murran Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Hi OT1, A great thread that i will watch with interest. Do you find the sunmaster HPS better than the NAV T SUPER? Also do you let the water stand before watering or is it straight out of the tap? Many thanks , Murran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Blabblabberbab Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Hi OT1, will be watching this one with interest looking forward to your crazy sativa shenannginans B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer1 Posted March 18, 2007 Author Share Posted March 18, 2007 Hi OT1, A great thread that i will watch with interest. Do you find the sunmaster HPS better than the NAV T SUPER? Also do you let the water stand before watering or is it straight out of the tap? Many thanks , Murran Hello murran, yes I water straight from the tap, we have both chlorine and chloramine in our supply, as far as I can see it has absolutely no detrimental effect on the plants. Of course I use a mix of hot and cold as mains water in mid winter in town is usually under forty f, in the country its often just a few degrees above freezing. To plants this is like you being dropped naked in the arctic ocean then slowly warmed up, and repeated every few days. I run my water from a mixer at about 68 to 70f for watering both summer and winter only a compleat moron would do otherwise, try watering with just cold in the winter and all sorts of nutrient problems and deficiencies will appear. Owd and Vrg who's growing skills I respect, rate the sunmaster hps highly, it has performed very well for me, I have not done a direct side by side comparison with a nav_t super, maybe thats another trial to do another time. Edited to add, Blab I'm not intending to do a full pic grow diary, just record how the plants do with the different nutrients and maybe give a smoke report and see what a few friends into connoisseur puff think blind testing three samples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murran Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Thanks for the Reply Ot1 Ive always used NAV T SUPER'S but maybe i'll give the sunmaster a go. Murran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer1 Posted March 18, 2007 Author Share Posted March 18, 2007 Hmm just been looking at the camera output in ps of the light levels from the sunmaster, its identical with and without a uv lens filter. The camers white balance set to daylight in sun. So to comment the light output has a peak at the blue green spectrum, there is virtually no blue, there is no uv plenty of yellow orange and red. It for sure doesn't match ventures chart. The tallest plant is 28 inches they are going for it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babygro Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 It for sure doesn't match ventures chart. Hiya Ot1, fascinating as ever. I'm looking forward to your analysis of the grostar reflector, I've always been under the impression that vertical parabolics wern't particularly effective in light diffusion, reflection and spread when compared to horizontally mounted bulbs in efficient horizontal parabolics like the adjustawing. Regarding your testing the spectrum output of the Sunmaster bulb (which one do you use by the way) via your camera and looking at this in photoshop and it not matching the spectrum output of Sunmasters spectograph (I may be wrong about this) but would you not have to set the cameras white balance at the same kelvin temperature as the light source you were analysing to get the correct spectrum outputs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer1 Posted March 26, 2007 Author Share Posted March 26, 2007 Babygro I’ve always used horizontal lamps including a true horizontal parabolic about 20 years ago, it was a good reflector but to big and very awkward to use and adjust. Because I use sog I need maximum horizontal spread in every direction. I still have a couple of reflectors that only reflect on two plains, I tried the Adjust-a-Wing, its probable the worst reflector I have ever tried both for light distribution and for creating hot spots. The Pro Ultralite gives a much more even output in all directions. I can’t answer for the science behind the mini Grostar, but so far the plants seem to like it and the canopy is the most even I’ve seen so far. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, it could be like the man who jumped off the empire state building said half way down, “its all fine up to now”, I will really know how the mini Grostar performs when the plants have been cropped and are in the jar. The problem is it does make sense to me that horizontal should be best, Owd uses a different vertical parabolic reflector, he rates it as the best he has ever used, so does VRG. Its worth me giving this one a go, its the result that counts, thing is plants don’t read books, they respond to the enviroment you give them. You can’t set the white balance on my cameras to a combined colour temperature, if you try to set the white balance under hps it cant shift the centre point far enough and everything looks blue.. Cameras are not spectrographs, mines an ancient coolpix 995, if it is set to balance white, out of direct sunlight on a clear day, its pretty much in the centre of its limits and its pretty flat from uv to red. Take a picture under another mixed spectrum and you get a shot of all the colours it receives, seeing the sensor only responds to red, green and blue photons and blends of them, its not very accurate but gives a fair indication. If there are no blue