Does the color of my LED bulbs matter?

[Wastei]

First off, Sativa, Im not arguing with you. This is nothing more then grower banter.

from my findings, you can literally hit a plant with 2000 par LED light without burn if its diffused, and of course cooled. You would absolutely see droop if DLI is maximized, 60+ DLI, which as Dr. Bugsy said, the plant can take from seedling to harvest. Polycarbonate, does infact change spectrum DIRECTION, in a mixed fashion, same as a white wall is better then a reflective surface. even as Dr. Buggy said, PHOTON FOCUS, can be detrimental to the plants, much as literally 95% of LED lights do exact. They are FOCUSED or Direct, like lasers, like i said in my post above. Just like alot of LEDs are short of Green waves, with an addition of a polycabonate diffuser, the green waves are meshed. a Polycarbonate also allows reds to be meshed better, and reduces the UV to almost zero, which again, is beneficial to plants.

I personally find that indoor growers, do things for reason to reduce a plant that is meant to be 10 ft tall, to a plant that is 10% of that, lol. and for evident reason.

The addition of Blue waves, keeps the plant miniature in veg. Reducing the blue, would produce a taller, more rebus plant in the long run. I think after the first 3 weeks, blue should be reduced from the spectrum. and the last 3 weeks should be increased, and decrease Reds, till chop. The increase in Blues, will make for a harder, denser nugs. I personally, would enjoy elongation prior to flip. Open those sights up. Of course you need the room to accomidate, lol. Which again, in turn, helps with light penetration.

Also, UV should be givin in Clumps, and not continuous. I think a big mess up in the LED industry, is the addition of UV, but a stand a lone UV, giving in intervals, is much much much more beneficial.

And it's not just UV, a big misconception is that UV-B is what's relevant when it's actually UV-A you want. Most people run 45min-60min in the middle of the light cycle to mimic peak UV rays naturally in the middle of the day.

You want to trigger positive genetic response while not stressing the plant.

 

[Sativa1970]

First off, Sativa, Im not arguing with you. This is nothing more then grower banter.

from my findings, you can literally hit a plant with 2000 par LED light without burn if its diffused, and of course cooled. You would absolutely see droop if DLI is maximized, 60+ DLI, which as Dr. Bugsy said, the plant can take from seedling to harvest. Polycarbonate, does infact change spectrum DIRECTION, in a mixed fashion, same as a white wall is better then a reflective surface. even as Dr. Buggy said, PHOTON FOCUS, can be detrimental to the plants, much as literally 95% of LED lights do exact. They are FOCUSED or Direct, like lasers, like i said in my post above. Just like alot of LEDs are short of Green waves, with an addition of a polycabonate diffuser, the green waves are meshed. a Polycarbonate also allows reds to be meshed better, and reduces the UV to almost zero, which again, is beneficial to plants.

I personally find that indoor growers, do things for reason to reduce a plant that is meant to be 10 ft tall, to a plant that is 10% of that, lol. and for evident reason.

The addition of Blue waves, keeps the plant miniature in veg. Reducing the blue, would produce a taller, more rebus plant in the long run. I think after the first 3 weeks, blue should be reduced from the spectrum. and the last 3 weeks should be increased, and decrease Reds, till chop. The increase in Blues, will make for a harder, denser nugs. I personally, would enjoy elongation prior to flip. Open those sights up. Of course you need the room to accomidate, lol. Which again, in turn, helps with light penetration.

Also, UV should be givin in Clumps, and not continuous. I think a big mess up in the LED industry, is the addition of UV, but a stand a lone UV, giving in intervals, is much much much more beneficial.

Absolutely agree, not arguing, intellectual discussion. Too many people on here think you are attacking if you don't agree with them. Apologies to the OP for getting a bit off the original topic.

When I was saying light burn I was specifically referring to using screw in LEDs. Since the useful range on those lights is so small you easily end up too close to the hot fixture. Temperature not light burn with house LEDs.

Kelvin, Nm and par are all overlapping but not interchangeable measurements. To simplify you can look at light as color and brightness. Imagine you have a light that emits one pure color from the spectrum. it won't matter how far the light travels. what it bounces off of, or what it passes through, it will always be that color. As it passes through the air, transparent objects, or bounces it looses brightness until it stops. If the light is a combination of multiple colors each color can loose brightness or be separated and deflected at a different points in its travel. Even what we perceive as completely clear polycarbonate has a frequency. The closer a lights color frequency is to the polycarbonate, the less energy or brightness is lost but there is always a reduction in brightness of all colors. The further each color is from matching the frequency, the more energy or brightness is lost trying to push though. It's easier to visualize if the polycarbonate has a noticeable red tint for example. A white light( all the colors) tries to pass through the red poly. The greens and blues are the wrong frequency so they loose almost all brightness. red passes with less resistance so the poly glows red. You didn't create red light, you just removed more brightness from the green and blue than you did the red. A white diffuser resists and deflects almost all colors equally. So the light is still most colors but less bright and spread over a larger area 360 degrees.

