Hey guys, I was thinking about topping my plants young and then maybe going scrog ... Now having watched a bunch of videos, some people say top at 4/5 nodes and some people say you can top as low as the second node .... some advice form the grower here would be much appreciated. These guys are under a 450W LED that I've turned off for the pics growing in coco/perlite and are about 12 days old.
Looks like the 4th node is whats growing in now.. what kind/name of 450w led are you using.. how far away do you keep your lights from plants??
I'm using a Greenfingers 450w LED it has the veg and bloom light and I usually keep my lights about 15/16 inches away from the plants, I just assume the manufacturers BS a little bit on their power figures so I try to keep them at about 500-600 PAR ... I don't have a PAR meter to test it though, but this is the chart that came with the light below. The nodes are stacking very tightly so far
i really dont think it matters whether its topped at second node or 3rd or 4th node if you let it grow a bit more get another few nodes to grow when you top it you can use what you have topped as a clone on grow that on ,,,mac,,
... yeah ... do they look like they need more light? because every time i lower them closer then 15/16 inches my plant leaves start to curl up?
Could def use more light!!!. They are curling when you lower ur light, cause your light is prob giving out too much heat mate. & she's getting stressed. (Lose lose situation) You could try increasing your airflow at the top of the tent to "try" to keep her happy in the meantime.
So after what you said I went and checked the serial sticker on the LED device itself and it says 180w average power, and 450 peak power... could this just mean it runs 180w with just the veg lights on and 450w with both the veg and bloom switches turned on ?? I'm just asking because I am running with both veg and bloom light switched on and it's almost bedtime and I don't want to wake up to burnt plants hahaha
Hmm I went and looked at all the top LED lights and none of them are even close in power draw watts to the watts they claim .. like this grow light VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 450W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum is listed on almost every single best led grow lights of 2019 list I could find and its Power Consumption is 200w??? VIPARSPECTRA V450 450W_Grow Lights_VIPARSPECTRA
How to choose the right LED light bulb When buying an incandescent bulb, the watts rating gives consumers a good indication of how bright a bulb is. The more watts, the brighter the bulb. That rule doesn't apply to LED bulbs, though. An LED that uses 60 watts is in no way comparable to an incandescent bulb that uses 60 watts. In fact, a 60-watt LED just may blind you. LEDs are designed to use less energy and naturally have a lower watt rating. This means it's useless to use watts to determine brightness. To fix the problem, bulb companies have started using lumens to rate bulbs. This gives you a more accurate indication of how much light to expect from an LED.
I bought my LED light based on the PAR ratings from the manufacturer .. they should be what they said it is right ?? or can they fudge that you reckon?
depends on what plans you have for the plant, topping above the third node is always safe, waiting IMO and it's better to only remove one node. For instance waiting until 5 nodes are formed and then topping above the third node is less desirable than just topping above the third node as soon as you can. If you are just going to let the side brances grow out it doesn't matter where you top and later and higher produces more branches. as for light, start with the old mh/hps rule of 50 watts per square foot, and then reduce that by how more efficient you claim your led is. I can get by with 45 w per sq with my qb boards. Once you get into high efficiency led, PAR is supposedly more important than watts, but once you figure out how efficient your light is, it still comes down to some "watt per square foot" formula. We all know and it has been proven for decades that 50w/sq ft of hid grows top shelf pot. So, an led is judged by how much it can beat that old rule. Don't ever buy an led unless the watt draw from the wall is verified. 1200w is just a name based on how many watts of diodes it contains and has nothing really to do with anything usable for judging the power of the light. 35 watts per square foot and even less is possible when combined with certain growing techniques. But for starters, knowing nothing else, the closer you get to 50w/sq the less you have to realy on other claims. And it can go the other way, some find these qb boards are too powerful even though they run at way less watts than hps, and these lights actually need to be turned down. I turn mine down by increasing distance, and with some more forgiving lights you can turn them up by reducing distance since they run cooler than hid. I could go on and on because this pot I grow in my little 2x3 indoor garden under my two 135w qb v2 makes me really talkative. I've got 6 little autos in there, all High talk sativa dom.
The best 450 watt LED grow light on the market only consumes 200watt which is the highest wattage Draw I found from any LED that is called a 450w LED .. mine is only 20 less than that at 180w... am I missing something ?? 1 watt in an led is more then 1watt of light ??? what am i missing here for my light to be not as good when some of the top 450w LED lights use around 130 watts to power them ?? I feel like there is something I'm not getting here lol
Invest in a killawatt meter $25 well spent it will tell you exactly how much juice each setting is using, very reveling...
You’re gonna want more than 180 watts.. but I have seen people flower 2x4 tents with 200 watts of quantum boards and have pretty damn good results.