Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpetual

[Steppenwolf]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

Looking good Ice! Man I love your camera and I love the looks of those dried nugs.

I think you should bring back the V-scrog. That was your signature style, lol.

Your first journal was one of the first journals I ever read when I started researching growing weed (before I even started growing). Pretty crazy.

 

[Icemud]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

Looking good Ice! Man I love your camera and I love the looks of those dried nugs.

I think you should bring back the V-scrog. That was your signature style, lol.

Your first journal was one of the first journals I ever read when I started researching growing weed (before I even started growing). Pretty crazy.

I do really miss the V-Scrog and your right, it was my "signature" type grow... definitely more amazing looking than the current grows and way higher yeilds, I think in the near future I will be going LED and also bringing back the vscrog. I am narrowing down the strains I want to keep running so it should be within the next few grows that the vscrog comes back and LED's much sooner

I'm still trying to get the perfect curing method down, one that keeps bag appeal, smell, flavor but also gives the smoothness of a good cure... getting better each and every run

 

[Icemud]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

Here is just a quick photo update of the girls today... Happy Halloween (an hour ago)!!!

Today would be day 12 of flowering (since the flip) and things are looking amazing in the tent.

The veg tent seems to be doing just fine (except for the 2 OG's which I will be taking more cuts tonight (just to make sure). They haven't seemed to root yet as well as the blue dream. I will be taking cuts of each of these just to make sure I keep the genetics around. I want to use them for future grows as well as possible crosses and self pollinating in the near future. Yesterday I switched out my 400w Ceramic Metal Halide and replaced it with my Ushio Optiblue Conversion bulb 400w. I love the Ceramic Metal Halide for bloom and veg, but my plants were coming out a bit lanky and I believe this is due to the heavy green and red spectrum balance in the ceramic metal halide. The Ushio Optiblue even though not a completely full spectrum (kind of choppy waves) it is much heavier on the blue end so I am going to run it this time and see if I can get tighter node distances. Wow this baby must throw off a lot of UV, just within minutes of working under this light I can feel my skin tingle like when your out under direct sunlight. Definitely not kind to the eyes like the Ceramic Metal Halides.

The flowering tent is also looking really good today. All of the leaves are stretching up towards the light and really starting to show a lot of pistils and buds now. I am glad I did some late supercropping because I was able to control height much better this round, as well as have helped promote more tops in doing so, especially on the GSC, cherry pie and Ogiesel. After the photo's were taken I decided to try out my new pump/pressure sprayer and mixed up 1/2 gallon of r/o water with:

bonide insecticidal soap
bonide spinosad
fulvic acid
Florablend tea
5:1 calmag
2-4-0 fish hydrolyzed
adv nut organic b
adv nutr carboload
hygrozyme.

all of these were added in tiny amounts ranging from 1ml to 5ml at most and bonide products were used at recommended strengths.

I sprayed the girls really good from top to bottom as well as the tops of the soil, stems, and even the pots. Spinosad is supposed to work for up to 3 weeks and kills many pests on contact so I figured why not cover it all Can't you tell I love my new sprayer

Overall I haven't seen any pests lately and no damage what so ever, but I figured to continue the treatments through the next week or 2 to make sure there is none for later flowering. I also added the typical nutrients/amendments that I add to my foliar sprays anyways so i figured it can't hurt in low ppms.

Here are the girls before the spraying...

 

[KingJohnC]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

when i spray for insects or foliar feed i add 3-5 drops per gallon of Ivory Liquid Soap as a surfactant. it helps the mixture stick to the leaves and stems better. your new Metal Halide light bulb appears a lot brighter then your last, how old was your last Metal Halide light bulb?

 

[Icemud]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

when i spray for insects or foliar feed i add 3-5 drops per gallon of Ivory Liquid Soap as a surfactant. it helps the mixture stick to the leaves and stems better.

I forgot to add that in...lol I use either Dr. Bronners Mint organic soap, or organic black soap. Definitely helps the wetness evenly disperse on the leaves Thanks for the suggestion and for stopping by my journal!!

 

[Icemud]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

Hey everyone!!! Exciting NEWS!!!

I have been pondering LED grow lights for over 3 years and waiting slowly for the market to come down in prices, quality to come up, and the right spectrums to start being used. I have been literally back and forth between going with Advanced LED and Top LED as well as a few other sponsors here at 420 Magazine. With my financial situation I decided to go with Top LED because the cost is very reasonable, the many growers here who have tested and used the lights with success, the customer service that I have received from Sara was great and overall the build of the light seems good.

