Lighting Integrating UV with autocobs

[lunarman]

What got me turned on to less wattage was seeing cooked plants under the “50 watts per square foot” everyone always said was needed. That’s really when I got into diy and started building lights that fit my space and even those were a pain in the rear to use as my space was always changing. AutoCobs! I started using them and did my own version of the math. I saw many ways where hps was limited and I also noticed how my par meter was so sensitive to even an inch of movement so I sort of put 2&2 together. Directional adjustable lighting was key. The numbers we see are easily manipulated and to be honest I didn’t care what they were anyways. Results were important so I ran a few grows with single cobs kinda as a whatever happens happens grow and was impressed with the results.

Then the auto vs photo debates came and I always saw autos as needing less light overall. Shorter veg and flower but using 24 hours as a baseline realized autos were actually consuming around the same amount of light as a photo at 12 hours per day. Even over a longer period of time. Generally 2 months vs 4 months. I decreased my wattage and ran with it keeping a close eye on my plants and saw the less I used the bigger and better my plants were. Why add more when less is better? 2 grows ago I had 2 plants side by side, posted on Instagram. One was getting a lot of light and one was under 1 AutoCob and the results were so substantial I couldn’t pass up future lower wattage grows. Multiply your autoflower light wattage by hours you run per day, and with your photos multiply your light wattage by hours you run per day and it makes a lot more sense why autos need less wattage.

What a rant, hopefully this helps.

Man, rant on. That is just getting interesting.

Question for you. Assuming this lighting approach results in better growth during all phases, If I took 2 auto plants say 15 days old and ran them under a 3500K autocob each but at different heights (maybe 22 and 32 inches) would it take long to see how the one plant is growing better than the other?

One more. Do you see your plants uptake more water and feed now that you have them under ideal lighting?

Edit. Do you see faster growth, or just more growth or would you say just better growth? What do you see in veg? I know you say at the end flower resin is better.

 

[Dabber]

Man, rant on. That is just getting interesting.

Question for you. Assuming this lighting approach results in better growth during all phases, If I took 2 auto plants say 15 days old and ran them under a 3500K autocob each but at different heights (maybe 22 and 32 inches) would it take long to see how the one plant is growing better than the other?

One more. Do you see your plants uptake more water and feed now that you have them under ideal lighting?

This pic may help the smaller plants are 12 days old and are growing just as fast as the bigger ones and they take up just as much nutes as the bigger plants, lights around 24 to 28 inches soon as my other 4 Autocobs arrive will set lights back to 30 to 32 inches above tallest plant

 

[lunarman]

This pic may help the smaller plants are 12 days old and are growing just as fast as the bigger ones and they take up just as much nutes as the bigger plants, lights around 24 to 28 inches soon as my other 4 Autocobs arrive will set lights back to 30 to 32 inches above tallest plant

theres small plants in there? i dont see no small plants!!

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[BII]

I have ran UV in the past and can say with certainty that I did not find it useful whatsoever. In theory it makes sense. The plants natural defense mech to UV is the sticky sap we love, so increasing UV should make the plants more resinous. Luckily I could shut it off and save the 12 watts. I think good genetics and good lighting is the only answer. UV in my opinion is a waste of time and money but if you feel it may help I’d be happy to follow along and see if someone else has a good experience.

As far as using it, most people run it on short timers. 15 minutes on per hour. One downfall is that uv is generally sold in fluorescent tubes. Super inefficient, lower wattage and harder to find. To make it useful I’d say it would need to be closer than the AutoCob and that would block the most useful light.

Hope this helps. Sorry to be a downer I just haven’t seen any good from my 3-24” t8 bulbs. Excellent for tanning. View attachment 867305

Does the AutoCOB spectra include decent coverage of UVA and UVB?

 

[Dabber]

theres small plants in there? i dont see no small plants!!

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Yes they're only like 1 ft tall @ 12 days

 

[BigSm0]

Man, rant on. That is just getting interesting.

Question for you. Assuming this lighting approach results in better growth during all phases, If I took 2 auto plants say 15 days old and ran them under a 3500K autocob each but at different heights (maybe 22 and 32 inches) would it take long to see how the one plant is growing better than the other?

One more. Do you see your plants uptake more water and feed now that you have them under ideal lighting?

Edit. Do you see faster growth, or just more growth or would you say just better growth? What do you see in veg? I know you say at the end flower resin is better.

A healthier plant will definitely drink more water and that usually leads to more nutrients. If it’s being burned which I sort of witnessed it will drink much slower. You can look at it like nutrients. Yes plants need nitrogen but does increasing the amount from 1tsp per gallon to 5tsp per gallon make the plant grow bigger. Not really.

If you were to raise one of your lights you would probably see a difference rather quickly. It’s worth a shot and actually how I stumbled on this. Those back corners had my best plants. Dead center was yellow and much worse off. So basically every aspect of the plants life is better when it’s receiving what it needs and not this excess. Also note that some strains can tolerate more light than others. I’m using the same lights as most of Afn, AutoCobs and so far less is more. This is also with an unlimited supply of them.

 

[BigSm0]

Does the AutoCOB spectra include decent coverage of UVA and UVB?

There is a small amount of UV in the cobs but I’m not sure how much it actually is.

 

[lunarman]

Yes they're only like 1 ft tall @ 12 days

12 days, 12 inches tall! That is incredible to me. Nice. Is that all just because of the light height?

 

[lunarman]

A healthier plant will definitely drink more water and that usually leads to more nutrients. If it’s being burned which I sort of witnessed it will drink much slower. You can look at it like nutrients. Yes plants need nitrogen but does increasing the amount from 1tsp per gallon to 5tsp per gallon make the plant grow bigger. Not really.

If you were to raise one of your lights you would probably see a difference rather quickly. It’s worth a shot and actually how I stumbled on this. Those back corners had my best plants. Dead center was yellow and much worse off. So basically every aspect of the plants life is better when it’s receiving what it needs and not this excess. Also note that some strains can tolerate more light than others. I’m using the same lights as most of Afn, AutoCobs and so far less is more. This is also with an unlimited supply of them.

So BigSm0, with one 3500K per plant would you say you would keep the light at 30 inches height from start to finish? Or is there some variation?

 

[Dabber]

12 days, 12 inches tall! That is incredible to me. Nice. Is that all just because of the light height?

Its a combination of great lighting and great nutes