UV Suppliment Lighting

Norml56 said:

Do you typically get that fox tailing with that strain?

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bigmikey86 said:

First and last time running it so I couldn’t say for sure, but the buds do look very similar to the breeder pics so I’d say the strain naturally has some fox tailing occur during flower.

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Kassiopeija said:

These "pine-shaped" buds are simply strain-dependant and actually not foxtailing at all - foxtails have a different architecture. If even the buds at the bottom come out the same it's safe to assume no foxtails occured...

How long have you been running the UVBs per day?

I wonder if there's a threshold in irradiance of UVB lightbands which would cause this (herming) even if the total amount of UVB photons doesn't exceed the daily dosage?

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bigmikey86 said:

I had too many sugar leaf tip burns that it affected the bag appeal.

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Kassiopeija said:

These brown outward dry tips, leaf margins and sometimes even a wider spot? Yes I believe you are on the right track! As you increase each week you may - or not - be seeing these brown places develop and then immediately turning it off for a couple of days and then continueing at the previous weeks lengths. Like you wouldn't want to further expose your sunburnt skin to direct sunbeams right immediately.

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count zero said:

I think that at 10" even the 25w are too much unless u're only dosing minutes at a time.
I don't know that you'd loose "a LOT" by going higher, depends on the heatsinks of your strips,
20% isn't that relevant loss for UV b/c it's not on all the time.

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: said:

When u arrange several strips, you'd leave wider gaps in the center of the canope, as not to create a big hotspot in the center.
This would work towards 1 UV tube solution.

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graying.geek said:

So I've been running the 39w Reptisun 10.0 for 2 weeks now, going gradually from 2 x 1/2 hour cycles per day to 2 x 2 hour cycles and everybody is happy so far. no sign of damage or nanners (yet) and plenty of frost, so I'll probably push to 2 x 3 hr.



Which is exactly what I did:

View attachment 4759978

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joejack51 said:

Just to resume, the 395nm and 365nm led are kinda worthless?
the only good UV source light in north america is Solacure? thats it???

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joejack51 said:

Ty guys for the input!
I was asking because im looking to supplement my lightning in my 2 flowering tent (2'x2'x4')
I got a Meijiu QB288 LM301H 3000K in each tent (only white leds) I bought some Kingbrite QB11 Cree XP-E2 660nm Strips (2 strips per tent)
I'm also adding 6 Rapidled Far Red led per tent for emerson effect during the light on and for EoD treatment
I'm in a situation where the only UV I could add to my set up is 4x Rapidled 395nm per tent...
So my question is: If my only option to add UV is adding some 395nm Rapidled led, is it worth it or not???

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joejack51 said:

So my question is: If my only option to add UV is adding some 395nm Rapidled led, is it worth it or not???

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Randomblame said:

When you can get them incl. a siutable T12 fixture there is nothing wrong with them. They are much stronger like reptile bulbs so 1-3h per day should be enough but they are for sure more expensive and each time you replace them you have to pay additional shipping costs and custom fees. And shipping such bulbs is expensive because of the huge packages.

For EU peeps I recommend to get the Arcadia reptile bulb called D3desert(12%) or D3dragon(14%). They are strong enough to get the same results, you can use them for up to 12h as soon as the plants are used to it and they do not damage the plants no matter how long they are running. Plants need only a week to get used to UVB which means the 1st week only 1-3h but then there is no limit.
The Solacure bulbs are so strong they can damage the plants and they need a certain minimum distance of 20-24".
Reptile bulbs can be used with less distance. 8-12" with the 12% bulbs and 12-16" with the 14% bulbs. To cover 2x 2c area evenly you need at least 12" distance and a metallic reflector.





Why do you believe UVB light destroys your gorilla tent? I've seen many peeps using UVB and till now no one mentioned such things. Has it white coated tent walls? In this case its possible that you see a purplish tint with the time but with mylar on the walls there is no such coloration.





I've 325w white, 10w far-red and I add 20w hyperred this month so 355w LED and I have two 2ft bulbs now which means ~48w UVA/B. Works for me and means a 7:1 ratio. But only 12% is UVB and 30% of the 48w are UVA. The rest is visible light and should be added to the amount of LED light. Too complicated for my taste and even then its probably more UVB like the natural 1-3% of the sun light. But god thanks thats not an issue with reptile bulbs. I've used them 12" above the tops for 12" and you get ~150μW/cm² in the center out of a 12% bulb. So 150x 12h= 1800μW/cm² x 0,036= a wooping dose of 64,8kJ/m² directly under the bulbs. Calculated with 40% to come near to average numbers thats still 26kJ/m².

And yes, I've done w/ and w/o tests and have seen several differences.
I've used a well known GreenPoison clone for this tests and have grown the strain for around a year before I've startet to use UVB light. So it was pretty easy to spot differences because I knew what she could do.
The first differences you'll see is the plants grow a little more compact and stay shorter. Maybe because of the extra blue but this is also an effect of UVB. When plants receive UVB the UVR8 molecules gets destroyed and the plants recognize, "OMG, there is UVB! I need to protect myself and my possible babies as fast as I can".
Branches will faster get strong and woody, leaves stay a little smaller too, they also look darker because of more densely packed chlorophyll inside the leaves. The transition goes faster too and I've seen the first preflowers on the UVB side within 3 fecken days, you get less stretch and shorter internodial spacings too and last but not least the plants start earlier to from the 1st trichomes. Up to a week earlier! They do everything a little faster and and later in flower you'll see much more purple, red and other colors. I also believe it has a shortening effect on the flowering cycle but I've also used far-red so I can not say that for sure.
Positive side effect, insects and fungal infects are also no problem anymore. Insects can see UV light and they avoid it because it damages their dna and UVB kills spores pretty fast too. Not as fast as UVC does, this takes only seconds, but UVB is used for hours so you can be sure it will do the same.

