5 x 5 light set up

Frank Cannon said:
Nice sess Prawn, really nice, @Prawn but you never gave me any pointers about current conditions:

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Too busy talking, drinking . . . what was the question again? :P

Plants look fine to me, but I notice (maybe it's the way I'm looking at the photo) that the QBs on the left seem to be lighting up the side of the tent and not much more. Maybe it's just the angle . . .

Me, I like pots with individual drippers (or dripper rings) so I can move my plants around to make best use of the light. But you're in the best position to know if moving to pots would offer any advantage. As I mentioned earlier, I use a pot-size calculation of 1 litre per dried ounce. Four 10 litre pots would do the job. Of course, you also need to consider your drainage: either pot-within-a-pot, or on a flood and drain table/tray - whatever works best.

You may find with the extra red of those QB96s your plants finish a little earlier than usual. We've noticed with the QB324s that the extra red from the CRI90 LEDs is finishing our eight-week strains in seven weeks. Same yields, but slight smaller buds, due to the earlier finishing time.

If you were thinking of pulling off a few fan leaves to let in more light, I usually pluck the fan leaves at the branch junctions but not the fan leaves that supply the bud sites, as in my experience stripping bud-site fan leaves leads to smaller buds as the plant uses more energy to transport stored starches and nutrients from other areas. I'm sure you've read my spiel on it.

Other than that, there's not much else I can add - the new set-up looks great.
 
Hey bud, yeah I lollipoped em just before Chrissy, but have only selectively pulled a few from the top. Will definitely being going to 4 x pots on a flood tray next time. I got caught out with a couple of slow clones and it would have been beneficial to be able to lift/move the buggers....

4 weeks to go, if they finish a bit earlier sounds good, but I hope they fill out.

I pretty much followed @Or_Gro mapping for 6 x QBS. The outside ones are about 7" from the edge of the tent vs his 1" (4ft 6 vs his 4ft tent). Its got me to a starting point where I'll get this grow under my belt with upgrading to QBs and back to Coco. I am running 950w at the wall and 8-900 ppfd at very top of canopy. Probably could be a bit more efficient but I'm away for a couple of weeks so it will have to do for now. Next time I will spend a bit more time with my meter to see spread and see what I can come up with.

Didn't take me long to turn the wick up did it, sigh.... told ya

Best wishes everyone and once again thanks.

FC
 
Frank Cannon said:
Hey bud, yeah I lollipoped em just before Chrissy, but have only selectively pulled a few from the top. Will definitely being going to 4 x pots on a flood tray next time. I got caught out with a couple of slow clones and it would have been beneficial to be able to lift/move the buggers....

4 weeks to go, if they finish a bit earlier sounds good, but I hope they fill out.

I pretty much followed @Or_Gro mapping for 6 x QBS. The outside ones are about 7" from the edge of the tent vs his 1" (4ft 6 vs his 4ft tent). Its got me to a starting point where I'll get this grow under my belt with upgrading to QBs and back to Coco. I am running 950w at the wall and 8-900 ppfd at very top of canopy. Probably could be a bit more efficient but I'm away for a couple of weeks so it will have to do for now. Next time I will spend a bit more time with my meter to see spread and see what I can come up with.

Didn't take me long to turn the wick up did it, sigh.... told ya

Best wishes everyone and once again thanks.

FC
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I forgot to ask: what sort of PAR meter are you using? And is it any good? Or are you using a lux meter and converting it to PAR?
 
I have four qb288 in my 5x5 and I would recommend six. Run three pairs with each pair of boards running end to end.
 
SCJedi said:
I have four qb288 in my 5x5 and I would recommend six. Run three pairs with each pair of boards running end to end.
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Eight 288s in a 4x4 work great, with supplemental reds and co2...

Two 288s, properly spread, per plant...
 
Or_Gro said:
I can vouch for apogee mq-500...
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Yes, I've been looking at the Lighting Passport, which does everything (PAR meter, spectrometer) for around $1300 here: https://www.lightingpassport.com/

But for $750 I can buy the cheaper Lighting Navigator which provides spectometer and lux, but not PAR: https://www.lightingnavigator.com/product/lighting-navigator/

With the extra money, I was going to buy an SQ-520 for the PAR meter side of things and use the Lighting Navigator for spectrum.

What do you guys think?
 
