Question about UVB and if it's worth trying

[NorCalGarden]

I'm on my 3rd grow and have decided to give UVB a try. I currently run a SpiderFarmer SE4500 and it's working great. But, I've been told I'm not hitting the terp/flavor/smell levels I could be. From what I understand, UVB will increase all of those and is used in mid to late flower in small time chunks at first (15m/day) and will max out at about 1h per day.

I want to try to get a better understanding of how to use UVB lights. When and how to position them. Some say they need to be at an angle to the plant to mimic the suns angle at sunset. Some say it doesn't matter as long as the light can reach all the flowers.

Can anyone break it down for me or point me in the direction of a good article or video that explains in detail the process of using UVB lights and how they have them setup?

 

[Ninjadogma]

I'm on my 3rd grow and have decided to give UVB a try. I currently run a SpiderFarmer SE4500 and it's working great. But, I've been told I'm not hitting the terp/flavor/smell levels I could be. From what I understand, UVB will increase all of those and is used in mid to late flower in small time chunks at first (15m/day) and will max out at about 1h per day.

I want to try to get a better understanding of how to use UVB lights. When and how to position them. Some say they need to be at an angle to the plant to mimic the suns angle at sunset. Some say it doesn't matter as long as the light can reach all the flowers.

Can anyone break it down for me or point me in the direction of a good article or video that explains in detail the process of using UVB lights and how they have them setup?

The UVB is good, from what I've researched, give em some in the middle of the light cycle, and end the day with far red. But if it's taste and smell you're striving for, look down instead of up. The lights are just the necessary energy for good terps. The real magic happens in the root zone. You'll take different approaches based on your growing medium, but a gold standard example is microbe rich living soil that gets supplemented with things like carbohydrates for feeding the microbes, and appropriate levels of sulfer for the thiol rich terpenes. I use a medium that is microbe rich but it's technically not a soil, it's a coco peat blend. I supplement it mostly with molasses, seaweed extract, epsom salt and gypsum, and all of that is mostly for feeding the "soil" and not the plant, and I do it to steer an environment that favors good terp and trichome production, provided the plant has the genetics to make them.

And the final step of the magic is a good slow dry and proper cure to allow that taste, smell and potency to shine through.

Just trying to hook you up with an expectations check in case you might be thinking you can just throw a UVB light over your plants and suddenly it's going to become an amazing smoke. It's a little more nuanced than that, and even with all the right things in place, you've got to have a pheno that has the potential to be a good stinker.

Feed the plant, but also feed the microbes and mycos.

 

[Grownsince95]

I use a California lightworks UVB fixture all throughout my grows, veg and flower. Hang it as high in the tent as you can. Mine is on the back wall on a 45° angle like you said because my board style light would block it otherwise.

30-45 mins a day in 15 minute intervals. Anything more than 20 mins at a time will burn them.

If you run them during veg it will help keep your plants shorter too. I also use a 10 minute period by itself right before the lights come on in an attempt to kill powdery mildew spores.

Tbh it's not going to do much for terpenes. Cool temps and good genetics are your best bet there.

As far as trichomes it definitely makes a difference but will only maximize what a strain can already produce. It will never turn a 20% thc bud into 30%.

Just be careful, they're about 1000x stronger than they seem any it's a great way to burn a whole tent full of plants. Don't ask me how I know lol

 

[Ninjadogma]

I use a California lightworks UVB fixture all throughout my grows, veg and flower. Hang it as high in the tent as you can. Mine is on the back wall on a 45° angle like you said because my board style light would block it otherwise.

30-45 mins a day in 15 minute intervals. Anything more than 20 mins at a time will burn them.

If you run them during veg it will help keep your plants shorter too. I also use a 10 minute period by itself right before the lights come on in an attempt to kill powdery mildew spores.

Tbh it's not going to do much for terpenes. Cool temps and good genetics are your best bet there.

As far as trichomes it definitely makes a difference but will only maximize what a strain can already produce. It will never turn a 20% thc bud into 30%.