My situation was this...:
To replace my 600w HPS (usually runs at 400w) in my flower tent (2.5'x5'x7') which also runs a 400w Ceramic Metal Halide which I will not be removing because it simply kicks booty in flowering spectrums. I currently am growing 3' to 4' plants but plan on switching back to my v-scrog soon in the near future... ohh wouldn't that be a cool journal, the return of the v-scrog, only LED or mixed spectrum LED and CMH.

I finally made my mind up and placed my order with Top LED...

So I ended up buying
1x 80x5w Mars II to replace my 400w HPS in my flowering tent. (this will run along with a 400w Ceramic Metal Halide)
1x 144x3w reflector series LED. This will go into my veg tent and replace my 400w Ceramic Metal Halide)

With this purchase I am hoping for similar if not better results than using the HID, much lower electric usage/bills, and much cooler operating temperatures in my tents. I have high hopes for these lights due to all of you who have used these lights and posted your results!! Thank you.

The cost I will be saving is approximately this: (I estimate the ballasts to be about 40w extra per light)

Savings
440w(current light)-240w(MarsII 80x5w)= 200w saved
440w(current light)-294w(144x3W reflector)= 146W saved
________________+
346W of saved electric (approx)

346W = .346 KWHr

.346 KW per hour x 12 hours running per day= 4.14 KWHr per day

4.14 KWHr per day x 30 days a month=124.56 KWHr per month

124.56 KWHr per month x approx $.32 per KWHr in my tier of usage =

$39.86 in electricity saved per month!!! Basically the ROI will be over 1x by the end of just 1 year's use. It pays for itself in savings the way I look at it...

Also I can sell my other ballasts and hoods and pretty much make the same amount back for them. I am going to wait until I am convinced by the LED's but with the results everyone here is getting I think I will be satisfied.

I am excited

Now the waiting process...

 

[Icemud]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

Just got confirmation that the order has been received for my new LED lights and I will get the shipping info soon I am excited!!!

 

[Backpackin420]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

Hell yhea man! Sounds fun cant wait to see some pics of the new lights. A few months ago I almost bought two Diamond series XML350's, but backed out because of the price tag.

 

[Icemud]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

Hell yhea man! Sounds fun cant wait to see some pics of the new lights. A few months ago I almost bought two Diamond series XML350's, but backed out because of the price tag.

Honestly if money wasn't an issue, that would have been my choice for sure, I really like how people are starting to use the white chips and add to compliment the full spectrum. Those definitely are some killer panels. I think I will be pretty impressed with the TopLed ones though and can't wait until they arrive.

 

[Icemud]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

Wazzzzzupppp Everyone!!! So today's update.... Day 17 of flowering and the new purchase.

So with my LED's in route and from having read so much about these Kill-a-watt devices I went out and bought one. I have 2 main reasons I purchased it:

1. I want to see how many watts my current ballasts draw, what the led's will draw, and what the reduction will be.


2. To see what general electronics and growing accessories like fans was costing me per month with hopes of reducing usage.

I have to say, The Kill-a-Watt is a handy little device. Its a digital device which plugs into the wall, and you can plug in 1 electrical appliance or growlight ballast or whatever 3 prong you would like. (within 15A rating or less). It has a digital display and a bunch of buttons. Each one shows a different reading and it will show you voltage, amperage, wattage, frequency and other measurements as well as show kwh usage data. I should have been smarter about my purchase and picked one up from the hydro store which ran me about 30$. I looked online afterwords and found it for around 20$ but I guess the brightside is that I have it in hand, instant ROI..lol

So I pull it out of the packaging and plug it into the wall and it immediately shows me the line voltage at that plug. I plug in my box fan, 1 of 2 that I have constantly running 24/7 on low setting to help circulate air and keep my room temps cool. This is the cheap 15$ type box fan that is square, has a plastic knob with 3 speed settings. I couldn't believe this fan set on low was pulling about 55w, I turned it up to high and it was running about 90w!!! I run these 2 fans 24/7 and just alone they are costing me about $26 bucks a month. Since it is not summer anymore, I pulled one fan out and it will remain out until next summer. I just save myself $13 a month already!!!


Then I was curious...what pulls more.. my electronic/digital lumatek 600w ballast (set to 400w) or my magnetic 400w ballast.

