Adding UV

[Drownomatic]

I've been doing some reading into the effects of adding UV A and B during bloom, and want to try it myself.

I looked at LED, and the graphs were too bandpassed for what I want. I settled on the AgroMax Pure UV bulbs 2ft with a T5 socket. I'll be using outdoor rated fixtures to hold them.

They make a 4ft verson too, but I plan to add these along side my current light as a frame around the edge. I'm also not convinced that side light VS top light is necessary.

I have a manual timer I salvaged from an air fryer that goes up to 30 minutes. I plan to trigger it for just a few minutes every night for just a few minutes after lights out, gradually adding in more time.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

I've been doing some reading into the effects of adding UV A and B during bloom, and want to try it myself.

I looked at LED, and the graphs were too bandpassed for what I want. I settled on the AgroMax Pure UV bulbs 2ft with a T5 socket. I'll be using outdoor rated fixtures to hold them.

They make a 4ft verson too, but I plan to add these along side my current light as a frame around the edge. I'm also not convinced that side light VS top light is necessary.

I have a manual timer I salvaged from an air fryer that goes up to 30 minutes. I plan to trigger it for just a few minutes every night for just a few minutes after lights out, gradually adding in more time.

I run one of the AgroMax Pure UV 48s The last 2 or three weeks of flower Mid Day for two 30 minutes times separated by an hour. I also run 2 of the AgroMax UVA Plus 10,000 K 48s for the last four or five weeks of flower 18/6 with the regular grow lights. I believe it improved my crops and have been running them since 2017.

Bruce Bugbee a very knowledgeable guy on light says it does nothing to improve cannabis?

 

[>Potato]

I run one of the AgroMax Pure UV 48s The last 2 or three weeks of flower Mid Day for two 30 minutes times separated by an hour. I also run 2 of the AgroMax UVA Plus 10,000 K 48s for the last four or five weeks of flower 18/6 with the regular grow lights. I believe it improved my crops and have been running them since 2017.

Bruce Bugbee a very knowledgeable guy on light says it does nothing to improve cannabis?

He does say some study showed that pulsing UV light increased secondary metabolism which affected flavor etc then they go on about it affecting terpines

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

I wish they had dates on these. Like I said my personal experience is positive for UV light.

 

[>Potato]

Yeah im with you on the UV pulsing. Bruce being a scientist so changes his mind with new evidence

 

[>Potato]

there is a brand new video it has some light frequency info

 

[Drownomatic]

I bought 4 bulbs, and 2 fixtures to hold them. The plan is to add another w to fully frame out the light if this works.

If it doesn't work out with the uv, I'll just leave it setup, and swap the UV bulbs for regular grow bulbs

I have a BK-Link now to control the timing.

I just drilled some ⅛" holes, and wired the brackets.

Bulbs were $55/4, fixtures were $49/2. Control timer was $26

 

[Drownomatic]

Its all running.

The UV is plugged to the BN-link, which is plugged to the light timer. Currently it is set to 12 seconds on every minute appx.

Its starting to look like a real pedalboard!

 

[Drownomatic]

The experiment was a success in that the design functioned perfectly.

I ran it 2 nights, 12 secs every minute, or 1/6 of the 18 hour light cycle. 3 hours total each night.

What I got was leaf burn, This is way too long of an interval at 18" away.
It wasn't apparent how bad until 2 days after I shut the UV.
Some of the top leaves badly canoed, and started losing color.

I'm not going to lose her, but I'm sure its going to act stressed for a bit.

Also, T5 aren't instant on like LED, so you can't just set a 2 sec light interval, because the tube won't fully strike.

The biggest thing I learned is that it only takes just a little bit of UV to cause changes. Maybe a few small LED would be the way to go if the right wavelengths could be had. Its easy to modulate output from a LED.

I only thought to snap a shot after I removed the burnt leaves, but you can see a little on one I left.

 

[Talonxracer]

I used a Solacure Flower Power 2' lamp for 30 mins at high noon. It is imperative to start with short times and at least a 24" distance from the plant. I seen the expected gains but the life expectancy is not what I call cost effective and is not very useable in a small grow tent/closet.

I have since switched to a led source for the uva/b output. I searched around and found a viosys 285nm led and a 385nm led that are controlled by my Coralux Storm controller. I started using the uv led's 2 grows ago and in the last grow I was able to get distance and time to where I was happy with the results.

I put the 285nm leds up in one corner of my tent and I have my plant container sitting on a turn table that makes 1 revolution per hour in 8 steps so the whole plant gets exposed but no part gets exposed directly for the whole hour.

A pic of the electronics mess...