3rd soil grow, first with 120 watt LEDs

[yum000]

So I'm starting my 3rd soil grow in a 39"x39" 6.5' tall grow tent. I'm growing 3 South African Durbans & 3 White Widows. I'm still a newbie and I've already made a couple mistakes on this first grow, I sprouted from seed in these 5 gal containers, 3 of them are smart pots. I've got a 50/50 mix of Fox farms Ocean Forest & Happy Frog in the pots, didn't add anything addional. They all sprouted this past Thursday July 10th, I just took these pics tonight July 12th. Light wise in the tent I've got a 6500K 200 watt CFL & a 120 watt Doberman tri-band red/blue/orange. My plan is to veg them for 2-4 weeks on a 16/8 schedule, then I was planning on removing the CFL and adding a 2nd 120 watt doberman and an all red 90 watt UFO. Nutes wise I've got Fox Farms grow big & Tiger bloom

yumm

 

[yum000]

Forgot, for ventilation I've got a 85cfm fan connected to a 10 inch charcoal can filter, no intake fan-I could only input air from the room, not from outdoors as I'd ideally want. I'm keeping the ambient room temp at aprox 72-74 through the day, 69-70 at night. The fan seems to afford good air movement through the tent, but I just placed a temp gauge at soil level and am getting 79-80 degrees. I've noticed other threads where the soil level temp 6-10 degrees less than mine, am I running too hot? Also another interesting thing to note, the picture of the seedling under the LED light is one in a fabric smart pot. I watered this thoroughly less than 24 hours ago and already you can see a 2 inch dry ring around the outer wall. The smart pot is supposed to keep the roots better oxygenated & cooled by evaporation, if this is any evidence it seems to be working !

 

[Mr. SA]

Goodluck on the durbs boi

 

[Setting Sun]

I'm still a newbie and I've already made a couple mistakes on this first grow,

Nice setup.

What mistakes?


regards,

SS

 

[Retired One]

I'll be watching this with great interest. My research tells me that leds aren't quite there yet, especially considering the price, but research can be wrong. Good luck!
+rep for taking the led plunge.

 

[yum000]

Day 4

Only notable change to seedlings thus far is those directly under the LED are not quite as tall but are noticeably darker green. Just a couple equipment pics today.

Thanks for the replies guys. I intend on completing this journal and will post updates at least weekly.

Setting Sun-the mistakes I speak of are seeding the plants in the same pots the plants will be harvested from-at least this seems to be a mistake as I've noticed all the other soil growers seem to start out in smaller pots & progress to larger pots-at least once anyway. The other interpreted mistake I see myself as having made is simply using the soils off the shelf after reading many threads where a large percentage of posters see the need to aerate these soils further by adding pearlite etc.

Question:

What's the easiest way you've found to measure soil ph? Are you putting a strip in the soil or can you use one of the handheld meters (it is my belief these could only be used in a liquid solution) ?

About pics:

Doberman Growl 120watt Triband LED 8.5"wX16"L Blue, Red, Orange
Energy efficiency 120watt LED + 200wattCFL + 85cfm fan + 9 inch clip fan (Lots of air flow in the tent)

 

[Setting Sun]

Day 4
Setting Sun-the mistakes I speak of are seeding the plants in the same pots the plants will be harvested from-at least this seems to be a mistake as I've noticed all the other soil growers seem to start out in smaller pots & progress to larger pots-at least once anyway. The other interpreted mistake I see myself as having made is simply using the soils off the shelf after reading many threads where a large percentage of posters see the need to aerate these soils further by adding pearlite etc.

I think it depends on the strain and the situation. For instance, the strain I've been growing (lowryder) doesn't like to be transplanted and doesn't recover well from it. Most other strains, however, seem to have no major problems with it and starting in smaller pots has advantages.

As far as Perlite goes, you can ruin soil with it just as easily as fix it. Depends on the soil.

The soil I'm using right now would not benefit from Perlite, all it would do is thin out all the good stuff the manufacturer added and not add drainage, because it drains very well already.

regards,

SS

 

[yum000]

Day 6

Interesting, the two plants under the 120watt Tri-band LED are more fully developed than any of those under the 200 watt CFL, grow room temp has been maintained at 72 at night, max of 82 during the day. Those in the smart pots so far have been requiring a watering twice the rate of those in the plastic pots.

 

[Setting Sun]

Do you have one strain under the LED and the other strain under the CFL?

They are looking nice!

regards,

SS

 

[yum000]

SS,
I've got a SA Durban under the LED in the smart pot & a white widow in the plastic pot.

