SteveHman's Advanced LED Diamond Series - Lucy & Sage - Grow 6.0 - NFT

It’s time to start a new journal, it seems like these things go so fast.

This time around I have switched up a few things. The first big change was in the way I took clones. I have a 60 site ezcloner, and I have 100% success with it. But it has it’s downsides. First, it costs about $350 retail, then there’s the water and air pumps that are noisy and use power and then there’s the issue with res temps. I have no problems with any of these, but have had people ask myself and others on the site about cloning, and what is the best way to clone.


I think the best way to clone is the one that works for you. There are as many ways to do it as there are growers, everyone has their own spin on the process. For this grow (and for the clones for my other grow starting next week) I decided to take the low-cost/low-tech approach. I tried to keep all of the material costs to less than $20 and make the process as simple as possible.


I started out with a 72 site propagation tray, drip pan and humidity dome, total cost $14. Then I used some left over coco/perlite mix from my moms that I had in a 5 gallon bucket in the garage. The coco mix was moistened with about a 1/4 strength veg mix of BPN, a couple drops of superthrive and some olivia’s. I packed the moistened coco mix tightly into the tray so that it was pretty compacted.


I brought my moms out of the tent one at a time and used a pair of trimming scissors to cut about a 3 inch long cutting. I removed the lower leaves, cut the stem at a 45 deg and then used a razor blade to lightly scrape the base of the stem. I dipped them into cloning gel, used a poker to create a hole in the coco, and then placed the cutting into the tray.

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I placed them under a T5HO about 4 inches above the humidity dome and left them alone for a week. At the end of the week I had a few showing some roots poking out of the bottom. I removed the dome, and watered them with the same1/4 strength BPN mix. By the end of week two, I had roots on 100% of the 72 cuttings. I had multiple strains in the tray, so this process will work on just about any strain.
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Now since I like to use my NFT system which is hydro, and the roots are now in a coco mix I had to make a decision. Should I rinse the coco off and then place them into the netcups with some hydroton or is there another option? I had picked up the aeroflo off of craigslist so I didn’t have all of the items that came with it. When I was researching the system and ordering new replacement parts I saw that they ship the unit with coco-tek cup liners. I figured that I would order some cup liners and then just place the clone, coco/perlite and all into the cup. Add some hydroton the fill in the spaces and add support and then cap it off with a neoprene collar to reduce evaporation and keep algae from growing.
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I decided to go with just two strains in the NFT. I have one side filled with Lucy and the other with Sage. I thought these would be a good run for the system, they should both finish about the same time.
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The other slight wrinkle in my plan is that I typically put clones straight into 12/12 from the ezcloner. I am giving these a few days to veg before I do that this time. I want to make sure the roots are growing out through the coco cups before I flip them. Also, the clones are a bit smaller than the clones I get from the ezcloner. I like to have them at about 6~8 inches tall before the flip. I plan on the 3x stretch factor so that I will end up with an 18-24 inch plant.

For lighting this grow I am going with Advanced LED Diamond Series 200watt units. I think that 2 would cover the 2x6 footprint, but you all know by now that I like to go a little over the top, so I have three of them in the chamber. The last grow had three of the 360w Extreme Flower units, so I am dialing it back quite a bit on total wattage, but expect to have the same or better results. We’ll see how they compare.

So welcome aboard to the new journal, I will try to keep it informative and interactive. I welcome open discussion as long as it is on-topic (or close to on-topic, or is just plain funny).
 
Finally! A SteveHman Journal that isn't 100pages long. I read through your journals all the time reading into all the discussions that go on amongst all the regular :420: users and I just never felt like it was my place to join.

I was still fairly new and I never knew what to say since the conversations were so far in but now since you have a new journal, I think its time to be part of it. I'm sure I can pick up a thing or two or many along the way. I am looking forward to this and I have enjoyed your whole setup and informative posts.

So don't mind me. I am tagging along.:thumb:
 
:popcorn: Cool! Will be fun to follow. +rep for the cloning tutorial, and good luck the rest of the way. Love that you're growing some Lucy. I can't wait to harvest mine in a few weeks! :)
 
Yay stevie...word up.....I'm here.....made it....whew...ok...so this all is so exciting....I can't wait...here we grow again....good luck...:hippy:
 
Nice cost-effective innovation! I had a question or two that I'd like to ask you, but I don't have enough posts yet; is it possible for you to pm me?
 
