Spec420's Soil Lemon Sour Diesel LED Grow

[Spec420]

1/24/18 Update - Small one
Looks like all the girls are happy and settling in...

Blue Cheese

Lemon Sour Diesel

Temps holding at 75 degrees. No smell in garage, lots in the tent when opened.
Cruising now for a while....

 

[Tony Urban]

Looking good Spec!

 

[PhobosAnomaly]

No smells are good smells. Mrs. A walked in the house earlier and knew exactly what I was up too.

 

[TheFertilizer]

Soil grow - Question about plant water consumption

Hey bud, just read your post in the Problems section... A little time has gone by but I just figured I'd come look at your journal. Looks like you figured out you needed those in bigger pots. I generally transplant once a plant becomes about as wide as its pot is around, at least in the early stages. By that point the roots generally get down to the bottom, and you'll start getting root-bind issues that basically start as mysterious yellowing, ruffled looking droopy leaves, and eventually brown/necrotic spots.

Anyway, looks like they perked up really nice after the transplant! Good job. I like Happy Frog, I didn't care for Ocean Forrest so much--be careful if you decide to pot up into that stuff, it's got more nutrients than Happy Frog, so you might not need as much supplemental nutrients with it. I've personally done a few grows totally with Happy Frog and think it's fine on its own.

Also wanted to sub your journal Cool grow

 

[CoralineJones]

subbed

 

[Ripe1]

I have to agree with Mr.A. up there. Tell you cute little ladies Ripe1 said "Heeeey!"

 

[Spec420]

TheFertilizer - Thanks for the great information. Lessons learned for the next round! I guess people do read other parts of the forums. Thanks so much for getting back to me on the original question.

Welcome to the party CoralineJones! Happy to have you here!

Always nice to see your comments Ripe1 - plants "gently wave" back

 

[Ripe1]

I think they like me.

 

[Spec420]

Checked on the girls today and everything looks great...They are reaching and the Blue Cheese are looking happy.
I will take some pics tomorrow.

Thoughts for tonight...I am building a 10x16 "Shed" and thinking I will split one side into 3 - 5x5's and run a perpetual out of those three rooms. I will also have a cloning room to supply the 3 5x5's. Each room will only flower 5 plants at a time so that I stay compliant with my 15 max plant rule. (I'll take the heat on seedlings and clones....) I want to build COB lighting for each 5x5. I have been doing all sorts of research, looking at YouTube vids, reading the DIY articles here, etc...Hell I have a minor in Electronics from way back, but I am a little stumped when it comes to being able to be up to date on this tech. I get matching the drivers to the proper number of COBS for efficiency, but can somebody help me build what I am looking for without breaking the bank? I have looked at "kits" from a few companies and the price to cover a 5x5 seems really high. I hope the power savings is really worth it. Speaking of which, I need to get a Kill-a-Watt and look at how much power I am pulling with my current LED. Lots to think about.

 

[philthegeek]

Spec me mate!! I have played around a bit over the last few months with the cheap, driver-less 50W led COB chips from China.

Actually for a work project. My take is that for a small area they may be ok. Cheap enough to be able to have a few spares.

Had two fail so far out of the 16 i bought. Failure popped the RCD i had them plugged in through.

Set up one unit like this.

As a test piece. Gets hot fast if that fan not running.

Also set up this:

And actually did run it as a grow light in my tent a while. Till a chip failed and popped a circuit breaker. Again, gets hot without the fans. Needs active cooling. Its currently running 12/12 on a small project at work and has been fine for the last couple of weeks.

Light output?? Tests i did a while ago. Used PAR meter.

600W Lucagrow HPS
Ambient PAR for test 003


@ 400mm 1067 umols


50W COB 1 chip Unit Draws 86W
Ambient PAR for test 011 Stable temp 40 Degrees C

@300mm 146 umols


200W COB 4 chip Unit Draws 298W
Ambient PAR for test 011 Stable temp 68 Degrees C

@ 300mm 360 umols


@ 420mm i get 487 umols out of the 2 COB "600W" unit i got off eBay for a bit over half the power draw of my DIY effort.


