Daylight and Fluoros

[daylighting]

Kob khun krap! I'm mixing up CFLs, LEDs and daylight (less daylight now, though, since I don't want the neighbors wondering about the VERY bright lights on, which is why I run them in the daytime when the sun is shining)! The plants will be getting some daylight through the window and thin curtain over it, but I wasn't planning on using so many bulbs. I have to work with sunglasses on now!

EDIT: wired and set up the scrubber and fan today. I can set the fan and scrubber vertically. Added HEPA cloth to the outside of the scrubber to keep the filter clean. With the fan control on the lowest setting it's pretty bearable. I put a packet of activated charcoal on the outtake on the fan and it should keep dust out and provide a little more filtering. With the fan turned up, the packet floats like it's on an air hockey table! The fan control is really a godsend. I don't need the scrubber right now, but it will definitely prove invaluable once it starts getting stinky!

Mixed up another pot of ProMix and hydroton and ran two quarts of boiling water through it to kill any gnat larvae that may be in there. I know this will destroy and beneficial bacteria in the soil, but it seems this brand is gnat city. Pity as I've used this brand for years and seen it change over the years. I also added a layer of hydroton to my other two pots in hopes of keeping the gnats at bay. I'll add the yellow traps when they come in.

I let the pot cool down for around half an hour and sowed another Jet-47 seed in it. It wasn't uncomfortably hot when I put the seed in, but perhaps a little too warm. I dribbled some room temperature tap water around the seed to cool it down. Hopefully I didn't cook it! Three plants should ensure I get at least one good female.

 

[shokdee]

Kob khun krap! I'm mixing up CFLs, LEDs and daylight (less daylight now, though, since I don't want the neighbors wondering about the VERY bright lights on..

Hopefully, oneday, we can be neigh-boers.

 

[DemonPigeon]

Just under four days since they shed their seed coats and I can't stop watching them obsessively. With guerilla gardening, you only get to see them a few times a week since you don't want to make a trail or be spotted, but I can't stop watching my babies!

They're getting started on their second leaf sets...again, bang on top of the previous leaves due to the light intensity. I've backed them off the lights a little and they're now 1.5 - 2" away from the central bulb and 4" away from the others. Each one is getting light from 3 x 23W at present (69W a piece).

Gave them a very light feeding with kelp, high P bat guano and high K fertilizer with trace elements yesterday (1/4 strength) and I saw a few gnats this morning. This time I'm going to let them dry out for a week straight to help get rid of those pesky buggers. I took one of my mom's basil plants indoors a few years ago and the gnats obliterated it, so I know I need to ensure I get rid of these bastards.

Haha that's totally what I'm like with indoor grows :-S

It's so bad, I end u doing things far too soon sometimes just cause I'm excited

Yellow stick traps are like a Gnat massacre

Good to see you're doing well, I do all my indoor growing with 12 w or 16 w cfls from regular hardware shops, had a weird looking 25 W too but it didn't last past a single grow! the lower watt cfls have never blown or anything and they're more compact, that one was really big for some strange reason. (hope you don't mind me sticking a picture of my own babies on but check out the yellow traps after 2 months)

I'm really excited to hear how the LED's work for you but I worry they don't really have the high lumen output....

View image in gallery​

 

[daylighting]

Wow, and here I was hoping I'd bought 40W+ bulbs instead! Your plants look great even with the smaller bulbs!

Those yellow traps are absolutely covered! Can't wait to get mine now! I also bought some BT Israelensis to really knock those annoying bastards out.

The 23W bulbs may operate at higher pressure. They say not to move them around as that shortens their life, so I try not to. I'm currently only using two on each seedling since I felt the other two were too far away to be of much help at this stage. I'll add them back later (along with more bulbs)!

The LED bulbs should put out excellent lumens up close as the 3W LEDs are very intense. Even with the lower wattage, the LEDs put out light in the PAR spectrums (close to what plants want with much less wasted light in unusable wavelengths).

I'll have to keep these bulbs right on top of the plants. I may use a two-way splitter with the bulbs and have a CFL and an LED each over two plants along with the others I have going. Wasn't expecting to start a third, but I guess it's not going to get quite as much light since I only have two LED bulbs! Let's see how they compare to CFLs as far as growth rate goes!

 

[DemonPigeon]

Not sure I understood that last paragraph, might be too stoned...

But it sounds good man

My plants get 98 watts spread over 6 bulbs so that's not very much, I expect your plants will dwarf mine

Thanks for the tips about LEDs
I don't entirely understand light spectrums because I'm easily confused by frequency stuff :-S
not much of a physicist, more into my earth sciences

 

[daylighting]

The LED bulbs need to be up close just like the CFLs since their efficiency drops off fast over distance. Two way splitters allow you to use two bulbs for one socket and are CHEAP. I'll use an LED bulb and a CFL in the same socket for the tops of two plants (along with lots of other CFLs)!

Issue is I sowed a third seed in a third pot yesterday, and I only have two LED bulbs. I'm expecting at least 1-2 males. If I get three females I'll buy a third LED bulb.

 

[daylighting]

The LED bulbs are pretty cool. They throw trippy blue/pink light all over the wall. Let's see if the plants like it! Right now my two little eight day old plants are basking under 115W of CFL and 18W of PAR-adjusted LED. Overkill? Maybe, but let's see how they do. I'll be upping the wattage if #3 sprouts (and by the swollen look of the seed, I think it will)! I'm going to need a rack to hold the lights since the eight group extension is now in full use with nine plugs!

