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Re: First Time Grow/Grower

PostPosted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 6:06 pm
by SisterMaryElephant
That's the explanation I get too, the roots spend too much time exploring although I don't see why that would matter...but evidently it does.

Re: First Time Grow/Grower

PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:54 pm
by ColoradoLED
All,

Thanks for the help, tips, advice and everything else. My first grow if officially over now and it was a blast. Of course, the results are less than professional but the end product looks and smells great. We will see in the upcoming weeks, after fully curing, how it all comes together.

Here are the results from all three of the test sites.

1. 120W Light - 120 x 1W LEDs (96 used Watts): 6-band spectrum: 380nm, 440nm, 470nm, 640nm, 740nm, 825nm (Ratio 5:1)
2 Plants = 48.44g

2. 120W Light - 120 x 1W LEDs (96 used Watts): 6-band spectrum: 380nm, 440nm, 470nm, 640nm, 740nm, 825nm (Ratio 5:1)
2 Plants = 51.05g

3. 300W Light - 100 x 3W LEDs (240 used Watts): 6-band spectrum: 380nm, 440nm, 470nm, 640nm, 740nm, 825nm (Ratio 5:1)
2 Plants = 66.00g

These weights are all taken at the time of transfer from drying to curing jars.

The drying is probably the second biggest mistake made. We expected 5-7 days for drying. Due to the dry Colorado climate and small amount of plant matter drying, it only took about 3 days. Unfortunately, we waited till day 4 to can them and everything was really dry and even brittle at that time. I did not have any green leaves floating around to try and "re-hydrate" the jars any so I am just letting what moisture is left equalize throughout everything in the jars now and hope to have a little better cured material in a week or so.

I will re-weight everything when we are done curing. However, because everything was sooo dry when I transferred to jars, I am not expecting much change.

The second biggest error was our planter size. After harvest, I pulled the root ball to take a look and it was most certainly bound. This explains the dwarfism of the plants and will be addressed better in future experiments.

All in all, it was a hell of a lot of fun and has to be considered a success. I am not growing to sell and I got almost 2 ounces out of my two little plants all with an operating cost of about $1.50 a week or $2.50 for the bigger light. We will see in a few weeks just how good everything is but it looks good for now. Let's hope it smokes the same.
Harvested bud.jpg
Harvested bud.jpg (105.64 KiB) Viewed 4607 times


I am now testing some 5W diode lights and expect to get even better results. I will be going with the SmartPots this round also, Thanks for the recommendation RKYMTNMAN.

Thanks for all of the help. We'll be seeing ya,

ColoradoLED

Re: First Time Grow/Grower

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:33 am
by puggy
i don't grow cannabis but i have seen on this forum (and others) that a lot of people have trouble getting good yields from led's. I suspected there was a problem in the spectrum (ie missing some types of lights) and did some research. It turns out that resin type plants do need extra spectrum and in one forum i found a post with some very interesting info on it.

Further analysis of plant PAR reveals peaks of absorption like this:

Chlorophyll A 430, 662
Chlorophyll B 453, 642
Chlorophyll C1 442, 630
Chlorophyll C2 444, 630
Chlorophyll D 401, 455, 696
Chlorophyll F 720
Beta Carotene 450,482
Phycoerthrin 495, 545, 566
Phycocyanin 620
Allophycocaynin 650
Fluorescein 494

Which follows that a LED grow light should contain LEDs at the following nm:

400, 430, 445, 450, 455, 500, 545, 565 (for growth)
620, 630, 640, 660, 700, 720.


This could explain the problem growers are having. If you are making led light systems you may want to look into these extra spectrums, maybe even design 'booster' led systems for people to add to their current systems in the flowering stage that works well on cannabis plants.

Re: First Time Grow/Grower

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 11:26 am
by SisterMaryElephant
There are many LED lights than use more than just blue and red. I've seen lights that range from 1 to 11 (or maybe 13) bands. You are right that plants use more than blue and red which is a common myth. For example, it was once thought that plants don't use green light but they do; just not as much (about half, IIRC) as they use blue and red.

Re: First Time Grow/Grower

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 12:53 pm
by ColoradoLED
Puggy,

You are 100% correct. The ideal LED light would include every wavelength that the plant needs. The unfortunate part about this plan form a manufacturers standpoint is that the diodes for all of these wavelengths are not all created equal.

This is not just that one specific wavelength diode is more expensive but also that different color diodes last differing amounts of time, are more/less sensitive to heat or have different power requirements.

