Flowering with Cree bulbs

captainmorgan

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
giggywatts said:
did you get it under control?
Click to expand...
Yep and I was able to keep her in the cabinet with a couple inches to spare. I had to super crop 6 out of the 8 mains 3 times and the other 2 mains 4 times to even her out and to slow her down. Lots to do today, have to disinfect my other large cabinet and move 4 blueberry skunks in to flower, plus I got the parts in for my new Cree flood light setup so I want to put that together. I'll post some 21 day pics tonight.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Hey cap, after noticing that by far the biggest/fastest developing plant was directly under the angle of the Cree 4000K, I just added a second Cree 4000K, so now 2 Cree @ 4000K + 1 Cree @ 3000K + 1 Philips 12w RP WW, AND, just below the globe heat sink interface (so a bit farther away) , 2 @ 20w LED tubes; 1 @ 3000K + 1 @ 5000K
 
captainmorgan

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
Ok, I got the cabinet bleached and it's drying with a UV light going in it.
I got the sockets mounted but still have to wire them together on the back and connect some chain.
It's 114 watts of 2700k Cree floods and I have room in the center for the 20 watt 660 nm flood that I ordered from China.
It's going in a 3 x 3 tent with 4 more Cree 2700k floods for side lighting, 1 in each corner.
So it's going to be 172 watts total, that's the plan so far but I may add a 24 watt UV light like I have in this cabinet if I have some extra cash.
 

Attachments

PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Curious to know how well the outer edge diodes with < half the face plate (heat sink?) they will hold up
 
FranJan

FranJan

Well-Known Member
Hey Cap'n, what's up? Just wanted you to know I'm loving some of the things you're doing and also wanted to point out you're completely addicted to LED growing :). I thought someone should step up and say it before it's too late :). LOL

Just wanted to get your opinion on something. I built a little ghetto 4xCREE bulb rig with bulb splitters and reflectors and am using 3x2700 + 1x5000 bulbs. I'm wondering if I should replace the 5K with a 2700 and then sand down 2 to 4 of the diodes on each bulb to expose the pump in order to get my dosage of blue? I'm starting to like the idea and it would get a better blend than having a 5000K in one corner of the rig, though I may buy some big ass stainless salad bowls and make a 4x2700 + 1 5000K rig with the 5000 in the middle. If you want to see it I'll be posting some photos of what I just built it in the Cup comp thread over the weekend since I'm going to probably use it for the whole affair, or at least till I pick a contestant. I'm actually going to build 4 of them to use as secondary lighting in my tent and hopefully I'll be able to ditch my BS240s if they work out.

Take Care and Happy Growing Cap'n!
 
captainmorgan

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
FranJan said:
Hey Cap'n, what's up? Just wanted you to know I'm loving some of the things you're doing and also wanted to point out you're completely addicted to LED growing :). I thought someone should step up and say it before it's too late :). LOL

Just wanted to get your opinion on something. I built a little ghetto 4xCREE bulb rig with bulb splitters and reflectors and am using 3x2700 + 1x5000 bulbs. I'm wondering if I should replace the 5K with a 2700 and then sand down 2 to 4 of the diodes on each bulb to expose the pump in order to get my dosage of blue? I'm starting to like the idea and it would get a better blend than having a 5000K in one corner of the rig, though I may buy some big ass stainless salad bowls and make a 4x2700 + 1 5000K rig with the 5000 in the middle. If you want to see it I'll be posting some photos of what I just built it in the Cup comp thread over the weekend since I'm going to probably use it for the whole affair, or at least till I pick a contestant. I'm actually going to build 4 of them to use as secondary lighting in my tent and hopefully I'll be able to ditch my BS240s if they work out.

Take Care and Happy Growing Cap'n!
Click to expand...
Fran I will be sure to check out your little DIY,what's the fun in just buying a ready made unit. Stainless is really tough stuff and you may have to resort to using a grinder on it. I'm curious what range of blue you would get by doing that and yes I'm addicted. I also rotate my plant 180 degrees every day to compensate for uneven lighting.
 
FranJan

FranJan

Well-Known Member
You do get some blue from the 2700s, though I'm assuming it's not as much as the 5000 puts out. And to tell ya the truth I've never seen any spectral data on these bulbs and am not even sure what diodes they use so I'm only assuming the 2700s have less blue, like the majority of WWs do compared to CWs. I've accidentally ruined a few bulbs, specifically scratching off the resin that contains the phosphors, so I've seen the blue light that comes from damaged 2700K LEDs, but what spectrum it is I'm clueless. Probably in the 450nm area. I think I'm going to hold off on modding them now that I'm a bit more sober :), but if I see the plants bending towards the 5000K bulb, I'm getting my file out.

Yeah stainless is a bitch but I've go access to a workshop now and if it's thin enough I might be able to get some holes in it. I was thinking about a colander, since the holes are already there, but a shit ton of light will probably escape too.

