Hello everyone!! My name is Biff (actually) and I am a first time grower!! I have a beautiful little setup which I have started, however as a novice I'm asking for someone to mentor me through. This is a personal experimental project, so I don't want my room to end up looking like a scene from Jumanji, but with any experiment I am looking for good results. So... What's exciting about my project - THE LIGHTING. I'm experimenting with FOUR of these Chauvet QWash 560z LEDs. They kick out 13,100 lux @ 5 m. Have continuous moving head capabilities, zoom, dimming and I can control individually, the 91 CREE LED's. They're about £2000 each, so hopefully perfect for the job. At the moment, I have them about 1.2m above the plants. No dimming (full brightness). No moving. Slight zoom. The colour settings I have at the moment. (255 = 100%, 122 = 50% etc) Red - 255 Green - 0 Blue - 255 Amber - 255 White - 255 THE SETUP - Don't mind changing this based on mentor / general advice. This is just what I have currently. Plants: Blue cheese cuttings - disappointing as I wanted something special but I got given this Soil: Coco soil with clay balls at base and mixed in with soil. Food: Canna Coco A & B. 10ml per 10L mix. Will increase strength to 25ml as plants grow?? Root Strengthener: Using Root Boi. 20ml per 10L for first three weeks only PH: Using PH down only, currently achieving PH levels of 5.5. Lights: 4x Chauvet 560z. Currently about 1.2m above plants. Truss: - Wind up trussing so when the plants grow larger, it can be raised Fan: Small fan above plants, same cycle as lights (18/6) Heat Control: Radiator in middle of room, with thermostat. Currently achieving 28c day, 24c night Fresh Air: Window ajar for fresh air Bacteria Control: Non scented, bleachless antibac used on all room and products, except inside of pots where water only was used. Non-powdered rubber gloves used at all times. Carbon Filter- Rhino 6 inch filter attached to fan to remove smell. Heat I do not believe is an issue. Currently off as no smell. Light Cycle: 18/6 for veg. 12/12 for flower. Water Regime: Approx 250ml, morning and night. Food Regime: Approx 250ml of food/water/root mix, every other day, in the morning (instead of watering) PICS: Thanks for looking - stay tuned for lots of updates when my proper thread is on the go. FIRST TIMER - ALL ADVICE WELCOMED AND APPRECIATED x
Ha! I'm interested. Wonder if any of those LEDs are putting out the correct spectrum for those plants.
Me too!! As you can see by the thread, I am giving it everything but GREEN light. Red, Blue, Amber & White. Maybe someone can bring some science into the equation?..
turn your scrubber around. set it sideways, not inbetween your plants but at the end. place the plants neatly in rows with the lights about 2 feet away from each other. you want all the light to be shared equally. check for better reflective material. Mylar works wonders. radiator in the back of the plants. maybe try shooting the lights sideways so they intersect getting a wider range of light
Interesting concept but holy christ you could get a ton of plant-spectrum lights for the price of those rave things. Subbed.
Thanks, I appreciate your thoughts, but bear in mind: A. I already owned these lights for stage production and they've more than paid for themselves in that respect. With the power output they can give, as well as the extensive set of features, makes them really interesting to experiment with. B: It's is just an experiment, so just moving to conventional tried and tested lighting isn't the point. I could buy a warehouse and grow in it but that's not what I am trying to do here. Small experimental system with lighting never been used before, but with the same spectrum / LED concept.
Not sure what you mean by scrubber? The plants as you can see are set in a triangular formation, with the LED light directly in the middle of that, so the three plants per light fixing are getting equal lighting. So you suggest different? The beams going vertically across a level row of pots?
Interesting concept but I would have went with panels that have diodes with the correct spectrums, for 8000 you could have like 10K W actual draw of proven LED technology. Subbed in nevertheless, I'm sure it'll work OK Sent from my Spaceship using the GrassCity App.
it would really be interesting if you set up the lights to pulsate and shoot lazer beams just like at a show while blasting dance music 24/7. A "rave grow", of sorts
Yes use the 2 lamps for 12 plants instead of 1 and 6 plants. Move the carbon filter(scrubber) to the side more. As they are really small still id stuff them in a corner in order to get the best reflection. You wanna preserve all that light to those plants, thats what the plant wants
Hell yeah, I'm all about experimentation. I figured you already had the lights and just wanted to try them so go for it. It likely won't be perfect, but at least you have the right mindset, experimentation breeds advancement. I'm very interested to see the results and what you find to be the hurdles etc.
Plants DO use green light, just not as much. Very interesting lights. I think this is almost the future of led lighting. They will be RGB and each diode will be able to change it's spectrum . Imagine your I door light mimicking the suns color of morning to noon time to evening! It's coming! http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1316222-4x4-led-wild-thai-seed-second-grow.html#entry20304616