LED takes a backseat

Just about 3 weeks of stretch on the colombian. Would of topped her if I thought she was going to grow that much, ahh well, make it work. Still just adding to the res, haven't used a ph meter yet since I know the veg n bloom has the right ph at this ppm.

straw d coming along, smell 'n nice

Your plants are looking good. I'm a huge fan of the COB leds around 3000-4000K. I use the 4k to veg and flower under 3-3.5k. The quality and quantity is so good and the heat generated is very easy to control.
I do like the CMH a lot, but have found the COBs give me higher yields.

Keep up the good work,

-Funk

Thanks funkbomb. The yield on COBs were good for me too. The quality depended on the strain, some were missing terps I like, some came out very good. I tried every LED I could get my hands on and ran out of stuff to try. That, and the politics of it turned me off...to put it nicely.

So the gardens doing alright. I'm actually just happy to be pest free, that sh@t was stressing me out.
Waterfarm plant is really healthy. I'll be pretty impressed if I can run this whole round without emptying the bucket, and just adjusting the ppm of the top off. I hate having to have runoff water, trying to get away from that as much as possible.
Light is pinned to the top of the gorilla tent since I'm accommodating this sativa tree. It can't go any higher. Turned the cmh up with the boost setting since the lights so high, a little more juice than 315w. Glass lens is in since I'm running the bulb out of spec...safety first

The colombo has a energizing, clear as day high, love it. Gonna have to dig into some heavy sativa strains here shortly

Strawd is doing okay. Yellowed fast in the small pot but she should make it

looks good. now all you gotta do is toss a couple of your clones in rockwool side by side and prepare to get blown away! lol

Hehe.. The original diyledgrow.. Of course respect to the original volks light build, knna, and everyone else who were the real original contributors, most know who they are. So much intellectual thievery nowadays.. So sad... Ah well, just gotta laugh I guess
Update the 315 grow soon, keep losing my darn memory card




Juss making sum pollen. More cowbell x secret sauce

Easy grow so far. Still haven't changed my res water and I don't think I'm going to, not as long as everything is healthy. Must say I'm impressed with the farm, making some nice nugs. Smells good too, curious how the smoke will end up. Gotta read into finishing in hydro, don't want to mess up the finish. Straight water for a week or something last I remember. Still weeks away by the look of things

Strawd finishing up. Might give her one more week just to get it a little more done. Need the space so she better hurry. Be a good sample to get a little smoke, she went into flower small with only two small tops. Next time a better veg, pot, and canopy for her

So something like 8 weeks on the sat, seems to be on track to finish around 10, thats what she's been doing outside. Maybe a week longer to get as fully ripe. Might do one more update when I pull her.
The 4k ushio did a good job, everything I put under her so far has done really well. Up close, far away, its all happiness. Not bad buddage for a highish kelvin. One of the more notable things is the aromas match what I was expecting. Its not always easy to get a nice diesel smell, at least not for me.
Might have to do the blue next grow..maybe the DE again...or the 3k 315...f@ck I don't care, will need to see what sounds like the most fun. Still amazed the water farm plant didn't die or get weird on me with no res change in my hot climate. Might have to keep it going, its kinda cool seeing the bigger buds they make.

Few shots of the garden, just the colombian finishing up. Going to wait until she's done before I get into anything else.
All in all, I'm really happy I got to use this bulb. One of the best smelling and resinous plants I've grown in a while. Not super sugared out but leaves a film of resin on your hands whenever you touch her.
The top cola snapped and was laying on the ground today. It didn't break the stem completely so I taped it up and propped her up to finish.

Almost done with this grow. This is a shot right before i started a clear water flush a few days ago. The ppm is down to about 400 last I checked, haven't emptied the res just adding fresh back mostly. I do drain a little before each watering to speed the nutrient removal. The plant is finally yellowing so nutrients are being depleted. Just doing this so I can give the hydro a fair shot in the taste department. Last time I grew hydro I wasn't very impressed. That was with flora nova which grew a really healthy plant also, but the blueberry at the time fell a bit flat. It was twice the size of normal though which is a cool sight. This grow has better lighting than that the 250 hps no name bulb grow, maybe the results will differ this time.

So I'm thinking of doing this again with the 315 3k agro bulb. Same plant, same size, same waterfarm (after I figure out how to clean the considerable buildup of stuff on the farm). It should give a pretty clear visual of any 3k/4k differences. Theres always the Philips 4k version too. Quite a bit different approach from the Ushio spectrum.

So anyway, the plant broke its stem, you can see the tape where it broke. Cola was laying flat on the ground when I unzipped the tent. Not bad for a 4k at all. Had to tape up a lower bud the other day too, nice swell in the last few weeks. A few more days of fresh water then I can move on.

Thought I'd put this up before I forget. Noticed this a few weeks ago, a little red sap coming out of the stem. Pretty cool how it just pushed out on its own
Anyway crappy phone photos, just wanted to catch a quick shot of it.

Looks like this tent and light could have grown three of these plants nicely. That would of been quite a yield but thats not really the goal here.

Home stretch..slow taper off nutes is working well. Dropped lights to 10hr on a few days ago just to give her a hint of whats coming

Last shots of the grow, around 11 weeks on her? This was the most sativa of the dread breads that I had. I haven't seen her totally stop throwing pistils yet, even outside she'd still try to keep growing. But, I like the quality I've been getting at this stage so she's done. She was reeking of her familiar smell going into the dry area so thats a good sign.