When using screw in LEDs color shift can have a noticeable impact on your plant. If you are using a decent quality and sized full spectrum LED grow light, color manipulation will have little to no effect. I primarily grow 18 week land strain sativas with a 7 1/2 tall celling. I tried adding add blue or red but it had no real effect. The Jack Herer is a consistent 11 weeks from clone to chop so it gets all the experimentation. The screw in LED color manipulation experiment was the only time I saw results of any significance.

 

[Canachris]

I experimented with the same LED light setup using side by side comparison with 8 hydroponic clones. Genetics and light intensity were identical for every plant. Blue light 6500K promotes dense vegetative growth because it replicates the summer spectrum. Cutting the light time to 12/12 under 6500k will reduce the stretch. After the stretch, when you have two full length pistols per bud sight, you can switch the spectrum to the 2000K-3000K range. The red end replicates the natural fall spectrum of light and promotes bud growth.

Using the same 9 light configuration, I found keeping one contradictory light had the best effects. eight 6500K and one 2700K during veg gave the most lateral branching with close nodes. Flowering under eight 2700K and one 6500K gave the highest yield.

Is switching spectrum necessary? No. Blue gives more bud sights and red gives bigger buds. The worst case would be having to support a tall, top heavy plant with many small buds on light deprived lower nodes. My yield had a range of 15% comparing controlled mixed spectrum to just 2700K start to finish. There was just a 10% range when I swapped one odd light into each schedule. Heavy/pure red was lowest, heavy/pure blue was middle and heavy blue veg with heavy red flower was the highest yield.

Awesome, I have 8 2700K and 1 6500k bulbs 1600 lumins ans 15 watts each. They are only household everyday bulbs not grow bulbs, would that make a difference ?

 

[Wastei]

Awesome, I have 8 2700K and 1 6500k bulbs 1600 lumins ans 15 watts each. They are only household everyday bulbs not grow bulbs, would that make a difference ?

Difference from what? I dont understand the question? Are you talking about the spectrum? If that's the case it's already been answered if you read earlier posts? 2700k is better for flowering and yield compared to 6500K.

 

[Canachris]

I was asking if household bulbs, the chepo ones ya get at the depo will work as good as a grow bulb

 

[safeman]

I was asking if household bulbs, the chepo ones ya get at the depo will work as good as a grow bulb

short answer is Yes - any light will work in growing - but results will vary much

 

[Wastei]

I was asking if household bulbs, the chepo ones ya get at the depo will work as good as a grow bulb

The only thing really missing from a grow light is infrared 660nm and 760nm. But they are not necessary for flowering plants but will help with keeping leaf temp and transpiration up.

 

[Sativa1970]

I was asking if household bulbs, the chepo ones ya get at the depo will work as good as a grow bulb

Will they work? yes, Work as good as a grow light? Not quite, but close. If you compare house lights to a grow light that would cost the same as those bulbs, then yes it is bought as good.
I harvested both plants at only 5 weeks flower to make low THC, high CBG extract. The first plant under mixed standard house type LEDS yield 4.75 oz filling 5 quart jars. The second plant was grown under a $70 viparP1000 led grow light. The stems were thicker. The final yield was the same oz as the first plant but it only filled 3 quart jars. So same yield but denser buds with the grow light. Buds looked and smoked the same, just a bit more solid.

First 2 pics are home LED and 3rd is grow light.

 

[Icemud]

Awesome, I have 8 2700K and 1 6500k bulbs 1600 lumins ans 15 watts each. They are only household everyday bulbs not grow bulbs, would that make a difference ?

At the end of the day, photons of light are photons of light. The source of the photons whether the sun, a grow light or house light bulbs really doesn't matter much.

What matters is: intensity, diffusion/penetration, even canopy distribution, and spectrum.

So as long as you focus on those 4 elements above, the source of the light won't matter much (other than achieving those goals safely and not burning down your house or electrocuting yourself).

With full spectrum lighting (light from violet 400nm to deep red 660nm), the color temp of the light difference is minimal if other factors such as intensity, even distribution and diffusion are met. Yes, cannabis tends to do "slightly" better in flowering around the 3500k color temp vs the 6500k color temp but each has benefits, so the mixed lighting that you are using is fine.

The big "arguments" of blue vs red and how they induce different photomorphogenetic traits really stems from the HPS vs MH days and really had more to do with how much RED vs Far Red than anything.


The only "advantage" that SOME grow lights have over household bulbs would be efficiency. How many photons generated per watt... most higher end grow lights have higher efficiency meaning you get more light for each watt you use. This really has nothing to do with your plant growth and more a focus on your pocket book/wallet. LED technology has gotten to the point that most LED grow lights are fairly comparable to each other in efficiency and I would imagine house bulbs also are quite efficient since LED chips/diodes have gotten quite amazing in the last few years. Again, as long as the intensity is met, regardless of the efficiency your plants will do fine. Just some lights produce photons more efficiently than others.

.. as like I said in the beginning, photons are photons, focus on intensity, distribution, even canopy ... Its hard to know if your intensity will be correct without measuring the output in PPFD but you will have to try it out and see how the plants respond. A setup like you made, probably only would be good for a 2x2 area or less and would have to be fairly close to the plants.

 

[Canachris]

Thanks, that answered all my questions... and in a way I understood, and that's not easy these days. It seemed to have kept the auto alive for a week or 2 . So maybe I'll use it for seedlings an small plants