All data pertaining to growth will be in RED, story is in BLACK and my questions are at the bottom in BLUE for the TL;DR people *2 LED lights 1'x1' 15W ea. Producing 70% blue 15% red or wave lengths 380nm to 600nm that are 10" from plants. (Built them myself, if you are interested in what diodes I used just ask.) * 8x8 Tent (had to remove from tent to take pics) *16/8 light schedule *Royal queen photo fem seeds *Fruit spirit & Pink runtz strains *15-16 days old *68-72°f daytime, 45-55°f night time *Humidity stays at 60% *6" inlet fan pulls fresh air from outside at all times. *Watered to run off only once soil is completely dry. With 6.0 distilled WELL WATER (2x since planting) *NO PLANT FOOD 98% organic grow *Soil is a rich compost, worm castings, perlite, vermiculite, coco, top soil and loam mixture blended with both myko's and azo's microbes by Xtreme. Basically organic soil with lime to help maintain a 6-6.5 pH with the compost. I've been using this mixture for 6 years now. Freshly made with every grow *Germinated in paper towels all at the same time. Planted into dirt all within a day of each other. They all popped out of the soil and kept the shell on (looked like lollipops) for way longer than I've ever seen. I started spraying the seed shells with water to soften them after 5 days to help the plants break free. By day 8 they were all free Let me emphasize, these seedlings are just 15-16 days old starting from germination to today. They honestly look like outdoor seedlings that are 3-4 weeks old because of how close the nodes are and the width of the leaves and broad span. The reason I'm here is if you look closely at the pictures some plants have deformities, some have areas with slight red or purple hues like they have high PH or P/K deficiency/toxicity. Some are losing pigment like they are over watered or have a nutrient issue. Some are growing really fast while others are growing at what I consider a normal pace. I was crediting the explosive growth to the LED light because it's the only different factor from the run I started 2 months ago with same seeds/strains and same soil BUT the deformities, red/purple hues, uneven growth between the different plants and yellowing leaves have me concerned because of my experience growing I think I know everything so I'm overlooking something... Soils organic. No added nutes. Watered 2x in 15 days with 6ish PH distilled well water that measures 140ppm because of high mineral content. Watered once when planted and once today when soil was completely dry. Same soil and same seeds as first run 2 months prior. First run from same exact seeds started off normal and has been normal since. The only difference is I started the seedlings of first run with 2 store bought 25w FULL SPECTRUM LED lights. No mutations, no fast growing, more stretch and width of seedlings was nothing like this second run in question. The 2nd run that I think I'm having issues with are pictured below. They are outside the tent because the reflection of light in the tent makes lines thru the pictures. Did they grow so fast that they needed more nutrients than they could take up? Has anyone experienced this much growth in just 15 days? In 13yrs I never have.. Do you think this is because of the overwhelming blue vegative stage wavelength instead of full spectrum? what are the odds that 3/4 of the seeds from this run all carried a genetic defect? Have you had strains with such strong anthocyanins(pigment) that they started showing in the seedling stage and made you think you had a nute/PH issue when you didn't? Do you think they look great besides the defects/slight yellowing and purple/red hues and want to see the veg stage finished using these lights I built to see the final outcome? what are your thoughts/opinions? Ignore writing on reused cups and jug is not nutes it's collected run off to test and use on older plants. Everything and anything you have to say is welcome, even the criticism. We can't increase our skills unless someone is willing to tell us what we are doing wrong. If you're still reading my long run on post, I appreciate your time and willing to help you anyway I can.
30 watts isn't going to cut it for lighting. You need a good 150 watts for flowering 2 plants. I see a lot of genetic variance. Were those tester seeds?