light peaks it won,t record them, if there are any it will. I take a lot of macro shots of flowers, one of the things about this camera is is its very sensitive to the uv spectrum, even on light cloud cover days you need uv and polarising filters if you don’t want the nectar guides to show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babygro Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 The problem is it does make sense to me that horizontal should be best, Owd uses a different vertical parabolic reflector, he rates it as the best he has ever used, so does VRG. Its worth me giving this one a go, its the result that counts, thing is plants don’t read books, they respond to the enviroment you give them. Hiya Ot1, thanks for your reply. Well I'm certainly interested in hearing your analysis on the mini grostar as I'm in the market for an efficient reflector because for my next grow I think I'm going to try the 250w Lumatek digital ballast. My main reservation with going with the 250w is the relatively limited choice of HPS bulbs available for it. I also agree with you in that vertical parabolics really shouldn't be as efficient as horizontal reflectors in terms of light intensity. Their strength certainly seems to be the even light distribution they produce but at the price of reduced light intensity. It stands to reason that a horizontally mounted bulb has 50% of it's surface area to distribute light directly downwards and 50% that is reflected back from the reflector, as you know reflected light is far less intense than direct light. A vertically mounted bulb only has a tiny surface area to distribute light downwards and the rest is effectively reflected light - so it cannot produce as much light intensity as a horizontally mounted bulb. As with most things I guess it comes down to which compromise suits your growing situation the best - a high wattage 600/1000w bulb in an efficient vertical parabolic over a wider area for even light distribution or a smaller 250/400w bulb in an efficient horizontal reflector in a smaller more concentrated area where light spread is less important than light intensity. Regarding the camera white balance, I hear what you're saying. I have a Canon D30 digital which does have an adjustable white balance so I may experiment a little with different white balances and taking a look at them in ps - thanks for the heads up on that, I'd never thought of using a camera to look at spectrum distribution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaffaman Posted April 26, 2007 Share Posted April 26, 2007 hi ot,been following your growing methods for a while now with great results cheers. i,ve been pondring on a couple of thoughts as to the changes you,ve made to your set up and supplies etc. 1,do you still use your own soil mix. 2,do you still use 60/40 hps/mh. 3,are the new digi ballasts up to scratch now. i know your a busy man but if you get time then thanks i was surpised to here how bad the adjust a shade was,i use one and it works great for me. to be honest i bought it because the large reflector can hold 2 lamps so i could get the benefit of 60/40 hps/mh,in saying that it works great aswell and can be turned easily every light cycle. i know im just a novice,just wanted to share my thoughts.....cheers jaffaman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaffaman Posted May 26, 2007 Share Posted May 26, 2007 ot any info on the new products you,ve been testing,just curious...peace jaffaman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-=DrGreenThumb=- Posted May 29, 2007 Share Posted May 29, 2007 Any updates for us OT!! Looking great by the way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burns Posted May 29, 2007 Share Posted May 29, 2007 Hi OT1, I`d be very interested to know when the mini Sunmaster reflectors will be available if you could possibly find out,I was gutted when I realised my space wasn`t wide enough for them at 33". I`m upgrading to a couple of 600w digital ballasts shortly and they would compliment them a treat . Many thanks, Burns B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corleone Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Hi OT1,I`d be very interested to know when the mini Sunmaster reflectors will be available if you could possibly find out,I was gutted when I realised my space wasn`t wide enough for them at 33". I`m upgrading to a couple of 600w digital ballasts shortly and they would compliment them a treat . Many thanks, Burns B) got my eyes on that mini reflector aswell , looking forward to a review once the grows been done OT , P.S cheers for everything you do here , first grow is underway with a shed load of help from you and this site !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utokia Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 Hello OT - I don't believe we have 'met' as it were... I got a free sample of biosevia at the expo and decided to rear my seedlings/potential mothers on it (in WL MP+JI) - I wondered how things were going with the evaluation? Any significant difference in growth? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaffaman Posted June 4, 2007 Share Posted June 4, 2007 come on ot give us something to chew on(you know we,re all dying for it). i appreciacte that your a busy man but you got to remember your the guru around here that we all want to here from and respect. i know it might not sound like disrespectful but in my eyes its actually a complement to you. peace jaffaman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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