Scooby's 1st grow - LED

[Masterkush]

Can't wait till the end either... I agree -- they truly look like monsters lol... think he's been feeding them roids hehe....

anyhow, your plants look amazing. Good Job!

 

[Scooby_Snacks]

Can't wait to see the end. Congrats on your progress so far Scooby, your plants look beautiful!

Wow Scoob!...Wow!....They are already monsters, going to be even bigger monsters! Well, to me its a monster!

Looking sweet! Thanks for the update! :0)

You have gone green! hehe

-Go Green-

Can't wait till the end either... I agree -- they truly look like monsters lol... think he's been feeding them roids hehe....

anyhow, your plants look amazing. Good Job!

You all can't wait? LOL

Be interesting to see the BB turn Purple.

 

[Mmmmick]

doing a great job Scooby, all look healthy and growth rates are excellent.

reps even tho I can't yet.

 

[Scooby_Snacks]

Saturday updates have been moved to Fryday's

Took a good amount of pics today so I'm splitting up the posts.

Blackberry under CFL's. She's taken the beating I gave her like a champ. Good growth and the damaged leaves have gotten no worse. Not as far along as some of my others, but still showing some promise. She dried out nicely and was given a good feeding with nutes today.

Same damages leaf as earlier posts.

 

[Scooby_Snacks]

Blackberry under LED.

Dried out nicely since the repot with no apparent stress. Pretty white hairs are showing up on this one

 

[Scooby_Snacks]

Wonder Woman under LED.

Front side

Her backside is not getting much light. I'm thinking of trimming some of these off. I'd take some advise on this.

The only picture is could get of her white hairs. She is covered in them but you'll see in the next pic she is thick through the entire plant.

 

[Scooby_Snacks]

Day 13 of flowering (12 dark nights)

LA Woman under LED - not much to say. She looks great but no white hairs yet.

 

[HydroGrowLED]

Wait about 2 more weeks when you get nice little balls of buds, and then go ahead and remove as many of the large upper fan leaves as you desire. It will help allow more light transfer to the lower, and back buds on the plant, and will help you to achieve a higher yield.

 

[IrishBoy]

Wait about 2 more weeks when you get nice little balls of buds, and then go ahead and remove as many of the large upper fan leaves as you desire. It will help allow more light transfer to the lower, and back buds on the plant, and will help you to achieve a higher yield.

are you sure i have every book i have read always says dont cut the fans leaves it will do more harm then good, they are the solar pannels for them.
even Edd, mel and them all say dont cut fan leaves.

instead i would just use a paper clip or whatever and tie them out of the way.
the buds dont take the light in to get bigger its the nodes and fan leaves the transfer to the buds.

 

[HydroGrowLED]

are you sure i have every book i have read always says dont cut the fans leaves it will do more harm then good, they are the solar pannels for them.
even Edd, mel and them all say dont cut fan leaves.

instead i would just use a paper clip or whatever and tie them out of the way.
the buds dont take the light in to get bigger its the nodes and fan leaves the transfer to the buds.

Ed also says not to use anything other than a HPS for bloom (if I remember correctly), even though a Metal Halide has more PAR watts. It only takes a few minutes of reading on a bulb manufacturer's page like SunMaster, to find this information out: Light and Plants

So while he may be a well respected, and certainly very knowledgeable person in the MJ world, he is not always correct on his assessments.

What good does it do the lower part of your plant, if none of the light can reach it? This is why I say to let the plants get a few weeks into bloom, prior to removing the big UPPER fan leaves. It allows good bud formation, prior fully thickening up. Trimming the fan leaves, allows much more light to hit the bud leaves, and lower leaves. In my experience time and time again, I've always yielded more trimming the fan leaves throughout bloom, vs letting the plant grow on its own (even with HID). When my friend did a pound on that Strawberry Cough plant, she barely had any fan leaves on it by week 5-6, just to show you what a plant can do without em. They are great solar panels, but they themselves also use up energy, and during the latter part of flowering you want all the energy concentrated as much on the buds as possible. You certainly don't want to trim all of the fan leaves (small/mid sized ones, bottom, etc...) but I've found it is beneficial to get rid of those light blocking leaves up top (especially with LED, plus they grow back HELLA fast).

