BenBernanke
Member
Hey guys im just wondering if these buds might be bleached? Its pretty early in the budding phase but they are about 8-10 inches away from the light and I feel they might be getting light burned.
Bleached Buds?
- Thread starter BenBernanke
- Start date
Jimmy Sparkle
Well-Known Member
No, my opinion is that you either have too much or not enough N. Your plants would be dry and crispy or leathery before pale and washed out from "light bleaching" if the light were too close and or hot. Also we don't know what you may or may not be feeding or what they are planted in.
BenBernanke
Member
Sorry let me give you a little specs:
RDWC hydroponics: 25 gallons
Feeding with: General Hydroponics 3-part
Additives: Seaweed extract, Root Guard, and Cal-Mag
For the 3-part hydroponics I took the recommended from General Hydroponics feeding schedule and divided it by 5 which gives me about 700 ppm in the water.
Thanks for your reply!
Sire Killem All
Well-Known Member
8-10" is close what are u running? CFL? Light bleaching would be my guess. Is it a uniform thing or top blocked by a leaf not effected?
Jimmy Sparkle
Well-Known Member
This will help with more replys and help I hope. I'm strictly soil and organic my friend. My knowledge in your setup is just an educated guess sort of lol.
BenBernanke
Member
I am running 2x 300w LED from Platinum LED : P300 units. It doesnt get too hot in the canopy tons of airflow but, some say 8-10 inches isnt bad and some say its too close.
Aww well damn but thanks for trying man!
Sire Killem All
Well-Known Member
i say it is to close, i had 1 LED ever so a gain of salt maybe needed, but whenever the leaves got to close to them i.e. 10", i found the beam from the LED to be too focused and would destroy the chlorophile leaving bleached little circles. went and checked on ur lights, the lowest they show them testing the lights is @ 6" so, i would think you are pretty close to the min distance. it not always about heat, especially when it comes to light bleaching,
Alienwidow
Well-Known Member
Sounds too close. Id move em back. Flowering takes a while and bleaching can take a while to show. But once it does theres no coming back from it.
BenBernanke
Member
So what would you guys recommend the distance be? I created a cabinet and the lights are literally on the roof anything I can do to create a bit of space? Or I had the idea of just putting paper over the lights to create some shade to make the lights less intense.
This is the cabinet currently
Thanks guys!
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How tall is your cabinet? You may have bought the wrong kind of light for your space. If it's just 4' tall, you'd do better with 3w LEDs mounted on a white backboard. When LEDs are in reflectors and/or secondary lenses, and/or 5w diodes instead of 3w -- any of these factors make them too intense for a shorter space. Softer, more diffuse light is better. Distribute the watts around the plant with more sources of light (instead of a single source at the top).
BenBernanke
Member
Hey yea the cabinet is about 6 feet tall so I have about 5 feet of growing room and the plants are about 4 foot and 4 inches tall
BenBernanke
Member
And yea it only seems to be the top of the plants. that part of the leaf was at the top and I believe it got burned
You may need to put it on a dimmer (first find out if it will operate on a dimmer). Then add some sidelighting to make up for it (the link in my prior post).
That might be your only choice if you're not comfortable with LST'ing the plant, or get get enough distance between the light and the plant. (I'm a firm believer in sidelighting. I think you get far more efficiency from spreading the watts around. It might be worth doing just for that.).
BenBernanke
Member
I know of Low Stress Training but im not sure which one I should do? Do I snap the branches and bend them or do I just try bending them to the side away from the light without snapping them? The only problem buds are the main colas that are reaching close to the light so they are pretty much the center of the plant.
Thank you for your guidance.
I don't know how to advise you. LSTing takes some getting used to (snapping a few things). It's probably not good to snap this late into flower. I pinch and bend. But, sometimes I snap things. I wrap 2" of electrical tape around it and they always bounce back (always stronger).
You can poke a hole in the lip of your container and tie branches down.
If you're not comfortable with that, I would contact the LED maker and ask if the fixture can be operated on a dimmer. Then add some sidelight to make up for the watts that aren't coming from the top.
BenBernanke
Member
I looked into it and I cannot put a dimmer sadly. But I do have side lighting already I have 4 strips of LED strip lights around the plants right now so I will try to bend the branches to the side and get the side lighting to pick it up.
Thank you so much for this information!
BenBernanke
Member
So I just went down there and snapped the branches and bent them side ways. Im a little worried I may have fucked it up, but I dont know. It didnt come off completely but the main cola branch was a bit big and kinda cracked. Should I be worried that they wont grow and die? This is my first grow and first time snapping D: