Shen Zhen Bava vs smilley

rastafari80 said:

Yep, you have low RH for the veg stage.. not only for your temps.


That post is right about VPD btw the common approach is 90% RH for seedling, 60/70% for veg, 40/50% for flowering.
Keeping RH low during flowering allows more resins and thricomes production[ coz they are a natural response to low RH ], avoid mold and other issues.
The higher RH you can have without problem, the better... in any stage. [I used to have a lot of condense during seedling even inside my air extractor... and this is not the safest thing for your indoor room... but they surely thrive a lot better]


The more you keep the light on, the more the RH is going to decrease without a proper humidifier.

Click to expand...

Well, that explains why I've always had issues over the years with veg and especially late in veg. I never gave it much thought because when I switch to flower the plants really perk up. Fortunately, veg is coming to an end for this crop. I have an end date for this season (due to personal obligations) and to achieve it I'll be flipping to 12/12 in two days. It looks like the girls have grown a few inches since being under the qb's. Not bad considering that I simultaneously cooked and froze them for the first 5 days with the leds. They should be 15 -18 inches tall by the flip so I'm ok with it.

A Little Humor

A Little Humor

Bava vs smilley recap after 2 rounds (in my best Howard Cosell voice)

In round one, smilley came out of his corner smiling and looking confident, he hung the fixture and said "we don't need no stinking level", lit up a reefer and waited for the magic to happen. Bava was all business, it pummeled the clones with an intense bombardment of photons. Reeling from the Chinese fixture's assault, smilley countered by lowering the temps. Bava continued it's punishing assault and when the round came to an end, smilley was teetering. (Round 1 Bava 3, smilley 0)

In smilley's corner, Smokin Joe was heard to say "work that fixture from the outside, don't let it get too close and turn the heat up on those clones. And slow down on the reefers smilley, I'm beginning to think your a stoner. Buckey and GorillaGanja were both shaking their heads in disbelief. Smilley put out the roach as the bell for round two sounded.

As the round began, smilley tried to divert the audience's attention with his 400mh but the crowd was having none of it. They could smell blood in the air and were not going to be denied their pound of flesh. TnT, primobud and Rastafari could be heard shouting encouragement and advice as smilley waded into the grow room with a mixture of PureBlendPro, Liquid Karma and CalMag for the clones. Bava was trying to lure smilley in close but smilley held his distance and the clones started showing a bit of vigor. Feeling a bit more confidence after his earlier ego bruising, smilley looked straight at the lamp and said "...young fella, when I was your age, drinking and driving was a sport, not a crime". Nobody knew what the hell that meant but as the bell rang ending the second round, smilley strode purposely toward his corner demanding " a bong full of wifi, stat!!" (Round 2 an even draw)

In smilley's corner, Bmac looked mystified and said "we haven't grown wifi in years smilley, where've you been?" Smilley mumbled something about mono cropping blueberry and they all settled on a bowl of primobud's dry sift. "Seè smilley, fresh out of the tumbler, no waiting like your bubble hash said primobud. Huddled in his corner with all his friends and a huge cloud of hash smoke, smilley said "fellas, I'm gonna make that lamp my bitch".
(to be continued)

smilley said:

Bava vs smilley recap after 2 rounds (in my best Howard Cosell voice)

In round one, smilley came out of his corner smiling and looking confident, he hung the fixture and said "we don't need no stinking level", lit up a reefer and waited for the magic to happen. Bava was all business, it pummeled the clones with an intense bombardment of photons. Reeling from the Chinese fixture's assault, smilley countered by lowering the temps. Bava continued it's punishing assault and when the round came to an end, smilley was teetering. (Round 1 Bava 3, smilley 0)

In smilley's corner, Smokin Joe was heard to say "work that fixture from the outside, don't let it get too close and turn the heat up on those clones. And slow down on the reefers smilley, I'm beginning to think your a stoner. Buckey and GorillaGanja were both shaking their heads in disbelief. Smilley put out the roach as the bell for round two sounded.

As the round began, smilley tried to divert the audience's attention with his 400mh but the crowd was having none of it. They could smell blood in the air and were not going to be denied their pound of flesh. TnT, primobud and Rastafari could be heard shouting encouragement and advice as smilley waded into the grow room with a mixture of PureBlendPro, Liquid Karma and CalMag for the clones. Bava was trying to lure smilley in close but smilley held his distance and the clones started showing a bit of vigor. Feeling a bit more confidence after his earlier ego bruising, smilley looked straight at the lamp and said "...young fella, when I was your age, drinking and driving was a sport, not a crime". Nobody knew what the hell that meant but as the bell rang ending the second round, smilley strode purposely toward his corner demanding " a bong full of wifi, stat!!" (Round 2 an even draw)

In smilley's corner, Bmac looked mystified and said "we haven't grown wifi in years smilley, where've you been?" Smilley mumbled something about mono cropping blueberry and they all settled on a bowl of primobud's dry sift. "Seè smilley, fresh out of the tumbler, no waiting like your bubble hash said primobud. Huddled in his corner with all his friends and a huge cloud of hash smoke, smilley said "fellas, I'm gonna make that lamp my bitch".
(to be continued)

Click to expand...

Hey what'ca smoking on these days smilley. I have to get me some of that.

Back To Reality

Back To Reality

Last day of veg. I believe I got the VPD close to ideal. It was a struggle, I started adding humidity to the room today and got the RH up to 63%. I was amazed to see the temperature dropping as the RH rose. I throttled back the exhaust fan to minimum and the best temperature I can achieve is about 25C. That includes the heat generated by the 400mh so if I replace the 400 with led's I'll definitely have to add heat to the room to achieve 27C and 65% RH.