I've also tested it with a usually slightly purple Bubba's Gift I've used a few times before under my 160w LED and with 24w UVB (12% Arcadia bulb) this strain ended up looking almost like a black widow. The upper half of the buds were almost black and the colors also dissapeared pretty slow with the curing. The buds are still visible darker.
Also the upper leaves ended up getting almost black and when two leaves have overlapped the lower leaf still stays green. So it was for sure an effect of the UV light.

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Randomblame said:

You could even DIY such a fixture. Simply order a cheap hammered stucco reflector cut a 6inch wide piece off and bend it like a wing reflector. Order a few T5 bulb sockets from e3ay(a 5 pack costs 1,50$), you need two for each bulb and at last order a T5HO ballast and some single core AWG20 wire. (Important: the wires can not be longer like 2m)
Usually the 24w ones can be used for 2ft/24w "and" 3ft/39w bulbs.
For my 1st build I've just used a 24x 6" alli sheet and bend it like this \_/.
Only make sure there is no fancy glas coating like on adjust-a-wing reflectors or other hoods.
The cheapest ones are the ones doing the best job with UV.
I don't think there is a big difference between the available fixtures when you measure the average intensity. The peak intensity says only how much you get in the center and with a 90° reflector you get higher readings like with a 120° reflector but the total amount UVB distributed is almost the same. I rather have better distribution and less hot spot...


I've found my new dimmable 2 bulb ballast for 18$ on am4zon(a Philips HFregulator 224-TLS 220-240) but I don't believe its available in the US. But with reptile bulbs there is no need for dimming. I've ordered it only cuz I wanne try to use the Agromax bulbs dimmed down before I finally sell them (at least the 4 unused ones). Maybe I can figure out a way to use them without yield loss and burnings and if not.. These bulbs are not available in the EU so when I offer them for 25 a piece on e3ay I should get at least a part of my investment back.

If you can get the 14% bulbs - get them!
If you can get only 10 or 12% bulbs you can also use the Hortilux powerveg+ bulbs they have almost the same spectrum.
I expecially like the Arcadias because they have a CRI90 or 95 spectrum, 7 or 8k. This means they also add some nice blue light to the spectrum. An if you look at the spectrum the spikes fits perfect to widen the blue range below and above 450nm.

I plan to use UV light only in the 1st half of the day and use some far-red with the 2nd half of the day. But before I can test it I have to figure out if there is a way to use these Agromax bad boys. I have my Arcadia's already waiting and can use them at least in my smaller 3sft area.
Believe me, you will be impressed when you see the difference. These light also brings a lot more colors to life and also the terpene content will increase which means it also smells stronger in your garden. So keep that in mind...

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Far-red light - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Randomblame said:

To make them used to UVB is neccessary cuz its the same as when you bring a small indoor plant in summer outdoors in the sun. She would need a few days in the shade to acclimate to the new conditions because of the UV radiation. With these bulbs it's the same. I would wait a week until the clone has rooted in properly and than start with maybe 2-4x 15 minutes the day. It takes around a week to make them used to it so in the 2nd week you can already start to increase it.

But for me it makes the most sense to do this one week before I switch the lighting regime to 12/12h. They are used to it when I switch and I can directly start to increase the daily dose to 2h. Usually I leave it there until the first few trichomes are coming up(2-3h) and when the stretch is done and they are fully focussed on flowering they get the full dose(up to 6h).

I will also try to use UVB only from week 5 to finish. Plants receiving UVB switch in a kind of stealth mode. In this mode they are fully focussed to survive. They stay a bit smaller, more dense and compact, the stems get faster hard and woody and they do all to protect the next generation of seeds. This means an early start could be counter productive and you maybe need a longer veg to get the same results. It could make sense to wait until the 1st flowering rush is done ad use it from end of the stretch or even later. You get probably the highest increase in thc when you start from the beginning. But how much more did you get when you start later? Is it only a bit less but you get better yields it could really make sense.
You have anyway to figure out how much a certain strain can handle with every new strain in your grow room and you'll see for sure different response from strain to strain. It's a leaning by doing thing and there is no one size fits all solution.
UV stress looks like heatstress(twisted or curled leaf margins and tips) and you should watch the upper fan leaves carefully cause these leaves have only very little thc in the tissue. So the first signs of stress you see usually on the upper fan leaves.

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drinkoldcoke said:

As far as things going a little faster with the plant, I have seen 2 bits of info that states photosystem 2 (really the first photosystem but they never corrected that and 2 is really 1 and 1 is really 2) needs stimulation from the red side, however I heard one scientist say on youtube (world science fair - quantum biology) say that photosystem 2 captures UV quanta. Whether or not this is correct or incorrect I am not sure. Blue or red aside photosystem 1 (really the 2nd half mind you) depends on photosystem 2 being activated and makes photosystem 1 more efficient. Most people call it the Emerson effect and what I've seen online says red and far red and does not mention the UV end as far as the symbiotic Emerson effect.

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