Light airy buds using LED's

[Desertrat60]

Hey folks ,,, it's been awhile . I'm getting ready to flip my girls . The last grow I did was mediocre (at best) , light airy popcorn buds and no taste . My LED's are 450x2 in a 4w x 8l x 6h room . I kept the LED's I'm only growing two as four was way too crowded , and 2 was all I could get to "take" . They are pretty . The room is lined with a foil faced / backed house wrap and on the top and end wall with mylar over the insulated "wrap" . I keep the room warm with an oil filled heater (stable heat once you get it set ) at about 88-93* (varies with humidity) which is controlled by a room humidifier which is now between 40-65 % . Should I lower the temp./humidity for budding ?
Can you get nice tight buds with LED's or Should I be using MH/HPS ? I have had a rough time even getting the beans to sprout . Out of 8-10 I have only gotten two to start and take off . These are hybrid seeds and dang expensive ! I'm on a fixed income and I just can't afford this dookie !!

 

[Troy01]

My first grow was under 2x 600 W LED's with a Grow / Bloom switches. I was growing in a much smaller tent 3 x 3 but harvested just over 7 ounces from 2 plants. Most of the buds were very tight and of a nice size. I would suspect that 2 450's in that large of a room would not be sufficient. If you have one light over each plant I would think you will do fine. Someone suggested I put my lights hanging at a 45 degree angle to get better light down into the plant and it worked well.

Personal opinion but I think you heat is a little too high. I like to keep my girls in the 82-89 F range. Your humidity seems ok to me. During sleep time I let the plants drop in the range of 68-75.

 

[HigherTheHigh]

I agree with troy, if you want nice tight buds stay in an optimum temperature and dont have your lights to high or they wont penetrate your canopy that well.

My understanding with LED is quality bud, now if you want quality bud and quantity then go for hps everytime, iall i ever grow with and i always get fantastic yields.

 

[Kip22]

What is the actual wattage draw on the LED's? A lot of "450 equivalent" LED grow lights are usually under 200 watts actual draw. Depending on where u look I think the general consensus is around 50 watts per square foot for max harvest (LED or HPS). A lot of people including myself have done very well in the 35-50 real LED watts per sq ft. Assuming your 450 LEDs are really around 200 u'd have 400 watts so I wouldn't do more than about 10 sq ft.

That being said I think your best bet if you don't want to keep shelling out for beans would be to split your space into a veg/flower area and start doing clones. u already have two lights so it shouldn't cost much at all. If possible go buy a florescent grow fixture sized for the veg area and keep the two LED lights for the flower. Also you'd be constantly growing the same strain and I think over time you'll figure out what they want and improve harvests.

 

[Dwight Monk]

Probably not enough light for space you are trying to grow in. How close were you lights the last part of Flower? Kind of varies from light to light so don't move in large amounts until you find where they happy at, I'm about 20" away in Veg and 12" or so last half of Flower cycle. Around page 11 of my "Anti Journal Journal" link you can see my shed I'm in once I got walls and insulation put up to see some of my results. I have 2 "600w" (number on label not what it draws) El Cheapo LED and they only cover a 2'x3' area (2'x2' well covered) per light, so I"m only using 3'x4' of that space for growing as circuit out there won't handle more lights along with the heater I need if I'm going to grow all year. So many variables from genetics variances to nutrients used etc...but I'm guess it may not be enough lighting for space you trying to grow in and possibly not close enough in Flower is majority of your problem. Also from what I have read around the Net (including here) is that plain old Flat White Paint works as good or better than foil or even the mylar, as foil can get "hot spots" from not consistent reflection across surface, that and Paint not as much of a PITA to try and "hang"

Hope that helps and/or even makes sense as just got up and haven't had enough Coffee yet to insure I'm making much sense something I have noticed when I read things I wrote and even I go "where the heck was he going with that, oh wait it was me"

 

[flashmp3]

Hey folks ,,, it's been awhile . I'm getting ready to flip my girls . The last grow I did was mediocre (at best) , light airy popcorn buds and no taste . My LED's are 450x2 in a 4w x 8l x 6h room . I kept the LED's I'm only growing two as four was way too crowded , and 2 was all I could get to "take" . They are pretty . The room is lined with a foil faced / backed house wrap and on the top and end wall with mylar over the insulated "wrap" . I keep the room warm with an oil filled heater (stable heat once you get it set ) at about 88-93* (varies with humidity) which is controlled by a room humidifier which is now between 40-65 % . Should I lower the temp./humidity for budding ?
Can you get nice tight buds with LED's or Should I be using MH/HPS ? I have had a rough time even getting the beans to sprout . Out of 8-10 I have only gotten two to start and take off . These are hybrid seeds and dang expensive ! I'm on a fixed income and I just can't afford this dookie !!

