LED grow 1st for newbie

[Tead]

There are alot of LED naysayers. I'd like to prove them wrong, but can't.... dammit.

I have yet to see a completed LED grow that didn't have some sort of secondary issue that obscures the actual results. I was hoping yuu would be a clean and complete grow.

I, myself have moved from LED only to LED and CFL in a veg chamber with an indoor veg and outdoor flower configuration.

Cheers

 

[mellowman164]

Yeah the only led light fixture that I like is the pyrocon and it costs 600 dollars lol. Even then it is only good in vegetative state. My advice would be to switch to cfl's if your on a budget or t5's if you have a little more to spend.

+ rep for testing out new technology

 

[ledmcbucks]

All my reading points to too much heat in my room. I got a room ac hooked up and got the temp down to 80. I will try for a little cooler but have to see how much water im making. I hope this solves some of my problems. Thanks for your thoughts on lighting Mellow Man.

 

[CharlieMopps]

What kind of 6" fan did you get? Look around at your local hardware store and ask around on how you would go about upgrading your "bathroom" ceiling exhaust fan. If finished buds lack density, yes it is likely a temp issue. If you're looking to get you buds to be bigger you need to add some suplemental fluroescent lights, and maybe test your plants to see if they can stand a lil stronger nute solution.

 

[ledmcbucks]

I got my flower room down to 78 but my veg room is still in the 90's A quick trip to HD and a couple hundred bucks later I picked up a new bath fan and a handfull of 100w daylight cfls and fixtures. I will have 300w led and 8 100w cfls plus a 110cfm fan installed tonight. My veg room will get the old bath fan at 80 cfms. I hooked a duct up from the ac to the veg room but it still needs more venting. I feel bad for bailing on the LED only grow but I need to see some progress. Maybe after the temps are regulated for a while and I start seeing improvement I will try LED only again. My power bill climbed up a bit last month and I expect to see more next month with the added light and AC
I have a 250w HPS lamp and hood and Im thinking about hanging it in the room as well now that I have ac. I am low on my Iguana bloom fert and picked up a bottle of fox farms bloom that I got locally. I hope this wont be a problem for my girls. Sorry I have spent my cash on cooling the room instead of a new camera for bud porn. I will try to post some pics of the remaining plants soon.

 

[CharlieMopps]

Cool, keep us updated. Exhaust and a/c are the #1 things that'll bring down temps.

P.S. - I'd rather see blurry pics of a beautiful, healthy plant than a perfect picture of a suffering plant.

 

[ledmcbucks]

Update time with blurry pics.
Its day 48 in the flower room My best plant has grown 11 inches and is 23 inches now. Buds appear to be forming

Here is plant 2 at 6 inchs growth 18 inches over all now.

And plant 3

 

[ledmcbucks]

Still cant determine sex on the last 2 plants. Between the 24 hours of light and temps in the 100's im just glad they still live. I got the fan in the veg room going but I didnt get the flower room fan in. I was thinking that I am using a portable AC unit and it is cooling the heated room and exhasting the warm air out should I still use a fan to expell the air too. Or will the air be moving enough through the ac unit. I have 4 6 inch ducts coming in and 3 out with one hooked to the exhaust of the AC unit. Oh ya my 6 inch fan is a can fan knock off it is way to loud for my needs. I have just one bath fan that I got a hd its rated at80cfm its really quite and in my veg room I just bought the 110cfm for the flower room and havnt hooked it up yet.

 

[mellowman164]

I am reallý glad to hear you spent the extra money to upgrade to a small hps and floros and the led. The exhaust will help more than you know. If I where you instead of the bathroom fans go into the heating and cooling isle in hd and look at inline duct fans the 4inch are 85 cfm and the 6 inch are 250 and they are 22 and 27 us dollars respectively.

 

[pan4gold49]

Looking good ledmcbucks.
I'm glad that you've added lighting it's going to do great.

Pan4

 

[ledmcbucks]

I got the temp to 78 in the flower room and 84 in the veg room. I guess I should have gotten a bigger ac unit. I added 2 27W daylight cfls to the veg room and have 10 hanging in the flower room. With the cooler temps and added light there is a noticable change for the better. I still havnt hooked the bath fan to the flower room and I am relying on the heat rises principle to vent the room. I struck out looking for the inline 6 inch vent at my local stores. Thanks for the tips!

 

[ledmcbucks]

Im still here, so are my plants. They are moving along with clear trichomes and nice looking buds. I really messed them up with the heat and the extra light. Things have been stable for over a month with temps in the mid 70's and humidity around 50-60 %. I moved my 90w led to the flower room last week to see if I can generate a little action on my flowering plants. My power bill doubled with the AC unit. I still dont have a exhaust fan but all seems to be working. I will bust out some pictures soon.

 

[CharlieMopps]

Cool, good to hear from you. Nice to hear the grow is still going strong.

 

[ledmcbucks]

 

[ledmcbucks]

The grow took a turn for the better after the temps were regulated. I finished the grow with the Led panel and about 6 cfl's. Temp 78 degrees and 60% humidity. I think all the problems during the grow really messed up my results. The plants were in flower for well over 100 days. I lost track. I clipped the first one early before the flush was done because the leaves started to burn. The smoke was harsh and pretty fertilizer tasting. The pictured plants came out nice. The buds were kinda loose. I thought they might tighten up during the cure. But they didnt. Are mason jars airtight enough to use for curing? I have some mason jars and jars with the spring hinged top and rubber gasket. I dont think either of them really seal the air in. These plants have to be the most expensive weed I have ever smoked. I have over 10 g's into this grow. I think I might have to go back to the old way to get my meds. The ac tripled my power bill.

 

[Hydroguy]

10 G's shit man you gotta go again and again to get some cash back.

i read your grow form start to finish, main prob i would say was the heat, but i seen no mention of Ph level or EC levels, important to avoid plant burn and ensure good growth.

LEDs i feel are the way forward (for Veg) and combined for led and hps for flower,, at least thats what I'm trying at the moment, cost of power will continue to rise and Leds are going to make a lot more sense in the near future.

Give it another go, and see how it goes.

 

[BWC BayArea]

Congrats on Completing an LED grow in the Summer!!!

$10,000 invested? Wow. Don't know if it was worth it for you, but this is the 1st complete LED journal I've seen here. Congratulations.
Thanks for sharing your grow with us!

I'm moving this to completed journals now.

Have you started a new grow you would like to share with us?

If so, please start one here:
Journals in Progress - 420 Magazine

Hope all is well in your world.

Love and respect from all of us here at 420 Magazine!