Crazy Lights!

Hurrl · Jul 16, 2020

Previously I've had no idea what lux my plants were under and I had been using some cheap COB fixtures off Amazon. A CrxSunny 1500w COB fixture and 2x Roleadro 400w COB fixtures. I've always just adjusted light height based off canopy temps. Which was getting hard to do due to height restrictions. The COBs seemed to get the job done okay enough but were putting out a lot of heat. Recently I was able to pick up a couple HLG 320w QB-324 XL fixtures. I replaced the hot COBs with these two fixtures. I've had the quantum boards cranked up to max because I replaced 2300 supposed watts of COBs with 640w of quantum board. Since running the HLG quantum boards I've had a constant issue with what looks to be calcium deficiency.

Today I pick up the Dr.meter LX1330B Lux meter. Holy shiz... At 24" above the canopy I'm reading about 81k LUX! Turning both fixture's potentiometer down to the halfway notch I'm getting about 44k LUX under each fixture at the same 24" height. The CrxSunny 1500w COB fixture at about 12" was reading around 35k... These quantum boards were putting off quite a bit of heat while maxed out. So I've just been pumping in cool air to compensate. I'm wondering if this intense light and heat, (ambient temp measuring about 80f but canopy leaves looked to be reading about 75f), I have been giving my autos throughout Veg has been the real culprit behind what looks like Calcium deficiency? One of my girls is starting to flower now and shows Cal Def all over it's bigger fan leaves while my other girl who is roughly a week behind and just going into pre-flower looks a lot better off but still has a couple fan leaves with slight signs of Cal Def. Just for reference I'm in an Undercurrent Hydro setup running the new formula of Megacrop with RO water that gets about 150ppm of CalMag before adding nutes. My girls are Dinafem Moby Dick XXL autos. And I also recently started running beneficials in the res to combat any potential root issues. I swapped over from trying to run a sterile setup since sterile has never worked for me. I've had great success in the past with GH nutes and real growers recharge as well as Megacrops original formula with beneficials. So running beneficials in my system is not new to me and I know it works. I've just been running this new formula of Megacrop and have been really worried that its garbage and causing me plenty of headaches. But after seeing these Lux readings I'm really curious to know if it could be from too much light and some excessive heat? I don't have any pictures or I would post them.

LittleDabbie · Jul 16, 2020

pics of the plant..

Aqua Man · Jul 16, 2020

Hurrl said:
Previously I've had no idea what lux my plants were under and I had been using some cheap COB fixtures off Amazon. A CrxSunny 1500w COB fixture and 2x Roleadro 400w COB fixtures. I've always just adjusted light height based off canopy temps. Which was getting hard to do due to height restrictions. The COBs seemed to get the job done okay enough but were putting out a lot of heat. Recently I was able to pick up a couple HLG 320w QB-324 XL fixtures. I replaced the hot COBs with these two fixtures. I've had the quantum boards cranked up to max because I replaced 2300 supposed watts of COBs with 640w of quantum board. Since running the HLG quantum boards I've had a constant issue with what looks to be calcium deficiency.

Today I pick up the Dr.meter LX1330B Lux meter. Holy shiz... At 24" above the canopy I'm reading about 81k LUX! Turning both fixture's potentiometer down to the halfway notch I'm getting about 44k LUX under each fixture at the same 24" height. The CrxSunny 1500w COB fixture at about 12" was reading around 35k... These quantum boards were putting off quite a bit of heat while maxed out. So I've just been pumping in cool air to compensate. I'm wondering if this intense light and heat, (ambient temp measuring about 80f but canopy leaves looked to be reading about 75f), I have been giving my autos throughout Veg has been the real culprit behind what looks like Calcium deficiency? One of my girls is starting to flower now and shows Cal Def all over it's bigger fan leaves while my other girl who is roughly a week behind and just going into pre-flower looks a lot better off but still has a couple fan leaves with slight signs of Cal Def. Just for reference I'm in an Undercurrent Hydro setup running the new formula of Megacrop with RO water that gets about 150ppm of CalMag before adding nutes. My girls are Dinafem Moby Dick XXL autos. And I also recently started running beneficials in the res to combat any potential root issues. I swapped over from trying to run a sterile setup since sterile has never worked for me. I've had great success in the past with GH nutes and real growers recharge as well as Megacrops original formula with beneficials. So running beneficials in my system is not new to me and I know it works. I've just been running this new formula of Megacrop and have been really worried that its garbage and causing me plenty of headaches. But after seeing these Lux readings I'm really curious to know if it could be from too much light and some excessive heat? I don't have any pictures or I would post them.

