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Shaking Shiva's Hand

PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2012 10:37 am
by ShivaHand
Here are the details of my SS trial:

5' x 8' x 6' to 8' height space. In this space:
For veg I typically run a 430 HPS and 2 qty. 200 watt CFLs
For bloom I run 2 air-cooled 600 HPS.
Heat has been an issue in the past in this spot from late Spring to early Fall, often exceeding 95 degrees with full cooling and venting power, even though the lights are run at night.
I use an evaporative cooler triggered by a humidistat, since the humidity is low.

I was just finishing veg when the SS arrived. I'm about to sex and pull.
I'm going with 4 varieties this round, all my own beans, except the classic AK-47 from Serious Seeds. My varieties are:
3rd generation God Bud, from my best ladies and studs.
White Widow (clone) female x God Bud male = God's Widow
Blueberry female(Dutch Passion) x God Bud male = Shiva's Hand (Blue God)

I started with 20 seeds of each of my own flavors and 11 of the AK. I weeded half out of the seedling stage and potted the best around tax time. By the third week, I replanted the best 15 total in 3 gallon containers with my own soil mix. I kept around another 15 in their small containers, to replace males in the 3 gallon pots to end up with the best 12 females, 3 of each variety. The remaining rejected females will be planted in somewhere special in the natural sun, hoping to survive the elements.

Now the set up is the 430 HPS and 800 watt SS, to see how it fares against the 600 HPSs both in quality, quantity, and heat management. Also, I can watch the HPS end vs. the blended HPS-LED mid-section vs. the LED end. I'll update once again when all is sexed and the space is re-organized.

So far my impression about the SS is that it's solidly built and the plants responded with perky leaves immediately. I have noticed a buzzing noise that seems like a harmonic vibration issue in the unit. Perhaps this is normal. Do any other users have the vibratory hum?

I'm having a hard time posting pics for some reason, so I'll attach pics in another post

Re: Shaking Shiva's Hand

PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2012 11:31 am
by SisterMaryElephant
Welcome to the forums!

If the old HPS lights were not air-cooled you might see some improvement with your heat issues but either way, *if* you're using all of the 5x8x8 space for growing, you really don't have enough light per square foot.

I'm looking forward to checking out more of your grow and seeing some pictures...


SME

Re: Shaking Shiva's Hand

PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2012 2:59 pm
by ShivaHand
Hey SME, I'm looking forward to your feedback.

The 600 HPSs are air cooled and are now in another space. I agree the wattage may be low for a 5 x 8 space, but due to equipment and the need for a walkway, the effective canopy area is only 4 x 6. When I post pics, it should make sense. I'm hoping the SS works as well an air-cooled 600 to 1000w HPS, with less heat. We shall see if my expectations are realistic and you are most welcome to tame such expectations beforehand.

Every time I try to post a pic, I get a "the extension is not allowed" error. Whats the deal?

Re: Shaking Shiva's Hand

PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2012 3:06 pm
by SisterMaryElephant
I see, the space is 5x8 but the grow area is 4x6 so let's do the math. That's 24 sq ft with approximately 1200 watts (using 2 x 600w HID) which equals about 50w/sq ft. That's pretty good, personally,I don't like less than 50w/sq ft with HID.

I think you'll find that the SS is about the same as a 600w HPS (not 1000w) but the SS does put out some heat and is not air cooled to remove the heat from the grow area so I'm not sure that you'll see an improvement in heat issues compared to an air-cooled HID.

What extension are the pics you're trying to upload? Try converting to jpg if they aren't.

Re: Shaking Shiva's Hand

PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2012 4:38 pm
by ShivaHand
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Re: Shaking Shiva's Hand

PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2012 4:54 pm
by SisterMaryElephant
Looking good and healthy so far... :D

Re: Shaking Shiva's Hand

PostPosted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:06 am
by ShivaHand
I'm a week late getting into flower mode, due to personal reasons, I didn't get around to cloning each and switching to 12/12 until Memorial Day week end. The problem is the sativa phenos got too leggy and I've had to pull a couple out and have started bending the remaining tall buggers.

All are very healthy and happy. I have noticed that the plants are more phototropically attracted to HPS, but that has translated into more stretching on the HPS side. The babies under the SS are stouter.

Re: Shaking Shiva's Hand

PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:59 am
by ShivaHand
Two weeks later and everything is copasetic. The extra week of veg though kinda screwed me and the plants got larger than I prefer... had to pull out a couple more babies to make room, so I'm down to 7 mommas. Some plants are showing symptoms of calcium deficiency. Oddly, only the plants under the Solar Storm. I don't know if the led light is causing the plants to use up the Ca more quickly, or if it's just the strains. AK-47 is showing the deficiency more than others. Note to self: more Dolomite Lime in the soil mix. I just watered them up with General Organics CaMg+, so everything should smooth out soon. One pic shows a close up of the "spotting". I lifted the lights and put in CFLs just to try and get some true color rendition on the leaves, but it didn't help much.

Re: Shaking Shiva's Hand

PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:49 pm
by ShivaHand
2 weeks later and although they're pulling through OK, I made a totally idiotic mistake. Normally, around 2-3 weeks into flower I turn on my wall mounted orbital fan to stir up the cold air from the intakes down low. Now, this has never presented a problem with the air-cooled HPS lights, but turned out to be a real issue with the SolarStorm. The SS is side vented and blows out some seriously hot air. It took me a week to figure out that I wasn't suffering from a Calcium deficiency... those spots were the initial signs of heat burn from the orbital fan blowing the hot vented SS air back onto the canopy! I've seen light burn before and I know what that looks like, but this is the first time I've experienced hot air burns. The pics will show that the crop is not lost, but it has suffered considerably and is no longer a decent test of the SS in regards to grams per watt, or anything. Nothing sadder than pre-maturely trimming off burnt sugar leaves, very sugary. I am still trimming off burnt leaves as they crisp, as you can see in the pics, they curl up. The AK-47 was hit the worst, directly under the SS hot air and not genetically acclimated yet to the heat out here. I turned off the SS for the pics to try to get better color rendition, but left the HPS on, so it's a bit on the yellow side.

My suggestion to California Lightworks, as already suggested in other posts, it would be nice to have some way to vent off the hot air outside the grow room (the SS adds about 4 degrees heat to the space) or reverse the fans so the cool air is drawn in from the sides, across the the heat sink and the hot air is blown straight up, where it is easier to manage.

Re: Shaking Shiva's Hand

PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 2:44 pm
by SisterMaryElephant
Hot air you say? I've never seen that before either. It looks like nute-burn on some of those pictures to me. It looks like it happens on taller and shorter plants too. Sometimes it takes a while for nute-burn to get dry and crispy. *shrug*

You could make an adapter that would allow you to externally air cool that light but it would take some basic metal working skills and may void any kind of warranty if you open the unit to deal with the fans or alter air flow. I thought the SS did blow out the top but I don't own one.

YMMV...