Day 74 - still growing, but not looking as healthy as I'd like. Leaves are curling downwards at the tips, and tips turning yellow/brown. I think this is a one of the classic signs of overwatering and over feeding, so have cut back nutes and watering, and will re-assess next week whether or not to go back to old schedule. Have also diluted the reservoir, so oping that a slow gradual easing will sort things out. She also looks quite stunted in growth to me - she's all of 50cm tall. The RQS data sheet advises 80 - 120, but she has been in the RQS Royal Dwarfs shadow, so perhaps needed more of the light earlier on. I was warned about overuse of the PK nute and am think I've learnt my lesson here.
Fingers crossed all will be fine. On the up side, she's defintely flowering.
Day 75 - might be wishful thinking, but tip curling seems to have been brought under control and looks to be recovering. Phew.
Day 77 - definitely wishful thinking. Did some readings, and found ph has leapt up to 6.67, and ppm at around 2500. will ph down a little later, and continue to monitor.
So, it turns out that the small print is super important on LED wattage advertising. Long story short: my lights say they're 600w LED, my power meter say they're 100w. The 100w draw is indusputable, so my lights can't be 600w - right? Wrong. It turns out that the way LED's are marketed is not by how much actual power they consume, but by the potential of each of the individual LEDs to consume power if they're used at full capacity. They're not used at full capacity, and so the discrepancy. Buyer beware. 600w is 100 actual w.
This leads me to more questions.
1. Is wattage even important as a concept in growing?
2. How can I measure what's important to measure - both in the spectrum and in the light output, or is all this just a case of being baffled by bullshit, an that very little of it matters. Plant a seed, water it, feed it, make sure it gets some light and wait. I'm no biologist, but I'm guessing that broadly speaking more light equates to better photosynthesis which equates in some way to healthier, better yielding plants. It seems that PAR is the value to measure or aim at, but I have no idea how.
3. What is the difference in yield between a 100w and a 600w light, assuming all else is the same?