LED Grow Light Forum

This is my second indoor grow. The first grow was one plant using a 120 watt actual power Chinese made light with a light configuration for blooming (lots of red). I created a grow space of 30 inches square in a closet with ventilation. That's a total floor space of 6.25 square feet. (I am out for quality, not quantity.)

The strain was Golden Goat grown in potting soil. I added a 42 watt 6500 K fluorescent light during the vegetative growth to provide additional blue light. Lights were on for 18 hours per day. It took 2 months for the plant to reach 11 inches where I switched to 12 hours to induce flowering. (I am not sure I had the best soil.) It took an additional 82 days to get to the point where the trichomes started to turn cloudy. The plant was 17 inches tall when it was harvested (took 2 1/2 months to grow 6 inches during harvest). The LED grow light was kept only a couple of inches above the plant. For this strain I had expected 70 to 77 days. The plant looked good. I got a total wet yield off the plant of 4.8 ounces and a dry yield of 1.1 ounces. The buds seems wispy. I had expected about a 3:1 reduction in weight on harvest. In researching this I came to the conclusion that I simply did not have enough photons to produce the heavy buds I was looking for. The taste of the smoke and the quality of the high however, did not disappoint.

In summary, the Chinese LED light did produce a small plant but very light weight. My conclusion was that the frequencies of the LEDs were correct but not enough power or penetration. I don't know how efficient this light was. I suspect that the LEDs do not have any lenses that focus the light down which would have helped with penetration.

Now on to my second grow. Since I had a relatively small plant for my space, I decided to try growing three plants at the same time. I started the grow with the same Chinese LED and 42 watt fluorescent light during the vegetative stage. For blooming I decided to upgrade my LED light and purchases a California Light Works (CLW) 400 watt Solar Storm LED light (345 actual watts). I am expecting better results with this light having an actual power almost 3 times as great. I also believe that the lenses on the CLW light will give me greater light penetration. So maybe this light will be 5 times more effective light.

For my three plants I have 3 different strains:
Golden Goat gown in potting soil
Acapulco Gold in hydroponics
Critical Mass in potting soil

For the second grow I wanted to test out a hydroponic system called Deep Water Culture ("Bubbler"). This technique uses a 5 gallon bucket with the plant in a 6 inch bucket basket lid filled with clay pellets. In the bucket is an air stone connected to a small air pump like those found for aquariums. This keeps the water saturated with oxygen. This provides a great ability to control the grow medium and great availability of nutrients to the roots.

On February 4th I replaced the Chinese Light and the 42 watt fluorescent with a 400 watt CLW solar storm. ON this date I switched from 18 hours per day to 12 to induce flowering. The plants at this time had the following heights and days since the plants were either seeded or cloned:
Golden Goat 10.5 inches day 35
Acapulco Gold 9.0 inches day 48

The Critical Mass plant was only on day 28 and had only achieved a height of 2.75 inches so it is being kept on a 18 hour light schedule to keep it in vegetative growth. The Critical Mass plant has a much shorter flowering period so I may be able to add this plant to the others in a few weeks and still have them all mature at the same time.

I consider this grow to be an experiment:
I want to determine if my growth rate speeds up.
At harvest will I have a better yield with heavier buds.
What reduction in weight will I have from wet to dry rate when I harvest.
I want to compare the growth of using the Bubbler system vs. soil.

It should take about 10 to 11 weeks for the buds to fully mature.

Welcome to the forums!

Your first mistake, with the chinese light, was too much area for a small light at less that 20w/sft. If you wanted "quality" you'd want over 50w/sqft and higher powered diodes. That's why you ended up with fluffy popcorn buds and a low yield of .26g/w, imho.

Assuming you're using the same space (6.25sqft) effectively, you should do much better at 55.2w/sqft this time and since the SS400w has the more powerful 5w diodes and UVB, you should have a better quality as well as yield.

Good luck!


SME

Update on the growth of the three plants.

