Hi, thanks for the critique. Kritical Kush -- European- Barney seed bank. Compact growth 18-22 inches (?) I tried to keep my lights 12- 16" inches away from the top of the canopy. In reviewing my reference, the "gurus" talk about stretch as the plant's reaction to a specific lights color spectrum. My experience is that if I put some CFL bulbs close to the plants, my plants stretch would be less. What I cannot figure out is I am using strictly LEDs; I have more light power on this grow than previous grows, but more stretch! Go figure. I do know that stems elongate during initial flowering, but this is just crazy,. We will have to see.
I turned the CLW Solar Storm to Flower mode when I started my 12/12.
Feit electric CFL 60 watt 2700K (soft white) 3900 lumens. Home Depot purchase. I used 4 of them in an existing hanging light fixture over the vanity sink. I was limited in adjusting the distance from the plant canopy as they grew. I do know however that even this much CFL light could not get under the canopy of the plants, but I did have shorter plants.
This is my third grow of Critical Kush; initially choosing the strain because of its medium height.....however......30" tall is within the published dimensions of the plant 80 to 90 cms. I was not prepared to now ,on a third grow, have plants as tall as they are supposed to be in such a short period of time. I do not think my previous plants were ever this tall...perhaps 24" max at harvest. I do not want to introduce CFLs at this time.....I have no room! and I want to run a clean, uncomplicated grow journal for California Light Works as the discount on the purchase of the light was so generous. I want to live up to my end of the bargain.
I have dreams of awakening to find my plants growing out from under the bathroom door, down the hall, up the stairs and outside the front door searching for light!
One question and a beaten question at best. How do you calculate yield with LED lighting?
Welcome to the journals...sounds like you are having a great experience, like many of us here. Most of us here have noticed exceptional vegging growth with the CLW, and that seems to have included stretching beyond our previous experiences..
SME has mentioned that we should use the actual draw of 330W for calculations rather than the stated 400W.
yeah, i wouldn't bother with adding CFL's now that you have the LED
my first 2 grows were with CFL. one suggestion if you ever use them again is to pick up some 6500K (daylight). i used a mix of 2:1 6500K/2700K for Veg and then 2:1 2700K/6500K for Bloom
the 2700 is more orange and the 6500 is more blue
my limiting factor was always my light source. but CFL's were good to "practice" the art of growing and get every thing else figured out and dialed in. the product was of good quality but quantity was quite limited.
if they keep stretching get some twine to try to tie them down and away from the light.
I wouldn't use CFL's for anything more than rooting cuttings....if that....but that's just me.
Weekly updates would be better but stretching is related to much more than just light spectra.
I've been calculating yield using the amount of watts in flower / grams of dried flowers to get a grams per watt measurement. While it's not the most accurate measure of total performance, it's pretty well accepted and as ICB mentioned, use the actual draw watts not the rated LED watts.
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
Week 8. Will complete the third week of flowering, 12/12 on Wednesday, November 6, 2013.
PH 5.87 PPM 1280 Humidity 53-55% Temp 73.0 I find that the temp in the room slowly increases throughout the day. It is now fall in the state I am in and outside temp today will be a high of 54 degrees.
Water Temp: 73.4
A couple of concerns: yesterday was the start of daylight Savings time. The timers I use automatically took this into consideration and adjusted my my 12/12 cycle......therefore an additional one hour of darkness. Will anything happen?
I cannot adjust the CLW SS any higher than what I have it at. My plants are 28-30 inches tall. I try to slightly adjust the large sun leaves, and am having problems with some of the tips of the leaves started to turn brown and "crispy" no doubt secondary to the heat and close proximity to the light panel. Any suggestions or ideas. There are only approximately 5 or 6 leaves that are involved currently.
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In colder climates you might have to use a heater of some sort if you want to be at the optimum temperatures. There are special controllers that will turn a heater (or AC unit) on and off at specific settings for daytime and nighttime.
The extra hour of dark for DST won't hurt anything.
Your PPM might be a bit high causing burn too but if the plants are too close, about your only option is to tie them down LST style. You never showed us pictures of your whole system so it's hard to give advice on how to improve it next time but you shouldn't be running out of room if they're under 3' tall, which is too tall for LED anyway. Why don't you have more headroom?
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
Attached are photos of my grow room AKA 1/2 bath. My plants are 30" high from the top of the hydro "tub" to the top of the plant. As you will note the CLW light is mounted using pulleys which are now totally compressed. I could remove the pulleys and hang the fixture from it's supplied hooks, however, won't I now be affecting the LED's ability to shine needed light below the canopy? The penetration of the LED is historically difficult at best; If I removed the pulleys and hung the fixture by it's two suppllied hooks, I would gain an additional 8 inches. I am wondering just how much LED light I would loose under the canopy by this adjustment. Food for thought.
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Last edited by Sophieseedwell on Mon Nov 04, 2013 3:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.