[Humple W.]

Awesome build, man! I always admire the truly homemade cabs; I was too lazy and just modified a ClosetMaid pre-fab for mine. You're not worried about bleaching at that power and distance from the plants? Not that I really know the first thing about it! I have one of the HLG 135w Quantum Board kits in one of my cab's chambers right now, and just to be on the safe side - because I have no clue - I've got it dimmed to 80 watts at 16 inches from my vegging plants.

Looking forward to following your grow!

[Phychotron]

err, wrong thread

[Lapides]

I forgot that about a year ago i fed my worms compost that had been mixed with all of my amendments. There were adequate amendments such that I would only need about 2 handfuls of ewc per plant.

I mixed my dirt up with about a third of this ewc...WAY too much for just 2 plants.

They are coming around pretty ok now though. I took a few clones off of them a week ago and it looks like the plants have tripled in size since.

I'm going to add some CO2 tomorrow so that the plants can take full advantage of the bright light. I have a hunch it will also clear up what looks like an Mg deficiency. We'll see.

GG4 on the left and Chem '91 on the right

[antheis]

nice thread!
i'm gathering parts now to build a couple 3x3x6' boxes with a soil bed at the bottom much like you did.

i plan building the bed out of hardware cloth and 2x4's to aerate the beds instead of using pvc.

[Firebrand]

I'm diggin your work, nice job putting it together, subbed.

[AvidLerner]

Originally Posted by Lapides

Hey everyone, it's great to get another thread going. I was forced to take a little break from growing (again!) and as a result I've downsized temporarily.

I built a 4x1.5x4ft cabinet. It's still a little rough and unfinished.
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I'll be lighting it up with a DIY Quantum Board style setup. I honestly had NO IDEA these things would be so bright. I was chomping at the bit to see how bright they are, so I wired them up and plugged them in and was instantly blinded.
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Miller High Life for proof of my downsizing

I got 6x4ft strips and they will be mounted on 1in wide heatsinks once my thermal paste come from China. It's the only thing I'm waiting on, grr...
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Mounted the heatsinks onto aluminum C channel. The drill was a little slidey, but the heatsinks are parallel and evenly spaced.

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I havent used a pop rivet gun since middle school.


I'm running these at 73% of their rated max with a 320 watt, 1.75 amp driver. Even unmounted, the diodes are warm, definitely not hot, I can keep my fingers directly on them without it hurting.

At this configuration, the power draw is just under 260 watts. I'm getting over 160 lumens per watt for a total of 41595 lumens. This is taking into account the 94% electrical efficiency of my driver.

Going forward, I'll be buying these diodes on a tape and reel rather than premounted on these strips. Going the tape and reel route, I can get these for about $0.12 per diode, maybe even cheaper from alibaba.

Total cost for the light was less than $300.

I'll be growing 2 different phenos of Island Sweet Skunk with lots of worms and recycled soil.

I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Stay tuned, much more fun to come!

great light, I love those samsung strips. I got them too, I put some on a $12 cookie sheet no heat either. I also used flat stock like you.
namaste

[Lapides]

Things are looking really great. This light definitely veges the fuck out of these plants.

I switched to flowering 3 days ago and started cleaning up their bottoms. Now the fun starts...

[heady blunts]

[Lapides]

Two weeks in -


Chem '91


GG4

[Phychotron]

Looks good. Might need a little bit more iron, zinc or sulfur to get the new growth to come in green. Or upping your base nutrients.