Thanks for the quick reply. 1st the waterline is 2" below the mesh cup and the cup’s still wet. Today I stopped spraying the grow and raised the light from 37" to 40". Sadly the light is in not dimmable but just invested in one.
More questions to come, thanks in advance!
Aren’t you running LED? If so, it doesn’t look like that dimmer is compatible with your lights. Only works for halogen and incandescent.
I don’t really know where to start. First; that light is only 100 watts. Totally insufficient for growing anything but seedlings. If light is used on seedlings it needs to be more like 16" away based on the stretching of sprouts.
Sunlight through a window is nowhere near enough light to grow plants.
I was just looking at the specs, and came to that conclusion as well. Seems the recommended height is closer to 12-18 for seedlings from the reviews as well.
“but consuming only 110 watts” (directly from the Amazon description)
Your light is totally inadequate for growing even one plant out. That’s just objective fact: not enough photons to do the job. This will cause a cascade of issues which you are seeing.
Thanks for the info grab28. I was able to cancel the dimmer thanks to you! Now about the light. so what LED light would you recommend for a 3-4 plant grow in an area 7.5’x5.5’x3’=124sq/ft. I plan on using the same 3.5gall bubbler bucket dwc but now know I need one w/a dimmer switch. Am I missing something here? The light I have emits the equivalent of 1000w but only uses 100w of energy making it very efficient. Reviews on amazon seem to use it for their vege and flower stages (but recommend using using the both switches once the seeds “pop” which I will try at the recommended height of 36"(24"-36") for seedlings How Far Should Your Grow Light Be From Your Plants? Kind LED Grow Lights - YouTube
Also recommended I run both vege and flower lights for this light.
You’re going to want around 30 watts per square foot. That’s an expensive space to fill with quality lighting.
Many people here use HLG.
But the light guru has also been recommending chilled tech. And a couple others
I’d be interested in hearing about chilled tech. After turning on the flower (and vege) lights the temp went up from 83-84 to 86-88. If its already too hot with LED lights how hot will it be HGL?
I misspoke. Its 124 CUBIC feet, not square feet. SQUARE feet is 11 square feet
It’s 41.25 square feet based on 7.5 X 5.5’.
Actually this is just marketing. The LED’s used are old, inferior tech. HLG, CHILled Tech and a couple of others use latest generation, top-bin Samsung diodes (not even sold in China) which are efficient and use far less energy to deliver the right amount of light to plants.
If you want to grow indoors successfully then you will have to step up your game when it comes to light.
I would also say if it were my space, I’d personally go with multiple lights (maybe even one per plant space) so you have the ability to adjust their heights individually based on each plants growth.
By the time the plants get that old the rockwool should be completely dry with only the roots hanging in the water.
Try using hydrogen peroxide to disinfect, not bleach
RO water needs calmag to be added. “I just use tap water for seeds, RO when I move them”
PH: 5.5-6.3 max 5.8 best.
Seedlings never get water changed until I move them " 3 maybe 4 weeks"
Don’t mess with them to much, I know it’s hard but just let them grow.
Don’t over feed, 1/2 max of what nutes say to use.
@Dorf, 6.8 ph is to high, leaves start to get crispy and flaky. 6.0 for hydro, is what I found out that works for me,
Absolutely! I just lost track of it being hydro. Good catch. Sorry @Dorf
@Myfriendis410, I have a similar light, it veg my plants real nice 4 of them from late feb to may 5 ft tall plants and 4 1/2 ft tall plants
Good info guys. I concede I’ll need a 500w HGL light for the veg stage but will continue using the 100w for seedlings along with 1/4 strength cal/mag nutes. I have lowered the light from 40" to 24" and stopped spraying water 2x/day. I also have one healthy windowsill plant with a nice root and have lowered the water level to below the mesh pot, again not spraying w/water. (See I’m really listening)! Looks like my seedlings in the grow room are pretty much toast and I’m extremely afraid of killing off my healthy window plant. . fyi this was my source for sterilizing:
Sterilizing is often achieved by using bleach, hydrogen peroxide, and antibacterial products like Lysol. These can be applied in sprays, dunks, or soaks; whatever it takes to kill off that microbial life. You should use both sterilization and sanitation in order to make sure that your grow room is as clean as possible.Sep 21, 2017
5.5’L x 3’W=16.5sq/ft (7.5’ is the height not calculated in square footage only for cubic feet calculations) right? So 16.5sq/ft x 30w=495w
New question: The grow room does not have window so a window a/c unit is not an option. The temp w/lights on runs a steady 84-86 w/both in/out inline fans running 24/7. Room has a floor register near the in fan for central a/c set for 79/80 degrees all day long. How can bring down the temp w/o a window unit?
Sorry; normally the height is stated as the last number. At 50 watts (lower efficacy LED’s like the Mars Hydro) is your metric. HLG would be around 30 watts per.
