Cause of plant bleaching with led?

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
So, if heat is not the cause - what in the light spectrum of led is the cause of bleaching at high intensities?
 

sanjuan

Well-Known Member
My Lumigrows bleach and they use 450nm blue and 660nm red (and a little white for the gardener).

I vote blue photons.
 

churchhaze

Well-Known Member
I think it has to do with the high absorbance of red and blue by chlorophyll. If you use only R+B light, the first layer of canopy absorbs almost all of the light, causing it to become over-saturated. Also, too many high energy photons (too much blue) could be causing destruction.

It also might have to do with a deficiency that was hard to notice under less extreme conditions. (iron or magnesium maybe?)

I'm not 100% sure. I tend to get burn with white leds when the tips get too close to the light (straight up brown/gray/black), not bleaching.
 

PSUAGRO.

Well-Known Member
I think it has to do with the high absorbance of red and blue by chlorophyll. If you use only R+B light, the first layer of canopy absorbs almost all of the light, causing it to become over-saturated. Also, too many high energy photons (too much blue) could be causing destruction.

It also might have to do with a deficiency that was hard to notice under less extreme conditions. (iron or magnesium maybe?)

I'm not 100% sure. I tend to get burn with white leds when the tips get too close to the light (straight up brown/gray/black), not bleaching.
I agree......tight lens angle doesn't help either. Never had an issue with the 65w Hans panel using reflectors though.
 

Positivity

Well-Known Member
diffusion helps...raise the light or lower the intensity. Something about the spectrum isn't exactly right. Works great, but not perfect...its why I laugh at companies banking on the yellow similarity. "Harness the power of the solar spectrum"....baloney. Cobs are very very good though....my favorite yet..
 

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
Are there led diodes that generate adequate UV and IR?
You would think with individual diodes and proper output information one could blend a bunch of individual led's to truly reach a sun like spectrum.
 

Positivity

Well-Known Member
Are there led diodes that generate adequate UV and IR?
You would think with individual diodes and proper output information one could blend a bunch of individual led's to truly reach a sun like spectrum.
yeah...i don't know what the holdup is on that. Leds are still maturing I guess. Uvb is still hard to find and last I remember had horrible outputs versus cost. Different companies specialize in different spectrums, you'd have to get them to work together. Or piece it together yourself like heliospectra...
 
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Positivity

Well-Known Member
So, if heat is not the cause - what in the light spectrum of led is the cause of bleaching at high intensities?

I actually jumped the gun...are you talking about bleaching as in white tips on bud tops or overall plant lightening..

Last time I saw white tips i had a top really close to deep reds. I've seen my 90w prosource ufo do it easily at low power. My old glh spectra did it bad with its dual chip setup. I've seen my cobs do it, but it was a top within 2" of a 3070 at 10w

I was more talking about an otherwise healthy plant losing overall color and lightening. See that all the time with cobs and it was recently on my mind..seems to happen a little prematurely compared to other light sources
 

the dopest

Well-Known Member
I'm in the nutrient issues camp. Mine started yellowing on my first LED grow with 3k CXA3070s and I pumped up the nutes, after about 3 days, they were not only greener, but growth rate took off in a good way. Now my plants are happy and healthy and starting to put on weight. I am running about 42w per sq ft in a 4sq ft cabinet and use the GH Flora Micro and Bloom in the lucas formula with tap water. I just added KoolBloom to the mix last week but other than that, nothing but 5.5-6.0 ph and lucas.
 

sanjuan

Well-Known Member
I thought the OP was about this type of albino top, 24 inches from Lumigrow Pro 325:
SAGE cola.jpg
(I notice this forum ignores my MS Office photo rotation edits.)
 
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OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
I was referring to the "bleaching" that is always mentioned under too high of intensity in the diy posts

You don't ever here of bleaching even under DE1000W HPS
 

Positivity

Well-Known Member
I was referring to the "bleaching" that is always mentioned under too high of intensity in the diy posts

You don't ever here of bleaching even under DE1000W HPS

thanks for the clarification..I don't remember as many bleaching issues either. I had a 600 in a incredibly small area once..think those pics were on overgrow back in the day..

Anywho...Backing off the light does the trick, it's just light overload. These cobs are very directional, straight down versus hps 360..

If I had a par meter I'd fire my 600 up and do a quick comparison. Won't be dropping cash for one anytime soon though..
 

wietefras

Well-Known Member
I was referring to the "bleaching" that is always mentioned under too high of intensity in the diy posts

You don't ever here of bleaching even under DE1000W HPS
I had bleaching under a 1000W Gavita DE.

It's just that normally HPS lights are kept well away from the canopy because the radiating heat from the lights is damaging already before the light intensity gets too high. So with HPS you know quite quickly that you are too close because the leaves start curling up. In this case I simply ran out of space. Although later I cut a hole in the tent ceiling and lifted the light right to the top of the tent to fix the issue.

The light was somewhere between 60cm to 70cm (24"to 28") above the canopy and then this happened:
20150301_MG_Top2_DSC5972.jpg

20150314_MG_Macro_Albino.jpg
 
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