LED Veg/Bloom Switches

I have two "300W" LED panels (they actually draw half that amount) that have switches for VEG and BLOOM. I've had my young plants under VEG alone (so about "150W"), because my understanding is that the blue light is more important than the red light until they're flowering. Which would you advise:

1) Keep them under VEG alone, with the lights down pretty close so they get more intense light, or

2) Use both switches, VEG and BLOOM, with the lights a little higher.

I think there's plenty of light for them -- it's two plants in a 2x4 foot tent, so they each essentially have their own dedicated 300W LED panel.

[To those who will want to tell me to use COB LEDs and/or to build my own, I know. But there's so much to learn when you're just starting and you can't do it all at once. So for now I have what I have.]

Thanks!

MY opinion: I'd likely run with them both on. More light never hurts. In fact, I plan to do that with MH/HPS as soon as my 2nd ballast comes in. Gonna be toasty asf in that closet next week.

I don't imagine you'd have to raise them much running all on.

Disclaimer: I have no experience with LEDs other than all the research I did that pushed me back to HPS.

That was my first thought. But then I thought: If I lower the lights as much as I can without stressing the plants with just the VEG switch on, then that's as much light as they can take, and it's more appropriately colored. If I use both switches and do the same thing -- lower the lights as much as I can without stressing them -- then that's as much light as they can take, but more of it is red. Presumably I can get them lower with just the VEG switch on.

That's when I decided I was over my head, hence the post. Thanks very much for your opinion. Hoping for a few more...

Red spectrum light tends to cause the plant to stretch more from my understanding. So it kind of depends on your plants. The papaya I'm growing right now is/was so fucking bushy that I switched my Solar Storm 440 to bloom to actually try to encourage some stretch. Plus, more light is usually a good thing. If you have short bushy plants and/or lots of vertical space to work with I'd say go for it. But if they are.leaning towards being lanky anyway or if you have height restrictions I'd say stick with the blue spectrum until you're ready to flower.

Thanks -- I have exactly that -- short bushy plants and plenty of vertical space...

Maybe a stupid question, but I'll ask anyway: Is there any chance that the change to more red light might induce flowering, even though I've got them on 18 hours of light? (That would be unfortunate -- they're not ready...)

algebraist said:

Thanks -- I have exactly that -- short bushy plants and plenty of vertical space...

Maybe a stupid question, but I'll ask anyway: Is there any chance that the change to more red light might induce flowering, even though I've got them on 18 hours of light? (That would be unfortunate -- they're not ready...)

Click to expand...

No

Thanks. I know, it was stupid... (Basically came from the two ideas that plants can flower -- even if they're not on 12-12 -- when they're under stress, and that red lights promote flowering. And an inherent nervous disposition.)

In any case, I flipped the "Bloom" switches on this morning.

I run 2 400W Maxbloom X4s. The manufacturer recommended that I use both the veg and bloom setting during the flowering period. The reason being is that the plant benefits from the full spectrum, thus bigger yields. Of course they could just be feeding me a line of shit.