Should i use Full Spectrum mode on my LEDs?

[Herby]

Hello everyone today im trying to figure out if i can use my full spectrum mode on my LED grow lights for the Flowering stage. I cant find guaranteed answers so i turned here. I have a 600w Meizhi Full Spectrum LED light. It has 2 Switches, 1 Veg and 1 Bloom Switch. When i switch on the bloom switch i read around 300watts from 1ft under light, but when i have full spectrum on it reads 500watts atleast from 1ft under. But does full spectrum help bloom and grow more at the same time? and does it work as you would hope? Any answers would be much appreciated

[Zativa]

The wattage consumed is NOT the point here. It's about the wavelengths of light needed during each part of the plant's life. Growing leaves and stems happens faster with more blue light energy, maturing flowers and making cannabinoids takes more red. Once the plant starts making lots of flowers, turn off the VEG switch and give it BLOOM wavelengths. Unless, of course, you are growing these plants mostly for their beautiful foliage.

[Herby]

what i mean bout the wattage part is that it is brighter with Full spectrum and it does give it more colors right? im new to LEDs lol, ive used MH and HPS till now.
my question is, IS full spectrum better for the plant? or should i jsut use the bloom lol cause im in the flower stage now

[Marley]

Personally, I'm using both the veg and bloom lights on mine for the added lumens as well as wavelengths. While the plants might desire more in the red spectrum during flower, it doesn't mean it won't use some of the whites and blues too.

[LuckyAcres]

My viperspectra manual says to use both switches for flowering, it works!!!!

[PigSquishy]

I have LED lights which have a switch Veg & Bloom and according to the manufacturer's directions, the Veg side turns on more of the Blue lighting, and then the Bloom switch turns on the other 50% of the light which is more in the Red wavelength... but in Bloom they want both switches to be on together so you get Veg & Bloom... and at one point I wondered if it really does make a difference. So I did a bit of an experiment to find out. The short of it is simply this, the Blue & Red will gave me extremely dense foliage and the plants did the absolute best with the two switches on, and I had issues of with the plants not really getting the light penetration without the Blue and I lacked -50% less foliage and bud as a result of my experiment with just the Red (Bloom switch) being on... so I won't try that again.

Another one I tried at another point was to use a "Construction LED" light that looks like the halogen construction lights, which was seriously in the Blue spectrum and extremely bright, I figured more Blue light during Bloom would help get denser foliage yet and maybe even more buds still. Instead what happened was in the middle of flower, I turned the plants back to Veg in 24-48 hours time because of my experiment, but I learned a lesson as to the sheer importance of the right colors of light at the right times and that they must be in balance for the best results.

[DingusKhan]

SAH-Weet! An A/B comparison! That's a great answer!

[Herby]

Thanks luckyaces and marley

[Herby]

Thank you greenthumb!! a thousand likes!! the type of answer i was looking for

[PigSquishy]

I'm happy I was able to help, in a future experiment I wanted to try to see if I could use the Blue LED Construction light in combination with my LED's but I found when I got everything set up correctly with Ocra on the walls, the light was so bright as it was just from the LED's that I'd bleach the leaves with light, so I never did try it beyond using it in flower. I have wondered if it would be a good cheap $20 light for Veg for those who can't afford better, but I've never played with it to see.

[Herby]

Thank you man!! i have it switched on