Old Strains - New LED Light!

[Chuckeye]

Yup, you read that right

The HID diehard has left the building

My ballast died and I thought it was timely for me to finally explore LED's

Long story, short > after Much searching I purchased the Phlizon FD6000/640w eight bar light !

First impressions, Heavy and Solid !

My old system with a 42" reflector can't weight more than 4 or 5 pounds.....

This light is 32 pounds...

Unfold it, attach the ballast and hang. Not a biggee for one person...

Ran it for a couple of hours @40%, bars were warm but you could keep your hand on them.

The ballast on the other hand, you could barely touch it ! Little hygromter/temp meter read 38 C/100 F ?

With no circulating fans running it took over two hours for the temperature ~4" down from the bars to kick on my exhaust fan @80 degrees!

Room temperature was 75 F. 10' x 10' x 8' high....

More Sipping

5 gallon pails with GroBuckets, ProMix HP, Mega Crop one part....

Strains from True North except Fast Buds version of Maui Wowie from The Seed Fair.

One hiccup, received an extra free seed but my Hawaiian Snow seeds were missing, sigh....

Message sent !

Five seeds are now soaking in water plus some h202 on my kitchen table. I usually have tails in 48 hours and then into solo cups.

If the Hawaiian Snow gets here within a week or so I'll try one of them too ! Was so Looking forward to trying this strain

Fingers crossed I have more than four germinate, it /they will go into 2 1/2 gallon fabric bags with used ProMix HP (first time).

This is now a budget grow with stuff I have on hand

If I get six I will do one on a 13" saucer filled with perlite ! Not quite a Swick ?

So excited to be back at it after a three month down time

Cheers, eh ?

 

[Chuckeye]

Kudos to True North Seed Bank, they should be shipping my missing 3 pk of Hawaiian Snow tomorrow !

Not seeing much of a heat saving but my exhaust fan is only running intermittently !

Temp at what will be plant height is 82F, light setting 4, circulating fans at low though....

Room temp is still 75F, some balancing to do yet.

Two different par apps gave me reading from 400 to 600. A bit much for seedlings.

I used a lux meter app I trust to adjust the light down to 9000, setting is 2 on the Phlizon.

An online calculator says a lux of 9,000 would be 200 ppfd.

After the change my room temp is 76.4 and plant height is 79.3

Think I will get by for now but I have a Uni-t Lux Light Meter UT383BT in my wish list

And I did reinstall my lightweight reflector panels to a 5' x 5' space.

Tonight I will water the solo cups to run off with 1g/gallon Mega Crop one part in anticipation of tails tomorrow !

Cheers

 

[Chuckeye]

Took a look and after 39 hours in water all seeds have tails

I stick a finger into the solo cup medium a fingernail deep, sprinkle some Dynomyco and pour the seed And it's water into the hole. I find this is the least invasive way to transfer them

Cheers

 

[Ramblinrose1965]

Sounds good and I love that new light you got there. Happy growing

 

[Chuckeye]

Thanks @Ramblinrose1965 !

Just getting use to power levels but the even spread in Incredible !

Seeds are in solo's

Cheers

 

[Chuckeye]

BTW > my Swick drawing is incorrect, the saucer will only hold .7 gallons of perlite !

Cheers

 

[Fenderbender]

Congrats Chuckeye!
If they are old strains you grew them under the bulb recently?
I'm wondering if you will notice a taste difference.
I think LEDs are great, way easier to control, less heat, better spread & directionality, higher efficiency and I can move them about without worrying that I'm gonna touch the Sun or melt the tent.
But I would say they taste different.. where the HPS for me puts forward a more singular flavour but lots of that it in a heavy sweet dank and LED tastes a bit more complex, outdoorsy, It still brings a sweet dank but there's all kinds of things floating on top.
I'm thinking the colour temperature or spectrum of the HPS favours a couple of terpenes or noids heavily.

 

[Chuckeye]

Congrats Chuckeye!
If they are old strains you grew them under the bulb recently?
I'm wondering if you will notice a taste difference.
I think LEDs are great, way easier to control, less heat, better spread & directionality, higher efficiency and I can move them about without worrying that I'm gonna touch the Sun or melt the tent.
But I would say they taste different.. where the HPS for me puts forward a more singular flavour but lots of that it in a heavy sweet dank and LED tastes a bit more complex, outdoorsy, It still brings a sweet dank but there's all kinds of things floating on top.
I'm thinking the colour temperature or spectrum of the HPS favours a couple of terpenes or noids heavily.

