- Full Setup. - 2 week old Pineapple Express. - 2 Week old RoadRunner - Slight light burn on tip's due to the changing of Wattage on my lights, underestimated the heat. Quickly reduced the distance, so it shouldn't have anymore problems. - 2 week old Polar Express - Same with above, slightly light burned on tip's, but light was moven away before any more damage could occur. - Momma Plant - Same with above, sadly got a little lightburn on the tip's of one side, but I moved the light away before any more damage could occur. Moved lights a few more inches away, hopefully no more problems will occur! I am 99.99% sure that it was light burn, I was originally working with 20W 6500k CFL's, 2 on each plant and 3 on the Mom. Changed to: 42W 6500k CFL's, 2 on each plant and 3 on the mom. I also lined the room with Mylar, and put in a new carbon filter. Will the buren't tip's ever restore themselves or should I Just keep on trucking and not concern myself with it? Lights have been moved a few inches away, and have been watered. All are in Fox Farm Ocean's Soil and nutes being used are Fox Farm Ocean Trio. The discoloration on the plants are due to the LED above, giving it a "Sick" look to it, but when the LEDS are off, they are very green with the exception of the burnt tips. Any comments would be great!
keep a small fan going between the light and the bulb when you get it real close, and what soil are you using? Some soils come pretty acidic which seems to make sprouts more susceptible to heat stress. My NYCD had that same shit going on the first week, but i was no closer with the lights than i have been before. It grew out of it, but then i heard acidic soil can make it happen more easily, and that clicked cus i know my FF HF comes pretty low sometimes, and sure enough i tested at like 4! My tapwater is pretty alkaline too, so that was all in the stock soil. I guess if they sit around for a while they can get that low 'cus of some acid crap in the mix. Ill be adjusting ahead of planting from now on. Give it a test man. Easy fix if it turns up way off. The plant will probably grow out of it on its own like mine did anyways. You got fans going? Like I said, I like to keep a real small one blowing right over the top between the plant and the light when i push the light close. You do want to keep them inside an inch whenever possible though... better to deal with a little burn than a lotta stretch.
I am using Fox Farm Ocean Soil. I am going to be testing the PH of the Tap Water, it is from a underground well, so it may have some problems, I haven't yet checked the PH of my water, but recently ordered a Electronic PH tester off of Amazon, so hopefully that will help. I was having less issues with the lower wattage CFL's, but everyone told me the higher wattage, the better. I am going to try having the lights at a farther distance for a week or 2, to see how they react, lighten off the nutes for a little while as well to see how they react. Also, I ordered 2 Fan's that will help circulate the heat in the room, it isn't to hot. Being at a high of 82, we currently have 1 fan going on just to blow some of the hot air off of the CFL's, but these hanging fans will help greatly we think. Thanks for the comment!
Dont pull the lights away man... You will not like the results. They will stretch, and quickly if you keep them more than a couple inches from the leaves. Not so much concerned with the ph of your water as with the ph of your soil... testers are garbage 90% of the time. Water until you get some runoff... test the runoff with a liquid ph test. Im betting the ocean forest has the same acid additive as the happy frog, but i dont know. That one can run nute hot out of the bag too. If you cant or dont want to figure it out, then ignore it... the plant will almost certainly get past its pickiness, but DO NOT draw the lights more than a couple inches away.
What if I just do away with the higher wattage CFL's and go back down to MORE lower wattage bulbs? I had the leaves almost touching the 15W Bulbs and never had a problem with burns intill I swapped over to the 42W. I have no problem putting another 2 - 3 lamps around the plant to make up for the lack of watts, but I do not want any stretching to occur if I can prevent it. Thanks!
23W are right in between there, but it really shouldn't matter. little air movement and they will all keep cool. I dunno man. Its just a battle lol, but dont just move things far away to make sure they wont burn. Keep it in reason and on the close side if possible is all im saying. a little burn is no big deal, soon there will be too many fan leaves to count so a little burn now wont matter, but stretching the plant will slow you down and make things harder and reduce bud sites.
Thanks man! Well, the new fans will be here on Wed, I just moved the lights a tad bit farther then normal, maybe a inch or 2 at the most. If I notice any unnecessary stretching, I will go back to my old setup and continue to put more lower wattage bulbs all around the plants, I can always put 4 - 5 CFLS on the under brush of the plant, and there seems to be a huge difference in the heat that the bulbs are giving off. I literally could touch the smaller bulbs even after 2 - 3 days of usage, with a light cycle of 20/4, but these new bulbs are so smoking hot that they will make you blister if you touch it for a few seconds. Hard to believe that such a small change in wattage is creating such a heat. I will update as the days go on! Should I snip the yellowed area's off of the Fan leaves or will it not matter?
ya lol they should not be that hot! No fluoro has ever been burn-your-skin hot in my experience. You got some smoking hot CFL's i guess.
I know right? I have never had a problem with heat with CFL's intill using these ones, I ordered them online from a grow-store. I may just start using LED's for side growing and replace out all of my CFL's with them, a little more expensive.. But a little money never hurt anyone.
Yea led seems to be the way to go if you have a bit of money to blow and dont mind the weird look of it... Check out this NYCD im doing with CFL... all 23W. Its the most recent update too. http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-marijuana-growing/1075561-experiment-hermi-crosses-some-nycd.html
Ah, I read through that earlier. I will sub+ for updates. I already have 5 50W LED's for side lighting coming in on Wed, which costed about 75.00 Each, and then I am considering buying another 2 UFO 90W CFL's for 300 total. I think with a total of: 15 50W LED's for Side Lighting 4 UFO 90W LED's for top lighting I would be able to make 4 plants grow very beautifully without the need to worry about distances/etc due to no heat being produced. Money isn't a problem.