A Challenging Grow - Newbie Growing With LEDs

Looks awesome man and great harvest you got there. Yes this summer was extremely hot surprising enough my autos grew best in the spring time on my terrace. I started a few of mine in December/ early January and they finished up in march had much nicer yields then the ones i did this summer i think it was because the roots get just to hot in the pots regardless of color (mines are white).
 
Ok I am uploading a bunch of pictures just for your enjoyment.
I realize we're really very fortunate to have this sunroof which enables us to flower now EVEN IN NOVEMBER.
Once we start using the large pots for the next batch I guess we'll grow TREES :)

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The one with the purple buds is "Fruit Spirit", one of them we harvested already.
Then we have "Royal Caramel" (which is shortly before harvest) and "Dance World" and "Somango" which is now in the second flowering week.

Also, two days ago it was very windy and rainy and all the pots tipped over...BUMMER...thankfully no damage. I don't understand it since there is a wall around the roof PLUS I fixed all pots, but the wind was still crazy. So the last days I was "working" to further improve this area and to make sure the pots cannot tip over that easily.
 
That's just some updates. I don't feel like starting a new journal every time I put a seed somewhere, that's silly :)

So we growing some Autos (Critical, AK47, Bullet etc.) in the greenhouse along with a couple of normal ones Fruit Spirit/Somango.
Right now is a rather bad time for growing, you might remember that the greenhouse is actually outside on the balcony.

At night and early in the morning it can get as low as 7C which I am sure is not helping the plants.

So ordered a heating mat which will fit nicely into the growing area of my greenhouse
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It even comes with a thermostat where you stick a sensor in the soil.

My goal, once the heating mat arrives will be to keep the soil 20C-22C so that the mat comes on at night and then shuts off over the day. (It's still getting up to 20C warm in the daytime). So this should be ideal!

In case you want to know, the heating mat is a "Vitavia Sahara" heat mat and cost €99,99 + s/h, it's 120 cm x 60cm. So it will just fit my growing area which is about this same size when I put the pots together a little. (Otherwise it's 120cm x 70cm).

Once I have the heating mat and then with the LEDs I should really be able to grow whatever I want without slowed or halted grow!

Now, what I need is a styrofoam/insulation or packing foam section the same size which I can put under the mat for insulation. (I don't want to waste energy heating the stone floor). And this is MUCH harder to get or ridiculously overprized, seriously unbelievable. Most stores only sell large quantities, I just need a small piece and now I am looking where to get this. Or maybe a piece of carpet or something.

*

As for the MarsHydro LED lights...I now noticed two LEDs burnt out,a white one and a blue one. I already contacted MarsHydro and they're sending me replacement LEDs no questions asked which I can solder on myself.
 
Here just an update on my growing area:

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The heating mat works really well.

So what I did, I got me this tray which is lined with mylar and put the mat in it and built a "sand box".
The sand serves as a heat storage so I can use the heating mat more efficiently.

So instead of having the pots right on the mat they're now sitting on a bed of about 1.5'/5cm warm sand.
The sand also has the advantage that it can suck up overflowing water from watering.

I am really proud how this turned out :)

The hardest part was to find where to get fricking SAND without insane shipping costs...
Thanks to a small construction company here I could scrape up some sand for free tho.

Now, even if it should get colder at night (which rarely happens, but can happen), the thermostat turns on the mat and heats the soil to about 21C. There is a temp sensor in one of my pots.
The coldest it ever got outside was 7C early in the morning. I just don't want to get it cold so it stunts growth, that's why I got the heating mat to cover those times in winter at night.

As for the plants, the four bigger pots (right) have some Autos in them, AK47, White Widow, Bullet, whatever....and the four smaller, feminized I topped last week. Still have yellow bottom leaves but otherwise seem to grow well. (Fruit Spirit, Somango)

Upstairs, on the roof is another Fruit Spirit and Somango, about 7 weeks and 5 weeks into flowering.
 
Just want to let anyone know that I am planning to get a new "kickass growlight" soon.

The new light will be 4x CREE CXB3590 COBs (from what I researched the best of the best currently), plus I am for the longest interested in COB lights anyway. To get an idea of the power of those COB leds, one single COB will have about 9900lm at about 60W. All the DIYers and pros currently are using those type of lights. Nothing against MarsHydro, the two 300W did serve me well but I think it's time to try something new.

I am currently in talks with some guys here in Spain who do custom builds of LEDs since I don't have the required tools like a metal drill, otherwise I could do it myself.

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The lights look extremely un-spectacular, it's basically a bigass heatsink, some fans, LED driver and then the four COBs mounted on it. I am still debating whether I want lenses, most don't because they take about 10% of the light. So it looks literally very "bare bones", but it's just the best light for the money. Estimated cost about €380 which IMHO is VERY reasonable. Those guys build them barely for the cost of materials plus €50, so this is very cheap. A commercial light of that quality, power would likely cost a fortune

I am very excited how those lights will do and will, once I have them, start a new journal also.
I am also a little 'scared' because I will put approx. 40,000lm in the green house, so I might have to cover the sides now. People will otherwise think aliens have landed or something :)

I am also excited to see whether more light solves some of my problems, I see plants just not growing as fast as I like and the occasional problem with yellow leaves etc.

The spectrum of the CREE COB lights is VERY much identical to the "ideal" spectrum of what plants need. Those are warm white lights, but they contain the right amount of reds and blues, very much like sunlight, like so:

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Ok sorry getting carried away here, but yes I am so excited :)
 
Hope all is well in your world.

Thanks for sharing this grow with us.

Please head over to the 420 Strain Reviews forum and post your smoke report there too.

I’m moving this to Completed Journals now.

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Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

:Namaste:
 
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