Thanks @Fenderbender !

Looking forward to extended comparative taste testing

But that is months away !

Last night I was telling bedtime stories to solo cups

I meant "Old Strains" as in been around for quite some time.

Hopefully these seeds are somewhat close to what they were back when

With the odd exception I grow all new to me strains each grow.....

This batch will bring the total to 31 different strains

And as you said, the light spread is incredible !

This is my old 600w MH/HPS @ 20"

This is the new Phlizon bar light, at @ 18"

Roughly double the par on the outside edges

Not quite sure what kind of growth to expect but I Will Not Miss having to turn the plants Every Day, he, he...

Cheers

 

[Chuckeye]

I'm calling this Day 1 above ground for all five of my girls

The Maui Wowie is a Whopping 1" tall

Trainwreck is just emerging and hasn't unfolded her leaves yet. The other three are about 1/2" tall...

Some fun via Apple Betty

The Columbian Gold had a helmet head ! At a casual glance it appeared to be ready to come off so I gave it a gentle "touch"

Came right off without a tug ! Some time later I thought to have a closer look...

The membrane was still encasing the leaves. It did appear there was a small space between the leaves.

I have found the helmut heads benefit from some "help" as early as possible, especially auto's. Time is precious !

So I put my finger behind the head and gently poked a wood skewer through the space, got in far enough to pop the membrane off

Could have just spritzed it with water and waited a bit but...

The Swick design is still evolving !

Thinking the key to this comparison run is to have the same size reservoir as the GroBuckets > ~ 1 gallon.

There is still the difference of a gallon and a half of medium but I think this is more about the watering and eventual size/health of the plant ?

Sourced some plastic containers 12" x 16 1/2" x 6 1/2H, pour in a gallon of water and cover with as much perlite as necessary ! Lots of room for a drain hole !

BTW > the bottom of a five gallon pail is the same as my bags. The pail would have to be higher than where it sits on perlite in order to have a drain hole. Not a problem but there would be no opportunity for air to easily enter between the perlite and the bottom of the bag ? Maybe try it next time !

Just seems a better system would the bag sitting on a larger container.

And I won't be moving the bag, it will be free to grow into the perlite..

Cheers

 

[RhastaBlasta]

I'm calling this Day 1 above ground for all five of my girls

The Maui Wowie is a Whopping 1" tall

Trainwreck is just emerging and hasn't unfolded her leaves yet. The other three are about 1/2" tall...

Some fun via Apple Betty

The Columbian Gold had a helmet head ! At a casual glance it appeared to be ready to come off so I gave it a gentle "touch"

Came right off without a tug ! Some time later I thought to have a closer look...

The membrane was still encasing the leaves. It did appear there was a small space between the leaves.

I have found the helmut heads benefit from some "help" as early as possible, especially auto's. Time is precious !

So I put my finger behind the head and gently poked a wood skewer through the space, got in far enough to pop the membrane off

Could have just spritzed it with water and waited a bit but...

The Swick design is still evolving !

Thinking the key to this comparison run is to have the same size reservoir as the GroBuckets > ~ 1 gallon.

There is still the difference of a gallon and a half of medium but I think this is more about the watering and eventual size/health of the plant ?

Sourced some plastic containers 12" x 16 1/2" x 6 1/2H, pour in a gallon of water and cover with as much perlite as necessary ! Lots of room for a drain hole !

BTW > the bottom of a five gallon pail is the same as my bags. The pail would have to be higher than where it sits on perlite in order to have a drain hole. Not a problem but there would be no opportunity for air to easily enter between the perlite and the bottom of the bag ? Maybe try it next time !

Just seems a better system would the bag sitting on a larger container.

And I won't be moving the bag, it will be free to grow into the perlite..

Cheers

Well that little seedling looks promising, well to go

 

[Chuckeye]

Well that little seedling looks promising, well to go

She sure is

In the last 24 hours she grew 3/4" !

She is leaning towards the strongest light source. Was kinda expecting this to take longer under LED ?

I'll rotate her and I've turned the lights up to 13,000 lux from 9,000 lux.

All the girls have spread their wings now, the Columbian Gold shows no signs of her "help"

The Hawaiian Snow has grown a tail and is now in a solo cup !

Cheers

 

[Sativa1970]

Went out to buy a new bulb years ago and came home with an LED to experiment with. After the first run I gave all my old lights to friends and switched everything to LED. Power bill savings paid them off years ago. No more fighting with the old land strains that wanted to be a Christmas tree. They gladly grow into a hedge bush with the even light coverage. Those subtle background flavors fill in to give more rounded terpene profile. Went from citrus flavor to identifying the individual fruits in the salad.

