Blue Light is Better for Flowering

[shivaganesha]

After reading this thread this morning http://www.drskunk.com/skunkskool/sp...html#entry3946

I've been thinking that maybe he is right. It all makes a lot of sense yet I must admit I do not know enough to say for a fact that it's right.

Could blue light be the best all around light to use?

It actually says in one part that red light is harmful to plants. Interesting stuff.

[Dro-Boy]

an HPS lamp is the best lamp that you can have for flowering. it has the most amount of red and blue light spectrums and my plants have not been hurt by it so dont believe everything that you read.

[CaliGrower]

Originally Posted by Dro-Boy

an HPS lamp is the best lamp that you can have for flowering. it has the most amount of red and blue light spectrums and my plants have not been hurt by it so dont believe everything that you read.

+100000

[shivaganesha]

Yes well... interesting comments although they don't really tell me anything. When I read your comments then go back and read that guys posts he says a lot more than... 'blue light is best for flowering and red light harms your plants'... do you see what i mean? He actually explains it all very well.

[mayson]

i use an 600 watt hps with no problems , the only problem i have is keeping them cool

[shivaganesha]

Originally Posted by mayson

i use an 600 watt hps with no problems , the only problem i have is keeping them cool

Well I've been doing a little research. Isn't it great when a subject like this turns up and literally forces you to want to know more.

The original poster was not saying that red light is harmful to an extent where red light will kill your plants, just that it does more harm than blue does. All light hurts your plants. Also that red light is of a lower quality to plants than blue light.

[Anony]

Interesting article, thats for sure.
I am good with whatever seems to mimic nature the best.

[shivaganesha]

Originally Posted by Anony

Interesting article, thats for sure.
I am good with whatever seems to mimic nature the best.

Yes very interesting... and the second thing you mentioned is the whole point of the article. The sun naturally throws out far more red than blue, which is why plants have adapted to use the red light more, but the article is suggesting that the sun is not the best light source for plants. It is the best, but only because of it's power... but were we to have a different sun, one that throws out much more blue we would have bigger and more potent plants growing on this planet.

So as an indoor grower it is not our job to replicate the suns light, but to replicate a light source that is more beneficial to plants.

That is what I gleaned from the article and the little bits of research I've done seem to back up this guy's theory.

[Extracurricular]

thats badass. i can see us with a different sun. thatd be a sweet movie. everything all tropical, ya know? anyways. cool read, by far better than any other topic on mj lighting. maybe some LEDs or another type of bulb would Aid the HPS during flowering?

[shivaganesha]

Originally Posted by Extracurricular

thats badass. i can see us with a different sun. thatd be a sweet movie. everything all tropical, ya know? anyways. cool read, by far better than any other topic on mj lighting. maybe some LEDs or another type of bulb would Aid the HPS during flowering?

Yes they would, all extra light particularly if you can mix up the spectrum is beneficial to your plants. In fact i read a test once on kidney beans, they were only tested under green and red light. The green light proved to germinate the beans faster although the resultant plants were very yellow and weak looking compared to the red light, but the green light still worked best for germination.

[amnesiac]

ive still heard from a billion and one more sources that hps flowers better plants, and that metal halides vegetates better plants. i read the article and it is very interesting. plus rep for bringing it to our attention. there seems to be something damaging about both HID's, somebody is always pissed off at one and someone else is always pissed off at the other. im a first time grower, and i bought 2 1000w mh's. both of which are taking a breather giving my 600w hps a chance to shine. i could have flowered my plant a month or two earlier but i insisted on using a hps to flower.

[shivaganesha]

That's exactly the thing amnesiac... thankyou for taking the time to post your thoughts as it has hit upon something important. I remember reading that blue has the slight edge on potency while red has the slight edge on yield. Slight edge? Who decided that?

It seems to me that if the blue photons are richer than the red ones, then providing a rich blue light source would benefit the plants more than providing a rich red one does.

[RabidRabbit]

From what i have read and observed from a few years of steady extracurricular research is that marijuana plants are best able to utilize red and blue light (i cannot recall the specific frequency ranges). Blue light has been shown to result in shorter inter-nodal lengths (possibly because of triggering the plant to produce higher amounts of giberillic(sp?) acid) and red light has been shown to trigger/quicken the onset of fruit production (BUDS!!!). Most all frequency's of green light are useless and are reflected - this is why we see most plant matter, in this case marijuana, as being green.

A simple experiment could validate any of this. For example, try growing one set of plants from seed/clone to maturity with only a metal halide (more blue), one set of plants with only high pressure sodium (more red), and one set under metal halide for the vegetative cycle and high pressure sodium for the flowering cycle. As has been proven time and again by growers around the world, the latter of the three is the method of choice for experience growers who have tried it all - I am inclined to believe that there may be something to this!

to each his own, and to all a good grow,
cheers

[shivaganesha]

Originally Posted by RabidRabbit

From what i have read and observed from a few years of steady extracurricular research is that marijuana plants are best able to utilize red and blue light (i cannot recall the specific frequency ranges). Blue light has been shown to result in shorter inter-nodal lengths (possibly because of triggering the plant to produce higher amounts of giberillic(sp?) acid) and red light has been shown to trigger/quicken the onset of fruit production (BUDS!!!). Most all frequency's of green light are useless and are reflected - this is why we see most plant matter, in this case marijuana, as being green.

Well it's actually chlorophyll that makes the plants green... the natural colour of the leaves behind the chlorophyll is a reddy, orangey, browney colour... or the colours of autumn, or as the guys in the US would call it 'Fall'. I would like to see the source for this information you give on red light encouraging the onset of fruit production...

Also the mention of gibberillic acid... as you said, blue light promotes this hormone, but then surely blue light would obviously be better for flowering... as gibberillic acid actually promotes flowering.

[RabidRabbit]

True chlorophyll appears green to the human eye because the wavelength of the reflected light is processed as being "green" by most human beings thru the cones/rods in their eyes...thank you for support and clarifying what I said.

Think about it, if red spectrums of light are detrimental to the sacred plant, why is it that the harvest sun (which is quite red in the afternoons and evenings) causes outdoor plants to flower?