Were doin it all wrong.. completly wrong bulbs..

i have this cut that i fell in love with.. she taught me how to follow nature' she would do the 3 prong leaf thing under t5 and only give 5 leafs under a 4k color temp mh, but give out some 7 leafers under 65k mh bulb..
Were supposed to be usen hps at sunrise/sunset 2k color temp(3hrs twice) and bump it up to a 5780k midday (6hrs)and even a 65k mid day here and there for a cloud effect""
My cut is soo sensative i wont run it under hortilux hps only digilux, day and night difference in the high.. what do you guys think?? Light color changes density flavor everything

 

3 prong leaf thing? get better at cloning, then use hid's, you'll never go back

 

Id agree the plants want more light and a more complete spectrum than they generally get inside. However they seem happy as can be under hps or MH or whatever ive used so long as ive used enough of it.

I agree plants like cloudy days, a dimmable ballast and a dim day every little while really perks em up

 

an hid 1000 watt light 24 inches above a plant canopy is already very dim light compared to outdoor shaded sunlight even. dont over think it

 

Here's a tip for anyone thinking about doing a sunrise/sunset type thing in which the lights are dimmer at first and/or last. I read an article that said that plants will grow slower that way. Turns out it's actually best to hit em full blast right away. At the end, maybe a gradual reduction would be neutral or good. The article only mentioned the first light intensity, not the last. As for the spectrum, I don't know how changing it through the day would effect plants. Haven't seen any articles on that yet. Might be something worth trying if it was automated, like with different color LEDs.

 

Chemphlegm is right, you know. Sunshine blows away the intensity of our lights. I had my plants out for maintenance and set them in direct sunlight coming through a clean window. Out of curiousity I broke out the lux meter. Through scattered clouds it was reading over 70,000 lux and with no clouds it was over 110,000 lux. At 24" the point of highest illuminance of my 600W HPS is hitting only 65,000 lux.

 

I got to play with a power saving device by sunlight systems(?) it auto dimmed/brightened the bulb through the cycle, using 50% less power. it worked, but growth was slowed down of course. they were attempting to mimmick clouds or some shit.

 

I guess it just makes a lower average intensity. It might look cool in a reptile terrarium but wouldn't do plants any good.

 

https://www.hydrofarm.com/p/APDPX1

 

if it makes you feel better, then go ahead, but they're right. a 1K hps 24 inches from your canopy isn't as strong as the sun is on a semi cloudy day. when you grow inside, you have to optimize other factors to even come close to outside growth. your light isn't as strong, so you leave it on longer, you make sure your temps and rh are optimal, you watch for and control pests... you have small advantages in being able to control your environment, and if you don't take those advantages, you'll never even come close to outside yields. periodically dimming your light doesn't seem like a good idea to me, when you're already running a dim light compared to what they would be getting outside

 

The auto pilot is just a light control board to control multiple lights at once for big area's(greenhouses or warehouses). It can dim your lights to a lower power setting if it gets to hot. I will be purchasing one in the near future.

 

I'd think a commercial grower looking to maximize yields would want maximum light (given the growth stage) and instead utilize environmental controls to control heat. Running additional exhaust fans in an open system, or AC in a closed system, wouldn't have a negative affect on yield the way reduced light output would. Is that wrong thinking?

 

If you have a dimmable ballast try it out. Ive found that turning them down once a week or so can kick off a growth spurt. Especially if the plant (s) are stressed, turn the lighting down a bit, they perk up faster. Moving plants to the edge of the grow while stressed is the same logic an works well if you cant dim your lighting.

Im not talking about regularly dimming your lights, its more situational.

 

On a hot day if your running a 10 light grow it could save your whole crop.
Lets say its been averaging 90f outside and your a/c has been running like a champ and youve got the hoods flowing lots of air so it staying right at 80 in your room, then a heat wave comes in and your hitting 100f everyday for a week, AND IT HITS 110 middle of the heatwave. That could overwhelm your a/c and all the sudden your room hits 118-130f. Youd be lucky to have a unit to dim your lights keeping it at 80 in your room.


Ive had this happen and stepping into a room of heat sagged plants blows.

 

Please excuse this digression, but I started wondering about the power of sunlight. Wikipedia, with sources cited, shows that the sunlight hitting the surface is about 1100 watts per square meter with an efficacy of about 93 lumens per watt, for a total of about 100,000 lumens per square meter.

Digression over. You may now return to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

 

Sometimes you have to hit me with a big stick to get me to see the obvious.

 

As far as this info relates to the topic, i think its important to keep in mind the spectrum, ~1100~ watts/sqM of sunlight does not equal 1100 watts of hps, or mh, or led, or chuck Norris brand plant plus bulbs.

 

It's a built-in safety switch and a good one to have if you ask me. You can never have enough safety procedures in place.

 

Are you sure it's not from stretching? More light the tighter the nodes and less light the more space between nodes and lanky the plant gets.
If I put my shade cloth on my greenhouse the plants grow immediately and start stretching.

 

Just because the sun is putting out (as you stated) 2k in morning it does not mean the plants are using all of that and have no use for any other spectrum that time of day. I personally think they will take what they can when they can, so I'd lean toward a more constant fuller spectrum, just like nutrients.

Mimic nature as much as possible sure, but life has the ability to adapt to new rules in a positive way, that's natural selection. Ironically we often call that success a pest of some sort.