 

[Chuckeye]

Day 3 and the Maui Wowie is working on her next set of leaves !

Growth has been a 1/4" in the last 24 hrs so I am taking that as a sign that the increase in lux is a Good thing

Room temp is 75.6, plant height is 79.3, rh is 40%.

Definitely seeing lower heat compared to HID, exhaust fan only runs occasionally !

BTW > I moved some medium over (after the picture) to straighten out her lean, makes a difference later, eh ?

Cheers

 

[Delps8]

Day 3 and the Maui Wowie is working on her next set of leaves !

Growth has been a 1/4" in the last 24 hrs so I am taking that as a sign that the increase in lux is a Good thing


Room temp is 75.6, plant height is 79.3, rh is 40%.

Definitely seeing lower heat compared to HID, exhaust fan only runs occasionally !

BTW > I moved some medium over (after the picture) to straighten out her lean, makes a difference later, eh ?

Cheers

13k/195µmol± is middle of the range for seedling. Plants that aren't getting a lot of light will stretch whereas plants that get a lot of light tend to be shorter and have more branches and leaves.

Here's my light readings from a grow in 2022 (opened that grow journal at random):

This is a photo from that day:

I just happen to have some seeds/plants that look very much like that right now. I germinated five Original Glue seeds a few days ago and put them in Rapid Rooters in my grow dome. A couple of them have popped but I've been lazy and just left the light at the lowest setting. Gotta run to the garage and set the light level — thanks for the reminder!

 

[Chuckeye]

13k/195µmol± is middle of the range for seedling. Plants that aren't getting a lot of light will stretch whereas plants that get a lot of light tend to be shorter and have more branches and leaves.

Here's my light readings from a grow in 2022 (opened that grow journal at random):

I just happen to have some seeds/plants that look very much like that right now. I germinated five Original Glue seeds a few days ago and put them in Rapid Rooters in my grow dome. A couple of them have popped but I've been lazy and just left the light at the lowest setting. Gotta run to the garage and set the light level — thanks for the reminder!

Thanks for that !

Still getting used to the LED, with my HID I just set the light @50% and 30" and let the plants grow up to it

I would prefer to keep this grow on the short side !

Cheers

 

[Sativa1970]

Since you are no longer producing the radiant heat there is more forgiveness. The range of acceptable lighting increases when heat is no longer a mane factor in leaf burn. You can pump more cold photons than hot ones onto a leaf safely. Stay just shy of leaf cupping and she will be a happy girl.

 

[Chuckeye]

Day 7 for the Maui Wowie !

Day 2 for the Hawaiian Snow !

Small increase in lux to 14,000

BTW > not sure what was happening when I first plugged in the light and turned it on ?

The bars And the ballast are barely warm to the touch !

Cheers

 

[Sativa1970]

After fighting to keep the temp down, it just feels strange to add a heater in winter.

 

[Chuckeye]

After fighting to keep the temp down, it just feels strange to add a heater in winter.

Doesn't it ?

Going into fall now and I think I will be okay during lights on in flower with the increased power....

And I used the heater at lights out with HID anyway !

When my wood fire goes out my shop temps drop to mid 60's before my electric back up kicks in....

My flower lights-on schedule is from 6 PM to 6 AM and when it's colder than about -15C outside the first thing I do in the morning is light a fire, well second thing

But I was relieved to see/feel the ballast was not scorching hot @ ~ 311 par !

When I first plugged it in and ran it for about two hours it was do not touch me hot ?

Anywho, I am definitely seeing less stretching and almost too close together nodes with the seedlings under LED.

I hope the same thing applies to the flower stretch

Cheers

 

[Chuckeye]

Half way through day 9 !

Day 4 for Hawaiian Snow..

Things are finally starting to happen

Picked up a bag of coco coir and one of perlite today !

I do not water on a schedule but it just worked out they all needed it at the same time, a cup of 1.5g/gallon of MC was just enough for some run off...

Plant height temp @ 82, room temp 76.5, rh 40%. Exhaust fan is running intermittently but it was 90 outside today. Larger room where the intake air comes from was 73...

Putting the solo cups on saucers/elevators raised their height by 11" and lux to 22,.000. 490 par ?

Plant distance to bars is 17". Dimmer knob is at 2 out of 10 !

Does not compute but I'm going to leave it for now and see what happens

Cheers