MPLSGrown Cherry Lime Haze x1 & Afghani x1

[MPLSGrown]

Hey everyone,
I'm brand new to the forum. I'm also brand new to growing. (Thankfully my roommate isnt)

I have recently started 1 Cherry Lime Haze (CLH) and 1 Afghani. They are currently set up in a 4x2x5 tent with a 1500w Bestva LED light going 18hrs on, 6hrs off. I purchased the clones almost exactly a month ago. They are planted in Ocean Forest soil.
So far the plants seem to love the light but I'm getting nervous as flowering is only about a month away.
I am fully aware HPS is the way to go with flowering but it just isnt feasible. Has anyone gone thru flowering with the Bestva 1500?

 

[dr.h00k]

you should have no issues using that light till the finish...cheerz...h00k...and welcome to ......

 

[MPLSGrown]

you should have no issues using that light till the finish...cheerz...h00k...and welcome to ......

Thanks h00k
I've just read varying results from flowering with LEDs.
Should I worry about yield at all or just put it out of my mind?

 

[Nunyabiz]

Howdy.

Couple things.
First that's not actually a "1500w" light, some LED manufacturers wildly over inflate their specs and that's one of them.
That is a 280w LED that probably gives you about the same useable light as maybe a 400w HPS.
Which is perfectly fine and not a damn thing wrong with it.
But that in no way would "replace a 1000w HPS" which is the manufacturer claim.
Now having said that IMO LED is easily superior in several ways over HPS, just depends on what LED your running and what PAR value it is.
Also if those are clones that were bought over a month ago then something has gone horribly wrong at some point.
They should be massively larger, so something ain't right.
But thankfully you actually have as much time as you need to get them back on track because they are photo periods, as long as you give them more than 14 hours a day of light you can veg them for a year if you want.

I assume you must be stripping leaves off (defoliating)?
Unless they were dead leaves then you should stop that, a plant that size needs all the solar panels it can get.

Just for reference this is roughly what a month old plant should look like, this one is actually I think 31 days old from seed not clone.
So we need to figure out what's gone wrong, unless maybe you have already and it was just the first few weeks where you had a set back.

 

[dr.h00k]

...nothing wrong with Leds for flowering...some people swear by them...your light prolly pulls about 300 watts from the wall...not the best, but sufficient for a first grow IMHO...ideally I would recommend a light for each plant...start about 30 inches above plant and adjust accordingly...cheerz...h00k......

 

[MPLSGrown]

Howdy.

Couple things.
First that's not actually a "1500w" light, some LED manufacturers wildly over inflate their specs and that's one of them.
That is a 280w LED that probably gives you about the same useable light as maybe a 400w HPS.
Which is perfectly fine and not a damn thing wrong with it.
But that in no way would "replace a 1000w HPS" which is the manufacturer claim.
Now having said that IMO LED is easily superior in several ways over HPS, just depends on what LED your running and what PAR value it is.
Also if those are clones that were bought over a month ago then something has gone horribly wrong at some point.
They should be massively larger, so something ain't right.
But thankfully you actually have as much time as you need to get them back on track because they are photo periods, as long as you give them more than 14 hours a day of light you can veg them for a year if you want.

I assume you must be stripping leaves off (defoliating)?
Unless they were dead leaves then you should stop that, a plant that size needs all the solar panels it can get.

Just for reference this is roughly what a month old plant should look like, this one is actually I think 31 days old from seed not clone.
So we need to figure out what's gone wrong, unless maybe you have already and it was just the first few weeks where you had a set back.

Hey Nunya,
I really appreciate the info on the lights. I figured they were much lower than the 1500w but wasnt sure how much.
Second, the pics are like 2 weeks old. It won't let me post the newer ones (I'll post when I get home in an hour)
I haven't been defoliating at all. Thankfully I know better than to do that.

Thanks for all the info!

 

[Nunyabiz]

Thanks h00k
I've just read varying results from flowering with LEDs.
Should I worry about yield at all or just put it out of my mind?

Put it completely out of your mind.
LED watt for watt is better than HPS and has been for at least 5 to 8 years now.
Here's a grow using three 200w (actual watts) LEDs that are over 2 years old now and still doing fine. So 600w and they weren't expensive LEDs either, the ones today like the Samsung panels are way better still.

