According to our very first study, the grower used 4 hours of UVA per day for 6 weeks during flowering stage and got the great result. So you can start your experiment with this, I will have more results and better ideas of effective intensity and longevity on our UV light after more trials later this year.
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Does anyone have a particular UV-A and -B lamp fixture they like? I have 7 flower rooms and want to do a trial.
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If you are interested in testing UVA with me, please PM me and we can talk about some trial design.
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I love running LEC’s with 10,000 °K bulbs. Great source of UV light and over 2 years longevity with regular use
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Interestingly, UV-A radiation is also associated with the successful treatment of medical conditions, particularly dermatological diseases such as Psoriasis.
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I don’t have an answer to you right now. Will get back to you once I learn from our engineer team that is building the UV fixture.
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It seems to me this technology is only in its infancy! What do you predict the applications for UVB will include in the next 5 years?
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Time is almost up. Thank you all for your interest in UV, if you have more questions, feel free to contact me via email yrenbutcher@illumitex.com
I would like to share a fact sheet published by Canadian Center for Occupational Safety and Health regarding the safety of UV:
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Hey Nick, I already have a bunch of 1000W DE fixtures, so probably won’t go the LEC route, just looking for a fairly small amount of supplemental UV-A I can add in between my lights, or I guess I could swap in a 10K MH light for the last couple weeks instead?
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Dr. Butcher, thanks so much for your time today and all the valuable information your research is bringing to the cannabis community.
That would be an effective means of getting some UV light to your crops without swapping fixtures. I would saw 4:1 HPS to MH is an appropriate ratio, but that’s just what works for me. I love that combo!
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Talking with Kevin at BlackDog LED, he indicated that UV LEDs have a shorter lifespan:
"The UV diodes degrade a bit faster, and will be at 90% of their original photon flux after 30,000 hours, which is 3.4 years of continuous operations. "
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Dr Butcher, thanks so much for taking the time to be with us today and share your vast wealth of knowledge on the subject of UV light and cannabis. Thanks for all the information your research brings to the entire cannabis community! It’s been amazing to learn with you!
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Actually a lot of UVB plant research in other plants have been reported in the past 10 years. Academia is trying to understand more about effect of UVB on plant growth and development. In 5 years, I think we will have a better picture on UV plant relationship and how to apply this knowledge on cannabis. However, UVA LED is more affordable and safer than UVB with the similar effects on plants at this moment, so manufacture like us is focused on developing UVA products at this stage. Once the barriers are removed, we might be able to develop UVB LED as well.
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Thank you, Nick! I enjoyed this AMA to share my knowledge with the cannabis community and also learning from your personal UV experience. Look forward to sharing more results in the near future.
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Thanks for the info. I will check this with our engineer team. Also because you will not need to use it 24 hours a day for 365 days a year (according to your calculation), the UV LEDs should have a much longer life time than 3.4 years.
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The USDA and Norway results were with SETi LEDs!! It is so satisfying and humbling to see UV LEDs get the attention they deserve as a way to add value to your grow
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Yes I will be there! Look forward to catching up
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Thats not entirely true–the correct wavelength for Psoriasis is 310 nm because it surpresses the immune response from body (which is the main cause of “plaquing”)–it also promotes Vitamin D synthesis as well
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I will comfirm this from all my experiments. If you arent getting UV on your plants. you are only half growing. The trich production alone should make any grower want to posses such tech. Then the terps Wow is what i will tell you. You can see, smell, and taste the difference. When you go into a dispensary and they tell you its top shelf, it prob isnt. Do a trial on your own terms. side by side what ever. you will never grow without it.
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Dont even get me started on this. Who has lights on 24/7? While diodes do degrade over time. You should resonably expect 5-8 years out of a quality LED. without any drop in final product. Many if not most of these manufacturers are not exactally honest about the product they are trying to sell. This was such a hard thing to research in the begining. With a little education, and understanding of how light or photons rather, work. you will be better off then listening to a sales person. The claims made by some are pretty laughable really. You get what you pay for in terms of lights. You want cheap, you will find it. Just dont expect a great or even good product. Ive been dying to try blackdog led. but the wife would kill me if i buy another light…