UVA/UVB the real deal. A must read topic for all growers.

That would be a shitload of UVB, what are you looking to replace all of your lighting with it?

How big is your room?

Jimdamick said:

Kite High, so if I got my math right, if I installed 2 - four lamp fixtures on each wall my room, it would cost $ 1200 for bulbs alone ($50x24=1200). Then with fixtures at say $100 each, that system would cost $1800? Is that true?

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says you can get 3x for 125$, saving you ~$8.34 per bulb. if you get two four lamp fixtures it would be 24X (50-8.34) = 41.66x24= 999.84+fixtures= 1k+600$=1600$
it says you get a sale and its 3 for 125
but what i would do is alternate bulbs with 6500k like someone else mentioned

Kite High said:

How big is your room?

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My room is 8x8x8.5 and my thought was to put 2 fixtures on each wall. Would one on each wall be adequate?

Yes one per wall within 18" of the plants

and actually you would do better to use single or double lamp fixtures and spread them around evenly

Sorry if I missed it, but for a few months now I've been trying to get an answer on UVB photo periods and just get bullshit sarcasm or the "if they can take the sun, they can take artificial light" assumption. It is true outdoor plants are exposed to UV all day... but I know when I go out swimming or whatever, after about 2 hours that's enough sun. So, I really have no idea what a UVB photo period should be.

I have a 5x3 ft tent and am thinking about my final flower tent lighting setup: Dual lamp air cooled reflector 600w HPS & 400w MH. Two Reptisun 10.0 spiral CFLs center garden. A 4 lamp 48" CFL fixture hung horizontally at the canopy level on each 5' wall of the tent, and 24" or 36" CFL fixtures on the shorter 3' walls. Each wall would be running from top to bottom - 2700k, Reptisun 10.0, 2700k, 6500k

So the tent would have two 4' uvb lamps, two 2' uvb lamps, 2 spiral uvb cfl... maybe turn on twice a day for 2 hours at a time. Am I way off?

IME uvb same timing as main lighting for best results. Those cfl's are wasting your electricity. Not enough uvb emission to grant causation

use these in the 46" fixtures for T5 HO..12- 18 inches from the plants
http://www.lightyourreptiles.com/ard3t546in54.html

Are you saying the spiral uvb cfl is useless, or are you talking about the T5 cfl? The goal is basically a good mix of hps, mh, 2700k, 6500k, and uvb with a 5x3 footprint and at least 3' of penetration... but 1000w HID will be pretty much max for my temps, esp with the additional lighting.

Not sure if you meant to link something, but there is no link.

apologies...link is there now...those lamps do not emit enough uvb for our purposes...the linked ones do

I use the Reptisun 10.0 cfl and it has a range of about 10-12 inches from the sides of the bulb. This is at least 150uw as your minimum. Need it about 3 inches from the plant as it is over 500uw inside that.

Do not use a reflector so that is unknown. I have a 2x2' tent and the cfl just covers the that but have to move the cfl up and down to cover the area vertically. The side of cfl will just cover about 5 inches vertical.

Kite,
Have you had a chance to test the T-8 Zoo Med 10% UVB lights? (All the other brands suck I'm aware cept D3) Awesome you have the meter. I know Gary owner of Zoo med and he used the german produced lamps with the quarts sleeves just like D3's do. But I do agree the D3+ 12% HO bulbs and ballasts are great. Only issue is that special HO ballast. His new ones are good, older ones had issues. Have you tested the new Mercury based spot lights yet? They don't say the UVB % but it would be interesting to see where they are. All the ad's say they are strong output. Here's a good video Todd from D3 sent me. Worth watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUu24MNO2Ho

I also just picked up the last 3 in the world you can find 96 watt 7% HO (high output)UVB bulbs that fit my old ballast from ESU. They were HO square pin dual bulbs and had decent UVB output. The ballast runs 2 lights each (II II) and worked great for side lighting. Just hang them mid level between rows 34 inches long covers 4 plants each. You just need to turn them each day for best exposure.

I find running UVB side lighting 12 hr's on after week 2 flower is your best chance to develop crystal covered, sun blocking, terpenoid smelling, flavonoid tasting, gooey stalked glandular trichomes on that bitch.

