10.0 Uvb Light

Justin00

Active Member
im on my 3rd grow and used uv-b for the last grow and was very impressed,... until i stopped using it this grow and the plants are looking even better then b4 so i think it is mostly to do me learning to grow better, idk i was using 2 uv-b 10 for all 12 hours and the leaves were defiantly showing signs of light damage but they did show alot of tric production also,
 

stelthy

Well-Known Member


I've just installed my UV Reptile Tube, this thread is one of the most helpful I've found on this topic - STELTHY :leaf:
 

stelthy

Well-Known Member
cool man, you got it on for a small time or all day?
I plan to run it when budding begins until harvest minus the 48hr dark period at the end. and on 8/4 time schedule.. I am also planning on installing a 6400k CFL so I should be pretty much running a full spectrum what with the HPS, 6400K CFL and the UV-B :) :) :) I look forward to great things !! - STELTHY :leaf:
 

Don Gin and Ton

Well-Known Member
Kool I was thinking of getting a similar bulb but running it for only 2/10 but moving the on period forward each week.

You going for trippiest thc mix possible with all spec covered!?
 

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
Giggle,,,you guys are on the right track.

TRY THIS;
1 400w mercury vapor bulb and a 400w ballast (or a Galaxy ballast set for 400w). Set this over your plants (up to a 3x3 area - more area = proportionate lamp & ballast increase) for the last 2 weeks of flower (yes durring the wash). From side by side testing on 4 different breeds I got a TESTED increase in thc of 24% to 32% over the HPS finished plants! This increase is especialy true if you have to finish your plants early for some reason!!!

NOTE; REMOVE THE GLASS FROM YOUR HOOD AND KEEP PLANTS A MINIMUM OF 18" FROM LIGHT!!

The resulting buzz is more intense and longer lasting!

merc vapor bulbs available on amazon.com through e-light bulbs (amazon is cheaper then e-light bulbs direct)

The problem you will run into with reptile lights is that they only send out effective UVB rays a MAX of 18" to 24" so not very much of your plant will get the benefits! Mercury vapor lights (400w are the biggest) are old style street lamps and are in the process of being discontinued because of the strong UVB they emit!
MH bulbs do not emit enuff UVB to be near as effective as a Mercury Vapor!!!!

I have used this method since the mid 80's and it remains the ONLY way I finish my plants for any reason!

"Go forth and use the knowledge of those that come before you to great advantage" ; Socrates
 

haole420

Active Member
realize that UVB is what bud mold needs to bloom. i had 2 10.0 UVB CFL bulbs going along with my 600w HPS but yanked them. haven't seen mold since. there could have been a zillion other factors contributing to mold (of my first grow), but just to be safe, i haven't used UVB since. might give it a try again since i kinda have a better clue wtf is going on now. maybe it wasn't the UVB afterall. it can also degrade nutrient$.
 

stelthy

Well-Known Member


Hi one n all.. I am already seeing a marked improvement in the leaves alone.. its early days still and my Royal Haze has only just started producing clusters of Flowers but if things keep going as well as they have so far.. Budding will be a very exciting time !! I am planning on adding 2 more CFL type UV-Bs on either side once I've Harvested in preparation for my next grow :) :) UV-B is Awesome !! :) :) :)

Oh - I also decided to add 4X 6400K CFL's , 2X 45W (Rear), & 2X 125W (Front) and am in the process of changing my 250W HPS for a 400W Digilux Dual-Spec HPS.... So with the exception of controlled X-Ray :) :) .. I am running a 'Full Spectrum Grow' @ 730W Max inc. UV-B !! - STELTHY :leaf:
 

Niko Bellick

Well-Known Member
Next to CannaWizards thread this is the most informative uvb thread I've seen.

I'm on week seven and a day of flowering and already I have mostly cloudy trichs and I see at least two or three amber trichs on each of the six sugar leaves I cut for examination. Never had cloudy/amber this early on specially with my T5's. This leads me to believe that the uvb does indeed seem to help mature the THC faster etc. Gonna try for harvest at week nine instead of twelve as planned.
 

haole420

Active Member
there may or may not be benefits to UVB. i'm sure there are, as natural sunlight contains UVB. however, bud mold needs UVB to complete it's life cycle. when i tried adding UVB, i got bud mold on the next harvest despite r/h well below 50%. haven't used it since.

realize that sunlight also contains UVC, which is germicidal. that's why hospitals use it. it'll kill off mold along with most other bacteria, viruses, etc. so by supplementing your grow room with only UVB, you're increasing your risk of gray mold since your setup lacks UVC, which in nature, will kill off the gray mold.
 

