Shiggity Goes Mad Scientist: Paving The Yellowbrix Road With DIY Adventures!

[TripleBeam]

Is that a black light Gazoo?

 

[ShiggityFlip]

Now that is a well set up grow chamber Gazoo! You really pushed the limits! Some awesome adjustment too!

And I love the action figures!

 

[Gazoo]

Is that a black light Gazoo?

Ouch you caught me, Yup a little experiment, nothing to report

Now that is a well set up grow chamber Gazoo! You really pushed the limits! Some awesome adjustment too!

And I love the action figures!

Thanks

I did on that grow, I usually only grow 2 in the tent but had an accident and
spilled the solo cups while germinating. 3 or so days later I found one had sprouted
in my vacuum bag, since she was so determined I figured I would let her fight.

Also the Modular scrog's, each separate and on its own base allows for the height
adjustment when I have a difference in stretch

BTW The watering in that setup was automatic, using aquarium pump, cycle timer
(1min on 5min off) and home made top down watering hoses (One for each plant)
Felt pots were on low kitchen sink racks placed above a drain pans with attached
drain line. The Simple watering process was mix Nutes in 5 gallon water bucked, attach
plants water line to pump drop in bucked, push remote power button and plant
is watered in slow 1 minute cycles and then allowed to wick and spread for 5 minutes
before the next 1 minute water cycle. Oh forgot you need to run the drain line from
the drain pans into another bucket, this is just a precaution in-case the drain pan gets
overfull. Takes about an hour for a gallon but is adjustable.

Wow somehow I said way more than I intended

 

[Buckshot317]

Nice setup, I like the scrogs, I hate putting a bunch of stakes up.

I was thinking of 36"x30" screens, one for each plant. I have shitload of 1" pvc conduit and string.

Nice setup Gazoo.

 

[TripleBeam]

Gazoo, the blacklight has me curious. What are you testing?

 

[Gazoo]

Nice setup, I like the scrogs, I hate putting a bunch of stakes up.

I was thinking of 36"x30" screens, one for each plant. I have shitload of 1" pvc conduit and string.

Nice setup Gazoo.

Thanks Buck

You know what works good and is cheap, speaker wire, its plastic coated and can
sometimes be found in the Dollar Store. BTW I have found great buys on plant cutters/shears
at 1 ea and those round cloths hangers with 24 cloths-pin type hooks for drying.

 

[Buckshot317]

I shop dollar store too , have all kinds of things. Just have to think outside the box

 

[Gazoo]

Gazoo, the blacklight has me curious. What are you testing?

A blacklight (or often black light), also referred to as a UV-A light.

Had read (like to see for myself) that UV-A is good for plants and the UV-B was not ?
Since then I have installed the HOTILUX Full spectrum T5's with UV-A & UV-B

They include 4 two foot Veg 460 & 420 T5's as a supplement to my 400 MH.
These Four 2ft T5's are attached with 2 on each side of my XXXL Hood.

Along with those I have installed two 4 Foot FS UV-A/B T5's hung vertically
on each side for lower light supplementation.
Total 604 watts 4.3 amps only on that circuit.

also timed so T5's come on 15 minutes before MH and again at night
the MH goes out 15 minutes before the T5's

My Next MacGyvier is going to be adding a Lazzy Susan (rotating base for those young ones)
and use a taken apart clock as the motor to turn the lazy Susan slowly under my lights.
With only 2 plants I have used the Lazy Susan and have had enough room to rotate plants easily
anytime I need to.

Hoping with the clock as a motor I can set my pot to rotate during my day cycle since
a light mover is out of the question in that small tent

 

[Buckshot317]

I have some uvb bulbs, the more I read, started hearing a lot of negatives. But uva is supposed to be good for the plant. The boards I'm using have uva diodes.

I need to find some good reading material on plants and spectrums.

Never would have thought about a clock motor, you are MacGyver

 

[PlantWrestler]

So... why have I decided on PCB board lights as being the best for growing?
Efficiency (of course), and penetration. Wait a second...these boards have 304 little 0.3W diodes. People have always said low or mid power diodes don't penetrate! Shiggity must be hitting the Huckleberry Kush rosin again! He's saying that low power diodes penetrate better than the king of penetration the 1000W de hps. He can't be serious right? I am as serious as a catholic school nun baby and this is why!

Penetration is an interesting subject. In the past most people have referred to a single point source of light like an hps being best at "penetration" but the truth is that most photons are blocked by the first layer of leaves they encounter! Think about one of the most efficient grow styles, the scrog. HPS or led no light is getting through that scrog layer if you are doing things right.

So what is penetration defined? I would say it means how much of the % of plant leaves are going to be hit with good light?
The answer is slightly counterintuitive. But makes a lot of sense when you think of it.

Really the more sources of light...the more the emission is spread out the better the penetration of light into the canopy. If we are doing our jobs right the entire canopy will block light that is traveling vertically downward.

