Daylight and Fluoros

[daylighting]

Yup, abandonment issues and possibly herm on me because of the stress! I'm trying to move my plants as little as possible since I feel it's pretty stressful for them. That and all my lights are plugged into one eight group power strip with a few two-group plug-in jobs to give me a few more outlets. I'm keeping everything under 13A draw so the fuse doesn't blow. I might have to stick the scrubber on a different outlet though!

Here's hoping my new tent doesn't smell like plastic as I'd loathe to stick my babies in a stinky tent!

Right, time to get to work. All I've done today is read threads on pot forums and buy a tent! Funnily enough the grow has made me more productive. Maybe it's the oxygen and bright lights, and the fact I try to get out of there before lights out so I don't have to put black bags over my babies...with the new tent it should be good and fairly light tight (I'll patch it up as needed) and I don't have to worry about running 200 or more watts of CFL and LEDs!

 

[daylighting]

Just bought another LED bulb to supplement my CFLs. My girls are growing well and one is doing quite a bit better than the other. The third has a nice, thick stem and looks good. I laid down a yellow sticky trap and am hoping it catches some gnats! They pretty much need to be left alone to use up all the water in the pots.

 

[DemonPigeon]

Are you going to put up some pictures of the plants?

 

[daylighting]

Yup, when they're a little older (and drier)! There are some on the last page and there will be more on the next page.

 

[DemonPigeon]

OOOps sorry I just realised you'd linked to them!

I've not been clicking the links... :-S

I'm used to seeing people embed them in the thread

 

[daylighting]

Figured that's what it was...tried the drag and drop and got links instead of pics. I then realized I could fix it, but couldn't be arsed. lol. Here they are now...from five days ago.

 

[daylighting]

And from today...Day 14.

 

[daylighting]

Some good growth over the weekend, especially the largest one. The second largest is still lagging behind by a few days worth of growth, and the little one is still little, but working on its first trifoliate leaf set. It's definitely going to be another ten days or more until I need to water; the pots weigh a ton!

The biggest one is basking under my new 24W LED bulb with 8x2W in 630nm and 4x2W in 660. I put the 9W LED that was over it onto the little seedling. I had to pull a CFL to make room for the new bulb. I have some more splitters coming in. Once they start growing a little more, I'll put the bulbs horizontally and use the splitters for more wattage and coverage.

I'm considering picking up an HPS with dimmable ballast and air cooled fixture...but don't want to use that much power. I am also looking into a 150W capable of being run at 100W at the flick of a switch, but the ballast is bolted onto the reflector...decisions, decisions...

 

[wildgrow]

I forgot, do you have air circulating in there?

 

[daylighting]

Yes, it's a big space and they're out in the open! Window air conditioner, windows, exhaust fans, and my CO2 emissions. Two 12" fans too. They definitely aren't wanting for air circulation. Got a brand new carbon scrubber and fan (4") ready to rock once they go in the tent.

I'll hold off on the HPS for now, even if it is only $100 for everything. Lots of purchases this month, lots of bills to pay, and I need to head out of town for a week ASAP for work. That being said, these plants have really helped my productivity. Who woulda thunk?

 

[DemonPigeon]

remember to water them before you go away

 

[daylighting]

I absolutely will, and I have a trusted person who can take care of them if need be.

Daddy now has a 400W HPS with dimmable ballast and wing reflector on the way. I think I'll run it at 50% for this grow lol.

Let's work it out...

HPS @ 200W
CFL @ 6 x 23W (if I don't buy anymore bulbs) = 138W
LED @ 18W (2x9) + 24W (630nm + 660nm) + 6W (660nm) = 48W

Total lighting = 356W.

I should probably stop there as I think I'll need air conditioning during flowering to keep the humidity at bay!

 

[wildgrow]

Is the ballast capable of running at 3/4 power? You could ditch the cfls altogether.

In the summer (no ac), I run my 400 for 8 hours and cfls for 2 hours before and after the hps. You could do the same with your other lights. It would let you run it at 400 and give you 'sunrise/sunset' lighting too. Just a thought - 2 thoughts, I guess.

 

[daylighting]

That is an idea, but I want to run all the lights since I feel they would give my plants the most complete mix of light for optimal growth; the CFLs provide more blues and the 2700K provide red in higher wavelength, and the LEDs provide both blue and 660nm red (which HPS lacks). Now all I'm missing is the 400nm blue and the 680-700nm range. And a green thumb. lol

 

[wildgrow]

More power to ya!

I wish I could run 2 400s - 1 mh and 1 hps. Are your leds the lightbulb replacement type? I saw some at a big box store and they got me wondering.

 

[daylighting]

Yep, they are E27 screwable types, but are made specifically for plant growth. One emits blue and two ranges of red light and the other two are only for red light, including the 660nm that is deficient in HPS/CFL/MH.

In an ideal world I'd run LEDs, a halide, HPS and GrowLux fluorescents. Actually, no, in an ideal world I'd grow with natural light alone! lol

 

[wildgrow]

Sweet. Maybe Ill run both cfls and leds this summer.

 

[daylighting]

It seems to be working for me, despite the overwatering/pH/gnats that stunted their growth; now that they're drying out, they're moving ahead a little quicker.

Day 17..this one has really caught up, and already smells great if I touch the leaves or stem. It's growing rapidly now and stretching a little.

My new 24W 630/680nm LED light

This one is lagging behind 2-3 days, but growing nonetheless. Smells great too! After lights out I noticed an unmistakable pungent aroma. This little plant is extremely funky (funkier than the other one for sure)! I'm glad I bought the scrubber now. I don't need it just yet, but if this one is a female, it's going to get some use, that's for sure!

The little seedling...doing well, but a little whorled phyllotaxy...not sure if it is just turning toward the LED over the 2700k CFL

9W LED with a good mix of colors (440, 630, 660)

 

[daylighting]

Set my tent up today. While moving stuff around, I managed to drop a CFL bulb. #@#!@

It's going to get hot in there, and even more so with the HPS! I was sweating while setting everything up in the tent, and I had the air conditioning on. Maybe picking up a tent and HPS was a bad idea...now I'm going to need an intake fan! At least with the light cycle during working hours I can have the door open for extra ventilation; I'll only need to close it up after hours if I need to work long hours like tonight.

I had my plants covered with trash bags for five hours tonight and Ms Stinky did NOT look happy...very wilted. I know plants sometimes do this at night, but she looked bad. I hope she's ok tomorrow. As for the largest one, it also wilted a little. Only the seedling looked ok. Ah well, no more bag treatments from now on I hope!

 

[shokdee]

Set my tent up today. While moving stuff around, I managed to drop a CFL bulb. #@#!@

Mindfulness saves money.