 

[Nunyabiz]

Hey Nunya,
I really appreciate the info on the lights. I figured they were much lower than the 1500w but wasnt sure how much.
Second, the pics are like 2 weeks old. It won't let me post the newer ones (I'll post when I get home in an hour)
I haven't been defoliating at all. Thankfully I know better than to do that.

Thanks for all the info!

Whew, good because I was going to say at over a month old something horrible must have happened that could have taken some time to over come.

 

[MPLSGrown]

Put it completely out of your mind.
LED watt for watt is better than HPS and has been for at least 5 to 8 years now.
Here's a grow using three 200w (actual watts) LEDs that are over 2 years old now and still doing fine. So 600w and they weren't expensive LEDs either, the ones today like the Samsung panels are way better still.

This is all wonderful news to me!!! Thanks you guys.

Do you guys have any recommendations for LEDs? I think I want to add another when I go to flowering.

 

[Nunyabiz]

This is all wonderful news to me!!! Thanks you guys.

Do you guys have any recommendations for LEDs? I think I want to add another when I go to flowering.

I would say any of the Samsung LM301b Quantum boards is probably the way to go.

But that all depends on how much you have to spend.

 

[MPLSGrown]

Here is a little update.
Plants are both in Ocean Forest soil.
Temp is 75° lights on, 70° lights off.
I haven't hit them with nutrients yet. (I read you can go 2 weeks with no nutrients when using ocean forest)
I plan on using Sensi Grow and Bloom for they're respective cycles.
Here are current pictures!!!

Much love everyone.

 

[Nunyabiz]

Cool, that's a whole lot better.

If you're looking for cheaper LEDs the Mars Hydro Reflector series is pretty good.
And the Viparspectra seems fine also.
That's what I've been running for over 2 years with no problems.
And I am averaging over 8oz per plant, so they produce just fine for their cost.

 

[MPLSGrown]

Hey guys just wanted to give you an update. The plants are now exactly 1 month and 1 day since we bought the clones.
Temp is 81°
Light is 20 on 4 off.
I hit them with Sensi Grow A&B about 4 days ago for the first time.
I took 2 clones from the Afghani 3 days ago.

The Cherry Lime is much shorter than the Afghani.
I'm going to flip them to flower on 1/1/19.

 

[High Wally]

Tagged in! They look fabulous! Nice work on the LST with bamboo! You can probably top dress with more Fox Farm. Do you intend to transplant again?

 

[MPLSGrown]

Tagged in! They look fabulous! Nice work on the LST with bamboo! You can probably top dress with more Fox Farm. Do you intend to transplant again?

Yup the plan is to go to Airpots this week right before flowering. Probably 5 or 7 gallon I haven't decided yet.

Top dress with fox farm?? (Sorry I'm still a newbie.)

 

[High Wally]

Top dress just means add a layer of soil or amendments to top of pot. The water carries the microbes where they need to be.

 

[High Wally]

As far as lights are concerned, LED is the future. Older LED's do work, they're just less intense. They are great for VEG. So the idea is to increase the intensity during the flower cycle. This could be accomplished just having another light just like the one you already have. Money will always rule this game, but you can accomplish a lot with very little.

 

[MPLSGrown]

Hey guys,
Just a quick update.
I repotted both plants today from 3gal hard plastic to 5gal smart pots.
I also switched the lights to flowering starting tonight at the strike of midnight.

To say I'm excited is an understatement
As always, love you guys and thanks for any input!

 

[MPLSGrown]

Update time!!

Its now day 12 of the flowering cycle. The flowers are starting to show. I've dropped the temp from around 80° down to about 72°. I think I'm done training, trimming and topping for this grow. I wanna just let them go and see how I did with the LST earlier on. I'm currently just giving them RODI water. They were replanted in ocean forest right before I switched them. So I figure I'll wait another week before I start with nutrients again. Any suggestions for nutrients for soil for flowering?
It would be greatly appreciated.

(I know the Afghani needs water. I watered right after the photo shoot lol)

 

[MPLSGrown]

Quick update: The flowers are looking great!!!