And she's quite impressive looking from those photos Cap'n. You grow some happy plants bro :).
 
captainmorgan

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
FranJan said:
You do get some blue from the 2700s, though I'm assuming it's not as much as the 5000 puts out. And to tell ya the truth I've never seen any spectral data on these bulbs and am not even sure what diodes they use so I'm only assuming the 2700s have less blue, like the majority of WWs do compared to CWs. I've accidentally ruined a few bulbs, specifically scratching off the resin that contains the phosphors, so I've seen the blue light that comes from damaged 2700K LEDs, but what spectrum it is I'm clueless. Probably in the 450nm area. I think I'm going to hold off on modding them now that I'm a bit more sober :), but if I see the plants bending towards the 5000K bulb, I'm getting my file out.

Yeah stainless is a bitch but I've go access to a workshop now and if it's thin enough I might be able to get some holes in it. I was thinking about a colander, since the holes are already there, but a shit ton of light will probably escape too.

And she's quite impressive looking from those photos Cap'n. You grow some happy plants bro :).
Click to expand...
Fran you got me thinking about my spectrum now. Since I added the 24 watts of UV T5 HO which has almost all blue,I'm thinking that I will remove the 4 5000k's from the hood and replace them with 4 2700k but add them to my side lighting instead of putting them back in the hood. From the looks of this plant, I'm going to need some more side lighting.
 
FranJan

FranJan

Well-Known Member
captainmorgan said:
Fran you got me thinking about my spectrum now. Since I added the 24 watts of UV T5 HO which has almost all blue,I'm thinking that I will remove the 4 5000k's from the hood and replace them with 4 2700k but add them to my side lighting instead of putting them back in the hood. From the looks of this plant, I'm going to need some more side lighting.
Click to expand...
Yeah, you don't want to lose too much blue, and side lighting is necessary once you go over a certain size IMO, though that depends on your main panel/lights too.

I've always treated blue this way when I'm flowering: I always want enough blue to help counteract any stretching, especially with the 730nm I like to run all the time, but once my plant begins to get too leafy, (or even stressed), then the blue must be replaced or muted. I run 2 x T8 32 watt UVB + 5000Ks 2 hours a day when flowering and don't know if it increases my plant's THC production, but it really keeps the plants healthy and increases stink a bit too. Plus the intensity of the 5000K CREE bulbs are great, don't want to lose that. You know, I bet blue is probably better for side lighting too.

You know I'm going to do? I'm going to email CREE about some spectral data or get the official word on what diodes they're using. I'm pretty sure the newest BR30 spots are XBDs in a package that permits more light from the side than the top of the LED so that makes me wonder if these diodes in the CREE bulbs are some kind of in house production or maybe they're just XPGs. If I find out I'll post it here.
 
captainmorgan

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
Well I have a rescue plant in the new tent with the new light. She's a Deathstar and looks a little rough but I'll try to nurse her back to health. She's been outside with too much shade and neglected so I'm going to ease her into the new light, only 8 bulbs to start at 12 inches.
 

Attachments

FranJan

FranJan

Well-Known Member
Hey Cap'n, thanks for the reading. Some of those articles I know, the first one is how I learned about "soaking" off the globes btw :). I didn't see the one that stated that they're XT's which is great news, though I'm going to wait on CREE to confirm this. I've seen some conversations over on Candlepowerforums from peeps who know a shit ton more about LEDs than a lot of people, (myself included) and some were very critical of the light and there were lots of arguing about what LEDs they used. And I see the BR30s use XB-Es. God I hate some company's naming schemes :wall: .

Still waiting on CREE for some kind of official response. I still want some spectral data from them because measuring the output of your completed light is the only way to truly know what you have. Actually Eraserhead has some decent equipment to measure these bulbs. Maybe if I send him a few he'll run them for us. I think it might be time to PM him.
 
captainmorgan

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
Well after 23 days this girl is starting to fill in and I can't wait to see what she looks like in a few weeks. I did end up removing the 4 5000k bulbs in the hood and adding 4 2700k bulbs to the side lighting. I figured that with 5 hours of the UV bulb I'm getting some good blue from that at 7000k plus I needed more side lighting. The pic of her only shows what's above the ring and there is another 6 to 8 inches of bud area below what you can see and she's getting nice and frosty.
 

Attachments

PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Love it ...Love It... LOVE IT

For any sane grower (you know I love you man), the regular Cree NW/WW work fantastic for under canopy at ~ 1/2 the price of the Spots.
 
giggywatts

giggywatts

Well-Known Member
now have i missed something? i thought the cree 9 and 9.5 watt a19 bulbs had 800 lumans and the floods only had about 660. is there something i missed on the floods?
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Scroga said:
how did those T5 leds work out for you?
Click to expand...
My tubes are T8. I have seen ads for led T5s, but it should not make a difference, other than the T8s may not fit into a T5 tombstone very well

Come by my threads, lots of pics
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top