Yeah that much light could definitely cause issue. 18/6 light cycle prob 45K is where ya wanna be. I run Mega Crop version 1 and i love it but need to supplement cal mag. After the stories i hear when thats finished I will likely switch to jacks or make my own.

As LD asked... pics speak 1000 words.

Hurrl · Jul 16, 2020

Aqua Man said:
Yeah that much light could definitely cause issue. 18/6 light cycle prob 45K is where ya wanna be. I run Mega Crop version 1 and i love it but need to supplement cal mag. After the stories i hear when thats finished I will likely switch to jacks or make my own.

As LD asked... pics speak 1000 words.

I made a mistake above. the lights were actually sitting around 19"-20" from canopy not 24".

Okay thanks. I was just wondering if too much light and maybe a bit too much heat could cause a Calcium deficiency looking issue. It definitely looks like a Cal Def not light burn or bleaching. I just had no idea the light intensity could cause something like this. But I happened across a few discussions on Lux here at the farm and it got me thinking, since I haven't been able to get the Cal Def under control since running this new formula Megacrop. Only other real change was swapping out light fixtures. It amazes me at how little light those COBs actually put out. My last grow under those COBS was one Blueberry Kush auto from Nirvana that netted me a little over 1lb. So swapping over to less wattage and what I thought was less intensity was opposite of what actually happened apparently. I just raised the lights to around 30" above canopy and Lux value is reading around 35k at half power they are on a 20/4 schedule. But were on 24/0. So I'm definitely leaning more towards this being an issue with too much light. Something I never thought could happen.

Sorry but no pictures at this time. I know it would help, just don't have them.

Hurrl · Jul 16, 2020

LittleDabbie said:
pics of the plant..

Here we are. This was from a few days ago. A day and a half or so after a defoliation and trimming. So just under 4 weeks. I started seeing the issues during the second week after I cranked the lights up. Before then, during the first week, I had my lights just under the halfway mark at 3ft height. I lowered the lights and set them at full power during second week. The node spacing was extremely tight compared to what I'm used to seeing under the COBS and it looked like the plant was being stunted a bit when leaves started showing these signs. Spots have been appearing daily on the bigger fan leaves but my PH is stable @ 5.9 and my EC has also been stable. Plants are drinking around a gallon a day, between two plants, at the time of this pic. I'm sure there may be a little evaporation involved as well. When changing the res I always mix more solution than I need, Drain the system, Feed some Real growers recharge over the root system, then run PH'd clean RO water through the system, drain that within 15-20 minutes and then add in about a quarter Res worth of my nute solution while letting that mix with any leftover clean water that didn't fully drain. I then drain that and immediately fill the Res to a topped off level with my nute solution. Doing this helps me to avoid EC dropping off from the clean water flush. My roots look fine. Oh, and I also have a Deep Red/Far Red LED shining down on the plants so the brown spots on the leaves look a bit more brown than they actually are when the red light is off. None of the leaves are dry and crumbling yet. Some of the older bigger leaves that were taken off looked pretty damn rough though. On the verge of becoming crumbly.

Aqua Man · Jul 16, 2020

Overall hungry can definately see the light stress and with mega crop and RO definitely need cal mag. See tiny bit of both.

Aqua Man · Jul 16, 2020

Oh and she is flowering. I take it thats the auto?

Hurrl · Jul 16, 2020

Aqua Man said:
Oh and she is flowering. I take it thats the auto?

