Stevehman's Advanced LED's Height Test - 720W - Gigabud - Grow 5.0

[SteveHman]

so if it smells like sum skunk when you harvest, what does it smell like after 30-day cure?

Depends on the strain. The Pineapple Chunk smells sweeter than when I harvested and the caramelicious that's been curing for 6 months has a very pronounced caramel smell now. The curing mellows out some of the harsher tones and converts some of the starches to sugars. It should enhance the complexity of the aroma and flavors.

 

[Siscokid]

Hands down magnificent looking herb and top notch journaling!!

 

[Heisenberg]

wow

 

[SteveHman]

Hands down magnificent looking herb and top notch journaling!!

Sisco, thanks for the compliments, I'm still a work in progress. Wait till you see what I Have planned for next month!

wow

Heisneberg, love your principle! Welcome to 420, lots of great members sharing information for the benefit of all.

 

[SteveHman]

Day 47 in 12/12:

This is the girls last weekend. I plan on putting them into total darkness on Sunday and then Chop on Tuesday. I will get up some pics and wet-weights as I work through the girls. A few are getting very heavy and actually are trying to tip over. Also I am seeing leaves starting to die off. They've been on half-strength nutes for the past week.

I will get in there with the scope as well to get a few shots of the trichs. They're advertised as a 5~6 week flowering strain, I think 7 weeks is the target with them in hydro. This round is smelling much more hashy than last time around. Very sweet-pleasant smell to them.

Here's a few shots of the girls:

I also decided to try a new method of cloning. I know, you're saying "Steve, you have a 60 site ezcloner and have 100% success with it". Well, yes that's true. But I like to try out different methods to see if I can do it. Also, I wanted to find a very low cost solution for those that don't have the funds to buy or make an aero-style cloner.

I started out with a 90 site propagation tray, drain tray and humidity dome. Less than $15 for the setup. I have a few buckets of coco/perlite mix in the garage that I used, cost would be less than $2 for the amount used. I mix a very week nute solution, added a little Great White and some Olivia's in the water and then mixed it thoroughly in a bucket. I think you could do just as well with tap water and a little ST or Olivia's.

I filled the cups of the tray and then packed them down. I took a number of clones form my bonsai moms-in-training and then dipped them in clonex and put them into the tray. I gave them a good spritz of water, put on the dome and under my 2x4 T5HO fixture. I'll let you know how they look after the weekend.

I took 6 each of the Heavy Duty Fruity since they are regular seeds, I don't know if either, both or neither are female. I also took 12 each of the Lucy and the SAGE, they will go into my next chamber grow. (if they root). I could have easily taken 24 clones of of most of the moms, even thought they are small. Topping them frequently helped produce a lot of shoots.

If these don't root for some reason, or I have a low success rate I will fire up the ezcloner next week and start again. Not sure what to do with all of the clones that make it though. I may have to find a home for them.

 

[Magic beans]

Yea, Steve, I was going to ask, if/when those clones root, what will you do with them? Start up some hempys possibly? or take them to your medshop and sell them for $10 a piece? either way thats an interesting approach to cloning. It will let them rootbound for a little bit, thus starting them off with stout, dense growth. my prediction at least. Cool bro.

 

[SteveHman]

The plan is for ten each of the SAGE and Lucy to go into the NFT for another test run and then four each of the Ultimate and the Heavy Duty Fruity to go into the air pots in the tent for a max yield run (should be a good one--thinking four of the 300w Diamond Series in a 4x4 tent).

They are closing down dispensaries here like crazy, so it will be mostly delivery services and other such ways to get meds out. Not looking forward to that new landscape.

 

[Hosebomber]

Are the owners closing them on their own or is it LEO and the Feds doing it?

Just my luck I finally get moved out here where I can test my lights on the product they will be most used on and they start cracking down on it before I finish getting moved in.

 

[Heisenberg]

Are the owners closing them on their own or is it LEO and the Feds doing it?

What I heard is the Feds sent out letters to all dispensaries in California basically saying shut down or we are coming for you. My local dispensary closes on Wednesday.

 

[Magic beans]

So much for progress. @$$holes. We were doing so well too. For real, are they going to shut down the liquor stores too? Tobacco shops? My grannys bakery? Cmon leo wtf is the problem? Are you not getting many hours due to not being able to bust harmless innocent people? Glad im not in SD. Ridiculous. Even though im not thete im still outraged. Why are people so unreasonable. I mean really why must smoking herbs from a natural plant be frowned down upon while smoking sticks with arsenic and rat poison added is perfectly legal and very common. I dont know about you guys but an ex smoker and whenever i smell a cig being smoked i am not tempted but feel like i want to throw up. ive taken breaks from weed and everytime i smelt the smoke of some great ganja, my mouth watered. Yea i know, me saying this will change nothing, i just wanted to blow that steam. Sorry to taint your journal, steve.

 

[Twelve12]

Thanks Steve for the drying/curing info. Always interested to know how each growers does it differently. It seemed I always get the grassy/hay smell. After 1 month of curing the original bud smell (live bud) never came back. Drying in dark closet with some ventilation with 75-80F and 40-45RH.

