New 600W QB setup in my 5x5, hanging heights?

[sativuhhh]

So I upgraded my tent from a little 2x4 to a 5x5 and decided it was time for a lighting upgrade from the cobs I had to something more robust for flowering. I have 2 panels with 1400 lm301b's and like 200 far reds. I'm wrapping up veg for another week or so and to get a feel for the lights and let the plants enjoy better penetration for a little bit then will flip to flower. I have the space so I might as well let em get monsterous, they are already getting to a pretty decent size.
I hung the lights at 24" over the canopy and i think I set the dimmer to around 3/4ths or a bit more. The panels are longer than the smaller 480w hlg's with the quad 288's so I'm not sure how much I can read into heights in the lots of journals on those to get an idea and trying to search for a grow journal with one but haven't had any luck searching. Just too many references to qb's and 600w and everything in eleventy billion posts on here to find anything useful.
The pics don't even do justice to how bright they are, gonna have a happy harvest I think this time!

Anyone have any thoughts on hang heights vs dimmer usage as well? Should I hang lower and then dial in the light amount using the dimmer or leave it 100% and use the hang height to adjust how strong it's hitting it?

Pics right when I got it hung at the end of lights out time so the plants are still sleepy looking.

 

[Aroxol]

There she is

How was the jack?

 

[Aroxol]

Try differing heights and start at a low-mid dim. I found higher up with less power gives me the healthiest looking veg plants. Just watch the leaves, they’ll tell the tale.

 

[sativuhhh]

The jack is soooo good!! Going to have a ton of it after these ones complete too! I guess that's the plan to check the leaves and just back it off when needed. This height seems decent I think, though for flower is where I'm not as sure, I guess I'll just keep an eye on it and see what happens!

 

[Aroxol]

Nice man, glad to hear it.

At least 18” for flower, but my preference would really be as high as possible if the light has enough power. Is your 5x5 a GG with height extension?

 

[sativuhhh]

Its a Mars hydro, 5x5x6'6" (80" tall) so I have a bit of room overhead and with all the ventilation on the other side of the tent it can run right up to the top if needed when they stretch.

 

[Stunned]

Is this the new HLG-550 V2 Rspec ?
Sweet looking light!

 

[sativuhhh]

It's not an hlg, I wasn't thrilled with the layout of those hlg's and less diodes/footprint (or the cost, lol). The HLG is similar in that it does have the deep reds which is good, but these boards have quite a few more diodes and power going to them and are larger panels evenly spaced vs 4 small boards on one heatsink.

 

[CO Finest]

Safe to start at 36" if you can then lower to 24" week three then 18" week six if needed. OR 24" at 3/4 then 100% at week 5-6.

 

[Grassmaster]

You need a light meter. To save power put them as close ( 12 inches) as possible. Then dial in the correct PAR. But I put my COB's farther away than the recommended 12 inches in veg. It seems as though light emitting diodes may damage the plant if too close. I measure 300 PAR for young plants. Then 800 to 1000 PAR when in heavy flower.

 

[sativuhhh]

I found an online aquarium store that rents par meters but they are all rented out right now, thinking about doing that maybe if I can get one soon. $25/week is a lot better then 350+ to buy a decent one. Hoping I might be able to find one locally though.

 

[Aroxol]

Idk man, I’d still recommend you manually adjust the light strength and height to different levels to see how the plants react. You can measure the PAR, but I’d START with plant reaction. Only saying this because I was very surprised how much better my current plants looked and started growing when I dimmed down my LED to like 25/30% of blue only and raised lights about 2.5x higher than I thought they should be. Toying around with it is half the fun IMO.

 

[Aroxol]

Oh and if interested you should also totally pop some Dynasty Pineapple Diesel seeds that may be donated to you and reward the nearby owner with donated clones of the females

 

[sativuhhh]

How fast do they normally react to light stress? Maybe set and then check it like 10 hours into the light cycle? The parent plants gobbled up all the 600w of cobs I could throw at it so I never really had the issue of too much light.

 

[sativuhhh]

That sounds like a tasty strain! You are welcome to some clones! I have a few starting now. My desk lamp and cup of water is doing the trick once again! lol I should buy a little cloner setup.

 

[Grassmaster]

I found an online aquarium store that rents par meters but they are all rented out right now, thinking about doing that maybe if I can get one soon. $25/week is a lot better then 350+ to buy a decent one. Hoping I might be able to find one locally though.

You could get a less expensive foot candle and or Lux meter. Check on internet. Eventually you will find out what light levels readings work best for your type of lights.

 

[Aroxol]

Yeah I’d say try different stuff each day, maybe go high up and see how they respond - if it looks worse go back to where you were then try again after a day. TBH I’m not an expert, but don’t really think anyone is at this point and it makes me super interested to try all sorts of stuff and see others do the same. I mess with my lights A LOT and you’ll definitely start to see reactions. Seems to me like there’s an equal amount of stuff we don’t know as we do when it comes to LED, and consumer tech is just now at the place where we can all dim, adjust spectrums, easily move heights, etc. which is pretty exciting, whole new frontier. The pineapple diesel will be killer, and I’d love to figure out what’s in the pack.

 

[SlyTown420]

If you want a poor mans solution load the Lux Light Meter on your smart phone.

 

[Grassmaster]

If you want a poor mans solution load the Lux Light Meter on your smart phone.

I just loaded "Lux Light Meter app" on my galaxy 7. Works great! Maybe better than my meter. It measures both foot candles and Lux. 30,000 Lux is a Sunny day. So I would start with 15000 Lux at the top of young plants.

If you have a smart phone that would be a great solution.

 

[Aroxol]

Sativuhhh not sure what type of strains you like/ dislike, but a company in LA is going to have Loompa Headband clones coming up soon...if you like OG/Diesel, grab that in place of seeds.