The transition to new lights can be challenging and, admittedly, a bit scary. What made you switch from HID? What lights did you ultimately choose and why? What was the conversion like for your facility? How was the learning curve? What savings did you realize as a result of the switch? How did you manage costs?
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It had been 10+ years between when I first had my “project grow” and 6 months ago when I had opportunities to get back into cannabis cultivation. For my small medical grow I started from scratch. I built an NFT rail system with an aeroponic element as that’s how I had grown in the past. But with lights I wanted to see if LEDs might be the way to go.
First thing I quickly realize is that there’s a lot of conflicting info out there. Price points all over the place and “top 10 LED” lists galore.
I found this site. The site explains multiple terms and gives context and what I think are fair comparisons.
I looked into BML (now Fluence), Black Dog, California Lights, and Kind. I was really drawn to the Black Dog site. Grow journals, experiments with real world applications, and podcasts that, yes were marketing, but helped me understand their lights and have an idea of how to properly use them.
I’m 3 weeks in to first flower using BDL. I have 3 phytomax1000 and a 400 of the same model. The plants react much differently to their spectrum. Bushier, much shorter internodal spacing, and different hues on stem and leaf. They’re doing amazing. Vibrant and vigorous.
Know the changes you’ll need make to your atmosphere controls and I’d suggest having your veg exposed to the light and it’s spectrum before flowering. The sooner the better as I found out that going from MH to Black Dog LED can stun the plant. It took 2-3 days for em to start responding and growing again.
I’m still figuring it out, but I am so glad I did the research, had the up front capital, and got, what was for me, the right lights from the right company.
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I have been looking at Spectrum King & Black Dog LED… What do you guys think?
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