Prawn Connery said:
Yes, I've been looking at the Lighting Passport, which does everything (PAR meter, spectrometer) for around $1300 here: https://www.lightingpassport.com/

But for $750 I can buy the cheaper Lighting Navigator which provides spectometer and lux, but not PAR: https://www.lightingnavigator.com/product/lighting-navigator/

With the extra money, I was going to buy an SQ-520 for the PAR meter side of things and use the Lighting Navigator for spectrum.

What do you guys think?
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Can’t speak to quality and performance of lighting navigator, but you don’t need to have spectrum and ppfd on the same meter. So, your overall approach is a good one.

I have the apogee mx for mapping, cuz it’s easiest for taking many measurements quickly, but i think sq is same sensor. The convenience of mx was worth extra $100-$150 for me. Whatever you get, also buy the wand.

I have a sekonic 7000 too, which does both spectrum and ppfd. It’a nice to have both spectrum and ppfd on same meter, but just being able to measure both is much more important than the convenience of having them on the same meter.

And, while the sekonic can measure ppfd, it’s a clumsy tool for doing mapping, due to fact that you have to press a button on the meter to take each reading, which can be a pain when trying to take precise locational measurements across a grid; the apogee mx (And presumably the sq) measures continuously.
 
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That's good to hear. Does the Sekonic light sensor not detach from the main body? One of the advantages of the Lighting Passport is it can be controlled remotely by your phone using Bluetooth and you can fashion your own wand to push the sensor around as you record. However, the Apogee will be the more accurate unit, which is why I was leaning towards getting both.
 
Prawn Connery said:
That's good to hear. Does the Sekonic light sensor not detach from the main body? One of the advantages of the Lighting Passport is it can be controlled remotely by your phone using Bluetooth and you can fashion your own wand to push the sensor around as you record. However, the Apogee will be the more accurate unit, which is why I was leaning towards getting both.
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Yeah, the sekonic sensor is attached to meter. Works great for growing, where ability to get a single, quick, one-handed reading and spectrum are more important than multiple, precise, two-handed readings for mapping.

Here is my priority list:
1. Ability to take a ppfd reading, any way possible
2. Ability to take ppfd and spectrum reading, any way possible.
3. Ability to take multiple ppfd readings conveniently for mapping; along with ability to quickly spotcheck ppfd and spectrum.

This stuff is expensive so convenience comes with ability to pay a lot. If funds are limited get a lux meter and approximate ppfd the way Frank is doing; more $$$, get a spectrum meter to use with lux meter; more $$$ get an apogee w wand and a separate spectrum only meter; more $$$, get the apogee with wand and a separate handheld spectrum-ppfd meter.

My apogee and sekonic ppdf readings are extremely close, so it’s not an issue that one is more accurate than other.

Some spectrum meters do uv thru far red, this would be best range, if meter is a quality one.
 
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Prof Prawn and clan,

So my clone tent is 800mm high and I run 2 x 24w 10000k and 2 x 24w 6500k Mojocow T5 Cfls.

It seems to clone OK but they really do bugger all when transplanted into small coco pots.

How close to the T5s should these be?
I'm thinking that maybe a decent set of LED strips or maybe a QB board would be better. Considering my height, love to hear your or others thoughts pls
FC
 
Haha, you won't believe what I clone under - 13W LED desk lamp.

philips-13w-e27-led-classic-a60-warm-white-1400lm-bulb.jpg


Does the job. Once the clones strike, I put them straight into the veg tent. Here are some old pix - four double-row 2' F-series strips on a HLG-240H-48A driver (running at 100-120W):
1weekAcid.jpg

1weekSide.jpg


The best veg light I've made so far is this one for a mate (actually made two of these). Five 4000K F-series strips. He runs them at about 200W in a tent and they veg like you wouldn't believe:
Newframe2.jpg

But to answer your question, get the T5s as close to the new clones as possible without burning them. Depends on the temperatures in your grow room, but I'd imagine you only want them 2-3" above the tops. That's how I used to run CFLs in my old veg chamber.
 
Looks like I am up for a Lille strip build then....
I need to go back and get my head around strips and I'll come back to you to confirm I haven't wondered off on some weird tangent.

My tent is 800 x 600 in plan elevation by 800 high, just to confirm I could veg 4 little pots in here OK?
FC
 
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