LED takes a backseat

positivity · Aug 24, 2016

Well after a little time off of forums I think I'll give it a try again and see how it goes.

As the title suggests I'm a longtime LED grower looking to try new things. After trying many LED combinations over the years I've started to feel a bit bored always using the same things. So, I've looked into some of the newer HID offerings and I see quite a few things I'd like to try out. Everyone is welcome to follow and see how I do with a change in grow technique.

Will I go back to LED or will CMH, DE, and who knows what take its place?

I've managed to gather a few different lighting options to go through and I'll just be having fun with it. I'll try and keep a clone around to compare light sources better.

Have a good one

posi

omgwt · Aug 24, 2016

would be very interesting to see comparison grows with led vs cmh and DE - those are very rare to find (well, i havent really looked for them, but also never find em whilst browsin icmag so..!)

I personally just bought a regular 600w HPS with digi ballast and one of the better bulbs but I am almost sad that I didn't really explore the oppertunity to go DE, it seems really interesting.

positivity · Aug 24, 2016

Wish I could do a direct comparison for everyone but I'm just a personals grower on a med program. These lights are all capable of making bucket loads.

I'm sure your 600w hps will work out. The ballast I picked up is a Solistek DE/SE, so it can run both types of bulbs hopefully. So far no problem with a 400w Sunmaster MH I'm using. Ballast goes from 400w to 600w with 2 boost functions if I remember right. I tried to get things that were a bit more flexible. It is a challenge with this HID stuff. LED has its own issues like that though really..

positivity · Aug 24, 2016

Almost ready to flower out more cowbell from bodhi. Just a few more days of veg since I topped them all.

Under a Hydrofarm phantom ac reflector. 400w Sunmaster MH bulb (just what I had at the time) and Solistek 600w DE/SE ballast on the 400w setting. Flower will be the Gavita FLEX in a Sunsystem AC/DE reflector

positivity · Aug 30, 2016

Sunsystem AC/DE reflector

Solistek SE/DE 400/600 ballast on 440w setting. Fires the gavita even at 400w and the spectrum looks good on my meter so hopefully no problems

6" can fan pro

Gavita 600/750 DE bulb. The lamp can run at 400 - 825W. Ballast I have can push it to 660w.

24" Arcadia Desert Sun UVB/UVA T5

Same power I usually run my LED grows at so this should be interesting
Do the CMH next time

positivity · Aug 30, 2016

Hortilux Blue did a great job in veg. Switched out to the blue from a sunmaster initially. Sunmaster worked good too, no problems, really healthy vegging results.

positivity · Sep 1, 2016

day 3 flower. Gavita 600/750 DE at 440w

Bodhi more cowbell. Most still haven't declared yet but Im guessing the girls showed up to play from what I can tell

positivity · Sep 13, 2016

So I've been learning a lot using these new setups. Give a little info on how things went.

I ran the Gavita DE at 440w, later switching to 400w the lowest setting after noticing things going downhill quickly. It was too much light, too close, even at 400w. The new growth was coming out yellow and rosetting. I've seen enough results from people using these to know they work in the right setup. I'll get back to this later as I'd like to try it in at least a 4 x 4.
So, 400w in a 2 x 4 won't work out. Maybe someone else can get it to work but I think one of the big problems is the spectrum shift that went from 22 CRI or so down to 12 CRI when dimming. And, the fact the skinny tent is amplifying all the heat and light from the big square reflector. Need to run this in a 4 x 4 or bigger at 600w to maintain the spectrum, and a lot of headroom. It is a specialized spectrum, not the easiest thing to run.

Thats just my take on it. I know people been running these for years, its all new to me.

On to better news. The plants are still alright, they'll survive my attempts to kill them. The CMH is up and I'm loving it so far. Just as cool as most of my LED runs, After setting my cooling up for the DE and 600w Hortilux blue this was easy. Dimming the 4k Philips CMH down to 150w and the CRI stays at 92 CRI. 2 bulbs together goes up to 95. Thats the reasoning behind this, blend spectrums a little. Or just run one or the other..

Modified my Hydrofarm reflector. Added a CMH socket in one of the air vents, and changed the original mogul to a CMH socket. So its a air-cooled, double bulb, double ballast setup. More work than its worth...I saw the dimlux expert series CMH after I already did this.

Should have some buds sooner or later.. :biggrin:

. She's back vegging for now to get her health back. I changed back within a few days of flip after seeing the health decline.

positivity · Sep 22, 2016

Decided on the ushio 4200k for veg, and the philips agro 3100k for flower, to finish this grow. Took some time to get nice regrowth but they are coming back and almost ready.

So..double ended, double CMH, single ended, LED, whatever. Having these options is refreshing to say the least. LEDs are good, but not so good that I don't look elsewhere for possibly different results.

Put up a few pics from my spectrometer. The first one is the 5600k high cri Cree 3590 I've been using in veg. Its one of the better veg LEDs I've used. Not as good as the horti blue but it does the job at low power. I get better node distance with this versus 5k 80 cri. The other shots are the philips, ushio, and hortilux blue.

positivity · Sep 23, 2016

Time to put her to flower. Got these lights figured out pretty good now, future grows should go better.
I'll be sticking with the CMH for a while. Really enjoyable light to work with. These two bulbs both with killer spectrums and a power range that can run the tent softly or max a bigger area. Power range from 155w to 710w, mix and match spectrums, air-cooled with glass in a small reflector (for us small tent dudes, another posi original) :biggrin:

. Can I get a hell yeah..
LED still on the back burner. I have a goji and tillamook strawberry in there now that I've grown under LEDs before so I'll get a good compare out of this.
Plants are root bound probably, from the extended veg, but thats all the dirt she's getting. This was supposed to be a smallish pheno hunt

positivity · Sep 26, 2016

Thanks for the tips ambertrichome. I've used UVB for awhile now and usually use them, unless the plants are stressed in some way. Its on a digital timer so I just hit the off button when I'm in the area.

