UV?

Well I was referring to the hps...I cant rewire...I'm trailer trash and those things go up like a torch.It can get up to 90 in there right now, with just cfl's...and no, I can't leave the door open or drill holes in my walls to vent.When I go in there, I go for a long time, and I'm white as a ghost and so, I burn easily. I rarely go out in the sun anyway, so yes being under that light does bug me.

ThunderLips said:

LMFAO!!!! You wont get skin cancer.... maybe a tan, but seriously the risk of skin cancer related to indoor growing is probly lower than you standing outside in the ever so thinning Ozone layer. There is precautions you take to keep from burning your house down.... like securing your lights, and power cords tucked neatly... I mean shit Sweet n low causes cancer, im sure in 25 years theyre gonna find out that Fruity Pebbles caused hundereds of child cancer cases. Dont be afraid of living.

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I got cancer from fruity pebbles... true story.

This maybe a little bit off topic but heres a trick to increase resin and increase the amount of trychomes on your plant. During the flowering stage of your plant, you take a UV teeth whitening light, the same kind of UV light that you will find at your dentist office which is used to blast the ultra violet light at your teeth to make them whiter. Well anyways take one of these lights, that you can easily find on ebay for not that much money, and shine it a couple of times on the buds of your plants. With each pass of the light you will see a noticable change, you will see the buds getting whiter and whiter with increased amounts of trychomes. What this light does is simulates a big burst of light from the sun onto the plant, therefore helping the plant.

Linky to a thread i started a few weeks ago based on UVB.

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/72065-uvb-light-does-work.html

Go get one of them at petsmart. They run $15-20.

This is the one i'm using: Tropical
Exo Terra - Products: Compact Bulbs

I should have gotten the Desert one myself, higher UVB percentage in the 270-320nm range, but the tropical one seems to be working nicely. Desert one might be TOOO much really......though it has more in the 270-315 range.

% based on nm Range, Not sure of distance, but effective up to 12". My canopy sits 6" max from the light
-0% at 290nm
-7% at 300nm
-13% at 310nm
-22% at 320nm
-33% at 330nm
-40% at 350nm
-45% at 365nm (Most in the UVB range)
-25% at 380nm
- goes into the visible spectrum

I only run it for 3-4hrs at the peak of lights on. Simulating peak of the day. Light on 9am, uvb on 1pm off 5pm lights off 9pm.

Havn't gotten to a point to see if it really works well yet, but plant growth seems to love it.

voidsilvia said:

This maybe a little bit off topic but heres a trick to increase resin and increase the amount of trychomes on your plant. During the flowering stage of your plant, you take a UV teeth whitening light, the same kind of UV light that you will find at your dentist office which is used to blast the ultra violet light at your teeth to make them whiter. Well anyways take one of these lights, that you can easily find on ebay for not that much money, and shine it a couple of times on the buds of your plants. With each pass of the light you will see a noticable change, you will see the buds getting whiter and whiter with increased amounts of trychomes. What this light does is simulates a big burst of light from the sun onto the plant, therefore helping the plant.

Click to expand...

Uhh...... have you tried this yet?

JTSBossMan said:

Uhh...... have you tried this yet?

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No I havent tried it myself personally, but I have seen this done and it does work.

voidsilvia said:

No I havent tried it myself personally, but I have seen this done and it does work.

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Those are normally either plasma arc's or lasers, they don't run in the same ball park. Those teeth whitening systems fun about 470nm with around 4700mw/cm2

Stoney McFried said:

Isnt there just a cheapo light bulb you can get for like two plants total?

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YES THERE IS A CHEAPO BULB YOU CAN BUY THAT EMITS ENOUGH UV FOR ABOUT 2-3 MED SIZE PLANTS BUT I WOULD USE IN CONJUNCTION W/ CFL'S...I WOULDNT USE THEM W/ HPS UNLESS YOU HAVE PROPER VENTILATION FOR THE HEAT. THE BULB IS 10 DOLLARS AT A PET STORE..ITS A BULB THAT EMITS UV FOR REPTILES. THE LARGEST ONE I SEEN WAS 100W. I'M NOT JUS TALKING EITHER IVE USED THE 100W BULB W CFLS WORKED FINE. I HAD TO MOVE TWO OF MY PLANTS OUT OF THE CLOSET AND WHEN I BROUGHT THEM DOWNSTAIRS I BUSTED THAT UV BULB SO I JUS HAD MY CFL'S...DO YOU KNOW THAT MY PLANTS STARTED TO DIE BECAUSE THE CHANGE IN ENVIRONMENT. THAT BULB WAS GIVING MY PLANTS SOME MUCH NEEDED UV! I ALSO HAD BIG FAN LEAVES AT FIRST BUT NOT AFTER!

