Vladimir's - Coco - Acapulco Gold - Flux - CMH 150W

[lexort420]

Hey vlad just got done reading through your journal so now im all caught up. I like what ive seen keep up the great work!

 

[VladimirPutin]

Cheers Mr. TSoul :

Welcome back Lex it's nice to have you watching

So my 3 beautiful "mystery" punto rojo clones stabbed me in the heart today when a pre-banana sack showed up.

I trashed them : ( Flushed away to a Toilet Galaxy far far away

No big deal though. I expected to find some males.

And I took those clones without knowing the actual sex of the parent.

As a result, I got to "dissect" the males' root systems and see how my watering tendencies are doing for my plants.

Never a waste...

 

[millertm]

Very clean and bright in your place. Saving my cash now for the Phantom II CMH 315 watt, ($190), I'm down with CMH, however, what are you flowering with the 4200K or 3100K?

Cheers

Sent from my SPH-L720T using 420

 

[VladimirPutin]

Hi Miller,

I could only find 4000K in the power output I wanted. CRI 92.
They say that the higher the CRI the more UV and IR you will get as a result.

V

EDIT: picking up a new vaporizer for me tomorrow. A DGK G Pro.

Yea I know I've heard it's not the best because of materials and workmanship but after a good "burn in " period of running the unit empty for a battery cycle or so the plastic odor will disappear.

As for the build quality, well the heaters themselves have not failed from regular flower use, just connections on the main board requiring a quick re-solder.

I tried one today and it produces mad clouds much better than my mflb

If battery life were an issue there's always USB powerbank to take on the road to keep it charged.

It was free anyway

 

[Dennise]

 

[420Amard]

New toys are always fun
I got a vaporizer that I never use it work fine but I still just smoke away lol

 

[VladimirPutin]

If you're into electronics and taking things apart then the one I got gifted to me is a great one that's cheap and makes excellent clouds, turning the ganja uniformly brown. The chamber holds 0.6grams of bud. Tastey, no blunt could match the taste of vapor.
But that vape I'm not promoting. Maybe I'll do a pictorial review of the breakdown I did on the internal parts.
Finally I've broken through that tolerance barrier and I can get as high as the shooting stars.

I just came to post that a seed I planned to sprout accidentally fell into the vape along with the weed.
Came out toasty so I ate it and it was delicious.
This makes me think about the prospect of growing ganja for nutritional benefit. Roasted cannabis seeds could be the next caviar.

 

[photos]

i eat seeds LOL like pistachios!

 

[VladimirPutin]

Friday is starting to look better around Vlad's growing chamber.

On a whim I decided to take out the 4000K MH 400W and put in my crappiest bulb, a generic 6500K 400W with unknown amount of hours on it.

The plants love it, weird. I knew the 4000K was crap for MH. It's going to be just a couple weeks until my 1K CMH shows up.

Uhhh the plants were still kind of struggling last week. I believe the PH was way too low in the feed reservoir (4.8-5.0) and that locked out the mag giving the classic deficiency symptoms.

I mixed a new res last night and keeping it at 5.5 so full speed ahead now. PPM 700

The seedlings get half strength.

 

[millertm]

Looking ok post lockout. Hydro can be unstable early on as is feeding young plants. I have issues in veg getting pH low enough without bloom nutes. At least in veg your ladies will bounce back quick. Here is a shot of the Xtrasun HPS spectrum, these lamps are very cost effective.

The blue outshines the 620+ nm colors, lacking the red I'm used to but kills it from 450 to 550 nm.

Cheers

Sent from my SPH-L720T using 420

 

[VladimirPutin]

Thanks for the chart MT and the positive review of this new outcome

As for the growth, the key part to getting into the vigorish growth state is getting good roots.

I've been patient to not over water but sometimes when the top 3" or so layer of coco gets too dry the plants start to look sad. They Perked right up 8 hours after being fed and changing light to 6500K.

I'm able to run 600 watts in that space now no more issues. The 1kw cmh will go in a different room.
Then I will reach the zen state of my legal indoor operation.

The research is out there hidden beneath marketing but I believe the heavy blue and UV bands of the MH are helping roots. The 4000K and warm white MH are crap, IMO. I mean I have them all now and the best of the best is still the CMH, just 150W is too weak unless I buy a bunch of them and use them like CFL people do. But that's just too nutty for Vlad to commit to.

Already Explodey has roots protruding around her 1 gallon pot. Kind of tempting to move her into 3 gallons but I'm not keen to wait too much longer before wanting to smoke my own elite buds again

SO this is it. Only a short while before the recovery clinic is taken down forever and into flower we shall go!!

