ultra violet tubes??

Yes, definitely. It will increase the potency of your bud by quite a bit.
You gotta keep the tubes close to the plants - within 12" for the 5% tubes, within 18-24" for the 10% tubes.

It's probably prudent to begin with only an hour or two per day, but you can gradually increase this as you near the end of flowering period.

-mu

 

Tell me which bit you don't understand, and I'll try again.

-mu

 

no the lights don't have to be on top. and as long as your seeds sprout while these lights are on ie the ultra violet tubes they should grow just like being outside ie thicker leaves and grow a little quicker

 

Okay.

Yes, UVB light is beneficial to your plants. It will increase the amount of THC in the buds. But UVB is only a supplemental light; you can't grow with only UVB. If you are using fluorescent tubes as your main light source, simply replace one or two of the tubes with a UVB tube.

UVB fluoro tubes come in a few different strengths, the most popular being 5%, and 10%. This rating tells us how powerful the UVB output is. Tubes with 5% UVB output need to be closer to the plants than the more powerful 10% tubes (and some of those megaray lamps can go more than a meter away, but most have quite a narrow beam), but if you are using fluoros as your main lighting, they will fit right into your regular fittings, and will then obviously be much closer, maybe only an inch or two.

This may be too close, especially for seedlings, and you might want to mount the UVB tubes further away from the plants to begin with, if possible, or else start with a shorter UVB period, maybe an hour the first few nights, then two hours, and so on. If they are on seperate fittings, obviously this will be much easier to do, but harder to wire up.

Although UVB would seem most useful in the late flowering period, there is some evidence that early exposure to healthy amounts of UVB (50-250 µW/cm²‡) will stimulate an even higher production of THC later on. UVB is also very useful at the selection stage, and young plants that show a high tolerance to increased levels of UVB are very likely to be the most potent plants later on.

Side lighting is effective, but it's best as a supplement to more powerful top lighting. Using only side lighting could introduce some unusual growth unless it's fairly even, but it is doable.

Two foot fluorescent (and UVB) tubes are a very popular size. I use them for my propagator and flowering chamber UVB light. You could fit those in the top, no? By the way, if I were you, unless height is a serious issue, I'd seriously consider getting some HPS lighting for flowering your girls.

That better?

-mu

ps. it's not possible to do too much studying!

‡ lower levels are not so useful, though this can be compensated some by longer exposure times.

 

i read somewhere that you can reach a point where too many trichomes can greatly effect flavor. supposedly, an overabundance of trichomes can cause extreme harshness in your bud. i don't know about anyone else, but i have plenty of trichomes when i grow. it's pretty cool really. like trying to get tree sap off your hands.

 

the UV tubes are black light tubes... right? just makin sure... heh

 

With proper curing, it will taste great, and wipe you out.

No. They are not the same. "Black Light" is long wave UV(A) light, and not a lot of use.

There are three different kinds of UV Light, UVA, UVB, and, wait for it, UVC. You want UVB, that is, either medicinal lamps (hard to get, and very expensive) or reptile lamps (easy to get, and quite reasonably priced)

-mu

 

are these ok http://www.1000bulbs.com/product.php?product=11820 seen the Mega Ray http://reptileuv.tripod.com/megarayflood.htm and these seems to be more watts wat ya think

 

Solar Brite Pet Light Bulbs are also heat bulbs, it's best to avoid that.

The MegaRay Lamps are excellent (they also do that version with UVB+Heat, which as mentioned, should be avoided)

HOWEVER...

a) that one is externally ballasted. You'd need a mercury vapour ballast to run them. But note, they also do a self-ballasted version of that lamp. And they also do bigger ones, in US and Euro voltages. Something like this.

b) That is a NARROW beam flood lamp. Although it does produce serious amounts of UVB, it would need to be mounted some distance from the plants to cover the larger area, which would drastically reduce the UVB output, though it would still probably be larger than a tube, and you could also have more than one lamp.

I'm not sure if megaray do a wide angle beam version, but similar lamps do exist. There's a name for them, which escapes me right now.

For the flat plane of a grow chamber, UVB tubes are probably more practical. One at each side of your reflector, for instance, would cover your whole grow area with UVB. Light particles can also "piggy-back" on top of each other (I think), so situating it close to the main lamp, would increase the available UVB. A good reflector will definitely do that.

You can buy UVB meters, by the way.

-mu

 

And let's not forget you can now get UVB lamps in regular CFLs.

-mu

 

cant anybody point out a bebsite where I can get these two prefarabely the 10% ones I think im gonna go with the 160 http://reptileuv.tripod.com/SelfBallasted2.htm but the thing is I dont own a lizard wont they ask me wierd questions or not sell me one at all

 

They are really easy to find, any pet store, basically. For instance, if I were looking for a 24" tube, I might try this...

http://www.google.com/search?q=UVB+reptile+24"

-mu

ps. if I were having to explain myself to a megaray supplier, I'd probably right out and say it was for growing herbs, but that's just me. I don't know a thing about keeping lizards, and it would be easy to get caught out, though you could say you'd just inherited a large vivarium (with a UVB meter) and you were told megaray was the best.

Buying the 5/10% tubes from a pet store is easy though, and no one will ask a thing.

 

I almost forgot. If you live in the US, this is a nice starter kit for your UVB experiments. It's an all-in-one 18" ballast, reflector and 7% UVB lamp (tube supplied) for $26.98...

http://www.petdiscounters.com/c26/S...5678.html?PETDISCO=pfadghu3v4815ffrujap7l4ra4

Don't forget, regular fluoro fitting work fine, so if you have any of those, you don't need this thing, just a tube and reflector, but if you are starting from scratch, it looks quite neat.

Start with one, if you like the results, get more, or else upgrade to bigger fittings tubes, and switch that dinky unit into your propagation unit or something. I'm rambling, stoned.

-mu

 

would it really make that much of a difference? grown properly, under hid lighting, most strains are very potent. if you had some grown with the additional lighting, and did a blind test, could you tell the diff.? i'd wager no, but i have a very low tolerance. i grow for flavor, that's what interests me most. it all gets me wasted.

 

Well, I've just not long started experimenting with UVB (indeed, with growing indoors, at all), which explains why this stuff is still fresh in my mind. I spent a long time looking for a bargain tube, and sucked up a lot of information along the way. The reptile sites are the best for researching about UVB and UVB lamps, mainly because the levels needed are very similar to ours, and because reptile guys really like to get their figures right. Their reptile's life could depend on it.

One half of my grow gets UBV, the other half not (there's a regular tube in its place, so light intensity doesn't play a factor). I've just started taking a couple of the lower popcorn nugz off the plant (because I don't know this strain, and amber trichomes are appearing - I want to find the best harvest day) and have already tested the first batch. In fact I'm testing it right now, which explains why I've been rambling on for hours on the board!

The area with intense HPS + UVB side seems to me the most resinous, is maturing faster, and has the most wipe-out effects, but I can't disregard the psychosomatic effect on that aspect (i.e. I spent money on a tube, so I wants it to work) though I do have a fairly high tolerance. Once the main harvest comes in I plan to do some blind tests with a few mates (standard test, roll heaps of joints in two piles, see which disappears first)

I know outdoor grown pot is superior to indoor under HPS, and I believe UVB is the missing link. If it all works out, I'll get a second tube for the other side of the chamber.

-mu