I would assume that you're using more nutrients because you have a lot more light and therefore more growth. The bad thing about soil is that it buffers so problems build up before you notice them and fixes take a while to take affect so some people over compensate and the issues yo-yo for a while before leveling off.
I'm also wondering about the experiment with the "grounded" plants? I'm quite skeptical about the technical explanation, it seems a lot like "pyramid power" to me.
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
SME, I have always been a less is more kind of guy, but with the new lights and their demand for more nutes I am now swaying towards a little more is more, ha ha.
As for the Earth and Grow test, I have had great success, but more noticeable in my veg plants. I will get some pictures up soon, I have been ultra busy lately and have not been home much, so I haven't really been able to get everything accomplished that I want to accomplish.
I wish you were testing clones rather than plants from seed, two different seeds can grow at different rates. I'm not sure why it would work more in veg and less in flower if that were the cause. Also plants outside are naturally grounded but the entire Earth is surrounded by electro-magnetic fields so grounding does nothing to shield that (inside or out) and we all know that indoor plants can actually perform better than outside plants, especially during veg. Additionally the lights, themselves, are grounded so no electrical or magnetic "interference" can be detected at the plants. It just makes even less sense, to me, than man-made global warming or pyramid power. I wonder if people just want it to work since they've invested so much into it because if it really did work, everyone would be doing it. It's amazing how much medical quackery and scientific junk science claimed results that were just wishful thinking. People still swore that their "thing" worked and some people believed it but they were actually frauds. Snake oil salesmen used to sell opium based "cures" that did nothing more than get people high and addicted but some of the people that bought it claimed great results.
I searched for other experiments with grounded plants and the only one that I found (within the first 5 pages) was in a website that also discussed subjects like "free energy," "parapsychology & psychic research," "ufolgy," "weather control" and "conspiracy." The only thing missing from this quack site (which will not be linked here) was pyramid power and energy from crystals...assuming that's not covered in other sections. The website did mention another experiment that made similar claims but I doubt any of them were peer reviewed or we'd all be grounding our plants by now. In fact, one new-age "scientist/doctor" that they mention wrote many books going back to 1918 with subjects like "The emancipation of women;: Or Regulating the duration of the menses(1934)," "A Book of Revelations: A True Narrative of Life on Many Planets(1945)," and "An Advertisisng Brochure for Valens Monk's Oil(1930)" so you'll have to forgive me for not buying into his grounded plants research either.
Sorry, but I'm still a skeptic...so far.
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
SME, I believe I told you before that I am testing it on clones, and even though you will probably never believe, the one plant with the earth and is growing much more full than the others without. You know, if you don't believe in something or if you are unwilling to try something out, then you will never know what other technology is out there. Maybe you ought to open your mind up a little and stop bashing everything before trying it!
1) Don't take my skepticism personally. 2) I must have missed the clone thing, I saw you were growing from seed in your first post and thought the "experiment" was from seed too. 3) I'm not bashing it, I just doubt the science claims behind it and for good reasons. 4) You may very well be seeing results but that doesn't mean it's due to being "grounded," it could very well be something else causing the difference.
I used to drive large nails into our fruit trees and they would then bear more fruit. I could make fantastic claims that the pain the tree "felt" made it bear fruit because it thought it was going to die but the reality was that it was leeching the iron/minerals from the nails and correcting a deficiency. Something similar could be happening with the copper electrodes in the soil or it could be something else altogether. Maybe in your next test of the device you can add the electrode/probe but not have it plugged into the controller to see if it's something like that. I'd also use a different grounding solution (grounding rod and wire directly to earth) to see if it has the same effect. Perhaps it even works but, as I said, if it did work, everyone would be grounding indoor plants because the "theory" isn't new.
While I DOUBT the science behind the device, I have not ruled out that it may actually work, I just don't believe it until there's more data to back it up and, you're right, I'm NOT putting up MY money to test things that don't make sense to me. I'd be willing to put one to the test but I'm not buying one.
Would YOU be willing to buy a "pyramid power" device that you can put over your plants to channel the power of the pyramids which they actually did claim would make them grow bigger (as well as curing cancer and headaches) or would you be skeptical of the science behind it too? They had doctors and scientists that backed up their claims as well as "testimonials" saying how wonderful the pyramid devices worked.
How about one of those modern electronic pest deterrents that you plug into the wall and it supposedly creates a "force field" that makes bugs/mice run away and keeps them from coming back? Would you pay money for that? Maybe you should keep an open mind even though there are tests that show they didn't work.
My point is there are a million products that make fantastic claims and they all claim to work while few actually do. Don't get upset when people doubt the ones that you believe in. If the device cannot stand up to skeptics that just throws up more red fags. When I first came here, I was skeptical about using LED to flower but multiple results have swayed my opinion that LED can, in fact, be used to flower decent plants. Those same results did however bear out my skepticism of the fantastic claims of lower powered LED lights being able to replace much larger HID lights. Any so-called science that can't handle/accept criticism and skepticism isn't very strong, imho.
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
Sorry all for the delay on posts with pictures, this site doesn't do its own method of shrinking pictures and I have been ultra busy, so I have delayed putting pictures up until I had a bit more time to do my own shrinking. Everything is looking goo besides the the PH problem I just recently went through, but the plants pulled through alright. Take a look at my results under the Solar Storms, I have been so impressed with these lights that I think I may be investing in even more of them when I finish building my large grown room.
Updates? You should be at 9 weeks and 5.5 weeks, how is that large airpot vs small airpot test going?
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
Sorry SME, I took on a big job that has been demanding a lot of my time and haven't been around much lately. The test with the air pots is going well, the 2 liberty haze that are in 10 gal are much bigger that the others and much healthier considering they hold liquid longer. I will get back on track with everything else soon, just need to scrape up a little time which it seems like I have none of lately.
Interesting results, that's opposite of what Dustydirt reported. Perhaps it varies depending other factors... *shrug*
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.