Grow is going awesome since the CMH went in. Running on mostly homemade compost all this time. Funny how some, not all, LED dudes claim less spectrum grows better dope. Seems counterintuitive. Eh, make your own call on that

day 3

positivity · Nov 12, 2016

Run dun. Stressed them out with my light bulb changing but I let her ride out and she gifted me with some frosty nugs. 7 different cowbell girls out of a pack gave me a nice look into her potential. Turns out they all have the same stink and it isn't hard to find a tasty cowbell. Rubber and leather rule the smells and gives an unexpectedly tasty and stony experience. Good stuff

Next run should go smoother and I'll be using this 315w cmh figamajig a while more as I do see her extracting quite resiny traits from the girls. One cowgirl went outdoor with the initial growth crash and she responded with a beautiful bud as usual. She also didn't have a pot restricting her either which I'm sure helped her rebound.

Will update with a new round as I get reset and choose a new strain. Promise I won't change bulbs 5 times in one run again..haha. CMH one more time then I want to give the horti blue a flower run. Anything but LED...I got my reasons...and the spectrums in my new bulb collection are far from lacking.

Have a good end of year growers and stay safe

positivity · Nov 12, 2016

positivity · Dec 2, 2016

Almost ready to flip the next round to flower. This will be under the 4200k Ushio the whole way. No complaints on how the 315w Ushio has vegged this sativa, doing a great job. UVB has been on around 2hrs per day, I'll probably bump it up to 4hrs once I hit flower. Straw D from rezdog and breaddread from bodhi

In the backseat I've got a clone from the sativa under a new mix spectrum LED I'm trying out. See how it goes..

positivity · Dec 25, 2016

So I'm shutting my tents down. Ended up with what looks like a mite problem. Tiny buggers, I couldn't see them until the damage was done. I've been blaming nutes, lights, and everything else not realizing these invisible bastards were sabotaging me.

Its all good, been doing a lot of reading and will put together a preventative and knock down routine to try and make sure this never happens again. Added mighty wash and azamax to go with the spinosad and allow me to avoid resistance. Mighty wash seemed to knock them down good, I just don't like unlabeled ingredients. After reading up it seems one of the actives is pyrethrin, I can deal with that. Almost went forbid but I don't like working with dangerous chemicals. Plan is knock them down and then work towards organic pest prevention.

I put the larger CMH 4200k grown girl outside. She should give me a healthy supply of good herb. She rebounded pretty quick once I hit her with the mighty wash. It will be a lot easier to treat her outside then in the tent, plus I rather save the electricity for full health grows not buggy grows.

The 100w custom full spectrum LED did pretty good. Nothing earth shattering. The far red treatment at lights off may have contributed to 5 days earlier first pistils. Hard to say without a regular cob only run to compare to. One downside to earlier pistils is less time to stack nodes and secondarys to fill in I think. Maybe for a HPS or blueish LED grow it would help since the far red levels aren't really ideal on some of them. But for a CMH, they flower quick and really don't need any help in my opinion.

So big girl outside and small LED girl gets the chop, she was just there for a little learnin'.

Time to clean up the inside so I can start the new year right.

Thoughts on a 315 CMH in a 2 x 4? With the right reflector f@ck yah..

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Imag!

positivity · Jan 6, 2017

Finally getting my plants back. Even cloning was almost impossible with the bug problem. The Azamax, mighty wash, and spinosad combo worked great. Azamax being omri approved was a bonus.
When the plants health is on the line with sick plants, lights like the Ushio and hortilux blue is what I'll count on. The blue range on led is weak and I have more trust in the CMH. Still like led of course, in fact I have some new leds I need to mount on stars. I'm over plain Jane white.

leet · Jan 6, 2017

I also believe CMH produces very healthy plants and works good. You seem to like to play with lamps so take this suggestion : 600w HPS + 600w 10K MH ... that is if you can find cheap 10k good bulbs

positivity · Jan 24, 2017

Thanks for the suggestion. Maybe, one day. I did pick up a 5 x 5 tent that would accommodate that, but I'd grow way too much weed in that thing..haha. I boxed it back up for now.

Not much happening in my room right now. I popped a 5 pack of forum cookie x LBL. Only 2 popped, could have been my fault, didn't do the usual presoak. Both male so they got culled. Bummer on the nice variety not happening

Be back when things are more interesting. Strawd started flowering, colombian in the farm just got put in, buckeye purples on the way, and ushio 4k under the hood.

LED tent is busy drying herb. Not sure what I want to do with it right now. Still enjoying the CMH setup.

positivity · Jan 31, 2017

veg n bloom making me look like I know what I'm doing with a waterfarm. So far I haven't emptied the res, just adding and adjusting.

Nice to see green leaves again, I was starting to forget what a healthy indoor grow looks like. The 4k ushio seems to be flowering okay. I'll run this bulb till these plants are done, then probably switch back to the 3k philips. See if I can get a feel for what I prefer.

positivity · Feb 3, 2017

Small update. The colombo in the farm took off in the last few days, caught up with the straw d. She just hit the water in the res so theres still lots of room for roots. I was looking at what v@b suggests as additives to the base and it looks like they just have a p/k boost additive. Might spring for it or just use what I have. I'm a little wary of messing with the res mix that works. Maybe wait until its more into flowering before adding anything. Right now the ppms are at 1000 and just the slightest tip burn.
Smooth grow so far and looks like the bug eradication has worked. Haven't seen anything in a few weeks. Have been giving a spinosad treatment here and there but I may cut that out soon as everything looks under control.

LED takes a backseat

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