Hi all, I received also from TEKNIK 4 strings of his nice "buddies", At the moment of the arrival, the crop was in their last stage so I have not used them yet.
But I have been doing some quick designs and some measures with a sekonic C-7000 spectrometer of the impact of the buddies in the intracanopy of late flowering plants (with some defoliation) that means that main top light was at this moment reaching deeper levels than normal... I will make more test in veg time and in middle flowering time when possible.
Have to say that I have been using side lighting several times with samsung leds 3500K in flex strips..with nice results..the problem is that if a leaf touch them it will be burn at the point of contact...also is difficult to use those strips in intracanopy lighting.
The white strings are very interesting, of course can be used as a main light, but they are not designed for that..They are perfect to fit any little space...as you can position the string in any place. and they will adpat to any dimension..specially interesting in microgrows..like those into a computer case or similar, like buckets.
They are easily dimmed and easily drived, so one of the things I did was use them in my high humdity clone chamber, well in fact is used for clones and little plants..about 70x45 cm.. I used one white string..in 5 minutes all was working...15 watts and 50 to 60 PPFD in all points of the chamber..perfect for clones and very little plants that you want to maintain slow growing...
This is one of the main advantages of this leds..the distribution of light..they difuse the light much more better than regular leds..this allows for the plants to be much closer to the leds...and this is important not only for the intracanopy or sidelighting..this makes you gain vertical space in little chambers...aand of course the known advantages of light difussion..not hot spots, less shadows, etc etc.. this feature is the first thing I liked about the buddies...I saw they installed and notice the nice distribution instantly . Did this pic just after installed them.
Other thing I like a lot is the spectrum..is much more wide and balanced that the clasical warm whites we are using..and this for me is a bonus!
This is the white buddies 4000K spectrum
And this a typical 4000K samsung one to compare
After doing this I try to think several quick ways of use the reds and the whites in the intracanopy
The read spectrum also is very interesting..Is a wide red..not like I was using before..adding 660 alone ..this red buddies cover a lot of red wavelenghts..and gives far red also which is perfect for emersson effect..Of course for doing EOD treatments you will need Far red alone. This kind of buddies is not for EOD.
It can be used added to a main white light..and increasing inmediately its CRI, they improve the spectrum for flowering..but in much better way than using only 660 or 630 monos..and of course you can dimm them as they are in a separate than main light..a thing that cant be done in the more common boards you se in the market...Also very interesting to add to 5000K leds and obtain a great spectrum for flowering..and their great diffusion pattern will mix better than usual leds with the main light..
The red spectrum..
This reds can be used also in intracanopy, not only for increasing popcorn buds size..but also during the stretch phase..they will change the red/far red ratio...stoping the shade avoidance syndrome..so limiting a lot the stretch in the elongation phase...
The whites can be used exactly for the same, to increase photosynthesis and also its red component will change also the red/ far red ratio probably to less extend than reds alone , but the blue component in them will also help to stop stretching.
The idea at this point (intracanopy and sidelighting use) is borrow some PPFFD /watts from canopy lighting and use them in the lower levels..this way the plant will be less stressed at the canopy, less light burn, less hot etc...and that borrowed light would be used inside in those leaves that will become yellow cause no light reach them and most people end defoliating.. Also maturation of top and lower buds will be more closer in time..
Of course taller plants will get the most benefit,..ultra compact ones will like side lighting but not like tall plants would benefit from it a lot.
After this rumblings I decided to explore some ways of using the buddies..one of them is use a solid copper wire that can be bend in all directions and attach one buddies string side by side...this way , you can position it in a lot of wais..in the intracanopy and you will got a nice light dispersion in all directions.. so..I have the wire at home..10 minutes and done... You can hang it, put around the plants etc...
Other idea was make something like a light saber...with two strings, red and whites for use in the intracanopy which give much more light of course...
I did it very quick with trash materials I have ..some tape and a piece of wood..nothing more..
A 30 watts cheap light saber
So I decided to put it in the intracanopy and take some measures..remember that this were almost finished plants..with much less leaves than normal and yellowing...but this measure give a general idea...
I taked measures from a point at about 30 cms from center of led saber... Spectrometer pointing to led emission points I mean to the side..not to top or down. Have to say that to change the buddies on/of states I had to extract the saber and remove connections and reposition it..and the spectrometer was not in a tripod..was positioned by hand in aprox the same place each time..this has produced some inconsistences for sure...so take this measures as a general approach..(if you look at the PPFD levels you will notice those inconsistences), anyway..the important measure here is the spectrum. Next crop..with more leaves...I will take measures using different channels for each color without repositioning the fixture and leaving the spectrometer in a tripod absolutely untoched...
BUDDIES RED OFF WHITE OFF PPFD: 24
BUDDIES RED ON WHITES OFF PPFD: 74
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