Stevehman's 780W LED - DIY 4 in PVC Recirc - Caramlicious Grow

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

And here are a few bonus pictures, kind of the director's cut on a dvd:

The last one will be one of my Nug of the Month pics.

If you can find a lighted magnifying glass, they make trimming easier, plus you can see all of the frosty-goodness that much better.

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

fricken impressive steve, cant wait 2 see ur prediction on the dry stuff

Blazing,
Thanks! I am going to be well over my goal of a pound from this grow. and I should get close to a gram-a-watt from this depending on the amount I lose to drying. I lost 75% from the last grow, but these buds are so much denser and heavier its almost not even a fair comparison.

I'll be posting dry weight on Monday. I'll take a pic of my drying rack and post that later today.

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

OK, I have the final dried weight of the chop. Drum roll please

The total dry weight is .....635 grams. 50 grams are stems so the total bud weight is 585 grams, that is just over 1-1/4 pounds. From a 2x6x4 area!

Almost an 80% water loss, they're pretty crispy too.

My NOTM picture that I will post to update the competition:

And the nugs in curing jars. It took 6 1/2 gallon and 2 quart jars to store them.

I'll be starting the renovation of the box and the Grow 4.0 journal next week, I need a few day to decompress and reorganize.

 

[cryodude]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

Grats Steve, came out awesome and they look outrageous. That should keep you in smoke for a few weeks!! Can't wait to see what tweaks you do for the next grow. My indoor got shot down by the wife, i can't be gone as much as i would need to be for the first couple of rounds, so its gonna be outside in a protected, ,partial light area. better than nothing till we can get her moved too.

 

[George Parker]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow



Way to go man! That's awesome!

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

Cryo and Dime,
Thanks for the compliments! I am looking forward to getting the next grow under way, I should be cutting clones this week and renovating the box next week with a goal of going live the week of the 23rd with 20 clones straight into 12/12 (at least that's the plan).

Dime,
Your water cure is looking pretty good. I'm keeping an eye on that, looks very interesting and I think I'll give it a shot on one of my future grows.

Cryo,
Be patient, you'll get your indoor grow set up when the timing's right. In the mean-time I am sure your outdoor grow will get your feet wet and give you some meds. It can be tough when your wife has veto authority (mine does too).

 

[cryodude]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

Heh, boy is that the truth. Yeah, i have some clones going over the hill and several seedlings sprouted, hope to stick em all in before end of the month. We'll see!!

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

All i have to say is wow!!!!!! I hope my girls turn out as nice as yours did. i was thinking about going with an led set up, this might have convinced me!

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

All i have to say is wow!!!!!! I hope my girls turn out as nice as yours did. i was thinking about going with an led set up, this might have convinced me!

Surfin,
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the compliments. If anyone has/had doubts whether you could do a start-to-finish grow with LEDs then this should answer the questions.

The big question now is which lights to go with in the future. Both GLH and Advanced put out great products, I am leaning towards the Advanced though.

Good luck on your grow, I'm sub'd to your journal. I should be starting my new journal next week. I just cut clones today and will post pics of the progress to date early next week.

 

[Mr. Krip]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

Great harvest, Steve!

That's a lot of buds in a small area! Very nice!

Did you notice much difference in heat from the 300's vs. the 180?

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

Great harvest, Steve!

That's a lot of buds in a small area! Very nice!

Did you notice much difference in heat from the 300's vs. the 180?

That is the one measurement I didn't take. I have a laser thermometer and will take readings when I start the new grow in about 10 days. I don't think there was much of a difference though and depending on your space I wouldn't think it would be much of a factor.

I still have to get the box renovated and the clones need to be well rooted before I start. I will be starting up the new journal soon!

 

[Hydrologist]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

Hey whats up stevehman! Sorry i've been away for so long, just got distracted with bs in life you know how it goes. But I plan to be back in, I've even created a new journal. That last one was dead before it started, just like those sad plants I had to kill. But this is all new! nd dope!!! Also wanted to pre congradulate you on your harvest, havn't had a chance to peep it but will the second after I post this. heres the thread to my grow:
Hydrologist's Pertetual RDWC Grow - Bubba Chunk - C99 - Pineapple - Tarzan Strains

Glad to be back in action.

Hydrologist

 

[Hydrologist]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

DuDe That Harvest is freakin KILLLLER!!!!!! I love the pic of the colla in the bottle that was rad and really good idea putting the nug under magnifyer before taking the picture. Don't you love how they look right after you cut them all beutiful and florescent almost...

Then they dry.

lol they're still cool don't get me wrong but man...they just look FAT and COLORFUl when they're full of water.
But you ca't smoke it so fuck that.

Lol good job dude, tomorrow or the next tiem I have a change im going to spend some time going over your writings on how you found which light was better. I cought the tail end of that skim reading and im excited to get into it later.

Take it easy

Hydrologist

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

Well done Stevehman on everything, I love your idea on creating a grow room where you only spend a little amount of time while they are growing. I'm shooting for a pound after everything is done just as you were trying for and accomplished. In your opinion do you think I can get that with 12 plants? I was looking at some online stores that sell LED lights and I have noticed that they have LED's just for veg and flower I was under the impression that you just used the same LED for the whole process, is that incorrect? If you were limited by space, and heat would you still go with LED or HID's? Watching this grow and others like it I'm kind of kicking myself in the ass for not just going with LED to start with. I use a 400mh for veg and then a 600hps for bloom, what LED's would I need to replace those lights? Where would be the best place to purchase the advanced 180 that you used? Sorry about all the questions but this was an amazing grow that put all kinds of new ideas in my head.

