LED Hempy Bucket Screen Of Green - Tribals First Attempt Using LED

[TribalTrance]

Tent size 1m x .5m x 1.6m H
inline fan carbon filter top of tent pulling out of tent
Bucket Size - 9.3 litre Hempy style
Medium - 25% perlite 25% vermiculite 50% African violet potting soil
Lights - (1) VEG 300w LED dual mode (2) 300w in flower
Nutrients - General Hydroponics
PH : 7
Strain(s) - Skunk/ cheese , Big bud, Skunk Northern lights - unfortunately strains got mixed in shipping
Plants only growing (1) femenized Yield : 100 Ounces.

 

[TribalTrance]

Well time to test out the LED dual lights and first grow journal. The LED lights are rated 300 watt but draw around 180 watt power. They are running on veg mode which has white, blue , and some red for veg and then can switch to flower adding more IR red light. I will be adding another 300 watt when the screen is filling out.

The unknown Short; Indicia/Sativa skunk feminized strain broke the soil last Tuesday evening and now has been 7 days under led lights. Light schedule was 24/0 for 3 days, now 19 / 5 for the next 4 weeks. I don't have any set veg times but will try and do a screen of green then flip to 12 /12. I have had a few mites that I think I inherited from the Jiffy peat pellets but have not done too much damage.

I will not be using any nutes for at least 3 weeks and just rely on the African violet soil mix and tank rain water PH stable at 7. Temps are around 21 - 35c but don't have a temp gauge. Have online filter running on slow fan speed to allow air circulation through the tent with small fan at base of tent. I will take some clones from 2nd week into flowering and place into small cloning tent for next grow. I have to keep my plant numbers down due to MJ laws in my state.

cheers and enjoy

Moderator excuse my noob F*&k-up and move to right category ta...

 

[onlypotent420]

Nice setup I'm running a Cfl grow I think ima try LED setup next gow around though so ill be watching yours

 

[onlypotent420]

P.s. u can get this stuff from Walmart called worry free it's a insecticide u can use all the way up until harvest it's only like 6 bucks

 

[TribalTrance]

Thanks for the tip and will get some worry free. I have a couple of 130 watt dual spec cfls that I was going to add but they now will be used for my cloning tent. I will see how it all pans out as my grow area is quite small and inside a tin shed. But all is going well and she is starting to pick-up some pace in growth in 24 hours. The led lights I have modified with a zalman v2 pc fan speed regulator to increase stealth, as they were way too loud and has not caused any overheating. No great evaporation and very pleased so far with the growth and seems to be keeping good growing temps at base of plant. The LEDs are some nice cheap ass Chinese from fleebay just to test compared to those worth double the price with similar specs. I will look into modifying the LEDs watts if they don't live up to expectation.

 

[TribalTrance]

Checked this morning all nice lush leaves with one half eaten by mites. Found some white oil in the shed and applied to plant and around base. The soil mites came out of the soil when sprayed on top, die motherf$.ckers. I suspect the roots are now starting to get deeper into the bucket as growth is getting faster. LEDs seem to be a fine job atm in veg mode. May need to get some stronger insecticide to make sure they have been killed off early in the grow.

 

[TribalTrance]

I made a error of judgement after bugs attacked my plant and sprayed my plant with white oil at the beginning of lights on. My lower leaves got a bit crispy and a few rust spots. I should have just sprayed the grow medium and waited for lights off before spraying her. Anyway I raised the lights and been misting her with water and she has nice new growth coming through. I have sprayed the shed with insecticide and have no more bug issues. Also when I use soil or peat pellets in future grows, I will make sure it is all sterilized properly. My PH at the bottom of the bucket is around 6.5. She should look better in a few more days.

 

[TribalTrance]

I think my first few postings were completely informal and rude and would like to introduce myself and give some background about myself. My first experience growing was back in 1995 using 1000 watt Metal halide and my parents stairwell that I converted into a grow room. I learnt to grow from buying a photocopy manual from a tobacconist while I was wagging school. I could only access the grow room once a week and used no nutes, ph meters, carbon filters or even reflective Mylar only soil from the ground. The whole set-up cost me $50.00 dollars from a pawn store for the 1000 watt metal halide. The seed I used was from skunk bag seed and successfully grew one plant.

The next grow was in 1999 while I was share housing and grew a nice skunk plant from the same bag seed in my wardrobe, again with only a 1000 watt metal halide. That time I painted the wardrobe white and had a fan and used only perlite and some basic nutes. Still no carbon filters ph meters and once again pulled off a successful grow in which my house mate enjoyed for free without having a clue of the grow.

Now 2013 a lot older and influenced by internet and reading 420fied's stellar grow journals really put the fire in the belly I decided to try and grow some weed. So since October I have been busy rewiring the shed, gathering cheap Chinese crap from fleabay and spent close to $500.00 and this time having to use hot tin shed infested with bugs while trying to keep it all from the wife.


So please feel free to chime in and give advice on my grow as I am know real expert and open to all suggestions.

cheers
Tribal

 

[Mono]

Really interested in LED grows mate. Good job so far. i believe I read in one of your posts you have suspected mites?

 

[TribalTrance]

Thanks Mono for the interest. i have had gnats and mites most likely form the lawn mower in the shed. I will be spraying the shed at least once a week. The mites were from the peat pellets. This is a experimental grow and my reason for using Led is due to the heat of my grow room being in a tin shed. The downside so far has been dry warm temps and not enough humidity. I remember growing in the wardrobe and had warping issues due to humidity caused by lights evaporating the water from the grow container and needing to water twice a day. I have been filling the black waste container with water to try create more moisture on hot days. I may need to get a humidifier which is another $60.00 bucks but hopefully can get by without one.