What I could learn about lights is that it s a lot about how far from the plants it is placed. Invest in a lux meter you ll solve your troubles and improve your yields.

Take a look here : How to Use a Cheap Lux Meter to Increase Yields | Grow Weed Easy

 

[Dwight Monk]

Also read up on Cloning, as that is the way to go to save on buying so many seeds, and as phenotypes can vary from seeds of same "strain" you can keep a plant going that you really liked (or that grew well as strains will vary on ease of growing (level of growing skills) along with nutrient tolerance/bug tolerance/mold tolerance/etc...). Our Blue Widow is on like the 6th generation from Cloning currently (I say "our" as seed is from one of my Son's friends, but my kid doesn't help or even seem to have interest in learning from me (or as of yet anyway) which kinda surprises me ) as we really like the smoke off of that one and it isn't really as picky on Nutrients like some of the others I have grown so far (some of them the fine line between not enough and too much has been very very narrow, whereas she has been more "forgiving" to my learning curve).

 

[Bonsaiweed]

What I could learn about lights is that it s a lot about how far from the plants it is placed. Invest in a lux meter you ll solve your troubles and improve your yields.

Take a look here : How to Use a Cheap Lux Meter to Increase Yields | Grow Weed Easy

I know you mean well, but would you re-read the top notation of the link you posted.

Although it may work for you, it isn't a reliable method for LED grow lights. At least as I read it. I've also read this in other places.

Just trying to be helpful

 

[flashmp3]

I know you mean well, but would you re-read the top notation of the link you posted.

Although it may work for you, it isn't a reliable method for LED grow lights. At least as I read it. I've also read this in other places.

Just trying to be helpful

I know exactly what you mean and I read it also. So I try to look further.

If you want another point have view take a look at these going from the top to bottom :

The Key to Maximum Yield

How to Use a Cheap Lux Meter to Increase Yields | Grow Weed Easy

converting lux to par - Reef Central Online Community

Best Par Meter For LED lights

 

[Bonsaiweed]

I know exactly what you mean and I read it also. So I try to look further.

If you want another point have view take a look at these going from the top to bottom :

The Key to Maximum Yield

How to Use a Cheap Lux Meter to Increase Yields | Grow Weed Easy

converting lux to par - Reef Central Online Community

Best Par Meter For LED lights

Your second quote explains why it won't work. The third message in that thread gave constants that would be different for every LED manufacturer because of the spectrum changes of their design.

I'm just basing my statements on the difference of the meters as I understand it. A lux meter could be maxed out by a light which puts out a lot of power in the 550 nm spectrum, and a par meter would read extremely low. Because photosynthesis doesn't use much of the 550 nm spectrum.

This is my understanding only.....I can be wrong.

 

[flashmp3]

Your second quote explains why it won't work. The third message in that thread gave constants that would be different for every LED manufacturer because of the spectrum changes of their design.

I'm just basing my statements on the difference of the meters as I understand it. A lux meter could be maxed out by a light which puts out a lot of power in the 550 nm spectrum, and a par meter would read extremely low. Because photosynthesis doesn't use much of the 550 nm spectrum.

This is my understanding only.....I can be wrong.

I don't know who is right or not but the more important is to get what works for ourselves the best. I wish I had not sprayed my plants with terpinator. They were on a huge buds track. I knew if I had be harvest people would straight pay more attention to all the links I put in my grow journal. Anyway I can't control everything and I made mistakes. Next grow will better!

To conclude I ll just say that every grow I saw where the leds were placed at good distance went well when the other conditions were good. And this whatever branded led I could see. I know they say lux meter isnt good for leds but I also know maybe it was a statement that was ok in year 2005 but maybe not today.... Things keep evolving. I trust random Ryan from YouTube and all the other articles. In my first grow I had 350w CFL. Lux were showing around 60000 lux very close to the plant. When I god the leds I could see everything growing better and could also experiment different height. And I assure you the luxmeter doesn't show crazy or weird values.... It allows more realistic values for distance compared to what the manufacturers advertise (often too optimistic)

 

[Bonsaiweed]

It's ok....we can just have our own opinion.

