Growing 2x2 With ViparSpectra XS1500 Pro

[Delps8]

Oh trust me. Them guys just important. Wait till you find out how they found out to put things on a chip. They found a cave and these crystals have data on them that is limitless. It's syfy sht. But really. You will see soon. Small pieces are being released now. I been seeing it since 90s . Some of tech I seen was out there. But now. Just modified to what u have now.. cause u or anyone else. Can't tell me how a computer works truly what makes it so what it does and how u found how to use that tech. Lmao. 2000 years u built a wheel . But in 45 years u did cars ships phones. U name it. But wait . They have to release alot of tech before 2034. . Or they get in trouble. It's a lot sht going on . Movie. Popcorn and a smoke.

OK, that black bag. That would be an interesting conversation. And that stuff is one of the reasons why you live where you do. Got it.

If I read you right, you'd say that the movie "Enemy of the State" is not far from real life?

 

[7Dust2]

If you're retired, you're automatically older than me!

I was at Ft. Knox for one tour. "Daddy, you're crushing my Marlboro's" - you know the joke…

Love the Appalachians and mountains in general. What state? I spent time at Ft. Bragg NC and then lived in Raleigh as a civilian.


Great combination! Let people live in peace. What a concept.

Nah I'm only 52 . Been to brag few times. And right out side brag few times . As well below deck. But yeah love Knox joke. Lmao. I love devil backbone area. . Since your from NC above all snakes and dragons

 

[7Dust2]

OK, that black bag. That would be an interesting conversation. And that stuff is one of the reasons why you live where you do. Got it.

If I read you right, you'd say that the movie "Enemy of the State" is not far from real life?

History is only written by the winners.

 

[7Dust2]

Here is some nugs from big tent it's called spice. Flash and no flash. Idk some folks like flash to show tris. .

 

[7Dust2]

Well the girls are 7 +7 days in veg now. And growing strong total of from seed 14 days old.

 

[Old G]

The new model of this light looks like a total winner. I have the XS-1500 and it's a nice light but the Pro model is huge improvement. To me, it's the best 2' x 2' light on the market.

The vendors recommendations will get you in the ballpark but they will tend to be conservative, for a variety of reasons. In an earlier message, you wrote "What I do is worry about Mostly light burn. Most common mistake in lights is people tend to burn the tops of the plants and it destroys the growth rate."

I disagree, strongly. I've been reading four cannabis sites since I started growing (again) two years ago and, time and time again, I read grow journals where there is no mention of light levels and plants show significant symptoms of not having enough light. I've only read a couple of journals where LED have caused problems, one reason being that it's not easy to damage a plant when using an LED grow light. LED's give off very little or no IR light so there are no photons at the wavelength that generate heat in organic material. The lights do get warm, and therefore warm the tent, but they don't burn plants the way gas discharge lights could easily fry your grow.

If you check any of my grow journals, you can see my light data and, yup, the light saturation point for cannabis in a non-CO2-enhanced environment is about 800-1000µmols. Vipar recommendations get that high for flower but their setting for seedlings and veg are far lower than I would use.

I get it that you might want to stay with what Vipar recommends but, if not, get a PAR meter or a light meter to do what you can to get light levels on your plant as close to the light saturation point as possible. The reason - research indicates that plant quality and yield and crop quality and yield increase in an almost linear manner as light levels increase*.

As an engineer, you'll like it that there's a formula for the yield curve.

Source is as cited.

I totally agree on the quality of this lite, besides the structure it’s the hanging hooks that work best for me. I have 2 other lites one I got at the same time as this one, this lite blows them both away, the only thing I’m not crazy about is you can’t turn it off wo unplugging it, it goes to 5% and that’s it. Other than that it’s an A+ all around

 

[Old G]

I downloaded an app to read PPFD , works great and it’s free . These lites are strong

 

[7Dust2]

I totally agree on the quality of this lite, besides the structure it’s the hanging hooks that work best for me. I have 2 other lites one I got at the same time as this one, this lite blows them both away, the only thing I’m not crazy about is you can’t turn it off wo unplugging it, it goes to 5% and that’s it. Other than that it’s an A+ all around

That is true. I never noticed that. I will let them know.

