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LED takes a backseat

tempes~tos

Active member
thanks for the info, man
Those plants looking absolutely gorgeous.
I have a similar problem, I got a grow going with a 680w (actual) LED / COB combo light i brought in from a good factory in china. the problem is I kinda underestimated it, and my tent is only 4x2. vegged for 3 weeks, and now, 2 weeks into flower, my ladies are getting huge. im trying to tie them down and stuff, but its def a small tent for the light.
 

positivity

Member
Veteran
thanks for the info, man
Those plants looking absolutely gorgeous.
I have a similar problem, I got a grow going with a 680w (actual) LED / COB combo light i brought in from a good factory in china. the problem is I kinda underestimated it, and my tent is only 4x2. vegged for 3 weeks, and now, 2 weeks into flower, my ladies are getting huge. im trying to tie them down and stuff, but its def a small tent for the light.

Thanks, thats those melvanetics purple genes, I just put them in the ground. Damn, Im surprised you can keep things cool enough. LEDs run cool but thats a whole lot of watts. Tuck, trim, bend...make it work.

So I went ahead and busted out the wing. Kind of like when I took the reflectors off the LED COBs, same theory. Sometimes a new light recipe/configuration is a ho hum experiment, this one has me a little excited. Be a bit more before I flower anything, still need to transplant and check everything over. See if I can give the girls a sunburn this time, my little UVB floro tube just squeezed in. Do the dbl ender or a horti hps next time around for sure. That should about cover the options I want to run in this tent.

 

tempes~tos

Active member
Good luck with the experiment bro. hope it works good. I am thinking I need to add some UV to my tent too.
Yes I live in a hot / humid country as well, so heat can be an issue, but I have a vortex s-600 pulling thru a carbon filter 24/7 so that helps a lot. moves a shit ton of air!
 

positivity

Member
Veteran
Thank you tempes. I seem to be able to cool the 315 down pretty good with a 6" fan. My can max can blow some air too but 50% power seems to do it. The ac hood really does bring it all the way to barely over ambient. This wing is a bit hotter for sure but I've still been able to veg on a hot day with it by making a few adjustments to everything like light distance and such.

Still waiting for the purples to finish. Picked a small branch from the favorite to see if I can reveg it, so far so good. Hot day aero cloning...r/o...hydroguard everyday..great white once a week..perma clone collars....timer 2 on 5 off

 

positivity

Member
Veteran
Took my veg LED out and put the hydrofarm reflector with the 315w ushio bulb in there instead. Will see how it goes...
So, its set at around 155w. Tied the glass back since it seems cool enough without it. Only a few screws hold the glass frame on but this is good enough in case I want to turn it up at some point.
Spectrum still looks good with the light meter I got. I should try and note down lumens/par at some point soon so I can see how the spectrum and brightness holds up with time. Either that or run it till it breaks which I don't really see happening anytime soon. I've already messed with the wattage plenty in the flower tent and so far no problems. Anyway..I thought it was cool seeing a 315w cmh used in a different fashion. Tent is 3 x 2..

random thought 1. Ever been shadowed? Its weird..specially when a lot comes from their wannabe god. I wonder if they do it to discourage you? Its like they have to control the flow of info or something. Ahhh well ain't got time for that. Must suck to have to pretend to be someone your not

random thought 2. Older I get the more outdoor I want to smoke. The hydro sativa sat cmh bud was very good though. I see some fire coming from the de side too so I'll be looking there shortly, into the sodium side of things

couple buckeyes coming along

 

positivity

Member
Veteran
A few random garden pics, not much happening in the tent yet. Thinking of flipping it next week. Been playing around with the philips 3k agro in veg, it does seem to keep the nodes a bit shorter. Maybe a little too close, hard to say since its a different reflector setup. Checked the light levels the other day, the spread is really even end to end, and the bulb can get pretty close, liking it so far.


 

positivity

Member
Veteran
Would be curious to know the impact on the energy bill overall... thx

Went from roughly 400w led in flower to a 315w cmh. Veg went from 50 - 70w on a 22/2 schedule to 150w on a 18/6.
Thats just what I've been running lately, it changes pretty often.

My bill hasn't changed much.

Impact on energy bill...

Most people I know can grow enough with 600w or less. Say you use the most efficient LEDs available and cut energy down to 300w. Then you leave the bathroom light on all day...you leave the a/c on at the max setting..leave the tv on...

For me I'm more worried about flower quality than 300w. I tried all the LED stuff, and I still do, but there are things other tech can do that LED can't. At least not as easily
 

positivity

Member
Veteran
More cowbell mom vegging under 3k agro. First time I've vegged with a low kelvin HID in a long time...no complaints. This girl has gone back in forth in health to the brink so many times since my pest problem started. The girl scouts are always the first to get hit the hardest.
I've learned a lot since and the ships been tightened in many areas. Not flowering anything and just getting control back was a big help.
I've noticed the outdoor environment has a way of dealing with these things better than indoor. Anything I put out recovers pretty quickly without further intervention, inside had turned into a 1 bug breeding ground. Anyway, got some control back after some royal fuckery.
H20 and Dawn foliar for a little cleanup. Columbo finishing up, last run of that particular girl, she is a good one though


 

positivity

Member
Veteran
Small update before I flip. So since switching to the philip 3k agro this is the tightest nodes I've gotten yet with these girls with any other type of light I've used. Might be a combination of the reflector putting down a light blanket too though.

