I am ready to be amazed!

SoMike

SoMike

Active Member
So I have started my first QB grow.
New HLG 260w QB, with driver mounted on the outside of the cabinet.
Check it out!

I had one Northern Lights mother (5 months old), and my last clone off of this mother.

As you can see the mother plant is a bit tired.
She was in a 1 gal fabric pot and needed to have her roots cut and transplanted into the 3 gal fabric pot. I think she will recover nicely.
Second plant is a 4 week old clone.
I have started the LST and want to scrog (have the screen ready)

My light is currently 24" from the top of the plants, and is at full power.
How do I place this at the optimum height and wattage?
Do I keep lowering my light closer until I see light stress? Which is?
Or should I lower and reduce power (dimmer).
Current temp is 75 inside the cabinet, with fans running full speed.
Outside temp is 51.

Any suggestions for what to watch for?
 
Nickcg123

Nickcg123

Well-Known Member
I'd definitely go lower. drop it to 16" from the top of the plants, wait a couple days to see how the plants react. Continue lowering by 2" increments if needed.
 
PadawanWarrior

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
SoMike said:
So I have started my first QB grow.
New HLG 260w QB, with driver mounted on the outside of the cabinet.
Check it out!

I had one Northern Lights mother (5 months old), and my last clone off of this mother.

As you can see the mother plant is a bit tired.
She was in a 1 gal fabric pot and needed to have her roots cut and transplanted into the 3 gal fabric pot. I think she will recover nicely.
Second plant is a 4 week old clone.
I have started the LST and want to scrog (have the screen ready)

My light is currently 24" from the top of the plants, and is at full power.
How do I place this at the optimum height and wattage?
Do I keep lowering my light closer until I see light stress? Which is?
Or should I lower and reduce power (dimmer).
Current temp is 75 inside the cabinet, with fans running full speed.
Outside temp is 51.

Any suggestions for what to watch for?
Click to expand...
Nice job. 24" is a good start for these lights. I have 2 260 Rspec's and they are powerful.
 
Humple

Humple

Well-Known Member
SoMike said:
So I have started my first QB grow.
New HLG 260w QB, with driver mounted on the outside of the cabinet.
Check it out!

I had one Northern Lights mother (5 months old), and my last clone off of this mother.

As you can see the mother plant is a bit tired.
She was in a 1 gal fabric pot and needed to have her roots cut and transplanted into the 3 gal fabric pot. I think she will recover nicely.
Second plant is a 4 week old clone.
I have started the LST and want to scrog (have the screen ready)

My light is currently 24" from the top of the plants, and is at full power.
How do I place this at the optimum height and wattage?
Do I keep lowering my light closer until I see light stress? Which is?
Or should I lower and reduce power (dimmer).
Current temp is 75 inside the cabinet, with fans running full speed.
Outside temp is 51.

Any suggestions for what to watch for?
Click to expand...
First of all, I love the cab, man! I have a soft spot for them, as I started in one. Still use it for the nursery and a couple of overflow spaces (3 chambers). What are the dimensions of your space? You mention a mom, so I assume you have a separate veg space? What's that like?

I usually give well rooted young plants about 15k lux. Not saying that's always ideal, but it works for me. And I'm a big fan of the dimmer, so I lower the fixture and turn it down.

I'd suggest turning your exhaust down a bit to get your temps up over 80°. You generally want higher temps with "white light" LED, as the plants aren't getting blasted with IR, which causes lower leaf temps - which inhibits transpiration.

Good luck!
 
SoMike

SoMike

Active Member
Humple said:
First of all, I love the cab, man! I have a soft spot for them, as I started in one. Still use it for the nursery and a couple of overflow spaces (3 chambers). What are the dimensions of your space? You mention a mom, so I assume you have a separate veg space? What's that like?

I usually give well rooted young plants about 15k lux. Not saying that's always ideal, but it works for me. And I'm a big fan of the dimmer, so I lower the fixture and turn it down.

I'd suggest turning your exhaust down a bit to get your temps up over 80°. You generally want higher temps with "white light" LED, as the plants aren't getting blasted with IR, which causes lower leaf temps - which inhibits transpiration.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestions.
My cabinet is 24x36x48 for scrog and flowering.
I have a 24x30x36 for cloning, starting, and mother plants (currently houses two starter clones)
How do you check lux?
I will watch temps for a day or two and get them up a bit higher.
Its crazy, some people say keep at full power and lower to about 16" and watch the plants.
 