I sent email to them.

 

[7Dust2]

I downloaded an app to read PPFD , works great and it’s free . These lites are strong

They are. Good lights. . Better that all small ones I got. But now I remember I never seen a on off switch. Does make it wonder why not

 

[7Dust2]

You know when you have light set right plant will tell you. See reaching both sides of leaves. Tips down. Now right after this plant will need water I would say tomorrow they will drop little cause roots are looking for water. Why not water now. Well tell me one place it rains what one plant needs ever day. It's good to be in a survival mode. Healthy for plants to do

 

[024backwards]

Good to hear that you're feeding your plants. Any impressions about the harvest yield and quality vs other grows where you weren't giving them as much light.

What was the difference in light levels for the Minosa and Orange Punch vs the BB and the Grandaddy Purple?

I think I've seen BB for sale in a few places. Isn't that a high THC strain?

Hey Delps....BB3 is a very strong strain, an older school sativa and a fun grow, highly recommend. Check out my sig line. My yields have been low but I am still learning (3OZ off my mimosa and GDP and 4 from the BB3 in a 2x2x5 tent with a 100W SpyderFarmer LED). I cut off most of he bud sites on my first two grows so that doesn't help. Bruce took 100% light at 12" as a seedling, before I knew better, but she didn't seem affected by it. The Mimosa was stunned by that same light regimen and I had to back way down during veg, she looked terrible for about a week, see sig line page 2-3 and several pages of fighting that light stress. After all that, what I learned is that I need to moderate my lighting in veg to around 75% or so max, even if she seems like she might take more and then bring the heat during flower. I am going to try and follow this standard next coupe of grows Germ/Seedling 24" at 40%-50% light intensity.....Veg harden to 18" at 75% intensity....Flower 12" 100% intensity.

 

[ViparSpectra]

I totally agree on the quality of this lite, besides the structure it’s the hanging hooks that work best for me. I have 2 other lites one I got at the same time as this one, this lite blows them both away, the only thing I’m not crazy about is you can’t turn it off wo unplugging it, it goes to 5% and that’s it. Other than that it’s an A+ all around

Thanks for your suggestions! Received!

 

[7Dust2]

Moved light up just a few clicks. We're now at 14 " at 75% power. And growing. .
Now day 15 going on 16. Which means half hieght will come @ third nodes. .
This where I would top after third nodes was tall enough to clone . That's the best clone. Fast too. 4-7 days and roots. If 45degree cut to the thin membrane that supplies the plant . Life line. Of the plant. White with jelly inside barely touch the jelly.

 

[7Dust2]

Now time for chems if you use them. Calmag unwed fox farms happy frog . If you use ocean forest you already hurt the plant ocean forest alone is to strong for seedlings. Trust me. Been there done that. Many years.
Now I use . Thanks to a friend @StoneOtter . I use @Prescription Blend and fire wood ash for nitrogen and phosphorus. No calmag needed. Now. And reuse dirt multiple times and add more dirt happy frog one bag to half bag of Ocean for veg. And 1/4 of Ocean for seedlings. Or none at all. Most of the time. Straight happy frog. And little cal mag to water twice every cycle . Perfect. Now this what I do. I try to keep it simple and easy and natural as possible. But these chems I will use.

 

[ViparSpectra]

How many cal mag to water twice every cycle? Nice day to you dust.

 

[7Dust2]

How many cal mag to water twice every cycle? Nice day to you dust.

Using fox farm happy frog one full bag to 1/4 of a bag of Ocean forest . You will have to add calmag twice during veg and twice during flowering. I do about every 15 20 days then just add 5 ml to a gallon of water. Doesn't even hurt to do it more. I have added calmag to the water using fox farm once a week. . But that is with no chems added. Just dirt and water.

 

[7Dust2]

Checked on pro tent this morning. Still look like plants. . No water yet. But should be tomorrow. I'm sure. Still 14 inches moved up two clicks yesterday. But will do again once third nodes stand ups.
Power 75
Height 14"
Plant hieght 3.4 inches.

