Light intensity for flower

Yotron

Yotron

Member
Hey,
I had a question if someone has the time. I'm starting my flip to flower, the plants are 8 weeks. Do I ease into the brightness day by day, is it full throttle from day one ? Or am I looking for an average par reading ? Granted I do not have a par meter . I have home made leds with a dimmer so I can adjust brightness if necessary . Thank you 🙏
 
TerpyTyrone

TerpyTyrone

LED Recruiter
Yotron said:
Hey,
I had a question if someone has the time. I'm starting my flip to flower, the plants are 8 weeks. Do I ease into the brightness day by day, is it full throttle from day one ? Or am I looking for an average par reading ? Granted I do not have a par meter . I have home made leds with a dimmer so I can adjust brightness if necessary . Thank you 🙏
Click to expand...
I would start a little more everyday. Do u have a lux app for your phone?
 
treefarmercharlie

treefarmercharlie

🍆
Admin
I usually time mine so I’m at about 75% half way through veg and then ramp it up a little each day so I hit 100% about 1 week after the flip. No science behind the way I do it, though.
 
TerpyTyrone

TerpyTyrone

LED Recruiter
My bs lux app says 13,000 in veg. Its a qb132 fixture turned down for veg. Its 3500k , my swissarmy light. Stronger than strips.
 
NoWaistedSpace

NoWaistedSpace

I'm Hoarding Skunk
Yotron said:
Hey,
I had a question if someone has the time. I'm starting my flip to flower, the plants are 8 weeks. Do I ease into the brightness day by day, is it full throttle from day one ? Or am I looking for an average par reading ? Granted I do not have a par meter . I have home made leds with a dimmer so I can adjust brightness if necessary . Thank you 🙏
Click to expand...
There are different ways to do this. To keep good spread, I keep the lights, roughly 20" and let the plants acclimate to the light intensity. Just don't blast the hell out of them. What lights are you working with? COBs, qb's or strips. That makes a difference also.
 
Yotron

Yotron

Member
NoWaistedSpace said:
There are different ways to do this. To keep good spread, I keep the lights, roughly 20" and let the plants acclimate to the light intensity. Just don't blast the hell out of them. What lights are you working with? COBs, qb's or strips. That makes a difference also.
Click to expand...
Thank you , Your approach makes most sense to me it seems like the plant still has to get used to a strong light source . I built 2 light bars using hlg QB96 led boards, basically two boards to one 320 watt driver . Kinda like a cob .. I believe each light bar is putting out 800 ppf a total of 1600 ppf ish ..
I've read that you should blast them the first two weks to keep stretching down from seed companies , and also to increase it by 10% every day for about a week from lighting manufacturers.
The last time I grew was 20 years ago plus . I just used HID and HPS now with led there is a new learning curve . My rookie approach is to start out a little brighter than it was in veg and increase by 10 percent for the next 5-7 days and I should be at 100%. Ill be hanging the light bars at about 24 inches. Once they are at 100% ill see if I can get them closer to the canopy without any signs of stress .. I have much to learn again, and thank you for your time and knowledge.
 
TerpyTyrone

TerpyTyrone

LED Recruiter
Yotron said:
Hey,
I had a question if someone has the time. I'm starting my flip to flower, the plants are 8 weeks. Do I ease into the brightness day by day, is it full throttle from day one ? Or am I looking for an average par reading ? Granted I do not have a par meter . I have home made leds with a dimmer so I can adjust brightness if necessary . Thank you 🙏
Click to expand...
Why do ya need a controller? Ya got a dimmer and nws said keep the light high
 
NoWaistedSpace

NoWaistedSpace

I'm Hoarding Skunk
Yotron said:
Thank you , Your approach makes most sense to me it seems like the plant still has to get used to a strong light source . I built 2 light bars using hlg QB96 led boards, basically two boards to one 320 watt driver . Kinda like a cob .. I believe each light bar is putting out 800 ppf a total of 1600 ppf ish ..
I've read that you should blast them the first two weks to keep stretching down from seed companies , and also to increase it by 10% every day for about a week from lighting manufacturers.
The last time I grew was 20 years ago plus . I just used HID and HPS now with led there is a new learning curve . My rookie approach is to start out a little brighter than it was in veg and increase by 10 percent for the next 5-7 days and I should be at 100%. Ill be hanging the light bars at about 24 inches. Once they are at 100% ill see if I can get them closer to the canopy without any signs of stress .. I have much to learn again, and thank you for your time and knowledge.
Click to expand...
There is a lot of knowledge floating around in this forum. There is a guy on youtube called migro who reviews many different types of lighting. I'm sure he has done reviews on your type of setup. I personally haven't run the QB96's, but about everything else so I can't tell you exactly where you need to be with your system. The plants will grow to your light and stabilize at some point. Light intensity is important. I've been building led lights for about 5 years and it is different than HPS etc. Plants can grow very different under leds especially if they were bred under HPS and MH. Some do great and others have a hard time adapting. But for me, leds are the way to go. Good luck!
 
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