Thank you very much!+rep!

WatchMeGrow said:

YES THERE IS A CHEAPO BULB YOU CAN BUY THAT EMITS ENOUGH UV FOR ABOUT 2-3 MED SIZE PLANTS BUT I WOULD USE IN CONJUNCTION W/ CFL'S...I WOULDNT USE THEM W/ HPS UNLESS YOU HAVE PROPER VENTILATION FOR THE HEAT. THE BULB IS 10 DOLLARS AT A PET STORE..ITS A BULB THAT EMITS UV FOR REPTILES. THE LARGEST ONE I SEEN WAS 100W. I'M NOT JUS TALKING EITHER IVE USED THE 100W BULB W CFLS WORKED FINE. I HAD TO MOVE TWO OF MY PLANTS OUT OF THE CLOSET AND WHEN I BROUGHT THEM DOWNSTAIRS I BUSTED THAT UV BULB SO I JUS HAD MY CFL'S...DO YOU KNOW THAT MY PLANTS STARTED TO DIE BECAUSE THE CHANGE IN ENVIRONMENT. THAT BULB WAS GIVING MY PLANTS SOME MUCH NEEDED UV! I ALSO HAD BIG FAN LEAVES AT FIRST BUT NOT AFTER!

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I was thread jumping across forums looking at UVb bulbs. Came across some reptile forum and found this.

Megaray Zoo 100w

"The Mega-Ray® European Zoo SB is a 100 watt self- ballasted par38 clear faced 220 volt mercury vapor bulb that will produce useable UVB in a 2 foot circumference at the recommended distances although the highest reading is centered.

MINIMUM distance setting of 3 feet (approx 1 meter) will produce approximately 250-300 microwatts per square centimeter (uW/cm2) of UVB and 2,000uW/cm2 of UVA. "


Also...


"Warning: This bulb produces very little heat at a distance of 3 feet." (for reptile basking, which I read should be aprox 85 degrees)


Seems pretty powerful... site says you need to work at a zoo or be "qualified herpetologists or individual hobbyists who own a UVB meter"

Yes, we talked about it if you look back a page or 2...

MetalSmelter said:

I should have gotten the Desert one myself, higher UVB percentage in the 270-320nm range, but the tropical one seems to be working nicely.


I only run it for 3-4hrs at the peak of lights on. Simulating peak of the day. Light on 9am, uvb on 1pm off 5pm lights off 9pm.

Havn't gotten to a point to see if it really works well yet, but plant growth seems to love it.

Click to expand...

So this is a full spectrum CFL that includes UVB or just a UVB light? So, if you are flowering now are you using this plus 2700k CFLs or including some 6500k bulbs also?

Is that bulb enough UVB for multiple plants or are you only using it for a single plant... I take it you place it somewhere above the cola?

Edit: I'm very interested in adding UVB and wondering if it's something I could/should just do in the last few weeks of flower to force extra production before harvest of it it's important to add the light at the start of flower. Again though, I'm not exactly clear on the type of bulb, number to use, or where to place it. It seems like a CFL UVB bulb would only hit a small portion of the plant. Rotating the light around the canopy is a possibility I suppose but is a couple hours of UVB a day per section of plant enough- assuming I"m able to rotate it that often the final couple weeks?

Thanks.

Speaking as a beginner, it seems like the next major improvement in lighting is some sort of setup that includes the hybrid bulb plus some kind of UVB light under the same roof that is enough to penetrate a couple feet into the canopy. It seems like right now people are having to retrofit and rig UV in a way that doesn't really cover the plants... I wish I could see some pics of setups that incorporate UVB.