Little break while I figure out whats next. I'll probably use the philips 3100k agro again, but I may throw the DE in, will see. I know I can control the environment at 400w in the 2x4 with no A/C which the Gavita flex says it can run at. I'd still like to see what that can do. I know I'm not missing building LEDs yet. I have a little veg test starting now...plants were marginal under 2 different types of LED...if they kick into high gear under one of my bulbs then I will need to rethink my LED direction even in veg. Nothing concrete just personal observations...

So whats going on. I should have taken pics of how screwed up my plants were from another battle with the pests. They got to the point I had to reveg a flowering plant and almost lost a really nice cowbell. Literally all leaves dead and tiny new growth was stunted and yellowing. Azamax has saved these plants a few times now. I managed to keep the flower tent pest free but they made a home in my veg tent with the LED, not sure whats up with that.

So a repot and under the led veg light. Growth came back but it was at a snail pace. Turning the led up would have done nothing but irritate them more. So under my Ushio veg bulb they went and 2 weeks later I have healthy plants again. The kind I like to see with thick leaves and shiny green leaves. The kind you see when you grow outdoors and know how how healthy a plant can be. The Ushio really does elicit a great reaction from the plants. I only say Ushio since I haven't run the philips yet and I need a smaller Horti blue bulb for veg. The way its panning out the CMH will be a great low wattage veg light with a long lifespan and the horti blue would be great for getting the extreme growth and branching you want in late veg, early flower.

May do a traditional MH/CMH 2 weeks into flower and DE it to the end. Old timers know what the hell they are doing, you gotta watch out for these know it all peeps trying to rewrite the books.

May be time to try some LEDs soon, I see a few that are a little interesting. But for now veg will be ruled by CMH. Going to try and run the CMH dimmed to 155w and cut the light back from my normal 20/4 to 18/6. Less hours but stronger, fuller, better light. The 315s are easier to get going than 150 CMH or other small types so if i can get good performance out of a dimmed 315 that will be my go to for veg.

Will be a bit before I flower, not in a huge rush, I'm more into getting these plants strong and healthy again.
On a side note I was impressed with the herb out of the waterfarm using the v@b. The taste was there and it was a good representation of what I've seen the plant do. I was ready to smell and taste hay like my previous hydro attempts but it really did come out good. A testament to good light and feed I guess. You need both for the proper end result.

This thing can veg and flower a 2 x 4 no problemo. I wouldn't hesitate to flower a 4 x 4 with it. Take your hands and measure out 2.5'....if you think thats all this light can handle I don't know what to tell you

Thats all for now..be back with some fat stinky buds hopefully in the near future

ymmv...not with buckeye purple..

Purple everywhere on the earliest shoots. I rarely get purples so if it purps here it'll purp anywhere...happy days

Not much happening except for seeding these buckeyes out. This was mostly a last ditch effort to save them. My pest problem returned and I had a hard time getting them healthy again. Everything's under control now, but I was taught another lesson in how tough these bugs are. Seems to be spider mites, finally saw the webbing one day. First go round ever with mites. Seeds are for personal stash only

Wow, positivity, beautiful grow.
I like how you put your males outside. I am planning to do the same.
I'm just getting into LEDs now. Whats the main difference you notice between the LED's and CMH? also, what's the advantage of using white 4k or 3.5k COB's as opposed to the colored full spectrum LED's?

tempes~tos said:

Wow, positivity, beautiful grow.
I like how you put your males outside. I am planning to do the same.
I'm just getting into LEDs now. Whats the main difference you notice between the LED's and CMH? also, what's the advantage of using white 4k or 3.5k COB's as opposed to the colored full spectrum LED's?

Click to expand...

Thanks...Main difference is the CMH reminds me more of the growth I see outside than what LED does. LED is good for ultimate stealth. You could put a LED in a tupperware container and grow a plant. Quality is a bit higher under the CMH doe.

I don't like 4k or 35k much (white COB), they are an in between spectrum for me. 5k veg 3k bloom ideally, higher CRI is also nice. 3k is a better all in one for my tastes. I wouldn't rule out lights like Heliospectra or Ursa though. I prefer their approach over plain white COBs.

Did a CMH temp test today with the Ushio 4K. I can't remember if the other bulbs were different temps so this is just for the Ushio. 6" can fan set on a little less than medium, hydrofarm a/c hood (smallest I could find for my 4 x 2 tent). Result....1f over ambient with tent closed.

So what I've been doing is a/c hood if running in the day to match the high temps and open with no glass if I flower at night. Good enough for me. I actually got a OG open wing reflector for flower so I can get the widest spread possible other than bare bulb, looking forward to trying that out.

peace n weed man

The buckeyes are coming along, they have a pretty dank smell I wasn't expecting. Not sure whats up with the tent. The girls are a bit too big to flower in there. The CMH is already upping what I put out outdoor. The Horti blu would probably start me some...uhh..really big stuff. So might be a bit before I get a tent run in, kinda sucks but thats the way it goes. I have some cool beans I'd like to run through so I may do a hard cull on the purples and just guess the best 1 or 2.
Pics not the best, I'll get some better ones if all goes well in the garden.