Phaeton

Active Member
I surround my plant with vertical tubes, the penetration goes all the way to the stem this way.
UV 10-07.jpg

I opened it up to poke the camera in. 800 watts CMH above and 136 watts reptisun 10 doing the surround. This is a test room and is the fourth plant, the first three had their hairs crispied. UVB is down from 204 watts. When the optimum level for my strain is determined (Northern Lights) the main budroom gets the treatment.
 

DontTaxMeBro

Active Member
Hey All,
I have read that UVB increases tricomb production. So I went ahead and added some UVB lights to my flower room. Left side is 20w bulb and the right side is a 13 watt bulb. (didnt have anymore 20 watts at the store


I an open to tips and suggestions. Is 33 watts enough for a 4' x 2' grow room or should I get more wattage? Are they to close to the plants?

I will keep everyone up to date on the progress of the flowering process.
 

Phaeton

Active Member
I skimmed the first time, this time I read every post.

I have a test budroom. I have been using it for a year and incorporating the results into the main budroom. In 12 months I have increased production 18%. Same time, same space, 18% more in my jar every month. 6 ounces for every 5 ounces I had before. The test room works as intended.

Two months ago the test room got put to UVB testing. I have passed $900 in equipment, most tests run about $700 or so, UV is expensive, but the tests have paid their own way without fail up to this point.
More is involved than putting a light over the plant.

UV clone day 3 veg.JPG Bulb spectrums-UV grow.JPG

Left is veg lights, Right is veg light spectrums. More sidelights are not in picture.

All my veg plants get UV now as I keep burning up test plants. I already know what trigger levels of UV do, same as high freq blue.

This is my Mountain Grown test, equivalent UVB to 10,000'. The base reading is Mt. Haleakala in Hawaii at 10,023' with a hand held UVB meter, 545 mw/cm2, clear day end of May. I use 800mw/cm2 because the plant is still alive. I started at 2100 just to be sure and have burned up 3 plants bringing it down.

View attachment 1866112

The Hairs are red/brown inside at the 800mw/cm2 level compared to all white in the control. The really fine fuzz coating on the hairs is 20% of control. The count itself is similar, higher UV reduced the hair count, all the way to zero at 2100mw/cm2. Trichome count is up 15% at day 35 over control, the picture is day 18 and the count had not gone up yet.

Really long posts do not always get read, I will post again with current pictures, including control plants.

Thank you for your time.
 

cannawizard

Well-Known Member
I skimmed the first time, this time I read every post.

I have a test budroom. I have been using it for a year and incorporating the results into the main budroom. In 12 months I have increased production 18%. Same time, same space, 18% more in my jar every month. 6 ounces for every 5 ounces I had before. The test room works as intended.

Two months ago the test room got put to UVB testing. I have passed $900 in equipment, most tests run about $700 or so, UV is expensive, but the tests have paid their own way without fail up to this point.
More is involved than putting a light over the plant.

View attachment 1866091 View attachment 1866092

Left is veg lights, Right is veg light spectrums. More sidelights are not in picture.

All my veg plants get UV now as I keep burning up test plants. I already know what trigger levels of UV do, same as high freq blue.

This is my Mountain Grown test, equivalent UVB to 10,000'. The base reading is Mt. Haleakala in Hawaii at 10,023' with a hand held UVB meter, 545 mw/cm2, clear day end of May. I use 800mw/cm2 because the plant is still alive. I started at 2100 just to be sure and have burned up 3 plants bringing it down.

View attachment 1866112

The Hairs are red/brown inside at the 800mw/cm2 level compared to all white in the control. The really fine fuzz coating on the hairs is 20% of control. The count itself is similar, higher UV reduced the hair count, all the way to zero at 2100mw/cm2. Trichome count is up 15% at day 35 over control, the picture is day 18 and the count had not gone up yet.

Really long posts do not always get read, I will post again with current pictures, including control plants.

Thank you for your time.
**no worries, im one of those who like reading extra boring mile long pages.. it has its perks ;)
 

Phaeton

Active Member
Got the pictures, the control plant is 5 days more mature than the UV bud, I used up all the same day controls bringing the plants down the mountain.
Same clone, same cut day, part of an 8 plant tray that vegged 5 days less is all. And WAY different lighting.

NL day 43.jpgUV NL @ day 38.jpg

The left is the NL from the main budroom, day 43, nice warm light. The right is NL from the test budroom, day 38, harsh cold light. Let me modify that, more far red than HPS puts out, but the blue/UV is 10 x tropic ground level, overwhelming the lower frequencies.

