1st Time Possible Fail Grow - 600W HPS

[Cruizer]

Your

 

[Kriaze]

Hey all. OK the plants have been on 12/12 for 6 weeks and 3 days exactly (21st February) although the first flower/bud didn't appear until the 9th March. I was expecting them to finish next week or the week after hence the PK13/14 last week. I was thinking along the lines of two weeks normal feed and one week flush after that. I've completely flushed them through (thanks to your advice) and have now taken some pictures. This is a new camera so I don't have a macro lens yet, but hopefully the crop will suffice. If you feel you need a closer crop please let me know as I've tried to keep a few details of the surrounding areas in the picture yet.

Once again I appreciate your comments and the help here has been amazing. Thank you all.

 

[Kriaze]

Hey everyone just a quick update. The plants haven't keeled over yet I'm not sure if I'm just imagining things (wishful thinking maybe) but there does seem to be a bit of new growth that looks ok, but too early to tell for sure yet. Anyway after reading the forum (wow what a thread that is) regarding Mars Hydro LED's I've decided against buying the Mars II 1200w and I'm going to go for the Reflector 192x3w. Hopefully this should take care of the high temperatures that my plants are suffering through and as I'll only be growing 2 or 3 plants to keep me in smoke (in a 4x4x6 tent) this should be plenty according to the website. Does anyone have any disagreements on that? If so please let me know as I'll be making the purchase later today. Thanks for all your help guys and peace

 

[Kriaze]

I'd like to say a really BIG thank you to Sara (SmokeSara) from Mars Hydro for helping me out here. As you may know I've been suffering from temperature problems with this grow so I decided that I would order a 192x3 Reflector series to swap out my 600HPS to alleviate the problem. The service I received was absolutely outstanding so I would like to talk you through what actually happened plus put a few pictures up that help with a size comparison of what I received (not the 192x3 Reflector) as I hadn't seen anything that really put these LED lights into perspective and I was expecting something smaller and of a much lesser build quality than I actually received.

OK my ordering process went like this:

On Thursday 9th April I ordered the 192x3 Reflector direct from the Mars Hydro website, paid my money and received my confirmation order number. I contacted Sara and had a chat with her the same night as I had received no shipping confirmation. Sara let me know that the UK warehouse had none of those particular lights in stock and was also aware that I needed the lights ASAP due to the problems I was having with my HPS. She then went on to offer me a change of order to 2x 96x3 Reflectors which were in stock over here, explaining to me that I wouldn't have to wait for the container shipping which would be at least 2 more weeks. The difference in cost was negligible and I agreed to her idea of changing my order. No extra cost was incurred by myself for this and I was hoping to receive them by midweek next week or the beginning of the following week at the latest (time was of the essence).
Yesterday Friday 10th April I hadn't received a shipping confirmation so I contacted Sara again checking that the change of order had gone through without any problems. She then assured me that there were no problems and stated that she would get her assistant to email me a tracking number.

Well today Saturday 11th April I was banged out of bed (I'm a night owl ) at 11am with the delivery of my two 96x3 Reflectors! Sara knew that I had a problem and her excellent help has now ensured that I can fix it quick sharp! From an expected 3 weeks or so delivery I received my lights in 2 days, on a Saturday! I'm blown away with the service and thought that it was only fair that I give credit where credit is due. Thanks you Sara so much, I have left you a little love letter on FB lol.

For anyone that is thinking twice about purchasing from this company I can wholeheartedly recommend them. Also if you have a read through the forums you will find that pretty much everyone that has used the company will too.

Now onto a couple of pictures and a size comparison:

Packaging size comparison v Iphone 5 and Clipper lighter

Actual Lighting size v Iphone 5 and Clipper lighter

Lighting Veg only

Lighting Veg and Bloom

I hope this post is of some use to someone. Peace all

 

[Kriaze]

OK my ratchet hangers arrived today along with my CalMag so it was time to put the LED's into the tent. One thing I will say is that I'm definitely not a fan of where the hangar holders are. I've got one light that keeps trying to twist around and go sideways, uurgh. Anyway I've read a post about someone who made a hack to fix this, I'll be searching the site for that asap. That minor nuisance aside the lights are great and WAY cooler than the 600w HPS I just removed. I'm sure that HPS must have been faulty, the temperatures were unbearable. OK a few pics of the eye candy (still slightly soured unfortunately lol)

I'll also be doing a write up regarding photographing plants under LED's for those that want to see the real colours instead of the mainly red/purple spectrum that the photographs usually come out as. I'm a Photographer so it's straightforward to me but for a lot of people it may not be so easy. I'll add a link once I've done the write up.

 

[Weaselcracker]

I'll also be doing a write up regarding photographing plants under LED's for those that want to see the real colours instead of the mainly red/purple spectrum that the photographs usually come out as. I'm a Photographer so it's straightforward to me but for a lot of people it may not be so easy. I'll add a link once I've done the write up.

Cool. That's something this forum Really needs. Do you know some decent photography options for hps? (I could google it but that's less fun)

 

[Kriaze]

Hey Weaselcracker I'm glad you think so. I've written one up since my last post and it's now in my signature. I hope it helps you! All the best.

 

[Weaselcracker]

I checked it out. I think that pretty well answers my question about photographing under hps - because it's probably the same process. A lot of people use phones. There's probably an app that has the same function.

 

[Kriaze]

Hey Weaselcracker, yes it is pretty much the same idea for HPS. I also found that using a faster shutter speed helped with the line banding that a lot of HPS photographs suffer. There is actually a mobile version of Lightroom too. I was going to mention it on the thread but as I don't use it I don't really have any experience with it so it would have been a little pointless.