So... the lumatek digital (on 400w setting)

The Xtragrow magnetic

I was also curious about my blower fan and what its draw was so I hooked it up. I also wanted to know because I will be removing it once my led lights come. I use 2 blower fans, a 6" 440cfm one on a speed controller, and a plastic can style 4" blower fan (prob about 300cfm)

I found out that the plastic blower can pulls 54watts

I didn't take photos of when I measured the 440cfm fan because I was shooting video, but I am glad I have the speed controller. I usually have the speed of my fan at a low/medium setting and I tested it at this level and it was pulling around 55 watts. I cranked it up to the highest it got and it registered 111watts. Buying a $30 speed controller is definitely a great way to save $$ on your electric.

After testing different things around the house I decided to write an article/thread here on 420 magazine on ways I have found to reduce the cost of growing indoors as well as total electric usage at your residence... you can find it here
Ways to reduce your electrical bill - Grow and live smarter


As far as my LED lights. I received the shipping/tracking number yesterday and eagerly checked it numerous times today but the package has not arrived or been checked in to the facility. I am hoping that they come this week but I am not sure yet until the tracking info is updated. I feel like a kid at Christmas waiting for Santa...lol

Now that I have the Kill-a-watt meter, I can't wait to test the LED's to see what they are pulling wattage wise and compare it to my current power draw.. and see how accurate my prediction earlier was


Now to the grow....

The veg tent is looking good, and most of the transplanted clones are starting to show good healthy growth with the exception of my 2 OG's and blue dream. They seem to be just hanging in there so a few days ago when I defoliated/cleaned up my flowering tent I grabbed a few extra clones of the blue dream SFV OG, and UVH OG just to make sure that I can keep the genetics around for a while

The purple steve x gsc seed that sprouted took a turn for the worse, it just stopped growing and never showed its leaves after popping about 1" out of the root riot plug. I have kept the humidity high and the light on 24/0 and for some reason yesterday it was leaning over and looked as if it was dying?? Never grown from seed before so really not too keen on what to do for success, guess I will have to browse the forum and read up.. oh well, got plenty more seeds of that one. As far as the other seeds, nothing has surfaced yet?? not sure why because I read really good things about seeding in root riot plugs. Guess I will wait..

The flowering tent is looking nice and doing its thing. I see on all the plants a little bit of tip burn as well as the edges of the leaves so I will have to investigate to see if it is a nutrient issue or possibly burns from the foliar pest sprays.

I mixed up a light foliar spray of 1/2 gallon of r/o water with:
20ml of organic b
20 ml of milk
20ml of coca cola
10ml of hygrozyme
20 ml of bonide spinosad
5ml of 2-0-0 cal/mag 3:1

The soil is still decently moist from the last watering and I want to take it light to let the soil dry out slightly between feedings to ensure good root mass growth and health.

Overall the girls look pretty good this time and I am excited to see what the future holds. I just have to figure out why the leaves are a little tip burnt and I think I will be happy with this grow

 

[Icemud]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

Here is a short video I did on ways to save electricity. I was having fun with my new Kill-a-watt meter too. Enjoy!

 

[BudTester420]

Great video Ice, I can tell you were having fun with the meter! I was shocked by how much those inlines take and I've been thinking about getting a speed controller and now I will for sure, that savings of 50 watts/hr adds up fast when the fans on 24/7. Thanks for video.

 

[CA215]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

I have had my speed controller sitting in the closet for 2 grows... not on my inline fan, I feel.. so used
Killer informative video Ice, enjoyed the update, very well put together

 

[Light Addict]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

Really can't wait for your work with LEDs my friend reall exited for ya!

 

[Mars Hydro]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

 

[Icemud]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

WOOOO HOOOOO!!!! I received my LED lights from Top LED Grow today (one of our sponsors!) and I have to say overall the experience was excellent from customer service, to getting answers to questions and I really have to thank Sara for putting up with all my questions, there were a lot of them!!! and also want to thank all the members here at 420 Magazine who helped me with the purchase.


My Goals with LED and my purchase needs:
I have to say, I am picky but also well researched so buying wasn't easy for me. So many vendors to choose from, so much different information from different companies and very high prices from most vendors. In my decision many things were important but cost was very high up on the list. I currently don't have a huge budget for extra purchases so the decision had to 1st and foremost financially make sense. Secondly the spectrum and LED's used was big for me. I am a firm believer in full spectrum lighting and so a requirement for me to buy LED was it had to have both warm white and cool white LED's for full spectrum, plus it had to have IR, red in the 660nm area, red in the 620nm area, blue in the 440nm area and blue in the 470-480 area. Next for me was actual proof that the lights worked, from growers like me so I was in search of a light that had a good reputation and proof online of journals, pics and videos. I needed to see the lights being used, growing well, and feel comfortable that I was investing in a quality product.