It's now been 2 weeks since the new LED light was installed and 2 weeks since I started 12 hours per day for flowering.
Golden Goat 16.0 inches day 63 (+5.5 inches)
Acapulco Gold 16.5 inches day 50 (+7.5 inches)
Critical Mass 6.5 inches day 42 (+3.75 inches)

(my first post had an incorrect number of days for the Golden Goat Strain; should have been 49 days).

This is The same growth for my Golden Goat That I got over 2 12 months with my lower power LED light.

What has been a standout is the Acapulco Gold in the Bubbler. This plant is becoming a monster. Note that this plant is 13 days younger than the Golden Goat and only 8 days older than the Critical Mass. Pictures really say a thousand words here.

I did suffer what I decided was a phosphate deficiency with the Bubbler. I have learned that the PH of the water seems to steadily go up over time and got over 7. This caused the update of phosphate to be restricted and some of the leaves showed signs of deficiency. This was corrected with some PH Down and the problem seems to have gone away. All of the new growth looks really good. I now check and adjust the PH every day. Try to keep it just below 6.0.

Does anyone on the Forum know the ideal height for the LED light (California Light Works Solar Storm 400 watt)?
You have to place it high enough so that you get complete coverage of your area (2.5 ft X 2.5 ft in my case) yet low enough so you maximize light intensity and penetration without burning the plants?

The original Acapulco Gold was a sativa and yours looks like an indica; are you sure the seeds weren't mislabeled?

I do like the growth in DWC, it's almost like a supercharger.

I don't think there is one "ideal" height, it'll depend on many factors like genetics and environment. You'll have to experiement.

I have now had the plants on flowering light cycle for 27 days:
Golden Goat 17.25 inches day 77 (+1.25 inches)
Acapulco Gold 23.25 inches day 64 (+6.75 inches)
Critical Mass 10.75 inches day 56 (+4.25 inches)

The Golden Goat plant started to flower 6 days after going on the new light cycle. It has grown some pretty good looking buds in only 3 weeks.


The Acapulco Gold in the Bubbler has continued to grow. It only started to flower about 3 days ago. I added some mono potassium phosphate (3.6 grams) to the 3 gallons in the bubbler about 4 days ago. Maybe just a coincidence. I have been worried that I don't have enough phosphate in my organic fertilizer. I had a small problem with what I believe was a phosphate deficiency when the ph got too high. This reduced the uptake and caused problems with the leaves that you can see in the picture. New growth has been great since now that I keep the ph under tight control.


The Critical Mass has just finished vegetative growth. Compare it to the Acapulco Gold in the bubbler and not that the Critical Mass is only 8 days younger than the Acapulco Gold. I think the bubbler can really deliver nutrients to the roots to the point where the plant can use all of the light it gets for growth.

I worked out how to position the light above the plants. It doesn't seem to burn them even when only a few inches away, but I need to position it where it provides the best coverage for all the plants. Since the lenses on the LEDs are shaped to focus the light down in a conical shape, I have positioned the light where the bright light strikes the side of the enclosure just above the top of the leaves on the plant. This works out to a little less than a foot for me. The light would have to be higher for a larger area, or could be lower for a smaller area. I have a 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 area. (Optimal for the shape of this light would be more like 3 ft by 2 1/2).

Be careful. In addition to changing the footprint/intensity by raising or lowering the light source, LED grow lights can also be powerful enough to bleach the tops of some plants; you don't want them too close.

It is now harvest time and time for an update on how each of the 3 plants did.
The 3 plants took my entire grow area which is 30 inches by 30 inches or 6.25 sq. ft.



Acapulco Gold grew to 10.0 inches from seed in 36 days in the Deep Water Culture (Bubbler).
Golden Goat grew to 10.75 inches from a clone in 50 days in soil.
Critical Mass grew to 10.75 inches from seed in 55 days.