Steve,

Great grows, i finally registered was holding off for a while now, but found you to be the most informative person regarding advanced leds. not to mention everything else in your growing. I got the 180w advanced led, grow room 4x4x7 approx. will that one light be enough in your opinion??? Iʻm a soil grower, did the DWC pretty well outdoors on my deck but like soil cause it allows me to screw up more or at least for me. Would the single 180w be enough or would i have to supplement. Also could i use this light for everything from the start, veg, to finish, bud???? Iʻve been on the web researching over and over and over, and wanna see if i made a good choice with advanced led, would love the 360w but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ was the issue so got the 180w. Up until now was mostly outdoor grower, got ripped off couple times plus helicopters flying so wanna take it indoors plus the led with energy savings would be great plus not look too suspicious on electric bill. sorry long winded but you are the guy i need to ask. thanks for posting very informative pretty much scientific grows, learned a lot.:thanks:
 
Steve,

Great grows, i finally registered was holding off for a while now, but found you to be the most informative person regarding advanced leds. not to mention everything else in your growing. I got the 180w advanced led, grow room 4x4x7 approx. will that one light be enough in your opinion??? Iʻm a soil grower, did the DWC pretty well outdoors on my deck but like soil cause it allows me to screw up more or at least for me. Would the single 180w be enough or would i have to supplement. Also could i use this light for everything from the start, veg, to finish, bud???? Iʻve been on the web researching over and over and over, and wanna see if i made a good choice with advanced led, would love the 360w but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ was the issue so got the 180w. Up until now was mostly outdoor grower, got ripped off couple times plus helicopters flying so wanna take it indoors plus the led with energy savings would be great plus not look too suspicious on electric bill. sorry long winded but you are the guy i need to ask. thanks for posting very informative pretty much scientific grows, learned a lot.:thanks:

The 180W Extreme Flower has a core coverage of 2x2, you need a LOT more light for a 4x4 tent (3 more 180s)
 
Steve,

Great grows, i finally registered was holding off for a while now, but found you to be the most informative person regarding advanced leds. not to mention everything else in your growing. I got the 180w advanced led, grow room 4x4x7 approx. will that one light be enough in your opinion??? Iʻm a soil grower, did the DWC pretty well outdoors on my deck but like soil cause it allows me to screw up more or at least for me. Would the single 180w be enough or would i have to supplement. Also could i use this light for everything from the start, veg, to finish, bud???? Iʻve been on the web researching over and over and over, and wanna see if i made a good choice with advanced led, would love the 360w but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ was the issue so got the 180w. Up until now was mostly outdoor grower, got ripped off couple times plus helicopters flying so wanna take it indoors plus the led with energy savings would be great plus not look too suspicious on electric bill. sorry long winded but you are the guy i need to ask. thanks for posting very informative pretty much scientific grows, learned a lot.:thanks:
I'm with Maer on this one. I like the target of 40 watts per square foot as a baseline. I started out with a single 180w myself and have just slowly worked my way up to more lights (I had it on a mover covering a 2x4 space).

The Advance LEDs can take your grow from seed/clone to finish. That's what I've been using. What you may consider doing is to supplement the 180 with a few T5's or CFL's for the first grow so that you will have a larger coverage area and then when funds are available order another light and then repeat until you have about 600~800 watts in the tent. My next tent grow will be using four lights in a 4x4 space. I tried one big unit last time and this next grow I want to see how a more evenly distributed coverage works.

I hope that answered your question. The LEDs will produce some top-shelf meds as long as you have the rest of your gardening skills down. If you have any questions feel free to ask. We have a ton of great growers online and if I can't give you the correct answer there will be someone here who can.
 
Time for another great grow. Is this for all out yield or is there a test involved?
I'll be going for an all-out yield on the grow starting next week in the tent with air-pots and 1,000 watts of Diamond Series intensity. This grow is a test of sorts, but also going for yield. I haven't dialed in the proper height for the DS lights, the last test was with the Extreme Flower lights. The DS have more penetration and a more intense light. So I'm thinking they will need to be a few inches higher than the Extreme Flower units. I will get the heights worked out and posted once the stretch is done. I'll flip them to 12/12 next week, so about three weeks later they should be done stretching.
 
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