I chose to go with Top LED Grow (LG-LED) for my purchase because they met all of my needs/wants above and the price was very reasonable, service was excellent and from what I have gathered from growers here at 420 Magazine, the lights perform well.


My Experience:
I contacted Sara by email originally and she is very quick to respond, even with the difference in timezones. I had a ton of questions and she answered all of them quickly and with good explanations of what I can expect and about the products. After a good week of emails (probably 1-20 total emails of questions and answers, thank you Sara!) I placed my order.

I ordered directly from Sara via Paypal and having never used paypal before, it was a pretty easy process. Sara helped me figure it out and let me know when the payment went through. I requested an invoice from my purchase and she was quick to supply one with all the company details on it, costs and such. Since I ordered late on a Friday evening I didn't think that I would receive my light until about a week later but today I was surprised when the 2 lights showed up with a knock on my door only after 5 days from me ordering! Wow thats Fast!!! The only issue I had was the shipping number I was supplied changed, so I was concerned when I didn't see tracking, but I contacted Sara and she let me know the number changed, and just as I was pretty much reading her reply, Knock knock, 2 boxes at my door!! Definitely not a bad thing since I have worked in shipping and things like this happen and overall still a A+ experience.


The Arrival: (1x 80x5w Mars II LED, 1x 144x3w green reflector LED)

The 2 lights arrived individually packaged, the boxes were pretty firm and taped well. (clear packing tape). I didn't see anything damaging the boxes besides just normal shipping bumps that pretty much any box will experience.

Upon opening the boxes the LED units were tightly packed with a thick 1/2" foam around them and looked like they definitely are wrapped for protection. Inside each box was the mounting hardware which included wire, clips and carabiners. There were also coupons for future purchases, a business card with a thank you and note to customer, and a 5x7" print showing the models of LED's available as well as operating/hanging suggestions and cautions.

The Mars II 80x5w LED
I unboxed the Mars II LED 1st and plugged it into my kill-a-watt meter and turned on the power. Wow this light is bright. I checked my meter and the 80x5w Mars II was running at 1.54A and 175W. The spectrum seems to be exactly as was listed having 2 different reds, 2 different blues, cool white, warm white and IR.

The setup that I will be putting this LED in is a 2.5'x5'x7' hydrohut silver edition and is my flowering tent. Currently I am running 2 HID lights in this tent, 1x 400w Ceramic Metal Halide and 1x 600w Ushio HPS Optired (dimmed to 400w). This light is to replace my 400w HPS light, ballast and reflector, as well as allow me to pull out 1 of 2 of my inline extraction fans. The light seems really built well, very sturdy case and the fans are pretty quiet too.

Hanging this light was easy, it is really light compared to my HPS reflector, probably weighs about 10 lbs. After removing my HPS light I hung the Mars II on the existing YoYo hangers that I had in my tent, using only 2 of the connection points, and used the other 2 in a cross pattern just as a backup safety device.

After hanging the light I wanted to compare it to my 400w Ceramic metal Halide that is hanging next to it and I have to say, for 1/3 of the wattage used, this light is pretty close to a 400w HID. I would say a HID has better light spread/footprint but again, I am using 175w vs 440w on a HID. Very Bright LED light!!! Do not look directly at it or you will see spots for a good 15 minutes afterwards and everything in normal light will look green!!! LOL Trust me I did it!

The tent is noticeably cooler just by replacing the HPS light with the LED and I know my power bill will be much happier as well. (another note is plants use more of LED light than HID light so even though a HID may be brighter, it doesn't mean it is more effective. I am impressed overall but almost wish I would have bumped it up a notch and got the next size or 2 larger of LED for better footprint, but that is the beauty of having a daisy chain feature... More can be added

Overall the Mars II meets and exceeds what I expected. I can't wait to see what my plants think!!!




The 144x3w Reflector (green) LED:

I unboxed the Reflector LED 2nd and also did an unboxing/review video which after editing tonight I will post. Again this light was wrapped in 1/2" thick foam and packaged tightly for shipping. The light was bundled with a 6' power cord, hanging hardware, a thank you business card, 2 coupons for future purchases, and a 5"x7" print of warnings/cautions, hanging suggestions and other useful info.

