Auto Flower PAR value chart

[Hap Hazard]

Hello kind folks
Haphazard here,
1st time trying Autos. 4 Bruce Banner, 4 LSD. I was pleased with 100% germination rate. In grow room (no tent). Grow platform is 4’x3’. Gals starting their 3rd day above soil. Using 2 ViparSpectra XS1500 LED’s currently 43” above at 75% power. PAR reading is 208-210. There’s a little stretch w/a couple.
I’ve seen par value charts for cannabis for all stages and some of them vary in value amounts. Can someone please post an actual tried and true par value chart from start to finish for Autos for me? TIA

 

[Roy Growin]

Hiya
I'm not sure such a thing exists as a panacea for all environments/methods
Not being funny, but you don't need a chart so as to be led blindly by numbers, same as feed charts - useless
Read your plants, they will tell you if you need more light or less
That's my take on it, others may rightly disagree

 

[Bill284]

Hello kind folks
Haphazard here,
1st time trying Autos. 4 Bruce Banner, 4 LSD. I was pleased with 100% germination rate. In grow room (no tent). Grow platform is 4’x3’. Gals starting their 3rd day above soil. Using 2 ViparSpectra XS1500 LED’s currently 43” above at 75% power. PAR reading is 208-210. There’s a little stretch w/a couple.
I’ve seen par value charts for cannabis for all stages and some of them vary in value amounts. Can someone please post an actual tried and true par value chart from start to finish for Autos for me? TIA

Welcome to 420magazine my friend @Hap Hazard
As mentioned a auto specific chart doesn’t exist.
Let me have a look for something applicable for you.

Stay safe
Bill

Edit: it's a little basic but gives you a ballpark idea.

 

[HappyHazmat88]

Hey @Hap Hazard I like the name lol.... But I would l move lights down... Unless your ladies are gonna be playing basketball then your all set do you have a journal started so we can follow the grow?

 

[Hap Hazard]

Hey @Hap Hazard I like the name lol.... But I would l move lights down... Unless your ladies are gonna be playing basketball then your all set do you have a journal started so we can follow the grow?

Thx Happy! Haven’t started a journal yet but plan to. So since lights are at 75% should I move them lower as suggested or bump them up to a higher percentage? Or is the endgame doing one or the other practically the same ?

 

[HappyHazmat88]

Hey, so I would lower them and keep the lights strength where it is...or lower... Few reasons.... (1) the par reading will go up with the light closer so they will get a stronger light dose...and (2) in flower they will need more light for blooming so that's when you start to incline of power...and last they stretch alot in preflower so early stretch and then a later stretch that last two weeks or so wether you like it or not could pose height issues.

 

[Hap Hazard]

Hey, so I would lower them and keep the lights strength where it is...or lower... Few reasons.... (1) the par reading will go up with the light closer so they will get a stronger light dose...and (2) in flower they will need more light for blooming so that's when you start to incline of power...and last they stretch alot in preflower so early stretch and then a later stretch that last two weeks or so wether you like it or not could pose height issues.

So ya, I did lower the lights a bit and backed off power percentage a tad. Used to grow with 1000W HPS but that makes my room way too hot so I finally decided to join the LED nation.
Thx all!

 

[HappyHazmat88]

Here's your chart for the lights you have....you'll should see better results after a day or two with your lights lowered....good luck growmie I'll keep an eye out for your journal when ya start one.

 

[bluter]

output is not bad at all. the issue is more the spread. boards act as a single source from above. the plants respond a bit better to less overall and more evenly spread. even if a bit anemic. that's whys strip lights are gaining.

 

[Roy Growin]

Here's your chart for the lights you have....you'll should see better results after a day or two with your lights lowered....good luck growmie I'll keep an eye out for your journal when ya start one.

The problem with these maps is that they give you 1474, but that's only in the central 8"
Then there's the fact that maybe half of that light is yellow/green
As @bluter says the coverage is the other problem - 1/8 of your area gets burned whilst the rest wanes
I use 3 lamps in an 80 x 80 for precisely that reason, and the blue/red LED lamps, I'm sorry to say, outperform the sunlight style LEDs by quite a margin

 

[HappyHazmat88]

Yea agreed I was more so showing the manufacturer recommends these heights and are measured at this height....he said his light were 43" above the plant....that's to far for young plants lol

 

[Hap Hazard]

Well I’m glad I at least got two of those lights. LOL
They’ve been lowered. Thx all for the input. I just want to try not to screw up out of the gate.