Vlad.

 

[TorturedSoul]

On a whim I decided to take out the 4000K MH 400W and put in my crappiest bulb, a generic 6500K 400W with unknown amount of hours on it.

The plants love it, weird. I knew the 4000K was crap for MH.

The last time I used a 400-watt MH... I had a few small plants under low (under 250) watts' of CFL, and was unhappy with their slow rate of growth. I only had one 400-watt bulb and it was a (supposedly - IDK) "high-PAR" HPS one that I wished to save for flowering, so I ran to the nearest hardware-themed department store (it was either a Lowes or Home Depot) and bought "the" 400-watt MH that they had on offer, as it was Sunday evening and the local electrical supply house was closed (and there isn't a hydroponics / indoor gardening store within 100+ miles :sad: ). I got home, pulled out a 400-watt HID setup, hung it, installed the bulb, fired it up, waited... waited... waited... After about ten days I came to the conclusion that the plants, instead of growing at an increased rate, had more or less stopped growing, lol. IDK if it was a case of poor spectrum, too much UV, or what. I had initially ran the bulb at 250 watts, but increased the power output to 400 watts a few days later (and around day eight or nine, I increased it to the "super" setting, maybe 440 or 450 watts). I am not positive at this point in time, but I'm thinking that the bulb had a 4,200K color temperature rating. I would like to get another 6,500K MH one of these days, either 250- or 400-watt. I always had decent results with them.

If I still had the old Sun Circle multi-light mover gizmo, I might like to stick a couple of 1Kw HPS on it and one 600-watt MH that had a 10,000K color temperature rating, just to see if I could observe any differences in growth characteristics from when I used the 6,500K. (BtW, a Sun Circle is a colossal pain in the @ss to set up, requires regular maintenance - which cannot be accomplished with everything still attached and hanging from the ceiling - and I wouldn't recommend it.)

Here is a shot of the Xtrasun HPS spectrum, these lamps are very cost effective.

The blue outshines the 620+ nm colors, lacking the red I'm used to but kills it from 450 to 550 nm.

In the "400-watt class," I had the best luck with 430-watt bulbs. They had additional blue. I think they were called Son-Agro Planta-T but am not willing to swear to it (too many years, too many expired brain cells). The increase in yield was more than the additional 30 watts would lead one to expect, and it seemed that buds were denser than otherwise, with shorter internodal spacing as well. But they were all running on C&C (aka "magnetic") 430-watt (NOT 400-watt) ballasts, which cost me more and were harder to find at the time. Still, for only 30 additional watts (or so) of electrical usage per setup, they were what I would consider to be a great value. I once thought about trying to find one and see if it would work on a Lumatek 400-watt ballast on the "super lumen" setting, which would only be slightly more than the bulb's rated output (and, I think, within the allowable safety margin).

Err... I'm just rambling.

 

[millertm]

Odd, 430 is a conversation bulb and I was tempted to get one since I run my 400 at 420 anyway (when Temps allow). I believe it's a MH bulb with pulse start (not probe, gives wider spectrum WO probe). UVB will stunt plant growth, allowing roots to outgrow foliage and resulting in tight node stacking. MH has better PAR energy but is blue heavy and red light is weighted double over blue which is why HPS has higher PAR rating. CCI is in 20's, poor sun representation. Vlad's CMH are in the 90's with superior PAR energy. But the drawback is heat. ARC tube runs hotter with increasing CCI and 315 watts is more like a 750 HPS for heat BTU's. With summer here, high watts are a dream for now.

Cheers

Sent from my SPH-L720T using 420

 

[TorturedSoul]

Odd, 430 is a conversation bulb

Err... I assume you mean conversion bulb, lol (that 420 thing...). The 400-watt conversion bulbs I've seen were 360-watt output. <SCRATCHES HEAD> I wouldn't expect to see a conversion bulb rated for a higher wattage than the rated wattage of the vast majority of the ballasts that one would be expected to use them with.

No, the bulb I described in my previous post was an honest HPS bulb, meant for an actual HPS ballast. Both the bulbs and the ballasts were 430-watt. Bright as <BLEEP> (for a bulb of that wattage, I mean). Seems like, instead of just being a slightly higher-wattage bulb that was formulated to give a slightly higher color temperature, they had a "blue element." Maybe not (again, it has been a long time). IIRC, instead of just coming on and then increasing in brightness... these would come on and you'd think, "Well, that's not quite as bright as I expected from 430 watts, but it sure is blue." And then a few (several?) seconds later, the bulb would really come on and you'd think, "Wow, that's bright. And it's not nearly so blue now." And then, lol, it would increase in brightness and you wouldn't really be able to tell that it had an extra blue component at all (but the plants could ).

