Quality over Quantity techniques

intenseneal

Well-Known Member
Best way to get quality and quantity is to grow healthy plants from good genetics. Keep clean and proper growing environment conditions. Provide good lighting and air flow. Best tricks to a good harvest everything else is secondary.
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
I once heard that connoisseurs grow with MH bulbs and commercial growers used HPS. Is there any truth to this?
What @RM3 said, and I'll elaborate; HPS was always good for producing lots of the red spectrum plants need to grow and get big, but they lack the blue spectrum for good resin production.

MH was historically better for resin production, at the cost of yield relative to using HPS.

Newer lighting technologies have rendered both of these technologies obsolete, both in terms of PAR/Watt performance and spectrum.

RM3 has chosen the approach of lots of 4' T5 lamps over a relatively small space, which suits his quantity needs and allows him to play with spectrum options, as there are a wide variety of 4' T5 lamps out there now. While it's arguably not as scalable an approach as more high power lighting, the level of control over spectrum is unmatched, certainly at anything approaching a regular guy's budget.

COB LED is another form of lighting that's set to take over because of efficiency, scalability and superior spectrum. The only thing they lack is UV output, but I think this is a blessing in disguise; this way, a grow can install a circuit with nothing but UV sources and thereby control it independently in order to get desired responses- and importantly, be able to shut them off when people are working to prevent exposure. My own limited experience with COB LED (but growing every day!) leads me to the conclusion that they're not just easier to work with and grow under, but the broad spectrum plus peaks in the right places makes growing high quality product an 'easy mode' proposition. And that's without any UV supplementation.

Plasma lighting is being tried, but I think it's a dead end tech; too expensive and finicky compared to COB LED, and less flexible.

New tech is coming out all the time, and newer forms of LED lighting now on the horizon just might improve on COB LED performance.

One thing is for certain; LED of all types will continue to get even more efficient, even better spectrum and ever less expensive. Period. That simply cannot be said for HID technology.

If you're not ready for LED, I'd recommend the 315W CMH system, or its bigger analog, the 860W CDM Allstart. The key to best performance from these next generation MH style (now with a solid ceramic core) is the ballast; they MUST be operated with LFSW, or Low Frequency Square Wave ballast technology. This is easy with 315W CMH systems, as 'most' already use them. Make certain whatever system you get has it.

As for the 860W Allstart, I'll be taking delivery of one of @Revolution Micro's new integrated fixtures, featuring both DE mounting and LFSW technology. My first goal with it is to see how it drives the 860W Allstart. (ignore the 860W number; it was a rather thin marketing promise based on running the bulbs with magnetic ballasts on 208V service, they run the same 1000W as everything else at 120V, 240V, 277V, etc). Early testing has indicated that as long as the ballast is an LFSW type and compliant with the lamp's requirements, in this case frequencies below 174Hz, it should work.
 
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RM3

Well-Known Member
How many of you know what Malana Creme is ? Well ya can google it,,,,, Tis the best hash in the world and also the single most expensive MJ product in the world goin for $150 a gram ,,,,,,,,,,, if ya ever get the chance to try some ,,,,,,,,,,, TAKE IT !!!!!!!

Now how many of you have researched the region where it is grown ? I have, soil, climate, water, everything.

How many that did this research adjust their indoor garden to match this environment ? I did 8)
 

SmokyLungs

Well-Known Member
Since the all stars are here and u guys are throwing info around what's the best light in the game for a small time closet grower the cob led? I am currently using mh hps lights
 

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
How many of you know what Malana Creme is ? Well ya can google it,,,,, Tis the best hash in the world and also the single most expensive MJ product in the world goin for $150 a gram ,,,,,,,,,,, if ya ever get the chance to try some ,,,,,,,,,,, TAKE IT !!!!!!!

Now how many of you have researched the region where it is grown ? I have, soil, climate, water, everything.

How many that did this research adjust their indoor garden to match this environment ? I did 8)

Researching this after seeing a documentary on it is what lead me to look at soil and switch from d w c and I am now running sips with organic soil and will be working on my environment.
 

RM3

Well-Known Member
Well my goals is for good quality with out sacrificing the quantity I'm not shooting for pounds per plants but just some thing that's good all around without breaking the budget
there is a line where quality & quantity meet, up to you to decide where to set it

quality ________________^________________ quantity

It's not just lights but also style that affect the scale

You'll get better quality with T5's , next will be LED's which are in the middle because they also add yield HPS on the right for quantity

You can also mix bulbs to get a bit of both like adding UV to an HPS grow
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Researching this after seeing a documentary on it is what lead me to look at soil and switch from d w c and I am now running sips with organic soil and will be working on my environment.
Yup. After being a die hard fan of RDWC for many years, I'm switching because of a lack of consistent results. It's too complex with too many points of failure. I'm a big fan of fault tolerant design and RDWC simply does not make the cut.
 
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