Here are the links to the mobile versions:

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC - Android Apps on Google Play - Android

Adobe Lightroom CC for iPad on the App Store - IOS

All the best

 

[Weaselcracker]

Thanks - I went and posted my question again on your Led photo thread too- thinking to keep things neat and tidy in one spot. Lol.... now you're going to have to go answer it again.

 

[Kriaze]

OK just a little update as not much has been happening here. I've had the LED lights in the tent for just over a week now and I've been flushing one of the plants whilst still feeding the other two.
I may have been premature with the flushing though as after getting up close and personal with the plants today I'm seeing a fair sized difference in the amount of frosting between the fed plants and the one I'm giving just water.
Oh well it's my first grow after all, I'll just have to hope for better on my next grow. Here's some updated pics, I'm not sure if anyone can see any difference as to how they were but maybe the close ups will help. All the best and if you have any advice please feel free to share!

The two plants I'm feeding:

The frosting on these two plants:

The plants that's being flushed and it's frost (or lack of):

I'm thinking of giving the two plants that I'm feeding another two weeks of feed then two weeks flushing. Would this be long enough?

 

[PTSD 4 ME]

Looks like you might end up with some killer dope..... I am not sure on the finishing times however I am pretty sure we would need to get a close picture of the trichomes, so we can see the colors more clearly.

 

[Kriaze]

Hey PTSD hope you're well. I really hope I do get some killer dope, I'd kind of resigned myself to the fact that I would end up with next to nothing. Unfortunately the magnifying glass that I have isn't powerful enough to grab pictures of the trichomes but I've ordered one of those USB microscopes in the hope that I'll get a better idea with that. Once it arrives I'll update the pics, it may be awhile though as it's coming from abroad. All the best, Paul.

 

[PTSD 4 ME]

Doing good... Can not complain. Im glad that you salvaged as well as you did. Chalk it up and learn from it. That microscope will do you justice. Unfortunelty its the only way to truly know. I've known people who can tell, but I don't think that eye comes easy. Again, glad you are able to crop. Getting closer.

 

[KingJohnC]

Sorry it has taken so long to reply to your Grow Journal. I believe that the cause of your plants damaged leaves is nutrient burn and heat damage, in the future if you notice yellowing/browning tips of plants leaves this can be a sign of nutrient burn. If in the future you do have nutrient burn or have a rapid decline in the health of your plants I would flush them with at least 2x the volume of pH adjusted water as pot size.

I harvest my cannabis plants by trichome maturity. You need a 30x jewelers loupe to see the trichomes and judge when to harvest. Most people harvest from 5%-30% amber trichomes. Harvest at 5%-15% amber trichomes for a "head high" energetic effect and harvest at 30%-50% amber trichomes for a "body stone" sedative effect strain dependent.

I own a Hydrofarm Active Eye 30X jewelers Loupe, Carson Optical MicroMax LED Microscope 60x-100x and a 25X-200X Magnifier USB Digital Microscope Video Camera that I use to take trichome photographs.

Active Eye Loupe, 30X

Here is a Gro1 1.3MP USB LED Digital Microscope 10x & 300x

Gro1 1.3MP USB LED Digital Microscope 10x & 300x - Perfect Gardens

 

[Kriaze]

Hey PTSD glad to hear that you are well. Yes not long for one of those plants now. They're getting really smelly and sticky so I have hopes that one will be good to go in less than a week. I'm still going to give the other two a couple more weeks though unless my microscope or loupe arrives and the trichomes tell me different

Hey KingJohnC thanks for your input. I definitely won't be making the mistake of feeding 3 lots of PK13/14 in the future. I've got both a microscope and a loupe ordered now, unfortunately they're shipping from China so they may not arrive in time for this lot. I'll be giving two of the plants a couple of weeks flushing starting next week as I want to let them go for a bit longer, they seem to have perked up a touch since swapping out the overheating HPS for LED. I'll be cutting one next week as it's had a week of flushing already. I think it may have been a bit early but I'll know for sure soon enough All the best

 

[KingJohnC]

When I began growing cannabis when the nutrients I began to grow with ran out and was unavailable I was not familiar with many cannabis nutrients and also I made many new grower mistakes with nutrients. If you are able to take some close up trichome photographs I may be able to guide you in what you are seeing to judge when to harvest. I harvest flush my cannabis plants for 4-7 days in hydroponics, 7-10 days soiless (peat moss and coco coir) and 10-14 days in soil.

 

[Kriaze]

Hi KingJohnC. The probable main problem with the nutrients that I'm using is that when I first started I didn't have a clue what nutrients to buy so I opted for Levington Tomorite Tomato feed. I've since bought Cannaboost Accelerator, Canna PK13/14, Canna Rhizotonic and more recently Sensi Cal-Mag Xtra since going under the LED's. I think on my next lot (Plush Berry) I'll buy some nutrients better suited to these plants. The only problem is that here in the UK we don't have much choice and it's all quite expensive considering it's just to smoke personally. But that said I've got the bug and I've been drooling over everyone else's grows to which mine pale in comparison.

I'll try and get some decent photo's but I haven't really got a way of taking any real close up pictures until my goods arrive, these may take up to a month though so for now I'll make do with turning a lens round to achieve a close up macro effect (fingers crossed). If I get some decent pics I'll upload them later, and I'd like to say thanks and your help is really appreciated. All the best

 

[Kriaze]

OK I don't have the right tools for the job but I've had a try at some close ups and there's room to zoom a little too on some of them. I'll post these up here (apologies for the wall of photographs incoming) but I'm not sure if there'll be enough detail (or correct lighting) to be able to make any judgement yet. Roll on to microscope day

Thanks again and all the best

 

[KingJohnC]

Your trichomes in the photographs are mostly cloudy. Photographs 3 and 4 show mostly cloudy with several amber trichomes indicating the plant is ready to be harvested when you prefer.