What's new
GrowWeedEasy.com
You're browsing as a guest. Sign up to join the conversation, share your grows, and get help from thousands of fellow growers — it's free and takes less than a minute.

Light movers ?

DrPhoton I should probably clarify that when I say 'blast' a leaf with photons I'm still talking in the neighborhood of 700 umols or so, so I don't think I'm getting any of the canopy in the range of photoinhibition. The exception may be the very center, which as I said never really gets full 'relief'. The center is going from 400 umol to 700 umol and back again, whereas the edges are hitting 700 umol and then getting as low as 200 umol as the light reaches the other end of it's travel.

I have thus far not added any CO2 to my grow in any significant quantity so I believe I will still be largely limited by that factor, though I do have a significant amount of air movement going to combat this.

As an experiment I don't really expect to gather much data from it but wanted to try it anyway.
 
At those light levels your not getting the light source any closer than you would with fixed systems. So that argument is thrown out the door in that case. You cannot think about light effects as just averages, but also instantanous effects. Even if light levels momentarily become co2 limited, the efficiency still declines during that time. Much research went into pulsed lighting vs continous lighting to asses whether there were benefits that could be obtained by manipulating the light in such a way. But nothing has been found or is being applied to commercial applications.

Experimenting is always good, this is what science is all about. Even if it has been proven or not, repeated experiments are always helpful.
 
Hey Potted_ well, we'll see. One things for sure is that it doesn't seem to be hurting them any. All but two of six seem plenty happy with the light there're getting but two of them (same strain) are showing early signs of light stress_ leaves with a slight "V" and pointing up at 45 degrees. They were "relaxed" in the morning but by the end of the day they are looking like that. So I started timing the lights different as above_ and now they aren't looking as stressed at the end of the day. So it seems that the change is making a difference....
 
Thanks man, I’m thinking on that,I have a 600 watt cool hood with a adjustable balast not in use now, if I place it at the other side of my room and split the light 50/50 with the lec315 that should give them light at different angles to represent the movement of the sun. What do u think?
 
While I was getting stuff in place and seeing how my plan was not adequate, I started buying lights of all kinds to help keep a steady beam on what I had growing. I wound up with 4 - 300w(at the wall) LED’s, 1 315 LEC in a sun systems housing and a 1000w HID in a blockbuster xl hood . It must have had a benefit to the plants ....as much of a pain in the ass as it was keeping lights in positions… but then after reading about side lighting for shaded bud sites, I lowered the 1000w hood and angled it to shine brightly on the side of two plants and had of the LED units side light the plants with LEDs overhead.

from the 10 plants... my 3 week dry yield is 1677g. There were some very large main colas but some of the buds on the plants center and side (now dried and cured 3 weeks) measured 3 1/2” dry. My only real source of information was continuous reading about light being a driving force in growth. I’ve also read the sidelighting has little benefit. Nearly 4 lbs to me was a very happy yield ... while I’m changing a bunch of stuff around for round 2, I’m sidelighting again.
 
Hey Potted I have a light rail 4.0 and I love it My run is about 6 feet long and it covers 8 plants ,I did have a 1000 hps in a big kahuna hood it gave me issues because of its weight so I purchased a 630 cmh so far so good this is the first grow with it , I went with a light mover because a friend has one and he routinely gets 2 lbs off of 5 plants I understand what the Dr. says and if it was a longer run it would be to much movement verses light saturation will cause a loss of yield so my run is 6 feet it takes 2 minutes to run it and it pauses for 30 seconds at each end I also have 100w led light bars for when the main light is not over plants , I would hang anougher light on the same rail if I thought I wasn't getting enough light so we will see what happens
 
I think you should at least try it, can't hurt. just keep an eye on them- make sure not to introduce too much light stress. But that may not even be an issue. I'm pretty sure alternating between having both lights on and then just one of the others is allowing me to give them more intense light without stressing them. Gives em time to rest. With my canopy-light distance down to 18-20" I found that I can get more light deeper into the canopy when both are on and then give the top of the canopy some relief off and on throughout the day. No signs of stress and I have been able to use both lights now at full power rather than turning it back. Thankfully the stretch finished and they are as tall as they're gonna get. Try it_ your plants will probably like it! cheers and hope the set up works for your plants!
 
Hi OJH hows tricks? It’s been awhile,I have a Q about your mover, how do u speed it up or slow it down and how slow can it go? If I want to imulate the sun, wouldn’t I set the movement from one end to the other for 18 hours or 12 in flower,from what I’ve seen these movers move to quickly for that,and another concern is the shaking of the unit, IE the bulb? Could it shorten its life? I’m just trying to do right by my plants. Any more info would b great ,thanks.
 
From my electronic service experience vibration to a vacuum tube could cause failure. In fact tube tapping could cause failure by shorting out close spaced elements. The term applied to vacuum tubes was microphonics. Of course in one of these lamps you don't have near the elements as say in a pentode. Serapium answered this question earlier in this thread.
 
Potted the Liht Mover 4.0 that I have won't go anywhere near that slow. On a 6 foot rail about the slowest it will go is a few minutes back and forth. Much much faster than the rate you're talking about. I am intrigued by the idea of emulating the sun's movement across the sky though and have been trying to think of a way this could be done.
 
I’ve heard about placeing a dimmer switch to slow it down but I don’t think the motor would like it and burn up?
 
I concur, maybe a gear type setup,like trains that climb mountains has,or a worm gear like a garage door opener, hay I’m just spitballing here, looking for clues at the seen of the crime lol
 
Last edited:
I have the light rail 4. there are adjustments for speed and pausing I thought it went slow , I had problems with my big kahunna reflector because of the weight if they are set up correctly then there is no shaking just a slow steady movement I do have to point out that even though I'm going on 18 months for the new grow room I have only had one successful grow from it ,On this grow I today is the start of the 8th week and everything looks good .but between light leaks total fxxx ups and watering problems its been a long 18 months thank god for the outside grow and autos . On the bright side I have a couple of lbs of duff waiting to be made into wax or oil lol
 
Back
Top