 

[skirk]

That light at 75% is 100W. You can go to 18" with no problem and after week one, go to full power @ 24".
I start my auto seeds with my 150W Mars TS 1000 using the above parameters. The auto below is 5 days from sprout
and plant is 5cm or 2" tall.

 

[Delps8]

Hello kind folks
Haphazard here,
1st time trying Autos. 4 Bruce Banner, 4 LSD. I was pleased with 100% germination rate. In grow room (no tent). Grow platform is 4’x3’. Gals starting their 3rd day above soil. Using 2 ViparSpectra XS1500 LED’s currently 43” above at 75% power. PAR reading is 208-210.

How do you know they're at 208-210 µmols?

Also, PPFD indicates how much light is falling at any given time. It's helpful but another piece of the puzzle is your light schedule. Are you 24/0, 20/4, 18/6?

 

[Hap Hazard]

How do you know they're at 208-210 µmols?

Also, PPFD indicates how much light is falling at any given time. It's helpful but another piece of the puzzle is your light schedule. Are you 24/0, 20/4, 18/6?

Thx, I spaced mentioning that in initial post. I use the Photone app for PAR reading. Light schedule is 20/4.

 

[Delps8]

Thx, I spaced mentioning that in initial post. I use the Photone app for PAR reading. Light schedule is 20/4.

Sorry if I sounded curt - was in a rush when I posted.

Photone - good to hear that. Height + dimming is a good guideline but that's not measurement. Photone is a good step in the right direction.

I bring up the issue because I'm a new grower - 1 grow in 2017, 2 last year - and until my current grow, I haven't given my plants enough light as seedlings or in veg. There's lots of data re. light levels but it tends to err on the side of lower light levels. I've listened to the Bugbee videos, multiple times and read a handful of papers re. PPFD/DLI but it wasn't until this grow that I "reoriented" my thinking .

Various sites recommend 100 to 300/400 PPFD (18/6) for seedlings and I've stayed with the lower number. I believe that has been counter productive. Thanks to a couple of sources, I've changed my strategy and am now using a DLI of 25 and my two little Gorilla Glue autos are loving it. If you're interested, you can read my discussion of the issue in my current journal - the link is in my sig block.

My reason for bringing this up? If you've got the other issues line up correctly, use the tools that you've got (Photone being one) to optimize your grow environment. I've attached a graphic, from a Dr. Bugbee video, about the elements of the grow environment. If those are under control, there's no reason to not give our plants loads of light.

 

[Hap Hazard]

Sorry if I sounded curt - was in a rush when I posted.

Photone - good to hear that. Height + dimming is a good guideline but that's not measurement. Photone is a good step in the right direction.

I bring up the issue because I'm a new grower - 1 grow in 2017, 2 last year - and until my current grow, I haven't given my plants enough light as seedlings or in veg. There's lots of data re. light levels but it tends to err on the side of lower light levels. I've listened to the Bugbee videos, multiple times and read a handful of papers re. PPFD/DLI but it wasn't until this grow that I "reoriented" my thinking .

Various sites recommend 100 to 300/400 PPFD (18/6) for seedlings and I've stayed with the lower number. I believe that has been counter productive. Thanks to a couple of sources, I've changed my strategy and am now using a DLI of 25 and my two little Gorilla Glue autos are loving it. If you're interested, you can read my discussion of the issue in my current journal - the link is in my sig block.

My reason for bringing this up? If you've got the other issues line up correctly, use the tools that you've got (Photone being one) to optimize your grow environment. I've attached a graphic, from a Dr. Bugbee video, about the elements of the grow environment. If those are under control, there's no reason to not give our plants loads of light.