 

[HazeSeeker]

good luck m8 ... im going to stick around , wanna see how's that led grow gonna work out !?
Once again good luck and keep it green

 

[yum000]

Day 9

I came home Friday early from work, it was a terribly hot day at a 106 out which must've caused some stress on the electrical grid. Right about peak demand part of the ballast for the 200 CFL blew so only one side of the bulb is lit now. Nasty smell when it blew, one of the worst ballast burns I think I've ever smelled. I've had trouble finding a 200 watt replacement-discontinued? Anyway, settled on a 150 watt 6400k to be used for early vegging as supplemental lighting to the LED. We've got a bad drought going on right now as far as getting any weed to smoke around here, I've resorted to smoking left overs from the volcano vaporizer, been on this for 3 weeks- stoney lethargic high though. So I want to be assured of a good yield this time around, so I've decided that when flowering time comes I'll be bringing in a 430 watt Hortilux on a Lumatek digital ballast. I intend on leaving the LED in the tent as supplemental.
Gave the guys their first feeding today 1/2 teaspoon of Grow Big per gallon. As in my last post from a few days ago the plants under the LED continue to develop at a faster clip and are healthier looking. I swapped around the plants now, so the plants under the LED (pink tinted picture) are the slower developed ones I just swapped over from under the CFL 7 vice versa. I am impressed with the performance of the LED for vegging thus far.
Speaking of impressed, the fabric smart pots seem to really work, you'll use twice as much water on your plants as the soil drys out quicker. I think this is proof enough they aid in the aeration of the roots I would also agree with their claim that this will aid in keeping the roots cooler - cooler=better oxygen uptake.

 

[yum000]

Day 10

Opened up the tent this morning to check on the babies-and saw this critter sitting on one of my plants. Never seen such a bug, have to assume it hatched from an egg in the soil I used. Snatched him up with some tweezers and introduced him to the summer heat outdoors. Plants seem to have filled out a bit, just since my last post.

 

[yum000]

Day 17

I've limped along for a week now with half of a 200 watt cfl & the 120 watt LED the plants seem to be doing ok, albeit a bit slow growing. Last night I got a 150 watt CFL to replace the 200, intending to continue vegging for another week or two before beginning flowering. Well, the new 150 watt cfl ballast blew 2 hrs later. Soo... I thought the heck with it and swapped in a 430 watt Eye hortilux today, I'm keeping the LED in the grow tent as supplemental. One plant is just down right deformed, I'll let it grow through to harvest if it's a female-always my luck I have a runt in every grow. I"ve got a clip on fan blowing air over the hps bulb it's exhausting into the grow tent where a 265cfm dayton connected to a carbon filter exhausts the air-passive intact bottom vents of the tent. Room temperature is kept at about 75 which means the tent gets to 86-88 degrees Too high a temp?

 

[dfw-guy]

Ya that's a bit to high of a temp. My own experience tells me my plants don't like it when the temp gets above 85, especially when they're little. If you supplement CO2 then you can keep the high temps and your plants will grow wonderfully Not that they aren't now!

 

[yum000]

Thanks for the info DFW-guy! Need another Co2 boost container which I'll have by flowering time I guess, also will need another timer to shut off ventilation I suppose 15 minute increments then another timer with the co2 boost pump set on the opposite 15 considering having that setup within 2 weeks before flowering. Anyone think it's time to pinch these babies?

 

[yum000]

Day 31

All 6 of my plants went into an explosive growth mode this past week, up to 18 inches now, back down to just one 120 watt LED tri band light & a 430 watt Hortilux, last weekend we had added a second 120 watt LED but my girlfriend decided last night that was a bit overkill and took one of the LED's out to sprout some seeds. As of this past Friday 8-7 they've been on the 12/12 cycle, with Fox Farm Nutrients, used Open Sesame this past week in the water.

 

[yum000]

Day 41

2 weeks into flowering now, turn out to have 4 females out of the 6 originals, actually sacrificed one of the females as the grow tent was just so packed. So of the 3 left 2 are in smart pots both of which are taller, more bushy and flowers are maturing much faster than the one on the plastic container which I'm positive is root bound by this time. I'm sold on the smart pots and will not grow in plastic again.

Soil temps have been running 69-72 degrees, Plant level 72-74
the smart pot plants are 43 inches tall, the 430 watt hortilux is at 58 inches-I can't raise it any further, this worries me but I've thought about removing the hortilux during the last 2 weeks of flowering to be done under the 120 watt led only if absolutely necessary, or bend the tops of the plants over with twine.

 

[dfw-guy]

They look great! Hope they don't get to much taller though haha.

 

[BWC BayArea]

Abandoned

How did this grow turn out?
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