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

Well done Stevehman on everything, I love your idea on creating a grow room where you only spend a little amount of time while they are growing. I'm shooting for a pound after everything is done just as you were trying for and accomplished. In your opinion do you think I can get that with 12 plants? I was looking at some online stores that sell LED lights and I have noticed that they have LED's just for veg and flower I was under the impression that you just used the same LED for the whole process, is that incorrect? If you were limited by space, and heat would you still go with LED or HID's? Watching this grow and others like it I'm kind of kicking myself in the ass for not just going with LED to start with. I use a 400mh for veg and then a 600hps for bloom, what LED's would I need to replace those lights? Where would be the best place to purchase the advanced 180 that you used? Sorry about all the questions but this was an amazing grow that put all kinds of new ideas in my head.

You can absolutely get a pound out of 12 plants, that's only 1-1/2 oz per plant. With your setup you should be getting twice that. If I had the space to spread them out I would have had a bigger yield. And, if you look at the map of where the plants were and what they yielded you can see that the majority of the weight came from half of the plants.

If I didn't have restriction on size (height etc...) I would still use the LEDs. I don't do a standard veg though. I keep my moms under a T5-HO and use another T5-HO for cloning. I keep the clones in the cloner for about 3 weeks total. Once they have a strong root system and have shown new growth, I top/fim them and then straight into 12/12 for bloom.

The T5-HO does a great job on the moms and clones and is low heat and low cost. The LEDs can be used for full cycle growth, but I only bloom with them. They aren't special flowering lights but do a great job.

For your setup I would go with 3 of the 300 watt units, you could even put them on a mover to get a better coverage. I have a mover, but not the space. Once I have more room I will put the mover back into action but only with a short travel of about 8-12 inches, just to spread out the spectrum better.

LEDs are quite a bit more expensive than HID, but should last a long time. The two types I am using are both from sponsors on the site. Advanced LEDs and GLH Leds. You can find the links on the site (which will help out 420 with click-throughs). After your first grow you should be able to afford a few of the LEDs.

And now a shameless plug for the contest this month, Member, Plant and Nug of the Month are all in the voting stage. They can be found in the Lounge section of the forums. Lots of great entries this month and a good group to be in competition with.

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

Thank you for the quick reply! That's a lot of good info I will have to consider. So on Advanced led's website for the (3 watt per led) they have a 120w/180w/360w/740w. It states that the 180w has a core coverage of 3ft by 3ft and overall 4.5feet by 4.5 feet. In your opinion do you think 2 of the 180w would be good for what I have and do you think it would be as strong as the 600 hps?

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

Thank you for the quick reply! That's a lot of good info I will have to consider. So on Advanced led's website for the (3 watt per led) they have a 120w/180w/360w/740w. It states that the 180w has a core coverage of 3ft by 3ft and overall 4.5feet by 4.5 feet. In your opinion do you think 2 of the 180w would be good for what I have and do you think it would be as strong as the 600 hps?

I have one of the 180s and it does a great job, although I would put it's core coverage closer to 2.5x2.5 at 12 inches above the canopy. If you keep the plants as close together as they are now you could get by with 2 of them. The case of the 360 is larger and will give a bigger footprint, I have 2 of the GLH 300s and prefer that size case. I haven't priced the new models for Advanced and GLH but if they are in the same ballpark, I would probably order the Advanced.

I will be putting up a 4x8x7 tent soon and will put my 3 lights in there and figure that should be enough for that space (with a 3x7 grow footprint).

I'd like to get one each of their new lights to do a side-by-side comparison grow with the same clones and setup. I'm real curious which one would come out on top. As far as I am concerned though, these are the only two companies that I would buy from at this point, unless someone else comes along with a great light that has a few proven grows on here.

 

[ninjagaiden]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

great journal! But man, i am still trying to wrap my head around how well the 180 did vs the 300's. really wierd

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

great journal! But man, i am still trying to wrap my head around how well the 180 did vs the 300's. really wierd

I was really impressed as well. Although it wasn't quite a fully scientific experiment since all of the lights were in the same space without a barrier. BUT they were all cloned from the same mom, fed the exact same nutrients (recirc NFT) and shared the same CO2 etc... The biggest girl was the one smack in the middle of the 180, but she was also the one that took off from the start. I've since read that the location that the clone comes from has a bit to do with the vigor.

I don't have all of the exact specs on these lights. Like the spectrum and number of each LED, the individual wattage (I've heard that some of the manufacturers will under-drive the lights to get a longer life out of them) and the type of LED. Side by side they look like they were built in the same factory, I have not popped open the case of the 300, but I took the glass out of the 180 since it had some fogging from my attempt at fogponics and I had to blow out all of the salt build up from the inside, so I had a look at the board and power supplies.

I was expecting the plants under the 300s to just blow away the 180 (after all bigger is better?). I still don't know if I would recommend one over the other since both companies have done some changes to their lights. Put it this way, I won't be sending any of my lights back due to non-performance.

 

[ninjagaiden]

Re: Stevehman's 780W LED, DIY 4 in PVC Recirc, Caramlicious Grow

it is very possible since the 180 was was flanked by 2x300's

I actually just picked up 2x290's and i believe they are the newer models as they the have the resister per LED design to prevent full board malfunction.

Ill have 6 plants set up in a 2x3 formation, trying to figure out if i should lay the lamps out like you did (parallel with your plants in a - - pattern) of if i should run them perpendicular (more of a | |).

That being said, ive grown with at least 4 different LED lamps, and have never seen number's like yours. kudos sir!