There's only 2 strains here but the growth is so uneven between plants it looks like genetic differences. I will say this too, these were the last seeds in 50 packs. They were the seeds I looked at and said " those probably won't grow" but ended up growing. I honestly think royal queen seeds got too big before they were ready and are over breeding their plants reducing the ability to evenly pass genetics into each seed making uniform grows hard unless you buy their hybrid F1 seeds. They weren't necessarily tester seeds BUT this is the first time I've used these lights I built so in a way it was a test. I am thinking of running these lights the whole veg as a test as mentioned above. By removing the unneeded spectrums I'm able to provide more light for less wattage. Each modified 15w LED running 380-680nm is the equivalent of 300w per sqft full spectrum LED. Photo plants don't use the red wavelengths until flowering and once flowering they only need the UVB/C wavelengths. I know this is gibberish to most, let's just say I build lights, know what spectrums the plants use for each cycle and modified the LED lights to only provide that spectrum cutting down on heat and cost. You can actually buy grow lights that have a veg/flower switch. All that does it switch the light from veg blue spectrum to flowering red spectrum. 30 watts LED of straight blue wavelengths pushing 10,400LUX for seedlings...it's much stronger than people think. Photosynthesis happens in 380nm to 680nm... flowering happens with 700nm to 900nm. These are my starter lights, some people like cool blue florescence to start seeds with, I like low wattage LEDS with modified spectrum. Only reason I mentioned possibly finishing THE VEG stage with these lights is due to the tightness of the nodes. They are clearly loving these lights. There is almost no red spectrum which is needed for flowering. They also are run on a strobe driver where we can't see it with a naked eye but it's pulsating back n forth from 380nm-480nm to 480nm to 680nm every 1.3 seconds. So Im thinking of doing the veg cycle with these lights and then putting them under my modified 1200w LED that has the low ultraviolet 380nm to 480nm and red 680nm to 900nm infrared diodes completing cutting out the 490nm to 670nm that tells the plant to grow. This makes the plant only focus on flower and resin production. The low ultraviolet B and C serves as a disinfectant and also forces the plant to produce more resin because the resin is the plants sunscreen.
14 days at what wattage? Also my seeds were all stuck in their shells for 5 days because of royal queen over breeding and the seeds not having enough stored energy to break thru the shell correctly. So I'm looking at them like they are really only 9-10 days old!.. If they weren't stuck in their shells for 5 days they would most likely be 50% bigger right now. I have to start some new seeds from a different breeder and test them under these lights without getting stuck in shells because I know I'm onto something game changing with the light spectrums. I appreciate your reply and posting this picture for comparison. Really interested in knowing what kind of light you are using
The F1 hybrids or the strains I'm growing now? I've been growing for years, my wife was into house plants and got into cannabis a couple years ago. Won't take any help from me but used this and other forums in the past for advice/opinions so I figured I would give it a try
The spider sf1000 is a full spectrum light that uses the lm301or lm301h diode which was the best full spectrum diode available almost 10 years ago. It was quickly replaced by the lm301b which runs cooler so it uses less power to produce the same light. It takes 10 lm301 to produce the same light as 7 lm301b diodes. Wattage per square foot originated from HID/HUD/HPS lighting. LED is a whole different ball game and requires different measurements. For example 100w of lm301 diodes vs 70w of lm301b produce the same exact "power" per sqft. That's where Candelas or lumens comes in to measure the power produced per sqft. I can guarantee the sf1000 that you have is producing between 8000-9000LUX for lm301 diodes and 9000-10,000 LUX for lm301h diodes at 1 foot because Ive had the same light. I'm producing around 12,000LUX with just 15w on the lights I built. The sf1000 at all times is producing yellow and red spectrum which red is only needed during flower and yellow is barely used at all.. So ½ the light is not needed nor really used during veg essentially making it a 50w light even tho you are paying for 100w of electricity. That's why I built these 15w lights. Why pay for wavelengths that the plants aren't using? 300 is UVB absolutely going to cook your plant in early veg because it hasn't started producing resin glands (sun screen) 400 is just barely above UVA wavelength. 300-400 ppfd is straight UV light. Mine as well grow with a blacklight because its literally 320-400 ppfd. Photoperiod cannabis is called (photo)period because it goes thru a process called (Photo)synthesis. Photosynthesis occurs between 400 and 700. You will impair photosynthesis, have very short plants that concentrate all their growth on making larger leaves to try to find that 400-700 ppfd for photosynthesis. Without photosynthesis the plant will have zero nutrient intake creating toxicity once you put it into flower, then stunting the plant in the first couple weeks of flower which are absolutely pivotal. The plants will be so stressed out they will most like hermie. Plants need much more than 300-400 ppfd
i dont see anything really bad or out of the range of normal. Everything I see is stuff that my seedlings have had at one time or another and have grown out of it. I say keep doing what you are doing. Is your light helping or hurting is a question that I feel needs more time to answer since plants at this stage dont need much light. Keep us posted.