Just be careful, they're about 1000x stronger than they seem any it's a great way to burn a whole tent full of plants. Don't ask me how I know lol

Just noodling over something mentally... a UVB boost is going to more closely emulate a high altitude grow.

Your observation of the tighter stacking got me to thinking about that.

 

[MrSativa]

Not want to demotivate you, but if you are not hitting the quality now i should rather focus on improving your overall grow instead of adding expensive UV lights,

 

[MrSativa]

I use a California lightworks UVB fixture all throughout my grows, veg and flower. Hang it as high in the tent as you can. Mine is on the back wall on a 45° angle like you said because my board style light would block it otherwise.

30-45 mins a day in 15 minute intervals. Anything more than 20 mins at a time will burn them.

If you run them during veg it will help keep your plants shorter too. I also use a 10 minute period by itself right before the lights come on in an attempt to kill powdery mildew spores.

Tbh it's not going to do much for terpenes. Cool temps and good genetics are your best bet there.

As far as trichomes it definitely makes a difference but will only maximize what a strain can already produce. It will never turn a 20% thc bud into 30%.

Just be careful, they're about 1000x stronger than they seem any it's a great way to burn a whole tent full of plants. Don't ask me how I know lol

Very good explanation! often you see people giving totally wrong info about UV

 

[NorCalGarden]

The UVB is good, from what I've researched, give em some in the middle of the light cycle, and end the day with far red. But if it's taste and smell you're striving for, look down instead of up. The lights are just the necessary energy for good terps. The real magic happens in the root zone. You'll take different approaches based on your growing medium, but a gold standard example is microbe rich living soil that gets supplemented with things like carbohydrates for feeding the microbes, and appropriate levels of sulfer for the thiol rich terpenes. I use a medium that is microbe rich but it's technically not a soil, it's a coco peat blend. I supplement it mostly with molasses, seaweed extract, epsom salt and gypsum, and all of that is mostly for feeding the "soil" and not the plant, and I do it to steer an environment that favors good terp and trichome production, provided the plant has the genetics to make them.

And the final step of the magic is a good slow dry and proper cure to allow that taste, smell and potency to shine through.

Just trying to hook you up with an expectations check in case you might be thinking you can just throw a UVB light over your plants and suddenly it's going to become an amazing smoke. It's a little more nuanced than that, and even with all the right things in place, you've got to have a pheno that has the potential to be a good stinker.

Thank you. This is the type of stuff i'm looking for. Currently i'm in soil. I'm debating going back to coco for my next grow or, trying DWC for the first time.

From my understanding, the UVB will cause the plant to produce more trichomes as a defensive response to the light. Everything else is up to everything you mention.

My soil is healthy and my last grow turned out great. I pH everything going in and the runoff to make sure things are where they should be. I use a compost tea that includes the ingredients you mention Like everybody else I'm sure, I'm just trying to push over the line into "amazing" so, every little trick and tip helps.

Not want to demotivate you, but if you are not hitting the quality now i should rather focus on improving your overall grow instead of adding expensive UV lights,

I'm very happy with my grow currently. I just like to experiment and I'm always looking to make things better even in tiny amounts. No demotivation here. Just curiosity.

 

[GNick55]

whoops haha

 

[Bodis]

I have been growing for 17 years. In 2012, I started using Tanning Bronzing lamps starting at 15 minutes day after 2 weeks in flower and building up to 2 hours a day in the middle of the plants 12 hour day, 5 weeks into flower until the end. What is happening? The plants think they are getting sunburned. I found that if you trick half the plant into thinking it is getting sunburned, the whole plant will respond (Marijuana Man). The Plants will start producing more trichomes to protect the calyxes, which are seed sites in the female flowers. Inside the trichome, there is a ultra thin membrane layer that chemicals pass through to create THCA and other cannibinoids, oils and so-forth. The THCA, after passing through the membrane settles around the top part of the trichome and creates light refraction inside the trichome similar to a prism. This protects the plant and flowers from burning. The uva, uvb, uvc light creates an environment where more trichomes are produced, more oils are created and more THC is produced in the trichomes for reflection and refraction purposes resulting in Higher THC and other cannibinoid percentages and Higher Terpene percentages.