey man most of these LED grow lights really put out more than you need for early stages. Your plants will tell you what they need. Stay within the distances your manufacturer gave you and adjust at the dimmer if you can. Start low power and every day turn it up until you start to notice leaves curling or flipping and then back it off. Your plants are your best par meter!
Welcome to the DGC.
RASUFA is right about your plants being your par meter. I have never taken any light measurements. I am running the same light in a MarsHydro 39″x39″x70″ Tent. My light hangs at 52″ off the floor, 18″ from the tent ceiling. That leaves a little room to raise it if I get a super stretchy plant, but so far my training has kept them from reaching too high. I generally try to keep all my tops within 2″ of each other as far as keeping an even canopy.
Solo cups on the floor at 60% for my seedlings first week. If they start to reach hard for the light in their first week, I bump it to 80%. That’s where I leave it until I’m about to switch to flower. After a couple transplants (ending in 5 gallon fabric pots) and training for the first 6-8 weeks the tops are about 32″ from the floor. That’s when I go 100% power and flip to 12/12 a few days later. I’ve had 3 decent to good runs with it so far. No light burn on any of them. I’m on #4 now and I am going to get a bit more aggressive with ramping up the power a little faster and trying to get a little closer to the light. That’s how I learn… by trying after listening to a bunch of different people and finding out that there is NO ONE WAY TO GROW. Flexibility, an open mind, and learning to listen to your girls is most important, as they all seem to have different ideas about how they want to grow(except for clones, which tend to be a bit more alike).
Good Luck, and again, welcome to the crew.
Peace!
Thanks for helping me out. Everyone who replied, thank you.
I’ve ran High pressure sodiums, blurples, the smaller 2X2 version of your Mars Hydro… and then got small flowering LEDs from H.l.g…….it is interesting to see the difference in color spectrums…….with those mars Hydros,
Your hitting about right in the middle of red and blue UVs at about 3/4 radiance….from what I noticed on my mars hydros to the transition to alil more expensive LEDs. I did notice with the upgraded lights it was growing indoor weed not outdoor in indoor weed if that makes any sense.
I too convert from Lux to par and you only need around 10-20 k lux seedling , 20-40 vege and 40-80 flower , I don’t grow led but lux is lux . Very very easy to get lights too close and Miss diagnose a nutrient burn when it’s probably light burn or heat stress . Seedlings can be sustained with even a 5 or 6 kelvin fluorescent lamp from any hardware store . Sometimes less is more and this might be one of those situations . It’s nice to hear that cannabis is helping you with your ptsd , I hope you continue to thrive and go well , good luck !