 

[Mmmmick]

hey scooby real nice growth and development. Looking very nice. Very healthy looking.
You might consider a little mylar close to the back of your plants to bounce any stray light back in.
Your wall appears white but I think mylar reflects better or at least can be perhaps positioned closer to the plants.
It made a noticeable difference for me, but you have a tighter dispersion angle so might not have much light going wide.

 

[Scooby_Snacks]

Wait about 2 more weeks when you get nice little balls of buds, and then go ahead and remove as many of the large upper fan leaves as you desire. It will help allow more light transfer to the lower, and back buds on the plant, and will help you to achieve a higher yield.

Thanks!

are you sure i have every book i have read always says dont cut the fans leaves it will do more harm then good, they are the solar pannels for them.
even Edd, mel and them all say dont cut fan leaves.

instead i would just use a paper clip or whatever and tie them out of the way.
the buds dont take the light in to get bigger its the nodes and fan leaves the transfer to the buds.

irishboy, I'm not sure what's right or wrong but this is from the DNA genetics website description of their LA Woman strain:

"Don't be afraid to thin the large fan leaves in the 5th week or so. This will allow the light to penetrate the canopy and reach the lower sites and will be replaced within a week."

hey scooby real nice growth and development. Looking very nice. Very healthy looking.
You might consider a little mylar close to the back of your plants to bounce any stray light back in.
Your wall appears white but I think mylar reflects better or at least can be perhaps positioned closer to the plants.
It made a noticeable difference for me, but you have a tighter dispersion angle so might not have much light going wide.

I've been planning on building myself a box like your since the moment I laid eyes on yours. I'm just waiting to finish this run. I may be trading the 126w to someone else and may get 3 of the 63w units. I'm not sure yet and want to figure it out before I take the time to build a box. I'm starting to think that more units off less power are better than less of more power. You can adjust the angle and height of the lights individually than.

 

[Mmmmick]

Thanks!



irishboy, I'm not sure what's right or wrong but this is from the DNA genetics website description of their LA Woman strain:

"Don't be afraid to thin the large fan leaves in the 5th week or so. This will allow the light to penetrate the canopy and reach the lower sites and will be replaced within a week."



I've been planning on building myself a box like your since the moment I laid eyes on yours. I'm just waiting to finish this run. I may be trading the 126w to someone else and may get 3 of the 63w units. I'm not sure yet and want to figure it out before I take the time to build a box. I'm starting to think that more units off less power are better than less of more power. You can adjust the angle and height of the lights individually than.

Understood. Select your lights first then build around them. You might be right about more lower power units, I guess what works is different for everybody. We're all in different environments, growing different strains, some topped,cropped and tied , some not, heheh. Lots of variety.

 

[OldMedMan]

Scooby_Snacks Those plants look great to me.

Think I've been trained too well, I wouldn't dare take off an upper leaf.
Bottom yes, top no. Right now I think they are needed. Take em off later.
Just my humble opinion.

 

[HydroGrowLED]

Around week 3-4 is when I recommend to take off the first top fan leaves. Not all, but enough to let light pass down thoroughly into the plant. Within 3-4 days, they generally fill right back in. From that point on I remove fan leaves on a weekly basis as I see fit. After week 6-7, I leave em alone.

 

[scumbragger]

Around week 3-4 is when I recommend to take off the first top fan leaves. Not all, but enough to let light pass down thoroughly into the plant. Within 3-4 days, they generally fill right back in. From that point on I remove fan leaves on a weekly basis as I see fit. After week 6-7, I leave em alone.

Hey HGL...Never pruned the fan leaves before but since you recommended it, it's your experience, I want to give your lights the best chance possible, and it makes sense...so I asked ledtester to remove away and he probably took half or most of the top fan leaves. We have noticed that things have slowed down the last 3 days so that they can recoop from the chopping.
Hey scoob your plants are looking great!

