The Future; Three spectrum/bulb system!

1. I have over 5 years of experience flowering under HPS
2. On my 4th round with the 315w CMH
3. Back in the day 3 full complete runs under Cool White T-12, 4 footers; hung vertical, I had 400w on one plant in 4 gallon pot.

I'm here to tell all who'll listen the near future it's going to be about using a dedicated veg spectrum/bulb, weight spectrum/bulb, quality spectrum/bulb; 3 spectrum/bulb system.

On a 65 day strain, I've already established this for my setup. The Phillips 315w CMH 3100k for Vegging and first 12 days of Flower, day 13-44 Hortilux 400w HPS. The last stage for quality is where I'm not 100% sure what the best bulb would be, or if it even exists yet?
I'm leaning towards the 315w CMH 4200k or the Eye Hortilux Blue Daylight MH 6500k. I don't need to hear about how I got the veg bulb and the flower bulb backwards. I've flowered under the 3100k CMH and Cool White T-12's. Quality was up over the HPS, weight wasn't comparable. Leaving the weight debate aside for now; I can't help but think all the extra blue in the 4200k CMH, or Eye Hortilux Blue Daylight MH 6500k will only drive quality up over the HPS or even the 3100k CMH.

The way I see this 3 spectrum/bulb system working out is something like this.
Veg spectrum/bulb, (day 1 to day 12) can be just about anything you want depending on if you need stretch or bushiness. 2000k-7000k anything in this range easily would work.
Weight spectrum/bulb, HPS no debate here. Use this for the most amount of flower days possible without sacrificing last 3 week quality flip. 2100k pretty standard for HPS.
Quality spectrum/bulb, (last 3 weeks) not exactly sure about best spectrum? I think it's going to be in the 4000k-8000k range.

Check the 10k finishing lamp for your answer

Transpiration needs to stay elevated and nutrient usage needs to remain consistent. Retaining quality with this method will be difficult in soil, since any drop in nutrient needs would induce an overfeeding situation, which would reduce quality.

Hydro would be much easier, with the ability to change the reservoir to a new mix. Each light is going to produce different demands on the plant. Some strains may hermie, unless the light change is done gradually.

Very interesting, I'm subbed.

Douglas.Curtis don't fear the 3 spectrum/bulb system. I can't tell you the best way exactly yet but I've been doing this enough to come here and share that this is the future! I've already been switching the bulbs; running in Pro-Mix with no signs of anything from the plants. They don't bat an eye, nothing changes not a leaf curl, taco or serrated edges. Plants stay the same with bulb switch, I haven't been changing feeding schedule or nutrient levels. Until this run I've been using the Phillips 315w 3100k as the veg and finishing bulb, I'm going to a higher Kelvin rating for finishing bulb this run.

Heh, no fear here. I guess I'm just getting way more detailed than growers usually get. I don't grow cannabis like most folks anyway.

I purchased a 600w Solis Tech just to test their 10,000K finisher for a year. Now it has their 4,000K veg light for another 11 months.

The fisisher made no real difference, it was at the end of a 5,600w system in a five plant perpetual. I suspect the lack of enhanced growth may have been due to the 35w of UVB sidelights putting 80uw of UVB directly on the leaves. More did not help as the 80uw was the tested amount needed for the strain growing. The meter registered 9uw of UVB 12 inches from the bulb, a rather indifferent amount but still nine times more than the second place bulb (SunPulse).

Two years with a special built light testing grow room. Differing amounts of UVB at every stage including clones, same same with Far Red. LEDs in the bud room alternate one 400w Black Dog for every two 230w Dwarf Star. At one end are two 400w CMH and the 600w Solis Tech.
Side lighting is the UVB and another 1,050w LED bars.

That pretty much makes the three lights mentioned, but chosen after many side by side tests.
I have found that 'anything' does not work well. Lighting bearing a slight resemblance to natural sunlight functions superior to lighting with large gaps in wavelength or completely missing colors.
Lighting tailored to the pureed chlorophyll absorbance spectrum has been found to be far inferior to full spectrum as a growing plant is not ground to a slurry and smeared on a slide. Many functions other than photosynthesis must be accomplished, chlorophyll smokes horribly.

The photos are just for fun, one of many configurations found to be successful over the years.

I say put the cmh and the hps in the same hood and run both together.
Can get a good sunrise, mid day, sunset effect that way as well.

Sorry to sound dense, but exactly what is the advantage from going multi-spectrum? What are you getting in return increase to warrant the extra spectrum concerns?

Just curious...

Blue light veg thru stretch and red/yellow/orange thru flower has always worked and not different with any new gimmick.

Nothing has really changed. The new game is efficiency. From tent growers to warehouse growers, getting the same or more weight and quality for less cost, counts big!

Have you flowered with CMH? Have you flowered with t-5/12's cool whites? If you had flowered with the CMH or Cool white T-5/12's you'd know you got better quality with less weight. Hence the idea of using a 3rd spectrum/bulb for quality. I'm not that interested in trying the finishing bulbs, as stated above I believe the gain in quality at the end of a grow cycle will be in the 4000k-8000k range not a 10000k bulb. This is why I called it a "quality" bulb/spectrum to not confuse the finishing bulbs with my idea. We're not only chasing UV light, but also more blue light. The UV in CMH and T-5's ins't really that much; as stated above it's more about the blue light. Also as stated above I've already used the CMH 3100k Phillips bulb weeks 7-9 after the HPS was used for weeks 3-6. I definitely saw better looking buds than just HPS alone. Bigger buds than CMH or T-5/12's. The plants where perfectly happy. The idea that switching bulbs will hurt plants is ridiculous; as stated above by someone else, our grandparents where switching bulbs years ago so lets just dump the idea that it'll upset the plants transpiration and nutrient usage needing to remaining constant babble.

There is some stunting changing spectrum. So the rumor goes.

I find it hard to buy that less light equals higher quality. It comes down to ideal par without burning or bleaching and good penetration.

There are several points a new tech could hit on.

Even light par across a foot print.
Penetration
Efficiency
Spectrum
Cost of purchase
Light life

Easy7 CMH has for several years been making better quality with less light? You can't even comment a relevant thought to this thread if you haven't seen the difference they produce.

No, not less light less watts.

If you want LED with UV it can be costly depending on model and more over, whether it's made in china. Also LED has moving parts where CMH has air cooled.

CMH mimics the sun the most.

So what you're after would be more like the heliospectra where you can make recipes for wavelengths at anytime and schedule? I have heard of people adding the extra far red at the end of the day period and helping finish faster, not sure though.

If you have the cash, would it not be worth your while to pick up one of those lights and then you can play with whatever spectrum at whatever time and test out different ideas?