No worries, didn’t think you were being curt - just raising a good question. Thx for this info and I believe those nine parameters are in correct range. Well 8 anyway, 9 being light amount. Just a little gun shy about light burn as it’s happened before with my retired HPS 1000w which is a whole other beast. First time with LEDs & Autos so being cautious. I just don’t want to be so cautious that I’m not giving enough light.

 

[Delps8]

No worries, didn’t think you were being curt - just raising a good question. Thx for this info and I believe those nine parameters are in correct range. Well 8 anyway, 9 being light amount. Just a little gun shy about light burn as it’s happened before with my retired HPS 1000w which is a whole other beast. First time with LEDs & Autos so being cautious. I just don’t want to be so cautious that I’m not giving enough light.

If the environment is sound, you're off to a good start.

There's a big difference between incandescent lights and LED's, one being that LED's generate very little, if any, heat. The "back of the hand" test is used for HPS for the very same reason that IR heat lamps are used in cafeterias - those lights generate heat. With LED's you can go by recommendations by the manufacturer or, like you did, get a way to measure the amount of light hitting the plants.

At the moment, you're at 15 moles (210 * 0.0036 * 20 = 15.12). I can't say that's "not enough little" light but I would be concerned about seedlings being "leggy". That's what happens when light levels are so low that seedlings stretch to gather more light. Once that happens, you can't change the plant shape but, if you see it, that's a strong indicator that you should turn up the light level.

If plants are too much light, one reaction is for the leaves to rotate around the horizontal axis. That's different than "praying", which is where their petiole is inclined above horizontal, up toward the light. That's considered a very good sign. If there's too much light, leaves may continue to incline in an attempt to reduce exposure.

 

[Hap Hazard]

If the environment is sound, you're off to a good start.

There's a big difference between incandescent lights and LED's, one being that LED's generate very little, if any, heat. The "back of the hand" test is used for HPS for the very same reason that IR heat lamps are used in cafeterias - those lights generate heat. With LED's you can go by recommendations by the manufacturer or, like you did, get a way to measure the amount of light hitting the plants.

At the moment, you're at 15 moles (210 * 0.0036 * 20 = 15.12). I can't say that's "not enough little" light but I would be concerned about seedlings being "leggy". That's what happens when light levels are so low that seedlings stretch to gather more light. Once that happens, you can't change the plant shape but, if you see it, that's a strong indicator that you should turn up the light level.

If plants are too much light, one reaction is for the leaves to rotate around the horizontal axis. That's different than "praying", which is where their petiole is inclined above horizontal, up toward the light. That's considered a very good sign. If there's too much light, leaves may continue to incline in an attempt to reduce exposure.

Thx kindly,

 

[Emilya Green]

As others have said, there is no special light level requirements for Autos. A plant is a plant is a plant, treat them all the same.
I work in the realm of LUX. I have a cheap lux meter that tells me all that I need to know about my light levels and I am having very good luck doing what I am doing regarding light intensity levels.

Some time back, I built my own DIY LED COB array and I needed to know how much light intensity it was putting out, especially after bleaching out one plant so bad that its buds turned snow white before the plant died. I researched out the optimum light levels for each stage of growing, and then charted that at several distances away from the plant and at various setting of the light intensity. The following chart is what I came up with, and now I can easily set the desired amount of light hitting my plants based on the distance from the light and how much current I am sending through it. Look at the colored sections of this chart and the nominal light levels I am trying to achieve at each stage. Do something similar with your plants, and you will have your light levels neatly managed.

From: LUX, Wattage & Distance Analysis: 6x CREE CXB3590 Array

I give you this chart:

I am slowly ramping up my light levels from the time I plant my seeds. Every new set of leaves is a signal for me to increase the power. I try to go from 5k LUX to 15k LUX during early veg. By the time we are up to the 3rd or 4th node, I start ramping up into the Vegetative range, until at the end of veg I am near 45k LUX. Then I put them under a bigger light for bloom, and I increase all the way up to 65-70K LUX... any more than that can start to be lethal. I hope it helps seeing the visual... You can adjust the amount of light hitting your plants in two ways... adjust the power going to the lights, or adjust the distance between your light and the top of the your plants. The key, is to have a light meter so you can see exactly where you are at.