 

[HydroGrowLED]

Hey HGL...Never pruned the fan leaves before but since you recommended it, it's your experience, I want to give your lights the best chance possible, and it makes sense...so I asked ledtester to remove away and he probably took half or most of the top fan leaves. We have noticed that things have slowed down the last 3 days so that they can recoop from the chopping.
Hey scoob your plants are looking great!

I think I need to post some example photos of what I'm talking about... I'll create a guide with the next journal I post, documenting how I recommend to prune, and when to do it. My plants don't stress out whatsoever, and the buds are nearly the same size from the top to 18" into the plant. Anyhow, there's a method to my madness and I'll explain it in more detail in the days to come, with pictures for everyone.

So Scooby, that's 3 plants under the LED for flower right? And one of them was a bit shorter than the other? They're all looking good so far

 

[Scooby_Snacks]

Hey scoob your plants are looking great!

Starting to get exciting now

Scooby_Snacks Those plants look great to me.

Think I've been trained too well, I wouldn't dare take off an upper leaf.
Bottom yes, top no. Right now I think they are needed. Take em off later.
Just my humble opinion.

The more opinions the better. OMM

Understood. Select your lights first then build around them. You might be right about more lower power units, I guess what works is different for everybody. We're all in different environments, growing different strains, some topped,cropped and tied , some not, heheh. Lots of variety.

I agree. All depends on your style, etc. I think my opinion would be opposite if I was planning on doing a Scog but while I may try one, I don't think it'll even be my main way to grow. For me I'm thinking the additional adjustability of light angle, height and spread is what I want.

 

[Scooby_Snacks]

I think I need to post some example photos of what I'm talking about... I'll create a guide with the next journal I post, documenting how I recommend to prune, and when to do it. My plants don't stress out whatsoever, and the buds are nearly the same size from the top to 18" into the plant. Anyhow, there's a method to my madness and I'll explain it in more detail in the days to come, with pictures for everyone.

So Scooby, that's 3 plants under the LED for flower right? And one of them was a bit shorter than the other? They're all looking good so far

I guide would be greatly appreciated!

3 plants under LED for Flower. I know with a few adjustments next run I can get 3 more comfortably under the light.

WW is more than a bit shorter. I think part of that is the stress early in veg i put her through. She's the back left in all the recent group shots. While she looks the tallest, she is on about a 10" platform while the other 2 plants are on the ground. While she's my shortest, she's also my thickest.

BB - has been under led since I got the unit.

LAW - was moved to the cfl closet and than moved back under LED about a week before flowering.

 

[Scooby_Snacks]

Hey Scooby,

I don't completely agree with HGL's method, although all plants respond differently to pruning, so trim away and observe. I have a tendency to tie and re-position leaves rather then remove them as irishboy mentioned. I believe there's just as many growers that prune and those that would never. See what works for you and let us watch and help!

The only thing I will add to the above suggestions is that you make sure to NOT do all the fan leaf pruning at the same time (i.e. all in one session). That may have been why scummbragger/ledtester's growth rate slowed for a few days. It's best to stagger it over the period of a few days to reduce stress on the plant and allow it to recover from each pruning session. Also, I noticed that most folks work with a '8-week' harvest in mind, however, if your plant takes longer to mature, for example 10 or 11 weeks, then you need to adjust your timing accordingly.

Patience and clean cuts...and the ladies will never notice the missing leaves

Things look nice. The next month will be exciting!

Thanks Andy. I was already there but appreciate you pointing it out. I've missed some obvious stuff in the past. The only plant I had any prior plans of trimming fan leaves on was the LAW and than only because DNA says to. What I was really asking about was trimming all the deformed stuff off the backside of WW (I don't think any are fan leaves, I'll try to get better pics of them). It looks like it's going to come off anyway since it's not getting light. I think I've seen before that if you see branches that are dying or wilting anyway, remove them so the plant doesn't waste any extra energy getting rid of it. I think they were referring to roses, but would think the same premise applies.