Lighting 4K or 3k and 5k

[Mizzo81]

so quick question for y’all. Does it make sense to have a 5k strip and two 3k strips or all just go all 4K strips. Will the 5k and 3k blend to make 4K or will the 5k still bring the extra blue and the 3k bring the extra red for their purposes. Thanks all

 

[Burn victim]

so quick question for y’all. Does it make sense to have a 5k strip and two 3k strips or all just go all 4K strips. Will the 5k and 3k blend to make 4K or will the 5k still bring the extra blue and the 3k bring the extra red for their purposes. Thanks all

HLG is now making duel spectrum boards, I have some 324 qb’s in 2700k/3000k . I use it to flower & veg under 3500k in the same 5x5 , I just rotate the plants when needed. I’m not sure if the different light spectrums blends together to change the number? But it kicks ass ! Hope that made sense ? As I’m drinking beers & smoking watching football lol.

 

[Mizzo81]

HLG is now making duel spectrum boards, I have some 324 qb’s in 2700k/3000k . I use it to flower & veg under 3500k in the same 5x5 , I just rotate the plants when needed. I’m not sure if the different light spectrums blends together to change the number? But it kicks ass ! Hope that made sense ? As I’m drinking beers & smoking watching football lol.

Thanks makes sense to me

 

[Black Sail]

The effects of color temperature are really, really strain specific. If you want some control over your spectrum your best bet is to use two different color temperatures, and to have a little extra power in there so you can afford to dim one color down to adjust your spectrum.

My experience growing with a 50/50 blend of 3500K and 5000K was that it was a little too heavy on the blue end. My nodes were right on top of each other, unless you're growing a super stretchy sativa I wouldn't worry about 5000K. I think my growth rates suffered a little bit too. Red light in the 620nm-730nm range is the most efficient at driving photosynthesis, I think you give up too much red going with 5000K. A blend of 3000K and 4000K could be the ticket:smoking:

 

[Arthur]

HLG is now making duel spectrum boards, I have some 324 qb’s in 2700k/3000k . I use it to flower & veg under 3500k in the same 5x5 , I just rotate the plants when needed. I’m not sure if the different light spectrums blends together to change the number? But it kicks ass ! Hope that made sense ? As I’m drinking beers & smoking watching football lol.

I get the drinking beers & smokin weed part!


That was the important part right?

 

[Frenjamin Banklin]

I get very good results running dual spectrum with Cobs. I think it really come down the the specific profile of the chip being used. These are Cree 3k and 4K, the camera phone color changes the pictures but the light is very bright white in person. This plant is a Criticsl plus CBD, maybe. 4-5 weeks. All of the strains I have grown under the lights have maintained the same structure except for 2 out of 24 that leaned heavily Sativa and stretched.
I have not run nearly enough tests but I might be inclined to think you can focus spectrum more towards flower for LEDs. I think the full spectrum white lite from cobs is more than enough to veg Autos not matter what chip color range you chose.
But I’d like to know more.
I remember seeing Bigsmo running 2700 and 6500 singles over separate plants when he had extra plants hanging out. It was last year but I don’t think there was a huge difference, but it was just a random shot and comment in another thread so not sure how it actually worked out.

Plant in picture is 18” away from about 70watts of COB 35w of 3k and 35w of 4k.
Bucket with towel is bubbling to stabilize and will get a plant today.

Just finished a QB also but now I want to build strips.
FB

 

[Black Sail]

View attachment 1021166 View attachment 1021168 View attachment 1021170 View attachment 1021171 View attachment 1021172 I get very good results running dual spectrum with Cobs. I think it really come down the the specific profile of the chip being used. These are Cree 3k and 4K, the camera phone color changes the pictures but the light is very bright white in person. This plant is a Criticsl plus CBD, maybe. 4-5 weeks. All of the strains I have grown under the lights have maintained the same structure except for 2 out of 24 that leaned heavily Sativa and stretched.
I have not run nearly enough tests but I might be inclined to think you can focus spectrum more towards veg for LEDs. I think the full spectrum white lite from cobs is more than enough to veg Autos not matter what chip color range you chose.
But I’d like to know more.
I remember seeing Bigsmo running 2700 and 6500 singles over separate plants when he had extra plants hanging out. It was last year but I don’t think there was a huge difference, but it was just a random shot and comment in another thread so not sure how it actually worked out.