The key is that a spread out light source will hit the plants at all different angles increasing penetration of the canopy. Take this example. There is a cola directly underneath an hps. It will get light directly from above. On the sides it will get light that has reflected off the walls. But there will be shadows on that cola. Places that never get good light.

With a cob array that cola will be illuminated from all sides. Much fewer shadows, therefore better penetration.

In the past I have seen people argue that LEDs don't cut it because of lack of penetration. Especially low wattage diodes. But the truth is that a photon is a photon. A single photon won't travel any faster or slower or farther if it is from an hps or from a 0.3W diode. That photon will behave exactly the same as any photon of the same wavelength. So really we need to think of how many total photons are traveling in the direction of the plants.

A perfect light source would be a uniform light "film" that had a completely spread out light emittance. It would throw photons evenly across the whole canopy.

Right now the closest thing to that are quantum style boards. 304 Samsun Lm561c diodes on one rectangular plate. Or sunboards with 240 diodes. Or chilled boards etc. These Samsung based boards all beat hps and cobs because:
1. Light is spread out evenly
2. Efficiency is higher (more photons per watt than any other current method)
3. Emission from many low watt high efficiency sources means the least amount of heat. (I can put my boards less than 12" from canopy and the plants are fine. There are no dark spots and no hot spots because the light emission is so spread out.
We are looking to create the most diffuse emission of the most photons per watt. This creates the most "penetration" and is one of the reasons why high efficiency mid power diode boards are the new best choice for maximum canopy penetration.

I'm trying to optimise light penetration, see my avatar.

I've hung my 600's bare bulbs x 6 ......horizontally.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

I'm trying to optimise light penetration, see my avatar.

I've hung my 600's bare bulbs x 6 ......horizontally.

It's hard for me to see the avatar. Can you upload a pic of the room?

 

[PlantWrestler]

It's hard for me to see the avatar. Can you upload a pic of the room?

I apologize for the quality of these uploads ,I can't fit the whole room into a photo.

 

[TripleBeam]

Gazoo, have you seen my current light setup to get uv-a maybe?

 

[Gazoo]

Gazoo, have you seen my current light setup to get uv-a maybe?

Don't think I have, I will hop on over and take a look. Thanks

 

[ShiggityFlip]

I apologize for the quality of these uploads ,I can't fit the whole room into a photo.

Hats a crazy jungle brother. How many days post flip?

 

[Gazoo]

Hats a crazy jungle brother. How many days post flip?

EDIT:
Seems I address this to Shiggity when I really needed to address PlantWrestler, I could
change the header but that might mess things up so I will leave it alone.

Original post

Well on the way to Double Canopy Jungle Those 600w bulbs down inside the jungle would
worry me, I see you positioned some heat shielding GOOD idea.

You have a lot of room to supplement but maybe some 4 foot T5 full spectrum fixtures hung
vertical could be less expensive and a lot less heat.

 

[PlantWrestler]

EDIT:
Seems I address this to Shiggity when I really needed to address PlantWrestler, I could
change the header but that might mess things up so I will leave it alone.

Original post

Well on the way to Double Canopy Jungle Those 600w bulbs down inside the jungle would
worry me, I see you positioned some heat shielding GOOD idea.

You have a lot of room to supplement but maybe some 4 foot T5 full spectrum fixtures hung
vertical could be less expensive and a lot less heat.

All vertical grows I've seen that are barebulb the lights are hung straight down not horizontal making the area underneath the bulbs basically useless,even if plants are put underneath the vertical barebulb the amount of light is minimal.

I've hung these barebulb horizontally so I can have a scrog like canopy underneath just like a hooded bulb but also large vert trees on both sides .

I'm yet to come across a t5 fixture that allows light and heat yo escape upwards.

Without the hoods these don't get very hot at all .

6 x 600 w usualyy gives a grower around 1 lb per 600 w so 6 lb .

The way this is set up its 15 lbs.

No heat shields just great airflow ,fans above the lights drawing up any heat .

Max high 27.8 degrees c

Max low 17.3 degrees c.

Its winter here though don't think I could run this setup in the summer!.
Thanks gazoo ,oh and shiggityflip around 2

 

[Buckshot317]

That's 1.86 grams per watt, never seen that kind of results with hps .

 

[PlantWrestler]

That's 1.86 grams per watt, never seen that kind of results with hps .

2 veg rooms one is vert other is flat ......ughhhh pen pineapple apple pen!

 

[ShiggityFlip]

SIPs version 1.1
I decided to build a few more SIPs. To make an improvement I added a 1/2" grommet. I fitted a 1/2" angle fitting and a piece of 1/2" ID clear tubing to make a water level indicator. I can turn the clear tube downward and drain the SIP almost fully as well.

Saw some plastic furniture dollies at The harbor. If I mounted the SIPs on these they would be easy to move around and the new drains could pour into a container. That would be SIP ver 1.2