I think LEDs are great, I just won't use a lux meter to measure their output.

 

[Desertrat60]

Man you folks are fantastic ! My room is app. 32' sq. I was looking at some 1200/1500 w. on Amazon for 150-160 . Pretty good reviews . I dunno if I should post a link here or not ? I thought the same thing about the 450's in that they're lacking Intensity . I think they'd be great for "fill" lighting . These plants are doing fantastic ! I'm a bit worried they will again be sub-par on quality and firmness . I turned down the heat and the humdifier in there tonight by just a bit (it was 91*) and 55% Humility . I'll check it out before I close shop . But really ,,, that oil filled radiator is not changing our bill all that much and they are fairly easy to get set . I have tried small ceramic heaters etc. and they are a royal PITA , up , down , up , down ....We're moving soon so I'll do best with what I have until I build another room and upgrade the lights . My buddy is getting me some "clonex" we spoke about that a few hours ago . There are some great candidates in the room .

 

[MrFortwenty]

Those are no where near the stated wattage, fyi. Let's say you wanted 50w/ SQ foot. That would be 1600w, you'd need 6 or 7 of those"1200" watters

 

[flashmp3]

It's ok....we can just have our own opinion.

I think LEDs are great, I just won't use a lux meter to measure their output.

My video was removed I received a message saying it had been considered as spam. So if you want to have a look later just look for "random Ryan lights" on YouTube. He shows measurements with par meter. I ve always read lux meter is not efficient with led. What about PAR? Anyway is using a par meter and his values are coherent with what the lux meter gives as well. I mean for example the distance you get 1500 par (which seems to be the sweet spot from some researches (link in my grow journal) is the same distance that gives around 70000 lux which is also a great value for weed.

I don't know the exact science behind all of it but it seems to work well.

Sorry to add this answer it s just cause I wanted to share this as it helped me in the past so maybe could help other members.

Have a nice day and keep it green guys

 

[farside05]

As a rule of thumb, you can half the stated wattage to arrive at the actual draw wattage. So your 2 450's are drawing 450 actual combined. You should have more than enough light for two plants, just hang one light directly over each. I use cheap 300 watters (140 actual draw) and run one over each plant. It's probably more of a heigth from the top of the plant issue. I use 18 inches for veg and 12 inches from the top for bloom. I prefer the lights on temps between 76-82 degrees Fahrenheit.

As far as germinating seeds goes, I've played around with several methods ie. soaking seeds in a shot glass and using the paper towel method, etc but I've found simple Jiffy pellets to work 100% of the time for me.

 

[Desertrat60]

Well it's nearly 3 am . By 3pm. today I'll have effectively reduced the size of my grow area by 2/3 . I think that will help some with the lighting situation . Next week I'm going to switch them to flower after I refresh myself here on 420 . Thank you all !

 

[farside05]

I edited my post after your reply, in reference to germination issues. My step by step grow in my signature link shows the process I use for using jiffy plugs.

 

[Troy01]

My video was removed I received a message saying it had been considered as spam. So if you want to have a look later just look for "random Ryan lights" on YouTube. He shows measurements with par meter. I ve always read lux meter is not efficient with led. What about PAR? Anyway is using a par meter and his values are coherent with what the lux meter gives as well. I mean for example the distance you get 1500 par (which seems to be the sweet spot from some researches (link in my grow journal) is the same distance that gives around 70000 lux which is also a great value for weed.

I don't know the exact science behind all of it but it seems to work well.

Sorry to add this answer it s just cause I wanted to share this as it helped me in the past so maybe could help other members.

Have a nice day and keep it green guys

I had the same thing happen to me when I posted a tutorial on building a COB. I guess they didn't like that I mentioned the supplier who is not a sponsor. They deleted the complete thread.

 

[Bonsaiweed]

I had the same thing happen to me when I posted a tutorial on building a COB. I guess they didn't like that I mentioned the supplier who is not a sponsor. They deleted the complete thread.

Dang rebels......can't take you guys anywhere.....