Plant in picture is 18” away from about 70watts of COB 35w of 3k and 35w of 4k.
Bucket with towel is bubbling to stabilize and will get a plant today.

Just finished a QB also but now I want to build strips.
FB

Nice Rapid LED kit! Lol I used to work there, I'd recognize that potentiometer anywhere. Really clean work on the frame btw, looks great and I bet you saved some money too. Why so far from COB to canopy? Just curious, at 35 watts (CXB3590 right?) I would've recommended running them at about 12"...

3K and 4K is a perfect mix in my opinion. No full spectrum LED pushes farther into the red end of the spectrum than 3000K 90CRI, going 2700K and below just sacrifices efficiency. If you need more far red a Growmau5 puck is only $37 :smoking:

 

[Frenjamin Banklin]

Nice Rapid LED kit! Lol I used to work there, I'd recognize that potentiometer anywhere. Really clean work on the frame btw, looks great and I bet you saved some money too. Why so far from COB to canopy? Just curious, at 35 watts (CXB3590 right?) I would've recommended running them at about 12"...

3K and 4K is a perfect mix in my opinion. No full spectrum LED pushes farther into the red end of the spectrum than 3000K 90CRI, going 2700K and below just sacrifices efficiency. If you need more far red a Growmau5 puck is only $37 :smoking:

Thanks
70w total per plant, 35w per cob and they are only about 8” on center. They are somewhere over 12” but under 18” from the top of plant. I’ll push the wattage to 100w per pair in flower. Could do 150w but efficient us better and I kept frying plants at 150w per. Run the rails for even spread and had really good even coverage from side lighting and dense plants out to the edges.
Like the Rapid site, prices are not terrible for one stop shopping, those dimmers though are crap. Had two die already, ordered extra for backup now. I thought the cob kit was reasonably priced. But just built a QB132 fixture the same way. Really like the red in the 4K Samsung diodes so hoping that works. V2.
Almost ordered the growmaue pucks when buying drivers from Rapid for the QBs but I’ve only got a year on these COBs so I’ll wait a bit, I assume they will be an improvement but at 12 times $37 I figured I was good for now.
FB

 

[Frenjamin Banklin]

Just noticed the picture does make it look weirdly far away. Crazy I phone, maybe more wide angle or the position. Thanks for the feedback on distance.

 

[Black Sail]

Just noticed the picture does make it look weirdly far away. Crazy I phone, maybe more wide angle or the position. Thanks for the feedback on distance.

Awesome:smoking: Yeah I was just curious about the hanging height, sounds like you've got it dialed in. Have you done any experiments with running different color temps. harder than others at different times in the grow? That's something I'm really into right now, using different color COBs to control your spectrum without the added cost and complication of supplements. I'm also really interested in the effects of combining LED and HPS.

If you do decide to supplement with far red diodes you can probably save some money with your DIY skills. Since you're covering a large area, you'd probably save some money by getting the far red XP-E diodes on starboards and doing a DIY job on them. You can run up to 15 of them with a $13 driver (Mean Well LPC-35-700). At 700mA the heatsink isn't a huge concern, a flat piece of aluminum will probably do the trick. You should be able to supplement a 4x8 for less than $100.

Sorry to hear about your trouble with the dimmers! That's part of the reason why I went with "A" version Mean Well drivers. They dim down to 50% which is all you should ever need, and the potentiometer is built into the driver so there's no added cost or potential points of failure.

Looks like you're doing great work brotha, keep it up! I'll definitely be keeping an eye on your updates