LED Grow Light Forum

Today I received my 880w solar storm light fixture and installed it in my 4x8 grow cabinet. I will be using the solar storm for half of the grow space and using a 1000w HPS magnetic ballast with an 8" block buster hood and a 750 cfm inline fan drawing internal air through the fixture and exhausting outside the cabinet. I currently have 9 plants under the 1000 watt light in various stages of flower. I will be starting with four plants under the solar storm, unfortunately two of the plants have spent some number of days (one plant a week and the other plant for 3 days) under the HPS before the solar storm arrived. This occurred due to a pretty strict cycle I try to adhere to as to stay within the possession limits of my states medical laws at all times. I use a super pro organic soil thats mixed locally along with the general organics line of nutrients. As the grow progresses I will be adding a plant a week or so under the solar storm until it has 9 plants under as the HPS does. The first four plants are DJ shorts blue berry (this plant started flowering march 26th), cantaloupe haze (started flowering march 30th), sour hindu kush that started flowering today, and a vanilla kush that started flowering today.

Don't let them get to tall under the LED, short and spread works very well with the CLW's series!
Good luck on your grow!

GR

Do they stretch more or less with the clw? I was thinking they would stretch less under the ss880 because of the blue spectrum, is that not accurate?

hey 445,
a few of us have tried to keep the LED in veg mode for the first week or 2 of flower to help reduce stretch. i dont' think we have a consensus if it works or not.
i'm almost 4 weeks into 12/12 now. i kept mine on veg for the first 5 days of 12/12 and then i removed the led and brought in a 600hps. at end of veg they were 17". now they are about 36". so they still doubled. i have had them triple before. probably depends on more variables than just the light me thinks.

good luck!
RKY

I know genetics have a lot to do with how much a plant will stretch. I just seen to remember that HPS light tends to induce stretching, which is why you veg under MH or 4100/6500k lamps, it helps keep internodes tight. I just am not sure what the effect in flower will be.

Hey Rocky, good to see you, are you doing a journal here or elsewhere, would love to look at it.

I am at day 48 of 12/12 two Nirvana Ice and and WW under the SS400, all mainlined. I also have a WW bush I just put in there at day 18, think I vegged the mainlines too long again. The WW bush looks like she may do alright especially when she gets the box to herself for her last 6 or so weeks.

Will post some pics in the grow journals when I get a chance, Hell I will probably be harvested before I have time to post. I do have pics of the whole grow so it may work.

Later,

GR

that445guy wrote:I know genetics have a lot to do with how much a plant will stretch. I just seen to remember that HPS light tends to induce stretching, which is why you veg under MH or 4100/6500k lamps, it helps keep internodes tight. I just am not sure what the effect in flower will be.

Genetics, environmental conditions and light intensity can have an affect on stretching too...

Personally, I'd take HPS over any fluorescent light for veg but, you're right, some of the red spectra does induce stretch and some of the blue spectra inhibits it. That's why some people supplement added blue in flower or use HPS bulbs that have an enhanced blue spectra. Solis-Tek even has a 10k MH bulb that they suggest using for the last 2-3 weeks instead of a HPS bulb. I'd like to see side-by-side comparison grows. My problem with MH is that it's 1/3 less lumens than an equal HPS. It really depends on your grow style and personal desires. There's no one right way to grow and virtually every grow decision we make has pros and cons.

hey SME, just had a quick ? about MH. have you ever flowered with just MH? i've seen journals in other forums and the results looked decent. but MH has way less lumens as you said compared to HPS and they produce way more heat than HPS too I think?

and to what 445 said about genetics: i would guess the more sativa in a strain the more it would stretch?

RKY

A lot of growers I know will use metal halide for the last few weeks of flower because there seems to be a belief that it increases potency. MH will produce roughly a third less than an equivilant hps if the MH is used exclusively during flower. The only way that I know of to increase potency is the introduction of UVB, in the past this was done with either lizard lights or tanning bed lights. All MH lights that I know of have a protective layer of UV blocking glass. I've heard you can chip it off though I wouldn't recomend doing anything that could jeopardize the integrity of the lamp. I believe mercury vapor lights put out a lot of UVB but they put out a lot of heat and not much for useable spectrums otherwise. I think zoos use them for large reptiles.

yeah, i think the MH emits UV while HPS doesn't. the journal that i found, the guy was using MH's in umbrella reflectors. i didn't know about the bulb itself reducing UV. interesting. the glass in the reflector will also block UV too.

i am flowering now using HPS and I bought 2 cheap-o fixtures to run the 2 UVB bulbs that came with my CLW. from the info i've read, UV is the "secret" to getting good trichome production.