Indeed. Moby Dick XXL Auto started right about the 4 week mark. The other one I have in the same system is about half a week or so behind this one. But looks way healthier. I'm assuming that's because the one pictured is hungry like you were saying above.

MIMedGrower · Jul 16, 2020

Aqua Man said:
Overall hungry can definately see the light stress and with mega crop and RO definitely need cal mag. See tiny bit of both.

New mega crop has 6% calcium. I think adding cal mag may be too much calcium.

Hurrl · Jul 16, 2020

MIMedGrower said:
New mega crop has 6% calcium. I think adding cal mag may be too much calcium.

And I always thought it was almost impossible to add too much calcium. And you know... Something I completely forgot to mention. I started this grow 1st week with the Original Megacrop v1 then at week 2 I accidentally used the new version, (major lack of sleep)... So I've been running the new version ever since. While adding in about 150-200 ppm of dutch masters calmag. So maybe I should do a quick Res change then.... Think there would be any issues if I went back to the Orginal Megacrop formula if I flush first? Or should I just stick with this new version and drop the Calmag?

Aqua Man · Jul 16, 2020

MIMedGrower said:
New mega crop has 6% calcium. I think adding cal mag may be too much calcium.

RO water

Aqua Man · Jul 16, 2020

Hurrl said:
And I always thought it was almost impossible to add too much calcium. And you know... Something I completely forgot to mention. I started this grow 1st week with the Original Megacrop v1 then at week 2 I accidentally used the new version, (major lack of sleep)... So I've been running the new version ever since. While adding in about 150-200 ppm of dutch masters calmag. So maybe I should do a quick Res change then.... Think there would be any issues if I went back to the Orginal Megacrop formula if I flush first? Or should I just stick with this new version and drop the Calmag?

A yeah thats to much cal mag IMO 100 ppm is plenty

Aqua Man · Jul 16, 2020

MIMedGrower said:
New mega crop has 6% calcium. I think adding cal mag may be too much calcium.

Never tried the New stuff but after seeing him add cal mag at 200ppm your prob right

Aqua Man · Jul 16, 2020

I can see some cal deficiency but now thinking if they were really light stressed they not gonna take up much water and that may be why since it passive uptake with calcium i believe. And it doesn't look like to much, usually you get those yel brown tips without the claw

Hurrl · Jul 16, 2020

Aqua Man said:
I can see some cal deficiency but now thinking if they were really light stressed they not gonna take up much water and that may be why since it passive uptake with calcium i believe.

Alright I think I'm going to do a Res change, keep the new formula and not go over 100 ppm of calmag. Then see where that gets me.

Edit:

MIMedGrower said:
New mega crop has 6% calcium. I think adding cal mag may be too much calcium.

Or should I not add in any Calmag with this new formula? Even though I'm running RO.

Aqua Man · Jul 16, 2020

Hurrl said:
Alright I think I'm going to do a Res change, keep the new formula and not go over 100 ppm of calmag. Then see where that gets me.

Edit:

Or should I not add in any Calmag with this new formula? Even though I'm running RO.

100 ppm. Its not made for RO atleast IMO

Hurrl · Jul 16, 2020

Aqua Man said:
100 ppm. Its not made for RO atleast IMO

Thank you. I appreciate the help from everyone.

MIMedGrower · Jul 16, 2020

Hurrl said:
Alright I think I'm going to do a Res change, keep the new formula and not go over 100 ppm of calmag. Then see where that gets me.

Edit:

Or should I not add in any Calmag with this new formula? Even though I'm running RO.

Well aquaman is the hydro guy but i guess i would try the base nutrient solution alone and bump up the ec as needed first before including additives.

Aqua Man · Jul 16, 2020

MIMedGrower said:
Well aquaman is the hydro guy but i guess i would try the base nutrient solution alone and bump up the ec as needed first before including additives.

No harm in that either

Aqua Man · Jul 16, 2020

I'm curious what you are using to buffer the RO water? I'm wonder if you ph swings

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