First time I've been able to fill the area with gsc hybrids this easily too. 2 plants loaded with nodes, refreshing to say the least. More Cowbell on the right is the best I've got her to veg out yet. Prior she was putting quite a bit of space between growth

So is 3k better than 4k for veg? I wouldn't say that yet. I have my hunches but I'd just say they both work well


 

positivity

Member
Veteran
Alright a few days into flower finally. The philip agro bulb is keeping them bushy, tight nodes. Put the UVB bulb in, was thinking of timing it but screw it, run it the whole time to keep it simple. Cowbell has quite a few tops, the other is a reveg so she has a bunch of shoots, Both light/medium yielding gsc hybrids. Stuck a Colombian in the waterfarm again...topped her this time though, don't need one outrunning the rest too much. Put the big sativa outside a few weeks ago, no way she would of fit in there. That old bucket of soil never ceases to amaze me.



 

positivity

Member
Veteran
Garden filling in, can't wait to get back to completely healthy plants again. These are pretty good but they had a tough life up till now with my pest problem. Future looks bright with this setup. Fullest spectrum I've run yet and its showing. If you look at the spectral readout on these lamps theres little blips on the nms over a really big range, past what most charts even show. Not bad at all




 

positivity

Member
Veteran
Thanks tempes, I've been checking your journal out also, everything looks very nice in there. Sorry if I didn't respond but I keep to myself a bit lately. Normally I'd pop in and say badass grow
 

positivity

Member
Veteran
So time to cover a few things, I'll expand more when I have more time.

So a common theme for people running COBs or any LED for that matter, is to say their marijuana is better than ever and HID can't touch it. Let me share my in depth experience quickly for now.

So I've grown blue dream many times under LED as well as sour diesel. Both strains are top notch when they grow right, mouth coating flavors and many nuances to it. I threw away most of those harvests when grown under LED because the quality was so far off. The blue dream didn't have the lasting stickiness and the smell while nice growing cured into a incredibly bland herbal fruity. The sour diesels sour was completely missing and you'd have no idea how good a strain it could be.

So when someone says their weed is the best ever under LED I would think twice before believing them. I wouldn't be trying other things if it was REALLY that good. Simple...its not. The journey continues

This blue dream from an old COB grow was one of many all producing the same bland terp profile with probably half the stickiness and smell of what I want to see. Looks pretty but when you've seen it grow right it didn't make the cut simply because of the lighting.

My opinion..take it for what it is

I'll say again, this is why I continue to try new things for me. Experiences like this, the lighting was the limiting factor.

 

positivity

Member
Veteran
On another note I'm trying a 210w T9 bulb in my veg tent. Its doing a great job and is noticeably brighter than a dimmed 315, while keeping the spectrum fully intact.
The 315 bulb was doing a decent job but from a quick use, I prefer this.
ONLY for enclosed fixtures which I use exclusively in my veg tent.
Use a T12 version if running open fixtures obviously. Use things in an appropriate manner.

 

positivity

Member
Veteran
Been calling this plant colombo for awhile now...short for colombian. Positively good herb. An original vibration

 

positivity

Member
Veteran
Just a thought for the day.
One of the nice things about trying lots of different lights, you can see the different growth characteristics each provides. So when looking at an online garden sometimes you get a feeling that something isn't right... Your probably right. Lots of journals are just a online production to sell something at any means. I still remember when a led company was swapping hid lights in their grows. You never really know until you see a bulb stuck in a corner
So what I do when looking at grow journals is, you gotta look at all of them to get a decent picture of what's going on and take a average result. That should give a more accurate idea of what to expect. Just sayin'
I'd like to say there are a lot more real grows than staged, I'm sure of that, so that's a good thing. Every grow shared helps regardless of how well it goes
Growers helping one another has always been the best side of a forum. That and the bud shots
 

positivity

Member
Veteran
Was talking to a bud the other day about how some clones were looking tired and lost their original vigor. Well, they look good again, it was just an environment issue. This is the healthiest it has been since the original seed. Not sure I've seen true loss of vigor yet from repeated cloning


 

positivity

Member
Veteran
Coming along. Can't say I've had any problems with CMH tech. I remember posting once when they were all 240v I wanted to try one but didn't have an outlet for it. Once the 120v came out it was a no brainer. For an all in one light this works really well. All in one vs a MH/HPS setup which would be an even bigger veg and flower spectrum punch. At least thats how it seems
I did put a plant under LED it'll be interesting to see a CMH to LED transition. Haven't seen a LED flower in a while so kinda looking forward to it

 

positivity

Member
Veteran
So a week later and heres a shot of the same plant on the left at the end of flowering under a white and red LED light. It was at 200w if I remember right. I think cree calls this their horticulture spec now or something. The one I built is a little different as it has a few uv leds and far red included. Not sure if I have any close up bud shots, will need to dig around

Put a cowbell under a newish LED with the fancy controller and far red stuff. I'd like to see how she does under that

Turned up the CMH for 2 days to the 355w setting and the leaves yellowed a bit, so I turned it back down. The hydro columbo took it no problem...could of been a few reasons for that. Try it again when I've got fresher plants in there, they've been in these pots for a long time.

anyways peace out.

p.s. that journey thing was catchy huh!? inside jk i guess


 
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