I have beefed up my Flower room with UVB rays. I will have updates on results. PICS

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.

I've been both researching other results and growing with various amounts of UVB.

All the budding plants I have tested get about a week earlier oil production with UV. This is with 80 watts 3 hours per day.
The same results of early oil can be had with 400 watts 450 nm blue aquarium light bare bulb within 48" of the plant.
This minimum trigger effect so far has not increased any production, but has shaved a week off my budding times. 1 week early out of 10 is a 10% increase in my books.

In the 'more is better' testing I have the equivalent of 10,000' elevation (800 microwatts/cm2) in my test budroom.

Note: in nature UV does not come form above, it comes from everywhere equally and plants only put protective coatings on the bottom of the leaves, leaving the tops open to sunlight from above. This makes side and bottom lighting more effective if adding UV.

I started top down and this is the 4th plant in the room, the first 3 got fried, the UVB started at 2100 mw/cm2, way way too much. I'm down to 800 and here is day 18 of a bud, the brown lines inside are not present in any of the control plants.

Currently on day 35, but not much difference from day 18. Trichome density is up over the controls by about 15%, but the color change is what has my motor revving.



I moved a light to poke the camera in, those are 17 watt Zilla Desert 50's mixed with 18 watt Reptisun 10's, 800 watts of CMH are overhead.

My bagseed sativa did not respond positively, this is a Northern Lights and seems to have activity going on. UV is strain dependent on the results, this has been consistent in all the studies I have read.

Track what you are growing and how it smokes when done compared to same plant without the UV.

Im planning on running them 12/12 with the HPS lamp.

You say that your tricombs increased by 15%. How is the smoke. Is it a more stronger THC level?

This is still the first high intensity plant that hasn't fried, smoke test is a month away. This may all be for naught if it doesn't change the high for the better.
The plants triggered to early production smoked the same.

But this plant, this plant smells like the plant I supplemented with batshit tea, only this plant is straight out of the jug standard nutes. GH 1-2-3 with no added enhancement.
I have high hopes of high.

"C. Wiz...." is the thread title by cannawizard in advanced marijuana cultivation forum, it has a list of strains cannawizard has found to react to low level UV. The list is a few pages in. Information is posted in this talkative thread almost at random, but good info when it happens.

It has now been six ours in UVB exposure and I am starting to see extensively longer white hairs than this morning and unsuall for a plant of this size. I am also starting to see a little bit of a build up of resin forming in some places that i did not see this morning. I have read that UVB does speed up time of the flowering process so this might be what I am witnessing

This plant has been placed in the flower room on 10/27/11.

I will give another update in 6 hours right before the light cycle shuts off at 12 am.

wow i like that and ive learned something new thanks guys

do you have access to a facility that will test the THC amount in your plant?

and nice plants dude.

maximum said:

do you have access to a facility that will test the THC amount in your plant?

and nice plants dude.

Click to expand...

I personally am not going to take it as far as going to a facility to test the THC level. I wish there was some sort of small device that would test THC levels besides your lungs.

I shut off the UVB bulbs a couple hours ago. I was going to run it to 12am tonight and give an update but decided to slow it down since this is the first time using UVB and don't want to hurt the plants. I don't know how much UVB cannibis plants can handle at a time.

If UVB bulbs do not hurt my plant I will probably be incorporating them into my grow for now on. If I see any type of increased trichomes or resin production I will be sold. I do know that the best buds come from places on earth that have the highest UV radiation.

At 33 watts of power it doesnt break the bank keeping them

**nice grow , thnx for the kind words Phaeton, yet again

--for one plant, yes thats enough watts to produce enough uC/w to cause a chain reaction which then activates an enzymatic response...(deeper the rabbitt hole goes..) within the THC granule
(but the Q would be @t what nms did the manufacturer of the bulb set it (285-315range is good for Uvb)

..ill tagg along for the ride

(btw, try getting those things closer.. just a tad bit.. say around 11-13inchs from tops)

cannawizard said:

**nice grow , thnx for the kind words Phaeton, yet again

--for one plant, yes thats enough watts to produce enough uC/w to cause a chain reaction which then activates an enzymatic response...(deeper the rabbitt hole goes..) within the THC granule
(but the Q would be @t what nms did the manufacturer of the bulb set it (285-315range is good for Uvb)

..ill tagg along for the ride

(btw, try getting those things closer.. just a tad bit.. say around 11-13inchs from tops)

Click to expand...

The box has a chart thats saying it has a wavelength of roughly 315 to 350

Its a Zilla Desert Series 50 Fluorescent Coil Tube. Hopefully I'm reading the chart correctly and got the right type of bulb. I'm assuming your a believer in UVB? It seems that there many people on the fence with the whole thing. Should I leave these on for 12 hours a day?

Thanks for the tip. I will move them closer.

Great job!! Thanks for doing the test; these are always such a help to everyone.

DontTaxMeBro said:

The box has a chart thats saying it has a wavelength of roughly 315 to 350

Its a Zilla Desert Series 50 Fluorescent Coil Tube. Hopefully I'm reading the chart correctly and got the right type of bulb. I'm assuming your a believer in UVB? It seems that there many people on the fence with the whole thing. Should I leave these on for 12 hours a day?

Thanks for the tip. I will move them closer.

Click to expand...

**thats a correct assumption

..315nms is good, but anything past that was just meant for reptiles only
..12on during 12/12 is fine w/ your setup

Update:

Today was the second day under UVB exposure. Did a full 12 hour cycle of UVB light along with a hps bulb. The plant has been in the flower room for 6 days. A lot of flowering is occuring at this point and starting to see very very small crystals deep inside. I am really excited about this plant.

Well the dust fairy seems to have come a little early this time. Plant has been flowering for 10 days now and 6 days with UVB exposure.

The plant is really starting to generate lots of trichomes at this point. The plant has been flowering for 13 days now, and 9 days under UVB exposure. I really do not see flowering this plant the recomended 8 weeks at this rate.

Phaeton said:

This is still the first high intensity plant that hasn't fried, smoke test is a month away. This may all be for naught if it doesn't change the high for the better.
The plants triggered to early production smoked the same.

But this plant, this plant smells like the plant I supplemented with batshit tea, only this plant is straight out of the jug standard nutes. GH 1-2-3 with no added enhancement.
I have high hopes of high.

"C. Wiz...." is the thread title by cannawizard in advanced marijuana cultivation forum, it has a list of strains cannawizard has found to react to low level UV. The list is a few pages in. Information is posted in this talkative thread almost at random, but good info when it happens.

Click to expand...

You mean fried from the UVB!? I have a 125W UVB lamp now pretty close to the canopy, it's on 18 hours a day and I dont see no burning at all, do I have to be more careful when I start flowering? Thanks

Looking gooooood!!!

18 days flowering and 14 days with UVB exposure.

Looks like you're sprinkling sugar on those! I'd say this is working.

I know right. Im curious as to what its going to look like in another week.

Well, I took some off the plant at this point and did a quick dry bud test and for microwaved cannabis this got me pretty toked.

23 days flowering and 19 days UVB exposure. Excellent results so far.