Chip Green

Chip Green

Well-Known Member
SoMike said:
Its crazy, some people say keep at full power and lower to about 16" and watch the plants.
Click to expand...
These same people may, or may not have experience with actual QB setups. Also, likely the type who believe that more light will make your plants grow faster.

I guarantee, you have plenty of light, right where it is.
Ease into it man, I saw what you did with the CFL setup, this unit has expotentialy higher photon output.
 
Humple

Humple

Well-Known Member
SoMike said:
Thanks for the suggestions.
My cabinet is 24x36x48 for scrog and flowering.
I have a 24x30x36 for cloning, starting, and mother plants (currently houses two starter clones)
How do you check lux?
I will watch temps for a day or two and get them up a bit higher.
Its crazy, some people say keep at full power and lower to about 16" and watch the plants.
Click to expand...
Lux meter (cheap on Amazon or eBay) or even a lux app for your phone (not super accurate, but definitely better than nothing).

As for the dimming - I just figure it's saved energy. Granted, it's a minimal amount, but savings are savings. Additionally, lower wattage means less heat, which should be good for longevity. That's my operating theory, anyway! But I know a lot of growers like to run them full blast start to finish - to each their own!
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
I would not start out those plants at full power. 22-24" seems to work once your established in vegg and all dialed in, if theyre coming from cfl or similar and you blast them at full, without environment on point youll have probs. Bleaching, purpling, deficiencies especially cal and mag.

The left plant especially dont look ready for full power. Once you see healthy new growth start lowering
 
Nickcg123

Nickcg123

Well-Known Member
Chip Green said:
These same people may, or may not have experience with actual QB setups. Also, likely the type who believe that more light will make your plants grow faster.

I guarantee, you have plenty of light, right where it is.
Ease into it man, I saw what you did with the CFL setup, this unit has expotentialy higher photon output.
Click to expand...
To each their own.
What works for my plants may not works for others.
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
Chip Green said:
These same people may, or may not have experience with actual QB setups. Also, likely the type who believe that more light will make your plants grow faster.

I guarantee, you have plenty of light, right where it is.
Ease into it man, I saw what you did with the CFL setup, this unit has expotentialy higher photon output.
Click to expand...
I tend to agree here, rec for flower is around 35w / sq foot and you got around 45w in vegg if i understand correct. Veg being 18 hours? Thats a lot of light. This light is normally for a 4x2, this is 3x2 so i would be careful about following 16" recommendation.

But i do agree to each their own, however you can allways try to find out what is your own before going for something that with a bit of reasoning and counting looks like its going to go bad. Im sorry if i have missunderstood anything here but id go slow to start with.
 
SoMike

SoMike

Active Member
Ok so this afternoon I downloaded lux light meter for my tablet, and here are the readings, and the conversion based on HLG website

At 24" from the top of the canopy full power on driver, 46000 lux 712 ppfd
At 24" from the top of the canopy low power on driver, 16500 lux 255 ppfd
At 17" from the top of the canopy low power on driver 28600 lux 443 ppfd

These readings were taken in the center of the cabinet, and at the level of the top most leaves.
At the edges of the cabinet the readings were less, but i want to set the height for the center.

I decided to keep the qb at 17" and low power.
I still want to get a "kill a watt" and measure the actual wattage from the outlet.

We are on our way.:weed::hump:
 
SoMike

SoMike

Active Member
PhatNuggz said:

hth
Click to expand...
Ok so that is quite a video.
Understood that this guy is the CEO of a for profit company.
Kind of shoots down the $15 lux meter
Also very educational, seems you can push the PPFD quite high as long as you can provide correct environment.
Love the Idea that even seedlings and young clones can take a lot of light.

As an experiment I'll take a couple of cuttings and try to root them under the qb.
 
Humple

Humple

Well-Known Member
SoMike said:
Ok so that is quite a video.
Understood that this guy is the CEO of a for profit company.
Kind of shoots down the $15 lux meter
Also very educational, seems you can push the PPFD quite high as long as you can provide correct environment.
Love the Idea that even seedlings and young clones can take a lot of light.

As an experiment I'll take a couple of cuttings and try to root them under the qb.
Click to expand...
Even if you can't rely on the lux meter for precise readings, I think they're still a good thing to have around, as they can - at the least - help you dial in uniformity of light across your canopy. But then the lux app ought to do the same.
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
Ive found that nothing beats reading your plants. You can dial in to recommend levels all you want some just dont like it. Our Amnesia led vegg was the most finicky shit ever, no more than 10000 lux or there would be loud complaining. Transition into flower abd they could do 60000-70000.
But there was never anything like vegging the way people describe here (20000-30000lx).
 
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