To SCROG or not to SCROG? LED is the question.

Rahz said:

Penetration in a scrog is highly dependent on the structure of the plant. If it's Sativa dominant and you get plenty of stretch after the first signs of flowering you won't need to refine the structure, but it could still be helpful. The basic idea is that if your leaf layer is 18" thick and dense you'll get 18" of larf and it won't matter much what kind of light you're using. If your leaf layer below the colas is 4" thick you'll get "penetration" from even a weak light source and good looking flowers all above the leaf layer. When I fired up my first LED and grew under it I didn't do any trimming. I was amazed by the amount of growth. When I cut into those plants and got to where I could see the full dissection I was both amused and bummed out. It looked like I sliced a head of broccoli in half.

Inverse square law- Losses due to reflectance/non-reflectance... that's all it is. If you're growing in an open area there will be losses at the edge. You might design them for higher center readings and lower outer readings (similar to a single HID). You might figure out how to keep the lamps low during flower and easily raise them when needed. You might construct a light barrier around the grow that's easily movable. Keep in mind HID relies on it's reflector for a good percentage of it's output. LED is superior in that regard, but having a more spread out light source takes creative thinking to prevent similar losses from the edge.

If you are working with larger plants and space them out then the plants will be getting side light. If the output is there, the plants will use it. People have found that LEDs have plenty of "penetration" and provide similar yields for less output watts (similar PAR watts) because LEDs are more efficient. This grow reduced the power consumption by well over 1000w and owner was very happy with the results. Unfortunately he didn't post finals, but you can see the distance from the lights and how flower production will be good many feet from the source. https://www.rollitup.org/t/tasty-led-discussion-thread.913304/page-10#post-12906293

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ttystikk said:

Insulated lines and frame.

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optzulu said:

Then insulate me by showing me how it's done.

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optzulu said:

Look the problem is 12C, if you have a closed loop system and keep the water temprature around 25-30 there is zero condens.
I am here to learn not to insulate my english is bad so I ask things pretty straight forward and answer also.

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JSB99 said:

Actually, I prefer growing them full, with some pruning and topping. I just wasn't sure I could get to the lower branches with the COB LEDs. Sounds like I can. I may scrog again someday. I used to do that. I'm tying to keep my workload at a minimum. I remember scrog being fairly involved.

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ttystikk said:

Sooooooooo tell me more about this penetration? It sounds positively pornographic.

Seriously, appropriate illumination at the canopy translates to the whole plant doing well.

LED lighting is best utilised when spread out compared to the point source of HID, leading to superior light distribution and resulting in better yields.

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JSB99 said:

Actually, I prefer growing them full, with some pruning and topping. I just wasn't sure I could get to the lower branches with the COB LEDs. Sounds like I can. I may scrog again someday. I used to do that. I'm tying to keep my workload at a minimum. I remember scrog being fairly involved.

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pop22 said:

Think I'm having a penetration problem?


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