Advice for UVB

[Phaeton]

My goodness how time does fly. I am finally starting the UV grow. Got a thread started to keep it organized.
The entire clone tray (15 indica, 8 sativa) is getting vegged with UV just so the one plant I'm testing will be UV'ed start to finish.
To be sure enough UV is emitted to count, a full 50% of the wattage is Reptisun 10. Those put out 10% UVB, 30% UVA, and 60% daylight, so 192 total watts only equals 19 watts of actual UVB. The other half of the lights are Florasun, 50% red, 30% blue, and 20% other. And just for good measure a 450nm/daylight HID is getting placed 36" above to simulate the warm blue summer sky.
Mostly I am just killing time right now, the clones only just started to show roots and nothing to do but wait until I can transplant into the budroom, how did that old Tom Petty song go? 'waiting is the hardest part'.

 

[Phaeton]

I just got through rereading the white paper from the link Oldmac posted. A paper from the '70's on UVB & plant response, long and short term, interesting read all by itself.

My interest centered mostly on the part about the UVB coming from everywhere, as much on the bottom of the leaf as on top, and the high altitude intensities.
Luckily, it's what I remembered it was when I put in the new order for 7 more Zilla UVB reptile lights, 6 to add around the plant, 1 spare. The additional fixtures are to be put vertically around the plant about 6" out, right now I have 2 bulbs each side, but they no longer cause the plant to droop.
UVB to everywhere all right, 10 bulbs, ground level to 24", full circle around a 13" plant.

And that CMH on top?
The Phantom digital ballast arrived today, the Sunpulse should be close. Sunpulse? yes, Sunpulse, almost exactly the same as CMH, almost.
HID's for industrial use filter the UV out, all usable amounts stopped by the glass envelope. Sunpulse bulbs do not do this.
Supposedly enough UVA and UVB for the plant to respond to are emitted. Plus as much UVC as a regular HID has UVA (not much).

It should be good enough to fill in the one weak spot on the test, the feed light had no UVB, now it will.

 

[Jah Leon]

Interesting post here. UV-B in my test with infa red radiation and blue light made a hell of a difference.

Recently had the opportunity to use UV-B LEDs and the results give me better recovery in veg. While in flowering with HPS lights the side by side comparison with and without showed that the buds with the light had a way higher density for just 20 watts.

Looking forward to reading and hearing more. Keep the good stuff coming.

Bless; love and gratitude

 

[Ickis]

The UV lights that you need are Mega Ray 60w Mercury Vapor with remote ballast. I got mine from ZooMed. They have a frosted bulb that emits UVA and UVB to a distance of 20" and a clear bulb that goes to a distance of 30". They are in the 290 to 325 n range. They duplicate natural sunlight for reptiles in zoos and high level hobbyist.

In the old UV thread that is no longer on here they were the ones "the experts" said were needed. I never got around to even trying mine after 4 years. I just set up a new closet with a 1000w Phantom with Hortilux Super HPS and also installed the Mega Ray 60w with frosted lens.

The 60w clear bulbs are mostly sold to zoos and you need to call Zoo Med and phone order one so they can quiz you on use and if you have a UV meter so they know you won't blind yourself or kill whatever reptile you have.

IMHO outdoor weed of the same strain is more potent and triched than that strain grown indoors because of UV.

It was the general consensus in the other thread that the cfl regular bulbs, the cfl tube bulbs and the self ballasted Mercury Vapor lights were to weak and not the right range 295 to 325 n to be of any value.

The Mega Ray mercury Vapor lights are specially made for UVA and UVB and the spectrum can not be duplicated by other Mercury Vapor lights even though there are ones with way more watts for commercial use (400w). They don't want to shower people with UV radiation indoors. Mega Ray wants to for reptiles.

 

[rrog]

I also use that Mega Ray and the weed is strong

 

[Ickis]

rrog how many hours do you use it during 12/12 and when?

 

[rrog]

8 hours in the middle of the 12 hour period.

 

[Phaeton]

That inverse square law is both friend and enemy.

I got all the way up to 10 Zilla desert 50's and Reptisun 10's around the plant. burned.
8, burned.
6, so far so good, day 26 and the hairs are all still there, they contain a hazy reddish brown coloring under the surface not seen on the control plant.

The sunpulse turned out to be exactly the same as the CMH. I put siamesed CMH's up, 800 watts is better than 400.

The veg table liked the UV so it stayed, supplemented by a T5 fixture with mixed red and white, 536 watts total flourescents, no HID. Always a UV ready clone available, the way I was burning them up it is good to have spares.

 

[rrog]

Phaeton, I'm just now understanding you're running trials with UV. You mentioned you have a grow thread with more details? Or is this the thread?