Lights for strains

[QBCrocket]

-Hi Guys as Ive sed before I recently did the change to LED , my first grow with LED was no where as good as previous with HPS I found the stems where thin the stretch was more and the buds although they looked great they were lite and the lower buds didn't ripen , so this time I put a strain that I could never get to do any good under HPs in to see what happens , both are under same light and on same nutrients , the white widow on the left again stems are skinny buds starting very small , the one on the right is OG Kush stems thick no stretch and buds starting to look great only 2.5 weeks into flower so long way to go but , makes me think that Strain has a bit to do with what light you use ,

 

[QBCrocket]

The lights are dual Vispectra 600 has anyone else used them

 

[STIGGY]

Question
Do you have a way to control the Red Leds in your light
I keep my Reds off the 1st two weeks into flower to help slow down the stretch
Some cheaper LED lamps do not allow you to do this.
It can actually be the strain (genetics) that cause the plant to stretch or even the plants being to crowded,
Also Have Good Circulation as it will help the stems grow stronger.

Take a read at this link you will see what I mean
https://www.cannabis.info/en/blog/how-to-avoid-stretching-plants

 

[QBCrocket]

Hi Stiggy - cheers for that some good info there - Cant turn off the red light - lights were cheap ,if they don't go well this time I will look at something bit more expensive - I never really come across this when I used HPS

 

[Dogweed]

If you end up changing again, you might want to think about just adding a cheap hps to the mix. A friend of mine runs two Vispectra 300on either side of a 150w HPS for a single plant. He gets amazing quality with decent yields of 3-8oz every 4 months. Just a thought instead of chalking them up for a loss.

 

[QBCrocket]

Cheers Dogweed food for thought

 

[STIGGY]

If you end up changing again, you might want to think about just adding a cheap hps to the mix. A friend of mine runs two Vispectra 300on either side of a 150w HPS for a single plant. He gets amazing quality with decent yields of 3-8oz every 4 months. Just a thought instead of chalking them up for a loss.

I agree
I have grown some Great plants using Mars hydro Older series
My 1600 that I use to use grew quite a few plants (6) under it quite well.
But it had the red light switch to switch on the red LEDS when the time was needed. I too also added a 600HPS in another grow along with it for a larger run of plants. Did a nice job.
Give it some time, as your growing skills become fine tuned you will see it is not always the equipment that makes how good the grower can be.

 

[STIGGY]

OP
Question- Do you have enough circulation fans blowing on the plants themselves, Good Circulation keeps mold at bay and allows for strong healthy stem strengh too. Very important as I see it.

 

[QBCrocket]

being a novice to LED I am bit confused as to the colours , the lights I am using , have a veg button and a flower button on veg only white light is on ,on flower the blue and red come on so I presumed the red and blue helped with flowering , but I just swapped out my t5s for led last week brought a light apparently specially designed for cloning plugged it in and its all blue and red no white , Clones do seem to love it though

 

[QBCrocket]

OP
Question- Do you have enough circulation fans blowing on the plants themselves, Good Circulation keeps mold at bay and allows for strong healthy stem strengh too. Very important as I see it.

Hi Stiggy - Ventilation is good have vent fan and a oscillating fan ,the plant on the left White widow Ive had on perpetual grow under HPS for 3 years now maybe it hasn't liked the change or could be getting old know how that feels , the plant on the right OG Kush is really powering now looks great

 

[QBCrocket]

Just watched an interesting video on blue and red light LED , during the video they sed you cannot take a plant or cuttings of a plant that has been started and grown under HPS and put under LED or visa versa without causing significant problems in the plants ability to grow , this answers my question , this is why my white widow that I have grown under HPS for many grows is struggling now I changed to LED while the OG started under LED is powering on , live and learn I love this game

 

[Growdude]

Just watched an interesting video on blue and red light LED , during the video they sed you cannot take a plant or cuttings of a plant that has been started and grown under HPS and put under LED or visa versa without causing significant problems in the plants ability to grow , this answers my question , this is why my white widow that I have grown under HPS for many grows is struggling now I changed to LED while the OG started under LED is powering on , live and learn I love this game

Im not buying it, Ive never had problems going from LED to HPS

 

[STIGGY]

I might agree if you went from a 600watt HPS to a cheap LED made in China half the Watts

 

[Dogweed]

I went from a 600w HPS to a 640w LED mid grow and the plants got fairly stressed out. Could also have been my inexperience with LEDs at the time and had it too close.

 

[burnin1]

I am a new LED grower as well. I have been told one difference between LEDs and HPS is the wattage. Many LEDs cannot penetrate the canopy as well as HPS lights. I was told I should double the wattage of my LED light compared to my HPS light. You may need another LED light. I could be wrong...

I ended up buying this one
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MY27Q9H/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
I have this in a 5x5 grow tent.

I wish you all the best with you grows.

 

[umbra]

I replaced 2 1000w HPS with 1 LED array. I burned the plants with the LED and after raising it up, plants exploded with growth.

 

[QBCrocket]

Could be the case , of different wattage I went from 600Watt HPS to a 600 watt LED vispectra ,Ive since read reviews that say it is about equal to a 400watt HPS so may need to go bigger although the seedlings I put under the LED are looking good at the moment , would love to get the Gavita Pro 1650e LED ML but at $2k out of my league

 

[STIGGY]

How far are your LEDs away from plants
on young and vegging you want to start at about 24 inches and work down to about 18 , as the plants grow they will get stronger and grow almost inro the lamp if they get to tall
I just snap them over gently its called Super Cropping

 

[STIGGY]

Every LED I ever used is half te actual wattage they put on the ligt when sold
Get a true Watts meter and plug light into it and you will see approx half of what they advertise it to be
The LED at 600watts will only be equal to a 330 watt HPS

This will explain better

https://growsupplyexperts.ca/pages/true-watts-vs-led-watts

 

[Dogweed]

Could be the case , of different wattage I went from 600Watt HPS to a 600 watt LED vispectra ,Ive since read reviews that say it is about equal to a 400watt HPS so may need to go bigger although the seedlings I put under the LED are looking good at the moment , would love to get the Gavita Pro 1650e LED ML but at $2k out of my league

If you went from a 600w HPS to a Vispectra 600, then you actually went from 600w from the HPS down to 260w from the LED. You might benefit greatly from a 2nd one instead of a larger one.