 

[7Dust2]

But today we went up on the light to make sure it was 14 in we went ahead and moved to 16 because we wanted to stretch just a little bit more than what it's doing right now so we moved to 16 in at still 75% power scratch that. We going 100percent power. Now. They old enough and healthy enough an rotate the plants around. . Firm believer in that. Wind blows , to do it , in nature.

 

[7Dust2]

Have to excuse my rudeness. But here at both plant check out sheets.

Godfather plant beside her.

 

[Delps8]

But today we went up on the light to make sure it was 14 in we went ahead and moved to 16 because we wanted to stretch just a little bit more than what it's doing right now so we moved to 16 in at still 75% power scratch that. We going 100percent power. Now. They old enough and healthy enough an rotate the plants around. . Firm believer in that. Wind blows , to do it , in nature.

If you want a taller plant, you're better off with a different light and/or increasing the amount of light you're giving the plant. By reducing the amount of light, you will immediately slow growth and, over time, you will reduce the amount of inflorescence. That will, in turn, reduce plant yield and the quality of the final product.

This light has a blue heavy spectrum which will help ensure that plants don't outgrow a 2' x 2' space. If you compare that spectrum to other "white" LED's, you'll see that it has a lot of blue in the spectrum and it doesn't have the typical peak around 660nm. I haven't seen the data that breaks out the output by wavelength band so there could be more red than meets the eye but check it against other Vipar lights or Mars or Atreum etc and the spectrum on Pro the is quite different. With all that blue, it looks more like a traditional blue "veg" spectrum than it does a "normal" white LED.

Key point is that light color drives plant shape; light volume drives plant growth.

If you drastically reduce the amount of light a plant is getting, it will drastically cut back on the inflorescence and will grow taller to try to get more light but that's just growing an emaciated plant.

If you want a plant that's taller, use a light that has more red in the spectrum. Blue photons inhibit cell expansion, red photons encourage cell expansion.

At 14" and 75% power, you're getting about 700µmols on your plants (light output decreases at about the same rate as power input is reduce). That's a good amount of light because your plants are young (it would help if you put the age of the plant in your postings, BTW). The blue heavy spectrum is keeping the plants short and encouraging lots of inflorescence and short internodal space.

Per the image from Vipar, the light is generating 897µmols at some spot in the center but the readings the 1' square in the center only average, call it, 830 µmols. At 75% power, that's 623µmols. Vipar doesn't give PPFD readings at 16" but we can sorta get there from here.

The drop in PPFD when raising the light from 11" to 14" is about 170µmols. For ease of calculation, that's a loss of 60µmols for each 1" increase in height. By going from 14" to 16", the Pro will be generating about 830µmols-120µmols = 610µmols at 100% power (it's actually lower than that but go with 610). At 75% power, you're going to be getting 610 X 0.75 ≈ 450µmols.

If your first day above ground was 3/6/23, the plant is only 17 days old but it and it clearly is responding well to that the current light levels (and photoperiod). The blue-heavy spectrum will continue to do what blue light does (inhibit cell expansion, resulting in a compact plant) but, because the amount of light has been decreased, growth will slow and the amount of inflorescence will tend to be lower than it would be under higher amounts of light. That will have tend to result in reduced yield.

To grow a healthy plant, turn up the light until the light saturation point is reached (the LSP is considered to be 800-1000µmols in a non-CO2-enhanced environment) which will allow the plant to reach its genetic potential. To grow a tall plant, ditch the blue heavy light (which could well have been designed to keep plants small so they stay in the tent) and switch to a flower light.

The info above is based on research papers on how cannabis responds to light color and/or volume, as well as listening to and studying the transcripts of all videos on that topic on YouTube by Bugbee, de Bacco, and others.

The spectrum for this light per Vipar. Compare it to the veg and flower lights from another vendor and then check the images of the spectra for other lights.

The XS-1500 Pro spectrum, above, is the same as the XS-1500, shown below. I've tested a Uni-T lux meter against my Apogee MQ-500 and the conversion factor, to convert lux to PPFD, is 0.155

Veg and flower lights from another vendor

Dedicated veg light from a well known vendor