 

[Mono]

Have you looked into neem oil for the mites? With mites it's generally easier to just get used to controlling them rather than trying to eradicate them completely.

Gnats, can be controlled with sand over your pots, letting the medium dry out, or putting up enough sticky traps to catch all the adults. Or a really lethal dose of co2.

For humidity a large surface area of water will evaporate into the air faster than a smaller area. You could also try misting your grow area two or three times a day to bump up humidity. Or, put up a clothes line and dry clothes in there

What is your humidity levels?

 

[TribalTrance]

A bit a of a grow update after nearly killing my plant. The first thing was to raise the led higher in the tent. I took out the peat pellet out of the bucket and noticed that the roots were struggling to come through the material around the pellet. So I removed that and went with plan B and repot into perlite in my clone hempy 2 litres. I was going to this originally but I thought go straight to bucket, how wrong was I. For now on I will always use 2 litres hempys for seedlings with peat pellets.

I then removed the first original lower leaves that were burnt from the white oil and light. I left the other burnt leaves and will be removed once I have the newer nodes coming through. As you can see the first fan leaves are out and now getting back on track. I mixed a little GH nutes at a very minuscule rate to help develop the root system as they were stunted by my pest mishap and lights being too close. Now the new growth rate is starting to pick up and have now decided to plant my other seed as a back-up in case I get a male or hermies.


Also Since raising the lights and re-positioning my fan over a window in the tent, I now seem to have better temp controls and better humidity. I'm thinking of repotting back in buckets of perlite and using the 2 plants as mothers, and start cloning them into 2 litres instead of doing a screen in a bucket of soil mix. Sog may work better using led rather than screen in my small grow space.. I think I was lucky to have not killed her off and so far this has been one learning curve.

My PH is still 7 is that ok while it is recovering?

cheers

 

[TribalTrance]

Time for a update week 3. The short indica at week 3 is now bushing out and should see more rapid growth and might fim or lst when at 3rd internode. I like the way it is really stocky compared to the seedling 2 due to different genetics. Plant 2 is one week old and is at same height as my 3 week old plant. The inter-node spacing is quite compact and appears to be no stretching or lighting deficiency .I started feeding after transplant and have been feeding every 4th day with one flushing in between. She has no issues at the moment and will be transplanted back into bucket around week 5 and start feeding more regularly.

The other seedling is happy, green and growing quite fast. This may be a lot bigger and a faster growing plant. Hopefully will flower together in a screen and is vegging nicely under the Leds. Temps are sitting around 26C or 78F during the day and at night arount 20c or 68F. Ph drops to 6 over a couple of days of nutes and lifts back to 7 after flushing. Plants seem to be happy.

 

[TribalTrance]

Update : Decided to give the short indica it's proper first full strength of general hydroponics for mild veg. I think that it is eager to explode and just needs some proper fuel. Also lowered the lights down slightly and see how they handle it. Ph around 6.5

 

[TribalTrance]

Update week 4: Growth has come on since feeding has started with mild GH mild veg strength nutes on both plants. My temps during the day and at night are now dropping a little lower then what I would like, so I introduced a 130 watt dual spec cfl for heat. Hopefully will also give the plant a little boost if missing certain light spectrums. Also I have been finding with lower temps the I'm not getting enough evaporation to my liking and the older water sitting too long causing slower growth and another reason for introducing the big ass cfl. The plants are really green & healthy and to stimulate growth on my little indica I trimmed the pre- shoot leaves and got a nice little growth spurt on the main stem. I'm going to veg quite a bit longer, as I want to start getting some clones from this little plant but she needs to grow a little taller in order for decent size clones. Plant B week 2 is growing nicely and taking the nutes quite well. PH is sitting around 6.2.

 

[TribalTrance]

Update less then 24 hours: Since I put that monster 130 watt dual spec in the mix my plants are growing by the minute. I now have found the missing link to my grow. The uv light specrum is that powerful that I can only spend a few minutes looking at my plants. My eyes are f*cked and ears ring for a good few afterwards. Those poor plants sensors must be going mental and now working overtime. I now feel I'm getting somewhere with this grow, reminds me back growing with 1000 watt hps. I now have good temps and will now have to water a lot more to keep up with the growth. Looking forward to the next update end of the week.

[i

 

[TribalTrance]

Have been thinking about the possibilities and appliactions of having the ability to slow down or speed up the plants metabolic photosynthesis rate by just switching on or off of the cfl. Would it allow me to control the rate and density of bud development. I know that it would be handy to take clones from older plants and suspend the growth rate until needed. Could also be handy for controlling stretching in sativa dominant strains in small grow room.

 

[TribalTrance]

Update defoliation training: Due to deformed leaves on the short indica I decided to defoliate and try training to encourage healthier folage. Plant B is growing well without any issues. Now bloody cold nights with lights out is my next problem/challenge and some purple is just starting to develop on stem. This has only just starting to happen with a couple of cold nights we have had. So I'm going to move my light schedule forward to have lights on throughout the night. As you can see with the photos before and after defoliation.

 

[KingJohnC]

subscribed

 

[TribalTrance]

Update: I changed the timer to turn off at 10:00 and back on at 15:00 keeping the 19/5 schedule. They will just get extra light for one day which they will not mind instead of being cold. I also upped the Nitrogen by adding a little more GRO to my nutes which may be another reason for slower growth and some stems just starting to show a little red, purple. I may start heading towards more aggressive Veg nute ratio, I just don't want to over do it and wipe out my plants.