SisterMaryElephant wrote:

gr865 wrote:Yes you are right, when i raised composting worms I had to learn Patiance, Moderation and Diversity. At one point i had over 600 lbs of worms in bedding.

I think I have 6 lbs in my C.O.W...

How old is the COW and how many layers? I started with 8 lbs and when I harvested all the layers prior to my move I had 27lbs of worms. I had the COW and 42 OSCR'S, i gave most of them to the Boy and Girl Scouts in the area when I moved out of California.

I only have the one COW now, and i neglect it, it still thrives.

The COW, itself, is old but I had to repopulate it. I only added .5 lb about 4 months ago; still 1 tier. I haven't been feeding it enough to sustain full herd growth but they'll eat the coco bedding too. They did love the pumpkin I gave it after Halloween and I have another that I should feed to them soon.

SisterMaryElephant wrote:The COW, itself, is old but I had to repopulate it. I only added .5 lb about 4 months ago; still 1 tier. I haven't been feeding it enough to sustain full herd growth but they'll eat the coco bedding too. They did love the pumpkin I gave it after Halloween and I have another that I should feed to them soon.

SME,

Back during my herding days, lol, i would collect all the pumpkins from work, they used as decorations in the club house, and also from my neighbors. I had a large commercial food grinder, could chop about 20 lbs of good scraps at a time. I would proceed ask the pumpkins and freeze the 5 lb bags, then add it to the other feed stocks. To feed 40 plus bins took around 25 to 40 lbs of food stock every 5 to 7 days. I had made an agreement with my local Safeway to go through their old veggies bins and get the food stock for my herd, apple's, and other fruits, all types of lettuce, and most all greenery. I did learn my lesson on cabbage when i forgot my own rule, Patience, Moderation and Diversity. I processed about 60 heads of cabbage and put to much in straight without mixing it with other food stock and damn those bins stunk for at least a month.
I wish I still had that foor processor/grinder. It sure made feed easy.

Oh this forum is supposed to be about LED lights, lol.

GR

Hi y'all,
Still don't have my new laptop but wanted to post some final pics of the Querkle grow, i think I posted the yield.
Q2 - 3.5 zips buds, 1 - zip shake but mostly popcorn bud. Final plant height 26 inches.
Q2D - 2 zips buds, under 1 zip shake and popcorn. Final plant height 24".
The difference between the two was:
Length of vegging, Q2 vegged four weeks longer than Q2D.
Q2 was mainline, Q2D was not.

Was very happy with the grow.
The SS400 worked better than I expected. It was great for vegging and it did a good job during flower. I would have to agree with SME that under a 600W HID the buds may have been thicker and the yield a little larger but for the energy cost and the footprint made it a good grow. I am very happy with this grow and am going to keep the light.

Her are just a few of the final pics, will post more when I get my laptop.




Have started my new grow, will try to journal it but I am entering my busy season and i will be very busy. I am a one man shop and only have a 7 month season so i have to make hay while the sun shines.
Here are just a few pics of the new grow.

Meet White Widow from Amsterdam Seeds and Ice from Nirvana Seeds.
They were germed at the end of December and went under the SS400 the first week of January.
Ice and the White Widow are both now mainlined for 8 and Ice2 is still mainlined for 4 but will be pruning for 8 this week. These pictures are of all the plants pruned to 4 shoots.
I have clones of Ice and White Widow that i will use as mother plants should I like this grow and may want to do a DOG on my next grow.





Peace out
GR

Please start a new topic for your new journal so people aren't confused when one ended and the other started.

Q2D would have had a lot more yield if it had the extra 4 weeks in veg...

I disagree about the yield vs cost bit though. Due to the high cost of mj, the energy costs would have easily been offset by nearly double the yield and the better density, imho. If you were worried about energy costs you wouldn't want to mainline which requires an extra 4+ weeks of vegging. Now, if all you have is a 2x3 area then the SS400w *is* a decent light for that but a 400w HID would be too.

Your quality looks awesome, good pictures. For an LED light I have to say that I am impressed with the CLW products, I just wish they had more powerful diodes to deal with the penetration issue.

SME,

I will start a new journal if I time to do so.

I agree, Q2D would have done better with the extra veg time, but i am not disappointed for what i had.

I did 5 zips of buds plus the popcorn and since I only grow for myself two grows at this yield and quality will easily get me through till my next grow is finished. So yield vs cost is really not am issue. Since i only have the one cabinet i think this light is perfect for it. I had very minor issues with the heat, just can't do a summer grow, so two harvest maybe three will be plenty. I will also start my plants earlier under T5's while I have flowering plants in the cabinet. Having them mainlined and ready to go into the cabinet will help a lot also. I believe that by mainlining and having the plants open up in the middle I will get better growth and yield.

I think CLW will be buildings a 10W diode light soon.
Thanks for the comment on the pictures and thanks for your help and positive comment and suggestion, they all really helped. I do feel this next grow will be better.

Peace out,

GR

Yeah but if you can make due with 2 grows with the SS then you might only need one with a light that's twice as powerful...like a 600w HPS, that's the point.

I'm not trying to talk anyone out of buying CLW lights, they make a good product, it's just LED aren't as good as manufacturers claim. LED is good, HID is just better for flowering. When you get down to tiny HPS lights, below 250w maybe, 5w LED might actually be better though.

I'd like to see 10+w diodes in a CLW light...

I hope they upgrade/retrofit our units with 10 watters. Or let us trade these in on them.

rkymtnman wrote:I hope they upgrade/retrofit our units with 10 watters. Or let us trade these in on them.

That would be a miracle but I wouldn't hold your breath. I bet they'll be very expensive too. Either way, there are no 10+w diodes yet...

Hey Guys,

GR, love the pics of both the new ladies and the finished buds from your last harvest. They really look frosty as hell...and colorful too! I decided to mainline my clones I have now (as long as they root!), because I just turned to 12/12 with my main grow, and will have 8-9 weeks to veg them...so plenty of time for the experiment!

As I have never used any HID lights to grow, and my limited experience includes fluorescent and LED, I can't make comparisons like you guys can. However, I'd like to agree that this SS400 works very well for the small scale, individual medical grower. Minimal electrical expense, a modest heat signature, and the smaller footprint of this light is a good match for the small number of plants one can grow at a time due to legal restrictions.

If they went with a 10w diode, I wonder what impact it would have to the heat/energy consumption/price...pretty sure they would all go up? Personally, I'm not sure it would be worth the extra output...and not even sure I would need it.

Cheers !
ICB