Cheers

UVB exposure from sprout did best IME according to test reports and my high gauge..lol

No I haven't as I spent enough on junk (not saying the ones you referred to are junk) and stopped when I found the Arcadias

Yes I have Zoo level 60 watt externally ballasted flood mv from Megaray and Spot mv externally ballasted lamps from Westron

Also have some very awesome Megaray MH lamps

Malevolence said:

Sorry if I missed it, but for a few months now I've been trying to get an answer on UVB photo periods and just get bullshit sarcasm or the "if they can take the sun, they can take artificial light" assumption. It is true outdoor plants are exposed to UV all day... but I know when I go out swimming or whatever, after about 2 hours that's enough sun. So, I really have no idea what a UVB photo period should be.

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Yes, plants do better NOT exposed to UV (I can't speak for cannabis). I found this out in my months of research of covering materials before constructing a large greenhouse. All greenhouse covering materials exclude up to 100% of UV with the exception of glass.

Another benefit of UV protected panels refers to your greenhouse and plants. Since the panels have UV protection they also protect plants, crops and flowers from harmful UV rays

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Quick Google got me this - http://www.gardenguides.com/132133-plants-ultraviolet-light.html

UB

Just got through watching that long video posted on the first page and got a lot of hmmmmmmm's from MJ Man's presentation. Says that the most potent pot comes from areas of high UVB radiation - Thailand, Cambodia, India, Mexico, Texas, etc. and that UVB is the driver for THC production. OK. Also says the range is very narrow that causes the beneficial affect - from 270 - 300 nm. OK. Also says that plants receive UVB at night. Huh? Never presents any science, only feelings after a friend brings in a clone grown Cherry Bomb in which some had been grown under UV and some not, and you guessed it, the UVB was a "much stonier high". Now, as he points out, since HID's don't give off UVB, why in the hell do we get so stoned from indoor grown pot? I've grown outdoors in south Texas and that pot was no more stonier than pot grown indoors. Indoor pot is not subject to the pressures of wind and storms and disease and insects for the most part.

Yeah I thought about this, and my weed that does not have UVB gets me where I want to go, and I have way more than I can use, so not sure the investment is worth it (in my case).

My theory is that UVB will have a much bigger impact used in a multiple generation breeding project than in a single generation growth cycle. In a single generation growth cycle a plant can only do what it's genetics tell it to. I think many generations of high UVB exposure breeding could yield some interesting results ....

The genetics were long ago programmed for the effects of UVB protection. Just as reactions to low rh, heat and cold. This programming occurred over millions of years. So you think that 30 hell lets say 40 years of indoor manipulation will breed this reaction out? I do not see that. Just like anything else with the plant you need the stimulus to activate it. What most are missing is that it mostly changes the ratios of cannabinoids not necessarily making more cannabinoids just more of the psychoactive ones than the not psychoactive ones. Science demonstrates that thc absorbs UVB. This is no accident. It seems that the synthase production is skewed by UVB causing more of the synthase s to be for thc and thcv in the plants that produce thcv, mostly sativas, than for the others as CBD etc which are not psychoactive. IMO the 120 watts for the UVB is more than worth it. Mj Man is an idiot in most of what he says. I have worked together with others and we had testing done which showed a difference. And I feel it when I get high. Have found it to enhance the creeper affect as well as an uppy trippy high rather than a stony one.

As to why no uvb weed gets you high it is simple. UVB is not the only stimulus that causes these synthase productions obviously. Low rh heat etc. also do apparently. But it is one of them so its inclusion affects the cannabinoid ratio in favor of the psychoactive ones.

^^ I can get that, but my flower tent really does not have the room for t5 bulbs, nor do I want the extra heat of mercury vapor. So that leaves me with the CFL lizard bulbs, which you say are practically worthless. So (in my case) UVB just isn't worth it.

Write Westron and request pricing on their externally ballasted 60 watt mv. They get no hotter than any 60 watt bulb and that is not very much added heat especially being that you can remote the ballast outside of the tent. And T5 side lighting takes up very little room. I mostly see reluctance from you being excused by room. If you do not want to try then do not. But if you would you would be pleased by the results.

Really doesn't matter to me what others say who have never implemented it correctly as they are merely saying what they think.

Grow however you wish, just grow.

Huel Perkins said:

My theory is that UVB will have a much bigger impact used in a multiple generation breeding project than in a single generation growth cycle. In a single generation growth cycle a plant can only do what it's genetics tell it to. I think many generations of high UVB exposure breeding could yield some interesting results ....

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The programming is already there so no need to do the long series to put it there as it already is. It is just like any other aspect the stimulus activates the mechanism. They were exposed to uvb for eons. Now selective breeding for plants that are more reactive could do something I suppose just like choosing plants that are shorter will bring down the height of the strain. But remember only the inside grows have denied the uvb presence and that is a small percentage compared to what is happening outdoors. And ALL of them were solely outdoors only 40 years ago.