Interesting to see you're trying out new way of cloning. My veg tent is overgrown and I had to do something similar, with 100% coco coir same setup as yours and it seem to help maintain good height for moms in the tent. It will work, just takes longer, and require more care (misting the dome daily and checking the medium for dryness).

 

[Vapedogg223]

Thanks Steve for the drying/curing info. Always interested to know how each growers does it differently. It seemed I always get the grassy/hay smell. After 1 month of curing the original bud smell (live bud) never came back. Drying in dark closet with some ventilation with 75-80F and 40-45RH.

Interesting to see you're trying out new way of cloning. My veg tent is overgrown and I had to do something similar, with 100% coco coir same setup as yours and it seem to help maintain good height for moms in the tent. It will work, just takes longer, and require more care (misting the dome daily and checking the medium for dryness).

I'm always interested in the different methods of drying and curing myself.

For me, finding good info on the best way to trim, dry and cure was one of the biggest challenges. It was also the most stressful part of my grows. Months of work...a huge investment in time and money can be rendered useless very quickly in a worst case scenario with mold, or if you're lucky, you might just end up hurting the overall quality of the smell, taste and even high.

I came to understand that you have to dry it slowly enough so the plant's metabolic processes continue and slowly come to a halt after harvest. The slower you can dry without mold, the better the finished product comes out. It's a bit of a tightrope walk.

I am very happy with how things turned out with my harvests, but I don't think one should ever stop trying to learn how to improve.

 

[SteveHman]

Got back after another weekend out of town and the girls are looking fine. I have them in total darkness until I chop them tomorrow. Here are a few pics of them without the LEDs over-driving the camera:

And here are the cuttings in the propagation tray after 3 days. Plenty of humidity in there and no signs of wilting, which is good.

I'll have updates of the chop through out the day(s) as I get it done.

 

[Bassman59]

Looking awesome. Soon we get height results! I can hardly wait.

 

[Propa Gator]

...the girls are looking fine.

They are phat Goddesses

 

[cjc2057]

I've spent the past few days reading all of your journals in awe What a tremendous and inventive grower! Your grow is actually the reason that I've recently joined 420mag. I was doing research on what type of LED light I should purchase and stumbled on a link to one of your grows. I'm amazed at the wealth of knowledge and details you've managed to pack into your grow reports! Thank you for inspiring me to take the plunge and give LED lights a try.

Can't wait to see the yield breakdown after harvest. And also, thank you for sharing your know how with the rest of us normal folks. Maybe someday soon I'll get the chance to post my own "Stevehman-esque" grow. It'll be my first grow so I'm planning on keeping it simple, crossing my fingers, and getting ready to learn. Just had to stop by and say what a fan I am. May your PH level never stray out of zone and may your reservoir always stay chill.

 

[Mr. Krip]

Those buds look fantastic, Bro!

Another aweesome grow showing the power of LED's!

 

[SteveHman]

I've spent the past few days reading all of your journals in awe What a tremendous and inventive grower! Your grow is actually the reason that I've recently joined 420mag. I was doing research on what type of LED light I should purchase and stumbled on a link to one of your grows. I'm amazed at the wealth of knowledge and details you've managed to pack into your grow reports! Thank you for inspiring me to take the plunge and give LED lights a try.

Can't wait to see the yield breakdown after harvest. And also, thank you for sharing your know how with the rest of us normal folks. Maybe someday soon I'll get the chance to post my own "Stevehman-esque" grow. It'll be my first grow so I'm planning on keeping it simple, crossing my fingers, and getting ready to learn. Just had to stop by and say what a fan I am. May your PH level never stray out of zone and may your reservoir always stay chill.

CJC,
Thanks for the kind words, and welcome to 420. Lots of great information in the forums. Once you get your journal up and running send me a link.

 

[SteveHman]

Yesterday was chop day. I was up until past 2:00 AM this morning--I need a trimmer soon.

Here are the prelim numbers. I will update with actual dry weights once t the buds are dried:

Based on these number I would recommend a height in the range of 18~22 above the canopy for the Advanced Extreme Flower lights. I haven't done a height test on the Diamond Series but would increase those numbers by 4 inches because of their intensity.

I would have had a higher total weight if I didn't just toss out most of the smaller popcorn buds. I got so tired of trimming I tossed everything smaller than a pea.

I know everyone is looking for a gram-per-wattage number. In this space those numbers are not an accurate metric. The space is only 11.3 square feet, I had close to 1,000 total watts of light in there (300w X 3). I have an estimated dry weight of 583 grams. If I had used three 200watt DS lights I think I would have had the same or better yield because the DS has better penetration.

The breeder advertises a yield of 500 gr per square meter, which equals 46.45 grams per square foot. With the project dry weight 583 grams in 11.3 sq ft nets 51.6 gr per foot. The gram per watt on 900 watts of light is about .67 gr-per-watt. Like I said, if I used the 200w DS lights I would be hovering closer to the 1gr-per-wt goal.

Here are a few shots of the chop:

I could have chopped a few days-week earlier. This was day 50, I think day 45 should be the target for Gigabud. I'll get some pics of the dried buds with their weights in a few days.

 

[Mr. Krip]

Congrat's on the harvest, Bro!

Great reporting on the stats, too! +REPS!!!