I didn't buy the Bava lamp for vegging, I bought it to be my primary flowering lamp. Still, I'll be doing some vegging with it and although my efforts to veg with it (this crop) were abysmal going forward I'm sure it'll do a competent job. Keep in mind, this lamp has a color temp of 3500K, Shen Zhen Bava will make with 3000, 3500, 4000 and 5000K, your choice.

I'm not proud of it but I managed about 5 inches of stretch in 12 days of veg and the average height going into flower is about 18 inches which is what I was hoping for, except a week late. Also I plucked quite a few dead, dying and yellowing leafs from the clones,especially the PK x BBs. Also, I did a bit of staking and tying as per Rastafari's suggestion but most of my training is done in the stretch. In general, I like the form of the girls right now, they were all topped at least twice. They're still stressed from my cruel treatment but are improving and going forward, they have lots of potential.

They look like they are feeling better. Ready for flower.
You recognized a problem, adapted quick and fixed the problem. That's what counts.

Peace GG

It must be the C99 lol. PB doesn't share his hash with all his friends!!! Of course Smilley can have some anytime if he's brought some big buds to the party. lol

Hey they're looking great now man! My UH#1's are only 24" after 10wks vegging under 400wMH. I guess you have it figured out eh, right on.

Looking good.

Day F8

Day F8

I did a little housekeeping in the room yesterday, cleaned the exhaust filter and changed the charcoal as well as a few more stakes and some tying. Over all, the plants are looking the best they've been since being under the qb's. I wish I could have a "do over" on the first week but it is what it is. Canopy temps are running at a steady 25C except the last couple of hours of lights on where they push up to about 27C. This is caused by the central house heating automatically coming on before getting home from work. I could solve this issue with a thermostatically controlled duct fan on the attached garage intake but that involves time and money which I have very little of. So, unless it causes major problems I'll just monitor the situation.

The light is 24 inches above the canopy and I'm letting the plants stretch to the fixture. The C99s will stretch for one more week and the BBs and PK x BBs will stretch for 2 more weeks.

Very nice.
What are you growing in ? Sunshine peat mix??

Just plain old Pro-Mix HP in 2 gallon pots GG. My wife amends the raised beds in the yard with the used soil. After 15 years, her beds are the nicest I've ever seen. You can shove your hand at least a foot into the dirt with little effort. And, ha, ha, no I can't grow autos out there either.

Technical Note

Technical Note

I plugged the Bava fixture into my power consumption meter and it's drawing 501 watts. Sorry for the crappy picture, I was too lazy to retake it.

What did the old 600 W draw? What was your average yield on the old 600 W?
Will be interesting if you will meet or beat the average yield from the old light.

The girls are digging the new fixture. They're looking happier daily and finally doing what they're supposed to do. The purple stems are fading to green and the tops are reaching for the light.







They could be darker green but considering their earlier treatment Ithink they look pretty good. I've actually got 10 plants in the space. I had a backup clone that I didn't have the heart to cull so I slipped in between 4 plants. I believe I could've put 13 in the space instead of 9. Probably too much work and the law of diminishing returns would come into effect. Anyway,she's reaching for the canopy so I'll let her go and see if she'll produce.

I never tested the 600hps. Give me a couple of days and I'll get back to you. I just got the tester, about $20C from Amazon. I'll plug in the 600 and run it for 30 minutes to get it up to full temperature. I'll try it on the 400mh as well, running right now with a 360 conversion bulb.

Looking great old pal!

Hitting their stride now.

So, I tested the 600 hps and it draws 630 watts at the wall after running for 20 minutes. The 400 mh with the 360 conversion bulb draws 228 watts at the wall. I suspect that the 400 mh isn't operating correctly.

Any electrical wizards out there? Maybe a weak or leaky capacitor? Maybe the bulb? I've had that 400 mh ballast for almost 20 years and it's been operated a lot. For years I only vegged with it but once I discovered conversion bulbs it's been running continuously for 44 weeks a year.

I might take it apart and investigate. I'm planning on replacing it with leds of some sort for next season. It would be a good starter fixture for a beginner or someone less chronic than myself. The thing about electrical stuff is we tend to plug it in and forget it. I'm sure that lamp is costing me yield as it's only drawing 2/3 of it's rating. I'll screw the 400 mh bulb into the ballast on the weekend and see what it draws. If it draws close to 400 watts then I can assume the conversion bulb needs replacing. If it only draws in the 200's I'll assume the issue is in the ballast.

Day F15

Day F15

After 2 weeks of 12/12 the girls have just about recovered from their traumatic introduction to the qb's. Still a little purple on some of the stems but for the most part they've faded to green. I expected more stretch but I'm pretty happy with how things look. Where I live, the Spring melt is in full swing so humidity is running at 65% which is high for this area. The girls seem to be enjoying it and I don't have a dehumidifier so their at the mercy of Mother Nature. Anther week and I expect the humidty to drop down to 45 -50%.

The plants are taking up about 3 liters of liquid a week each. Feeding regime goes like this (per 4 liters): 7.5ml Pure Blend Pro Bloom, 5 ml Liquid Karma, 5ml Cal Max and half ml of bloom booster. I'll discontinue the Cal Max about 4 weeks from finish and flush with straight water the last 2 weeks. As I just use tap water, the ph is a little high. I used to religiously ph everything to 6.3 but after my 3rd ph pen crapped out I've chosen not to bother. I've done this now for a couple of years and it doesn't seem to make much difference. I think consistency is more important and I believe the roots have the ability to adjust ph at the root surfaces.

All in all, I really happy with what I'm seeing. I tightened up the foot print slightly and haven't moved the fixture since I set it 30 inches above the vegging plants. Right now the fixture is 20 inches above the center plant and slightly less on the surrounding top colas. I don't know what the ideal fixture height is so I'll probably keep it around the 20 inch height.