So........my advice is avoid the driverless, plug straight in AC type chips. Cheap, but even the bottom end of the eBay / off the shelf COB units are i think better value overall.

Safety issues as well. I made sure to enclose everything so i cant get zapped and, hopefully, not burn the shed or my workplace down. Manager frown on that kind of event. Tested with the light meter and a layer of perspex for the chip to output light through makes no practical difference to available output.

I have seen some VERY dodgy brothers DIY electrical setups around the forums.

anyhow, sounds like you are headed to a nice setup. good luck.

 

[Ripe1]

Man I wish I was that smart! ^^^ Ya know, for a bunch of unmotivated potheads, you guys sure are a bunch of motivated geniuses. If only Nixon could see you guys. He'd be pissed and have you all killed. Not me though. LOL! I am not as smart as you guys. Good Morning Spec! How are the Ladies?

 

[Spec420]

Good Morning Ripe1 and friends!!!
01/27/18 Update - Still vegging

I looked in on the plants yesterday and they looked good. Nice and green with leaves not drooping. I did notice a little burn on the tips so decided to use water only for feeding today. I took pics and then used 5gal of PH'd water to feed the girls.

Blue Cheese - They are starting to put on some shape and have caught up to the height of the LSD's. I am looking for just a little more structure before I flip.

The LSD are looking nice. I need to do some tying back of some branches, but they look happy right now.

Temps holding at 75 degrees and I am smiling back at my plants.

Happy Saturday my friends!

 

[philthegeek]

Happy Plants mr Spec.

One thing wanted to mention is that some people seem to be using the LED strip lighting. The LED strips come in warm and cool white types.

Now the "burple" plant growth chips work fer sure. But....the the spectrum they output over is biased to blue and red ends of the spectra.

There is a body of opinion out there that some yellow / green is used for mediating how the photosynthetic pathways using the blue or red ends of the spectrum work. Dont need lots of it in terms of intensity, but need some. Its a bit like how even minor light pollution levels at the red end of the spectrum can affect how plants trigger into flowering mode when they are flipped to 12 / 12. If you have used CFL's you would know all about color temp.

Reference below i found useful when i was first looking at this. Tells you what the model numbers mean.

What are the differences between types of LED chip?

Anyway, if you are setting up LED's from scratch, may be worth doing some reading around the place, and maybe considering getting some warm AND cool white emitters into the mix. That LED strip lighting is cheap and reliable.

Other threads i know of:

Build Your Own LED Grow Light

Rider's first foray into LED strip lighting - Samsung H Series GEN3

Hmmmmmm........I actually have a few meters of 5050 chip strips, and a pile of computer power supplies that have 12v outputs.

May get some aluminium sheet and see what can come up with that i can test for output with the PAR meter.

 

[Spec420]

Good stuff phil....I have been thought both of those threads. Good reads.
Thanks for the info!

 

[Ripe1]

Hiding in the bush, practicing my plant voyeur skills. Just trying to get a peek at the gir...shit! I think someone saw me. Gotta run!

 

[Spec420]

01/31/18 - Update - Still in Veg but looking great!!!

So now that I have had a little bit of time with the environment dialed in, I am seeing big results in my girls.
I opened the tent today and was blown away.

Lemme fire a bowl real quick......

Alright then....Blue Cheese
I am not expecting much from these this grow. I really want to just take some good clones so that next round I can start with others the same size and give them the proper care from the beginning.

The Lemon Sour Diesel are blowing up....

The Happy Family Photo

And....

Hope everybody has a wonderful day...

 

[Ripe1]

Oh my... Oh my! Color looks great in there. They are getting a little darker now. Taller too. Hey there ya little sweet faces! Nice Spec! I'll trade you tents.

 

[Spec420]

Oh my... Oh my! Color looks great in there. They are getting a little darker now. Taller too. Hey there ya little sweet faces! Nice Spec! I'll trade you tents.

Thanks a ton Ripe1.....I popped over to your journal and have not seen any pics since the bugs....how goes?

 

[philthegeek]

Those are happy plants spec. well done.

 

[GlaucomaMeds]

They are looking great dude! Good effort! That Blue cheese is going to be killer. Its such an awesome strain ..