Learnt my lesson with 3000k for vegging: DO NOT use it at this stage.

Did not expect it but I did not know that 3000k sucks so much for vegging. It makes seedlings to grow so slow that it makes you thinking that there is some other problems.

Planted 2 seeds almost two weeks ago and added four more seeds 5 days later. Some of them are 10 days old from popping up above soil and some are about 5. All looks very small for their age(no taller than 2 inches), especially those that were planted earlier. They are all growing under four LM561C 3000k boards(analog of HLG 550) and are getting about 45000 Lux.

Today after a bit of reading I realised that 3000k is not good for vegging as it makes plants to grow really slow. Apparently there is not enough blue spectrum in 3000k.

I added one 600W bluerpie(265W draw from a wall) today just to help them in a vegging stage. If it is not enough I have four more bluerpie to add.

Is there any point to to have that four LM561C boards on right now? May be it is better idea to get them out of my growing space, use more bluerpies and switch to LM561Cs when it is time to flower?

Also I have 2 autos(Cream Caramel), They say it is 8 weeks from planting to harvesting. So they suppose to go into flowering way before other 4(Banana Kush). Not sure how to deal with this light problem because of that. I do not have any second place for autos.

45000 lux is just too much light for a seedling. Everything inbetween 2700K and 6000K will grow plants acceptably. Just hang the lights a little higher or dim the fixture a bit. I think thats the problem.

They were under less intense light(mine boards are dimmable). It did not change a bit. Back then I thought it less than needed light so I set them to full output. The boards were at 24' height. Now they are about 35 inches above with the bluerpie added and getting about 45000 lux,

Even if I am wrong with 3000K for vegging... even though about every search on google gets me to a thread with claims of slow growing in vegging with 3000k.. I am going to try with one chinese light and keeping the boards on for a couple of days. I hope it will help.

Seedlings should be 10,000 lux max. Its not the spectrum.

I vegged under 3000K. I haven’t noticed any difference except the internodes were considerably further apart than vegging under lets say blurples. The vigour was not affected by the spectrum.

Start your seedlings soft ... that’s the problem.

QBs that can be dimmed will work just fine .... 3000k / 3500 / 4000k .... any of them.
Or use flouro lamps to “ start “ then when ready increase light. Light stress ( too much ) can and will STUNT / SLOW growth as it is too much for fragile seedlings.

Even a lousy cfl can bring the goods for starting young ones.


Or a dimmed 3000k qb .... here is a single qb dimmed to 65 watts ( 3000k ) on a tabletop.

Budzbuddha said:

Start your seedlings soft ... that’s the problem.

QBs that can be dimmed will work just fine .... 3000k / 3500 / 4000k .... any of them.
Or use flouro lamps to “ start “ then when ready increase light. Light stress ( too much ) can and will STUNT / SLOW growth as it is too much for fragile seedlings.

Even a lousy cfl can bring the goods for starting young ones.
View attachment 4335045

Or a dimmed 3000k qb .... here is a single qb dimmed to 65 watts ( 3000k ) on a tabletop.

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Exactly what I do.

Budzbuddha said:

Start your seedlings soft ... that’s the problem.

View attachment 4335048

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Your pictures are exactly what I have now. My two autos look similar in size and development like yours shown sitting in fabric pots and other four look like yours in cups. But I guess yours are much younger than mine.
The problem is I have always given seedlings about 45K lux and they have always vegged just fine under chinese lights. So based on that I was trying to give my new grow the same amount of light under QBs.
May be they just too dense. I will try what I have now for 1-2 days and if there is no difference I will dim out the QBs a lot to make it much less than 45000 lux. Basically I was just trying to follow many guides about light amount for seedlings. Most will tell you that 45000 Lux is ok for them.

PinPin said:

Your pictures are exactly what I have now. My two autos look similar in size and development like yours shown sitting in fabric pots and other four look like yours in cups. But I guess yours are much younger than mine.
The problem is I have always given seedlings about 45K lux and they have always vegged just fine under chinese lights. So based on that I was trying to give my new grow the same amount of light under QBs.
May be they just too dense. I will try what I have now for 1-2 days and if there is no difference I will dim out the QBs a lot to make it much less than 45000 lux. Basically I was just trying to follow many guides about light amount for seedlings. Most will tell you that 45000 Lux is ok for them.

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Think that's for veg not seedlings

45K lux for seedlings? Ludicrous. Appalling.
Complete hogwash. Entirely too many photons.
I get satisfactory flowering in ranges less than that.