After unboxing this light I plugged in my Kill-a-watt meter and plugged the light in. This light comes with 2 on/off switches, one for veg and one for flower. I turned on the veg one first and holy crap, this light is very very bright!!! much brighter than the MarsII but also uses more wattage. Here are the readings from the Kill-a-watt meter for the different settings:

Veg (only): 1.62A 183w

Bloom (only, also note fans do not run when only bloom turned on): .87A 96W



Full (both switched on) 2.46A 279W

VEG
https://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/DSC07565.JPG[/img


BLOOM
[img]https://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/DSC07564.JPG

FULL

This light is going in my veg tent (2.5'x5'x7') to replace a 400w Ceramic Metal Halide/ Ushio 400w Conversion Bulb (I recently switched to the ushio).

Hanging this light was very easy, and comes with all the hardware to hang it (minus yoyo's or adjustable hangers) but does come with what is needed for a stationary mount. (wont move vertically) I attached it to my yoyo's that were existing and hung it up within 5 minutes. I re-routed my vent fan and 6" ducting and turned it on.

This light easily can replace a 400w HID light, hands down, no question about it and I would say it may even come close to rivaling a 600w HID. I really like the reflector design and it helps to blend the individual spectrums much better than ones without the reflectors so you get a more even and uniform blend/spread instead of patterns of color all over the plants.

Upon turning this light on in my tent, just the Veg setting alone lit up the tent brighter than my 400w Ushio MH that was in the tent previously.

Then turning on the additional bloom lights, wow, this light is really bright and probably could flower my entire tent.

I almost wish I would have gotten one of these for my bloom tent as well but hey, I can always get another in a few months
The fans are also very quiet on this model and sounds just slightly louder than a computer running.

Overall I am so far very impressed with the lights, the service and everything. Now just to see if my plants love it as well



My total savings of adding 2 LED lights and removing HID's and equipment per month on my electric bill.

Removing from flower tent:
1 600/400w HPS ballast, bulb, reflector (420W running 11 hours a day)
1 6" inline plastic fan (54W, running with my lights)
156.42 KWHr removed from the grow tent per month.


Removing from Veg tent:
1 400w magnetic ballast, ceramic metal halide bulb, reflector. (440w running 13 hours a day, Gas Lamp Routine)
171.6 KWHr removed from the grow tent per month.


Total KWHr removed from the tents per month: 328.02 KWHr


Adding to flower tent:
1x Mars II 80x5w LED grow light (175w running 11 hours a day)
57.75KWHr Added to the grow tent per month


Adding to Veg Tent
1x 144x3w Reflector LED (279w running 13 hours a day, Gas Lamp Routine)
108.81KWHr added to the grow tent per month.


Total KWHr added from the tents per month:
166.56 KWHr Added to my total monthly electric bill for both tents from the conversion.

Savings in electricity KWHr per month from the change to LED(Both tents):
328.02 KWHR removed - 166.56 KWHr added = 161.46 KWHr Saved per month by replacing HID to LED.

Cost per month (approx) saved from the change to LED(both tents):
161.46 KWHr per month x monthly charge per KWHr $0.34 = $54.90 Per month In savings due to me replacing my HID with LED.

That is a ROI of 1.3x within 1 year assuming the results are the same and basing this statement only on electrical usage...

That's a lot of money saved!!!

 

[EyeDooIt]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

I'm subbed! Count me in bro!

 

[Curso]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

YAY!!!! Man your tents look fantastic bro. I'm really impressed with the footprint of that 144x3 that's really nice. I love how you broke down the savings for us, thank you. My plants are loving the LED, yours will too

 

[Icemud]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

YAY!!!! Man your tents look fantastic bro. I'm really impressed with the footprint of that 144x3 that's really nice. I love how you broke down the savings for us, thank you. My plants are loving the LED, yours will too

I'm so excited Curso!!! I really appreciate your suggestion of bumping up to the 144x3w...Man, this light is so bright, I bet it could rival a 600w HID!! It worked perfect for my 2.5'x5'x7' tent!! I can't wait to see how my ladies love the LED!!!

 

[Icemud]

Re: Icemud's Grow 6.0. Cherry Pie - GSC - OGiesel -SFV OG- University Hills OG- Perpe

Hey everyone!!! I finally got the video review, unboxing and setup of my new TOPLEDGROWLIGHTS. I tried to be as detailed as possible to highlight the product and experience unboxing it for the 1st time. I hope you all like!!! It took me forever to render this video because I have a overclocked computer with stock cooling, so it kept shutting off due to too hot of temperatures. After a few bowls and calm patience I held a fan up to my computer for 20minutes while it rendered and it worked!!! LOL innovation!! lol