We have reds, blues, orange, UV and IR wavelengths in our spectrum but had to concede some far spectrum wavelengths because we could not get them to fit our design.

Since efficiency is a big driver behind LED grow lights, lamp efficiency is what plays a key role in the final decision of which wavelengths to include and which to not.

My grow documented in this forum does not represent the ultimate possibility of LED lights but there are countless professional growers that are using LED lights with 5 and 6 (or lower) band spectrum who can hit the glorious 1 Gram Per Watt yield. Many of the lower yield reports you see online are similar to mine, using too low wattage of a light or other yield limiting factors.

Over the next five years, I will guarantee that LED grow lights will reach a point where what you described (or very very close to it) is commercially available and being widely used.

I think that the "Supplemental" lighting you talk about is more common now and will grow in popularity over the upcoming years. It is much easier to make a light that has a higher quantity but smaller diversity of wavelengths than it is to do the opposite. Then a "Flowering" light or a "Vegetation" light can be used in conjunction with other lighting to really push plant growth for that phase.

LEDs are advancing so fast that it is hard to even keep up. Only two years ago, there was nothing commercially available that could produce 100l/w (lumen per watt). Today, you can buy LED lamps that hit 200 l/w from your local electrical distributor. It took us almost 100 years to get to that 100 l/w from any light. It is pretty exciting stuff.

Thanks for all of the input.

Re: First Time Grow/Grower

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:22 pm
by nineandfive
ColoradoLED defiantly try out a smart pot. I have 3 of them and grew in the too. But! I really really don't ( myself ) like them. Reason being is after growing for my 3 month period one thing I noticed was when I went to flush the salt build up move out of the soil. But never left the walls of the fabric pot. I had so much salt built up on the walls it took me 2 days of soaking them in oxy clean to try get the salt off to use them again. And with that in mind. Where do all your roots end up?? However. My air pots were mind blowing. They were easy to flush and all three of my autos hit 3 feet in 4 weeks. Its completely up to you what you use. All I know is after this grow is done my smart pots are getting retired to out door use for flowers or tomatoes only ! Lol. I guess it all depends on your nutes you use too.

Re: First Time Grow/Grower

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:06 am
by ColoradoLED
nineandfive wrote:ColoradoLED defiantly try out a smart pot. I have 3 of them and grew in the too. But! I really really don't ( myself ) like them. Reason being is after growing for my 3 month period one thing I noticed was when I went to flush the salt build up move out of the soil. But never left the walls of the fabric pot. I had so much salt built up on the walls it took me 2 days of soaking them in oxy clean to try get the salt off to use them again. And with that in mind. Where do all your roots end up?? However. My air pots were mind blowing. They were easy to flush and all three of my autos hit 3 feet in 4 weeks. Its completely up to you what you use. All I know is after this grow is done my smart pots are getting retired to out door use for flowers or tomatoes only ! Lol. I guess it all depends on your nutes you use too.


NineandFive,

Thanks for the information. I am looking at a few different ones (smart pots brand and others) and will be going with one of them for the next grow. I was curious about how reusable they truly are. I guess you got me the answer. I am sure that the nutes and water quality affect this greatly but I think that the nature of the fabric pots make this more common than not. I will be evaluating the ones I am getting soon and let you know if I found one is better than another for this.

Thanks,

Re: First Time Grow/Grower

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:59 am
by rkymtnman
Hey CO,

I got flexpots off ebay for much cheaper. 2 gal for 10 of them was like 20 bucks shipped. they seem to be good quality too (so far at least).

you gonna stick with soil for the next grow?

i have a drain to waste going now in coco and decided to try drip clean by house&garden. supposed to help reduce salt buildup.

Re: First Time Grow/Grower

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 10:27 am
by ColoradoLED
rkymtnman wrote:Hey CO,

I got flexpots off ebay for much cheaper. 2 gal for 10 of them was like 20 bucks shipped. they seem to be good quality too (so far at least).

you gonna stick with soil for the next grow?

i have a drain to waste going now in coco and decided to try drip clean by house&garden. supposed to help reduce salt buildup.



Yeah, I found a few options that were pretty cheap so I am getting a few from all over to compare and see if the cost for brand name is worth it. As for the soil grow, Yeah, for the time being I am gong to stick with soil. Once I get things more dialed in and feel a little more confident in my abilities, I want to try alternative medium grows. I am still a little too apprehensive to try one yet.

-ColoradoLED