I think the clay pebbles and tap water have my pH a little high; I have paper coming in, so I'll know for sure in a few days. I'll most likely adjust with lemon or lime juice.

 

[daylighting]

Well, after reading all the horror stories hydro growers have had with Hydroton and no-name brand clay pebbles, I decided to pick up a pH kit from a pet store as soon as I left work today. It's a liquid one and for $6 or so, not a bad price, and it is accurate in the range that matters for pot plants. Sounds good to me!

I started off by testing my tap water. HIGH at 7.8 pH. I thought it would be right around 7! I then mixed up some of my own urine, kelp, high P bat guano and a little high K fertilizer with trace elements in a gallon jug. I added a few tablespoons of orange juice and the pH was lower than 6. Oops. I figured this was desirable anyway since the pro mix and pebbles were buffering the pH. Watered the plants through and the runoff was a little under 6. Hopefully it will even out by tonight.

The guano reacted with the OJ and gave off a pretty funky smell, but I think it will still be great for the plants. Let's see how the plants take it!

The pebbles really, really help drainage. In all my years of growing I've never seen pots drain to completion this fast. Perhaps 20-30% pebbles is too much; time will tell.

In other news...I'm a proud father of a third Jet-47, 36 hours from sowing into medium. I don't want to jinx myself, but that's a 100% germ rate so far. I can't fault Stitch's breeding; Flash Seeds are legit. It's just a sprout, but I'm sure it will be up by tomorrow night!

 

[shokdee]

In other news...I'm a proud father of a third Jet-47

Hello Daddy!!!

 

[daylighting]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=45347&pictureid=1062376

https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=45347&pictureid=1062377

They are now ten days old and I think they should be further along; I'm blaming it on the pH issues and the 12/12 light cycle. Hopefully the latest feed/flush will fix things up!

Urine works a treat, but overdoing it can really f&$@ things up. I killed a 10-foot pure sativa female with it once upon a time. I'd just hiked through the jungle and really had to pee. Unfortunately the soil was bone dry. I watered immediately after, but it was too late and the plant died a sad and painful death.

Correction, 9 days old. Darn stoner math

A few hours later I tested the pH of the water in the trays under the pots (not much there) and the pH was higher (6.2-6.3). Perfect. Hopefully that pH holds, at least until the next feeding/watering! I want to give them two weeks to dry out after everything. The leaves are sagging like my outdoor plants' leaves after tropical downpours, so I really want to just give them some time to breathe now.

 

[daylighting]

The leaves are still sagging a little; the pots are absolutely loaded with water. I may not need to water for three weeks! I poked holes to the bottoms of the pots with a chopstick to allow for better airflow and gave them a folair feed before lights out. Even with all the water, they grew quite well since last night and are just starting their third leaf sets.

 

[daylighting]

Solid growth overnight, although they're still a little droopy. No yellowing/spotting/otherwise (knock on wood). One is a little further along and has a very interesting, high quality hybrid aroma to it.

My third one is up and I had to give it a pretty major helping hand at getting the seed coat off. I thought I was going to pull the cotyledons off! Spritzed it and left it alone three times, then used a very sharp blade to try and cut the seed coat off. It wasn't enough, so I tugged while holding onto the stem. Fortunately the seedling was unharmed and it is now basking under the lights with the other two.

 

[DemonPigeon]

You lived near a jungle?

If you have huge jungle sativa's why are you buying seeds? Why aren't you selling them instead?

 

[daylighting]

Wild cannabis (at least in this area) has been exterminated, but a few hundred miles away, there are species everywhere! I should really go strain hunting when I get a chance. The ones I grew were brought home from bags overseas; me and a friend bought hundreds of grams for very cheap and the buds were LOADED with seeds that had a very good germ rate!

Unfortunately I don't have time for a jungle grow, and the hurricanes, rippers, 5-0 and crazy wildlife are too much to deal with at this time, but maybe in a few years! Those SmartPots look incredible. Also I want something different from pure sativa bud (the grass is always greener on the other side, right)?

 

[DemonPigeon]

You should totally do that

I've been lucky enough to get some lovely strains from friends but since mine are mainly indica or mixed and generally the product of many generations of indoor plants I've always wanted to try something... less cultivated I suppose Something with a lot of diversity to it

I guess you're right about the grass on the other side

 

[Sativa Dragon]

You should totally do that

I've been lucky enough to get some lovely strains from friends but since mine are mainly indica or mixed and generally the product of many generations of indoor plants I've always wanted to try something... less cultivated I suppose Something with a lot of diversity to it

I guess you're right about the grass on the other side

I got some Himalayan Landrace, not one is alike among the seeds they are all different

Peace

 

[daylighting]

Absolutely, landrace strains show great diversity, much like human populations. Only F1s are consistent.

I just bought a grow tent. The 160W+ of light is making me nervous. I guess that means less daylight (and more CFL)!

 

[DemonPigeon]

Is your username about to change to "nah it's in a tent afterall..."?

 

[daylighting]

LOL I was thinking CFLighting This has gone from a hybrid daylight/CFL microgrow to an indoor grow.

 

[DemonPigeon]

Maybe you could make it a side by side grow? one in, one out, the youngest one moves between each week? though maybe not, it might develop abandonement issues.