LED Grow Light Forum

ItsCurtisBaby wrote:Hey MC...wow are those things exploding ! You sure have got your hands (and screens) full...hahah..Just wait until all those flowers start popping up everywhere...the smell of sweet pineapple..

Good idea on that dehumidifier...not having to worry about draining the reservoir is very nice. I try to turn the extra work into a positive by collecting all that water and use it for watering the plants...give my RO filter a break..

Nice progress man!

ICB

Thank you Curt! Man, they are already smelling so delicious. I could juice them, they smell so appetizing.

So I've also got auxiliary flourescent lighting in addition to my HPS. I take pictures under fluoros, and work under them because it's not as hot. Well, after my last update and photo session, I left the auxiliary fluorescents on... Meaning that even when he HPS went out, they were still under the fluorescent lighting. So today, right now, they're in the dark for the first time since my last post.

Oops. Again.

I think they got 24-36 hours of light before I corrected the problem last night, putting them back on their normal schedule.

Now remembering what I read Cervantes write, it's the dark period that induces and sustains flowering. I've been told that if you need to work in your garden during a normal dark cycle, just leave the lights on, and they will resume as normal when 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness occurs again. "As normal" meaning as normal as can be after leaving the lights on too long.

Now, I'm not sure I completely believe this, and I certainly don't think leaving the lights on while it's supposed to be dark is a great idea. I haven't done it before this little incident. But now, assuming I did no harm is going to let me sleep better, and there's nothing I can do now if it did harm the plants.

Having said all that, I've thought about dumping my dehumidifier into a reserve tank instead of the drain for some time now, like you've done. It's a great idea, and I'd love more clean water...But given my propensity to forget tiny details like the fluoros, and my less than perfect record with dripping/overflowing water... I think the drain is my safest bet.

Thanks for watching!
MC

hey MC,

don't think the xtra light will cause any huge problems. like you said, they will get back to normal soon enough. they are just a bit confused now.

i run my UV bulbs on a separate timer than my HPS and i have them come on at 9 and go off at 7 (8 to 8 is the HPS schedule). that way there is no chance they can turn on earlier or run later than the HPS

I try not to interrupt the night cycle but once and this early it shouldn't be that bad. Stressing plants is one way breeders tell stable plants from those prone to hermaphroditism. If they can't take even a little stress I'd grow something else.

(Heads up - I'll probably move this journal since it's not a CLW journal anymore.)

Hi everyone,

Here's just a quick update and a couple pictures. I went down and re-scrogged last night, and installed a brand new drip system. I'll post photos of that later on, but it's pretty cool. Plants are looking just fine, no photostress, so I'm happy.



Everything is going well down there, I'm seeing a lot of pre-flower formations on the Money Makers. Photos of that later on.

RKY, your timer idea is great. I didn't have one when I installed those as Aux. lighting, and it completely slipped my mind. I'll grab one today. Also I think I should get some UV solution going in my grow space, maybe along the sides of the module. What do you think?

Since my SolarStorm880 had the UV lamps, and I was really excited about that feature, I'm wondering if anyone has advice about how to cheaply achieve this with supplemental UV fixtures and reptile bulbs. Is 10.0 UVB the correct spectrum or whatever it is when measuring UV? I'm thinking just a few cheap 2' fluorescent fixtures with 10.0 UVB reptile bulbs and I'm good.

SME, feel free to move this grow journal wherever you want. I hope it's okay I finish the journal on this forum even though there's no more LED in my grow. Everyone is so friendly here.

Have a great Halloween everyone! I'm lucky enough to work for a dispensary, and we're all dressing up like strains this year. I'm going as Skunk #1. Should be a great time.
MC

skunk #1? if you're as stinky as the SuperSkunk I'm doing now, I'm staying upwind of you

yes yes yes to the UV. i keep it on in my flower room from day 1.

18" 10.0 bulbs from reptile/pet store and I got the 12 buck 18" under cabinet fixtures from wally world. I have 3 in my room.

and as to why?: trichomes are the plants sunscreen for UV light. 'nuff said.

HUGE. EFFING. PLANTS.

Seriously I can not believe the stretch these past few days. Today is day 15 of flower, making day 21 (and hopefully the end of stretch) a full 6 days away. If they stretch 4 weeks, I'll have nowhere else to let them grow but up, and then I'll have to raise my hood. Hopefully it won't get that bad.

Here are some photos from this morning, right before lights off.


A few days ago I upgraded my automatic watering pump system to use 4 garden hoses instead of a sprinkler drip system. The results are... Great. I think the huge growth is due in a large part to the huge amount of O2 in the water due to the aeration bucket.

Here's the reservoir, manifold and feeding tubes I used to accomplish my back-saving autowater system.


And tonight I purchased the above mentioned UV components in the form of (2) 24" cheap fluoros from WM, 10.0 UVB reptile lamps, and some.... Zip ties (hope you bought low, RKY - sell high after this grow is finished, lol) and tonight I will install all of the components for UV supplementation and complete my domination plan. Garden domination.

MC

I think I can now provide my final thoughts about the CLW SolarStorm 880. I contacted CLW about returning my fixture, and was treated excellently. Customer service was superb, never questioned the trouble I had with the diodes going out, and very promptly issued a refund. I can't say enough about how excellent the company is.

Again, the LED fixture build quality was outstanding. So outstanding as to be tent bendingly heavy. Beautiful results for vegging, but I've only used 400w MH for that previously.

