Time to go Veg. ?

[Oldfartnoclue58]

Is that for pest/ bugs ? I've used neem oil before. Do I need something more than that ? I've had small gnats before but that's the only pest issue I've had in the past. Also, what made you suggest it, what do you see ?

Thanks.

 

[Cannaficionado]

Is that for pest/ bugs ? I've used neem oil before. Do I need something more than that ? I've had small gnats before but that's the only pest issue I've had in the past. Also, what made you suggest it, what do you see ?

Thanks.

No a surfactant is a chemical that breaks water surface tension allowing it to flow over hydrophobic areas and get everywhere in your pots. There's quite few, soap nut powder is popular as well as yucca. I use one from fox farm called sledgehammer, its cheap and one small bottle will last like 3 or 4 grows and its like 20 bucks

 

[Oldfartnoclue58]

Thanks, I'll check into that. I've used some fox farm stuff before.

 

[Cannaficionado]

Thanks, I'll check into that. I've used some fox farm stuff before.

Its marketed as a flushing agent, but i just use it as a surfactant, its yucca extract diluted in water.

 

[BII]

Regarding surfactants, you may have usable ones around the house. Any pure (such as unscented) plant-derived soap/detergent will work, such as coconut, hemp, jojoba, rosemary, peppermint (Dr. Bronner's), palm oil-based soaps/detergents. You don't need much, just 1 or 2 drops/gallon could be enough. Plant-derived surfactants will biodegrade, be metabolized by microbes in your media and plant cells. I've used Coco Wet and Dr. Bronner's. Avoid animal fat-based and synthetic soaps/detergents.

 

[Oldfartnoclue58]

Thanks. Yeah, I wanted to stay organic. How old should she be before I start using this ? Also I'm using grow dots in the soil and I don't want to kill nutes before they're even used, (not sure if it would , but I don't know). Just curious how that would work.

 

[Delps8]

Mars recommends 25% at 30 cm (12"). Is that the hang height you're using?

That light has a fair percentage of blue so I was surprised to see that you're supplementing with an ADLite Blue. The ADLite will give you a significant increase in the % of blue as well as a bump in PPFD.

Are you using the blue to control plant shape and structure or do you just want more light?

 

[Oldfartnoclue58]

Hi, thanks for asking. I'm currently hanging around 30". I'm trying to use it for shape and structure. I want to see if it will give me more outward growth outside of lst. Trying to get more bush less tree. I just got the usb controller for dirt cheap, listed/ rated as a piece of junk but I figured for less than $15 wth why not. So far, big PITA to get connected, but it works to a point where I don't have to get up to switch the light strength. I'm hoping these lights make a little difference on growth.

 

[Oldfartnoclue58]

Forgot running @ 75% atm. on mains. ADlite runs 100% in schedule.

 

[Delps8]

Hi, thanks for asking. I'm currently hanging around 30". I'm trying to use it for shape and structure. I want to see if it will give me more outward growth outside of lst. Trying to get more bush less tree. I just got the usb controller for dirt cheap, listed/ rated as a piece of junk but I figured for less than $15 wth why not. So far, big PITA to get connected, but it works to a point where I don't have to get up to switch the light strength. I'm hoping these lights make a little difference on growth.

Blue light will definitely do the trick but there can be too much of a good thing.

I use a variety of lights, including the Blue 55, to shape my plants but the greatest amount of blue I put on a plant is about 30%. It's not easy to get spectrum info from light manufacturers (they seem to think it's a trade secret?) so I've had to resort to using ChatGPT or Grok.

Here's the GPT view on your light. That's an AI bot trying to figure out a spectrum so there's a non-trivial margin of error but 20% is about average for a commodity LED light so my inclination is to think that the Mars is right in the ballpark.

If you add in the PPFD from the Blue 30/55's, that's adding a good amount of blue but the question is how much blue?

I've put a fair amount of time into lighting. For my current grow I started with a Growcraft veg light (30% blue) then switch to a Growcraft flower light and am using the Mars Blue 55 ADLites and the Spider Glow R80 (660) on different schedules to shape my plants. I could have done the math to figure out the schedule but ChatGPT just does a much better job in that area. Plus it has access to a far greater amount of information that I could possibly access so I consider it indispensable.

I bring that up because even if you've worked through the numbers, it's not a bad idea to have a second brain critique a light plan.

If it would help, I can measure the PPFD values for the Blue 55's. OTOH, if you get a lux meter, you can feed that to an AI bot and it will be able to calculate the PPFD for you.

Between the various lights, this is a 39 day old photoperiod plant that's 8" tall and ~23 in diameter. The plant was topped at day 17 and has been LST'd using fishing weights attached to the branches by shower curtain hooks.