UVB will stunt plant growth, allowing roots to outgrow foliage and resulting in tight node stacking.

UV-B does many things, including increase flavonoid production (which, itself, does many things - including (probably, IMO) make cannabis healthier to eat, lol) in just about every species of plant that has been experimented upon to determine what effects UV-A, -B, and -C radiation have on them. In case you, VladimirPutin, or anyone else reading this is/are interested, here are a couple of links to .PDFs:
https://www.plantcell.org/content/4/11/1353.full.pdf
https://www.agriculturejournals.cz/publicFiles/52840.pdf

If you wish to add UV-B radiation to your illumination, you can walk into just about any pet store that carries reptile supplies and buy a fluorescent reptile bulb (many stores will have several to choose from, since different reptiles need slightly different wavelengths, IIRC). It doesn't really take a great deal of wattage, since it isn't a "general spectrum" bulb. I would recommend placing it on a separate timer so that you can allow a period of "not on" at both the beginning and end of your other lights' cycle, but that's just me. You'd have to form your own strategy, because I am not an expert and, therefore, cannot say whether or not this is the best way to go.

runs hotter with increasing CCI and 315 watts is more like a 750 HPS for heat BTU's. With summer here, high watts are a dream for now.

Yikes. I know that metal halide in general seems to be hotter than high pressure sodium, but a 750-watt HPS bulb is HOT when it is running.

 

[VladimirPutin]

Hello Comrades - Saturday Update

Temps are nice - 77 F 60 RH

Running just 400 watts at the moment to keep the space comfy

Fed plants, 750 PPM .

 

[photos]

nice vlad , getting bigger now

 

[millertm]

Morning Comrade, being a Coco based grow there is an inherent need for added Ca/Mg. I'm seeing an abundance of ferts based on leaf tips, but I'm not sure the correct ratio of ferts are being used. I'd like to see a bit more green on edges of new growth and a flatter leaf surface. Some older growth is clawed but it's not a big concern at thus time. I'd add a Ca/Mg nute, or some Epson salt (1/2 tsp, gal) with my feed. But it will push up PH, non flower feeds are base heavy and need to be monitored closely. You got lots of good looking plants going and in another 70 days you'll be happy.

Cheers

Sent from my SPH-L720T using 420

 

[VladimirPutin]

Happy Sunday Photos and Miller

Right now I have approx 50 ppm Mag and 110 ppm Cal in the latest mix.

Last week I was still feeding plants @ 4.8 ph because runoff always came back high. That was my fault.
According to hydroponic nutrient charts, Mag locks out below 5.0
Anyway since this week I've started feeding at 5.5 ph and it's only been 4 or so days since I've made that correction.

I will keep monitoring the situation and will see about changing some nute ratios for next weeek if necessary.

Cheers Comrades

Here is one plant that may prove that now everything is tuned the way it should be :

Frutas Frescas started being fed this week with the new nutrient solution and seems happy without deficiency

And of course Explodey 3, she's been through a lot:

PS I was excited about the CMH but now I am not. The risk of bulbs arriving to where I am (far far away) broken and many reports from growers saying that veg was great but bloom was as good or worse than HPS made me rethink my own ways a little bit.

Vlad is going for the LED and it's going to be a 1000W max real power unit with active cooling.
DIY, home made power supply, 2 x 500W cobs and 2 Glass 100mm 60 degree lenses. I will probably only run it at 650 Watts this first go.

Going to try to leave Explodey with a healthy canopy then just dump her off to the orange glow of HPS 400W for 12/12 phase while I wait for the china freight to deliver my goods in God knows how many weeks.

Peace

 

[lexort420]

Looks good vlad and sounds like you fixed the ph. I ph my feed to 5.5-5.6 roughly in my hempys seems to do alright that way.

 

[millertm]

Morning Vladimir, great job on Ca/Mg, high PH is my veg issues, funny how substrate changes growing conditions. I was asking about color temp earlier (3k vs 4.2K) here, 4200K is ran full cycle as side lighting. HPS still runs (DE) but 4 2K supplemental lighting is were they shine. Not much luck flowering under 3K. And 4.2K give small flowers due to low wattage.

Cheers

Sent from my SPH-L720T using 420