After going back to HID, I am in love with the evenness of the coverage. I truly thought the LED would have far better spread consistency than the HPS, but my 1000w is unreasonably and uniformly bright everywhere. Could be that it's in an 8" ducted Blockbuster II hood... Or my 3.5x3.5' grow space (81.65w/ft2) ... But I did believe the Solar Storm would more adequately and evenly cover the area. It performed fair, but not great in my opinion.

Love the company, I'll be buying a veg light from them at some point I'm sure.
MC

Here's a question for all you solar storm peeps out there about UV. When you flip the switch on your solar storm, are the UV lights constantly on? I believe they are. However, I was reading an opinion written for Big Buds Mag, "Get More THC From Your Medical Marijuana Plants Using UV Light" that 15 minutes per hour should be sufficient, and that any more might be overdoing it. The author reasons that UVB exposure negatively impacts yield while increasing potency, and should therefore be cut back and split over the entire light cycle.

I further watched "THC, UVB and me", which I found to be highly informative. Mr Marijuana states there that 5 hours seems to be ideal, and I'm assuming he means a 5 hour block in the middle of the light cycle.

But I know that Rocky and other members of this forum have their UV lights on since day 1 of flowering, and it doesn't seem to hurt anything. I'm interested to know if anyone has researched this and found anything regarding a point of diminishing returns using UVB?

Love to hear anyone's opinion, thanks!
MC

hey MC,

here's my take on UV. the "strongest" strains are the ones either at the equator or elevation because of the highest UV levels. the sun which is the best grow light emits UV all the time. why not try to emulate mother nature as much as possible??

a HPS has little to no UV in it. and if it does, the glass in the reflector usually has a UV blocker too. so basically 0 UV.

the 10.0 bulbs are only effective to 20 ish inches. so they are not really UV blasters. so i dont' think they are overexposed.

was the thc, uv and me the stoner canadian in the tye dye and hemp necklace?

just remember that trichs are the sunscreen for UV. if the plant gets optimum light, nutes, water etc it will yield the best it can within the restraints of what strain it it.

Thanks Rocky, I tend to agree. I was thinking the same thing, but while discussing the idea with my wife, we reasoned that even at tropical longitudes, there isn't high UVB exposure the entire time the sun is up, only during peak hours... i.e. you can't get a sunburn from 5-8 AM on a Mexican beach. I've tried, but maybe that's a personal problem

The THC, UVB and Me video was absolutely the one with the Canadian hippie dude. My favorite part is (regarding trichromes): "again, no form without function, the plant has sent this THC to the outer edges of the cuticle so that the very things any bug's leg is going to touch is THC and that would immobilize it instantly. This stuff is way strong for a little tiny bug. [Lights joint.... holds in...] Now some science that I've run across is talking aboat [talking slower]... about how..." Seriously I feel that it's a great watch for any grower, especially solar storm users.

Anyway, I did procure an extra timer, and have it set to cycle 1/2 hour on and 1/2 hour off while the lights are on only. Figured I'd split the difference, and see what that looks like. I also will have started them on UVB around week 2 of flower, so I'm feeling like that might be a little early there. Not sure if it's just a waste of light at this point, or if it's detrimental to growth.

Speaking of growth, I believe we're entering the last part of stretch. I'm breathing a small sigh of relief, because the Pineapple Chunks are at their absolute furthest horizontal they can go. Yay! But the Money Makers still have a little more screen they could stretch to fill. Boo.




And this morning, before lights off, it was day 20 of flowering. Tonight when the lights turn on it'll be day 21, the day that I'm supposed to defoliate to allow bud site growth. To be honest, I did a pretty big defoliation two days before the photos above. So I'll probably hit them again tonight, then give them a chance to rest a little. I know that it's controversial, but I do believe that there are benefits to select leaf removal. I've been doing it throughout this grow, and so far it doesn't look to have hurt anything.

Primarily, like I mentioned above, I'd like to get as much light as possible to the bud sites, which are developing beautifully. I wasn't expecting the Money Makers to smell as sweet as they do, but going on blind smell alone, I would have thought they were the Pineapple Chunks.


The Pineapple Chunks are looking very uniformly developed, and just as beautiful as the Money Makers but just like in veg, they look just a few days behind... Which is weird because the plants are physically bigger.


Now let's take a minute to compare my notes about these strains, and how they grow compared to how they're said to grow by the breeder.

Money Maker
-Vigorous, fast growth
MC: Check. This strain is one of the most vigorous I've ever encountered, even with the pH issues I had earlier
-Low Leaf:Calyx ratio
MC: Not really. There's not many Calyxes at this point, but there are so many leaves on this plant it's absurd. We'll see how this changes as flowering progresses
-Can take high nutrient levels
MC: Sure seems like it! Once pH was corrected (ironically by ignoring it) they're eating up all the CO2 and nutes I can throw at them
-Short and Bushy Stature
MC: Yeah, absolutely and completely on point. These are bushes... I've never grown a pure indica before, but these 70%/30%'s are sure growing on the Indica side of life. Gonna love the smoke!

Pineapple Chunk
-Vigorous, stable, mould and disease resistant
MC: Meh... They're vigorous, but I don't know if I would call them stable. I had pH issues, but compared to the others in VEG they were a little un-impressive. But I have to say now that I'm more impressed with them overall than I am with the Money Makers.
-Watch out for stretch... 1' -> 4' in 4 weeks
MC: Yeah, you've been watching so you know they've grown huge quickly. I'm hoping that stretch calms down shortly. Get fat girls, you're tall enough.

So far, I really like the way that they're both growing. Both breeders have my respect, and I'm looking into other strains of theirs to try next. Speaking of things to try next, has anyone here grown Jack the Ripper by TGA Subcool? I remember that being the very best Sativa high I've ever had. She's on my radar for down the road too.
MC