The main budroom has a 450nm HID going full time with the rest of the mix. That sky blue HID took the bud time on the NL from 49 days to 43 days.
The effect on sativa (bagseed) is more dramatic, 63 days to 54 days.
I learned from a research paper on UVA that fruiting times were shorter with UVA but no chemical processes specific to UVA were detected. The authors went through the upper spectrum and found 420 to 450 nanometer blue triggered the same chemicals, further refining showed 380nm UVA and 430nm blue had the same effects, smaller fruits in a shorter time, it took a more blue than UVA was the main difference.
10% of the main budroom light is 450nm blue and it works as advertised on the 2 strains I have, much better on the sativa than the indica.
My fruits are not enough smaller to make a difference compared to the time saving.

The UVB plants are more than 5 days behind the others, although this is only my third Northern Lights grow and I am not overly confident of my guessing yet.

The hairs are not sucking back in yet, a few have turned brown the regular way but most are still that plump, growing, reddish brown the UVB put in.
Trichomes are 3% amber in the main room, lousy picture, I hate couchlock, I only grow indica because I got whined at so much when I didn't.
Anyway, the UV plant has no amber whatsoever and hardly any cloudy, the hairs have not pulled in. This actually shows in the picture.

Both pictures are lower buds that were easy to get to, I have to hold a magnifying glass in front of the camera for close ups.
 

cannawizard

Well-Known Member
Got the pictures, the control plant is 5 days more mature than the UV bud, I used up all the same day controls bringing the plants down the mountain.
Same clone, same cut day, part of an 8 plant tray that vegged 5 days less is all. And WAY different lighting.

View attachment 1868374View attachment 1868373

The left is the NL from the main budroom, day 43, nice warm light. The right is NL from the test budroom, day 38, harsh cold light. Let me modify that, more far red than HPS puts out, but the blue/UV is 10 x tropic ground level, overwhelming the lower frequencies.

The main budroom has a 450nm HID going full time with the rest of the mix. That sky blue HID took the bud time on the NL from 49 days to 43 days.
The effect on sativa (bagseed) is more dramatic, 63 days to 54 days.
I learned from a research paper on UVA that fruiting times were shorter with UVA but no chemical processes specific to UVA were detected. The authors went through the upper spectrum and found 420 to 450 nanometer blue triggered the same chemicals, further refining showed 380nm UVA and 430nm blue had the same effects, smaller fruits in a shorter time, it took a more blue than UVA was the main difference.
10% of the main budroom light is 450nm blue and it works as advertised on the 2 strains I have, much better on the sativa than the indica.
My fruits are not enough smaller to make a difference compared to the time saving.

The UVB plants are more than 5 days behind the others, although this is only my third Northern Lights grow and I am not overly confident of my guessing yet.

The hairs are not sucking back in yet, a few have turned brown the regular way but most are still that plump, growing, reddish brown the UVB put in.
Trichomes are 3% amber in the main room, lousy picture, I hate couchlock, I only grow indica because I got whined at so much when I didn't.
Anyway, the UV plant has no amber whatsoever and hardly any cloudy, the hairs have not pulled in. This actually shows in the picture.

Both pictures are lower buds that were easy to get to, I have to hold a magnifying glass in front of the camera for close ups.
**great post :) im waitin' on my aqua skyblue leds, ..the force is strong with this one ;)
 

Dwezelitsame

Well-Known Member
i use uvb sumtimes after week three of flower - all you really need is about 2 hours a day

i run 2 x 250w lights a hps by hortilux and a cmh by philips
i have heard cmh has uvb in it i started wit uvb when i had mh and continued when i changed to cmh though sum say no longer needed
 

Wolverine97

Well-Known Member


Hi one n all.. I am already seeing a marked improvement in the leaves alone.. its early days still and my Royal Haze has only just started producing clusters of Flowers but if things keep going as well as they have so far.. Budding will be a very exciting time !! I am planning on adding 2 more CFL type UV-Bs on either side once I've Harvested in preparation for my next grow :) :) UV-B is Awesome !! :) :) :)

Oh - I also decided to add 4X 6400K CFL's , 2X 45W (Rear), & 2X 125W (Front) and am in the process of changing my 250W HPS for a 400W Digilux Dual-Spec HPS.... So with the exception of controlled X-Ray :) :) .. I am running a 'Full Spectrum Grow' @ 730W Max inc. UV-B !! - STELTHY :leaf:
Just curious, is your setup a combo growbox/bathroom?:lol: I see the toilet paper holder, and toothbrush holder mounted in there...
 
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