The first part of the vegetative cycle for the Acapulco Gold and Golder Goat was done under a cheaper LED light (120 watts).
The last 2 weeks were done under the California Light Works Solar Storm light.
The Critical Mass plant only spent the first 3 weeks with the cheaper LED light and then 4 weeks under the Solar Storm (12 hours plus 6 hours under fluorescent lights.)

My previous grow of a single Golden Goat under the cheaper LED light in vegetative stage for 64 days to reach 11.75 inches from a clone. It took longer for the plant to go through vegetative growth under the lower power light.

After switching to Bloom and 12 hours per day I had the following time to harvest:

Acapulco Gold flowered for 58 days until the trichomes started to turn cloudy. I harvested the plant in the early part of the window as I like a more euphoric sativa type of high.



The plant at the time of harvest was 26 inches tall so it expanded by a factor of 2.6 during flowering.
The total wet weight harvest from the plant was 219.0 grams.
The total dry weight of the buds produced was 48.6 grams.

The weight reduction between wet weight and dry buds was 4.5 times. I was hoping for less weight loss but it could be that the plant in the bubbler was fully saturated with water. I also had some problems with PH levels and might have suffered from a nutrient shortage of Calcium.
The buds were fairly light but that is typical for this strain according to the literature.
I used organic fertilizer and the resulting smoke was very smooth. The buds were all coated with trichomes so they looked like powdered sugar and they were very potent. The strain from Barney's seeds looks like an indica but starts with a very euphoric sativa high that was not at all racy. As the high trailed off, the indica became more dominant. If you smoke a lot of it over time it becomes more like an indica so the first hit of the day is the best.

I will probably do the bubbler again but it does take constant attention, especially during the flower stage. The PH can swing very quicky, especially after you change out the water with new fertilizer. I ended up changing the water with new fertilizer every week.

The Golden Goat flowered for 62 days. The plant at harvest was 18.0 inches which was an increase of 7.25 inches or 1.7 times.



The total wet weight harvest from the plant was 93.4 grams.
The total dry weight of the buds produced was 26.2 grams.
This represented a weight decrease of 3.6 times.

The buds from this plant were covered with trichomes and the buds came out very dense. This is the most potent of the 3 strains. The high is very euphoric and a little racy. The smoke is very smooth. I used only organic fertilizer and Final Phase during the last week.

The previous Golden Goat grew to 17.25 inches and took 67 days in flower. The total wet weight was 158 grams and the dry weight was 32.2 grams. This was a weight reduction of 4.9 times. These buds were fairly light although they were very potent.
The cheap LED light was able to grow this single plant but the light was only a couple of inches above the plant. This light would not have been powerful enough to grow 3 plants.

The Critical Mass plant only took 49 days to flower. This was expected as indica plants should finish in a shorter period of time.



The total wet weight harvest from the plant was 86.7 grams.
The total dry weight of the buds produced was 25.4 grams.
This represented a weight decrease of 3.4 times.

My 6.25 sq ft space yielded a total of 100.2 grams of dry buds or 3.5 ounces.
The LED light is really the best for flowering. With a separate space for vegetative growth, this space could yield about 6 grows per year or 21.2 ounces per year. That is a lot more than I consume. Doing the whole cycle in the closet would give me about 3 grows per year or about 10.6 ounces.

Using the closet only from Flowering would give me a yearly yield of 3.4 ounces per sq. foot. This works out to about 15.1 watts per ounce per year. I don't know if this is a good yield or not. Maybe some experienced grower out there has an opinion.

I believe that I can increase my yield by increasing the size of the pots I am using. I am looking at slightly bigger square pots as this should maximize my root area.

This is a hobby and I will be experimenting with different strains and changing growing mediums. Incremental improvement is the goal.

In summary the CLW Solar Storm was excellent for my small grow space. I produces some heat but not like a HPS light. I have a minimal amount of ventilation with a 4 inch fan, mainly to keep the air fresh so I don't consume all the CO2 and to vent the smell out of the house. Smell was not a problem with the smaller, cheap LED, because I don't believe there was as much growth and it was only one plant.

I am happy with the results.