PinPin said:

Your pictures are exactly what I have now. My two autos look similar in size and development like yours shown sitting in fabric pots and other four look like yours in cups. But I guess yours are much younger than mine.
The problem is I have always given seedlings about 45K lux and they have always vegged just fine under chinese lights. So based on that I was trying to give my new grow the same amount of light under QBs.
May be they just too dense. I will try what I have now for 1-2 days and if there is no difference I will dim out the QBs a lot to make it much less than 45000 lux. Basically I was just trying to follow many guides about light amount for seedlings. Most will tell you that 45000 Lux is ok for them.

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Turn it down to 10-15k, your shocking them with excessive light, 45k+ is for vegging thick 3ft+ tall plants, shit you could easily flower small plants with that.

The amount of light cannabis can handle is directly related to stage of growth,footprint of grow area, environment values & somewhat genetics imo.

Btw, its not the spectrum.

I vegged with a 3200 Phillips 315 CMH and had no issues whatsoever. Kept it pretty far away. I recently received a sample of 4200k that I will veg with next time though.

PinPin said:

Your pictures are exactly what I have now. My two autos look similar in size and development like yours shown sitting in fabric pots and other four look like yours in cups. But I guess yours are much younger than mine.
The problem is I have always given seedlings about 45K lux and they have always vegged just fine under chinese lights. So based on that I was trying to give my new grow the same amount of light under QBs.
May be they just too dense. I will try what I have now for 1-2 days and if there is no difference I will dim out the QBs a lot to make it much less than 45000 lux. Basically I was just trying to follow many guides about light amount for seedlings. Most will tell you that 45000 Lux is ok for them.

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Never rely SOLELY on info saying that a “ certain lux “ is right. It’s the plants that will show you what they are happy with.

In the bigger picture of things .... you are basically HARDENING the young seedlings to prepare for the full light you plan to use during its later stages. By starting them with easier and more “ tolerable “ light , you can keep it closer , less stretching and a happier plant .

It’s not to say there are those that throw in a tray of cups or plugs into same light as other older plants . It’s a learning thing .... everyone has their own spin on things. I think flouro lamps still have use , whether T5 or similar spirals. I use 5000k / 6400k on the very earliest germed Seeds then increase lighting as I grow and up pot. Grab something as simple as a Sunblaster T5 HO lamp ( like $30 on amazon ) it comes with 6500k bulbs and go have a beer. Then if you really want to kick it up a notch , grab an AGROMAX SuperVeg T5 bulb for some really great vegging of seedlings and clones.

Even a 2 or 4 foot ( Home Depot ) T5 lamp with a bulb swap will work just fine.

Even tho I am just giving my 2 ¢ .... you can see there are a thousand ways to skin a cat ....

Here is the Sunblaster , got better deal on two. But you get the idea. These have good veg starting 6400k bulbs. Lightweight and easy to hang .



PLUS .... you can do a simple bulb swap , and put in AGROMAX PURE UV bulbs and squeeze out all terpy / resinous goodness out of your flowering girls in the mid flower / late stages.

Ridiculously simple .



Anyways..... good luck.

I get what you are saying about a seedling and too much light. However how does it correlate with a real environment? The Sun does not dim itself out because there are some seedlings in soil. It hits them with about 100000 lux and seedlings outdoor do not stop growing because of that. How half of it can be too much for indoor?

It was tempting after so many advices here to dim my boards to get only 10000 lux delivered. However I can actually see some improvement in growth after I added a light with some extra blue spectrum yesterday. Only 4 hours of light have passed since then and plants have grown bigger leaves.

I will stick with having 45 000 lux for now. That's how I have always been vegging them and never have had any problem with growth starting with 45K lux no matter how young plants are. I would not even ask about it if did not start using new light which has much more red than blue and other people claiming that 3000K will grow plants slower.

Please delete this entire thread.

I have yet to do a proper flowering session with leds. However , I have vegged under s mix of 2700 n 3000k screw in Leds. I can assure you growth rate was faster than i needed it to be. There are far more experienced led users who will tell you 3000k will veg kick ass plants in a hurry.

Johnny Lawrence said:

Please delete this entire thread.

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Do I need to apologize for forcing you to read it?

Warpedpassage said:

I have yet to do a proper flowering session with leds. However , I have vegged under s mix of 2700 n 3000k screw in Leds. I can assure you growth rate was faster than i needed it to be. There are far more experienced led users who will tell you 3000k will veg kick ass plants in a hurry.

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I was thinking it would be faster considering it's QBs but it was not. May be it is not because 3000K does not have a strong blue spectrum. However it does not explain why they have started growing quite noticeably only after I added extra light with more blue.

PinPin said:

after a bit of reading I realised

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that is how most disinformation starts... 3000k genuine lm561C vegges like a motherfucker.
Stop buying pirate shit and then complaining when it doesn't work.