LED Grow Light Forum

My name is August West. Here is my plan.

Ten ChemDawg 4 clones from DHN (grow out 9 and save one for mother)
Veg for 8 weeks under HO T5's
Veg for 2 additional weeks under SS 400 (9 plants)
Flower for 9-10 weeks (6 plants stay with SS 400, 3 move to 1000W HPS tent(

Medium: Sunshine Mix #4 with additional pearlite and lime

Pot: 3 gallon smart pots

Attached file, starting out, shows the 9 chemdawgs on their second day under led. When entering the tent they were approximately 14 inches tall

More to come

Welcome to the forums!

The SS400w will not penetrate nearly as well as the HID so I would flower them at 12" or shorter, especially since the SS will only adequately cover about a 3x2 area (in flower) if you want top-shelf results. Also, the SS is a much better veg light than any T5 so I would skip the fluorescents. Since they're already over 14" tall you're going to have some overcrowding and penetration issues come flower time. YMMV...


SME

Hey SME, thanks for stopping by.

If this is a double post, my bad. I think I forgot to click the submit button before

You're right, canopy depth will be a bit of a work in progress. Our plan right now is to let the ChemDog's grow wild and find the ideal canopy depth under the SS-400 for top quality medicine. In the future, we'll operate within that framework.

We have another plan involved for lighting/electricity. We are dividing the 9 ChemDogs into 3 groups of three. Each group will experience different flowering schedules.

Group 1: 3 plants stay under the SS400 for their entire flower cycle.
Group 2: 3 plants stay under a 1kw HPS for their entire flower cycle.
Group 3: 3 plants spend the first 3 weeks of flower under the LED and the last 6 under the HPS.

I know it's unfair to compare group 1 and group 3. But I'm interested to see if group 2 can compare (both weight and quality) to group 1, 'cause that will save some electricity $. As this grow goes on, I'll think of metrics to compare each group as fairly as possible.

On a veg note, I'm with you, the SS400 and the Solar Flare are both awesome for veg. For the last two weeks of veg, these ChemDogs grew 10-12". That's almost an inch a day without pushing the nutrients too hard. For my start up T-5's ran a littler cooler and were a lot cheaper than more LED panels. Baby girls can deal with baby lights until they grow up. But when they grow up, the plants definitely perform well in LED Veg.

End of Veg/Beginning of Flower pictures are coming soon.

AW

That wasn't a double post, it was a quadruple post and, please, don't do that again.

That new plan sounds more reasonable but I still wouldn't let them get any taller before flipping, even if that means pruning a week or so before flower.


YMMV...

SisterMaryElephant wrote:That wasn't a double post, it was a quadruple post and, please, don't do that again.

Forgot I needed mod approval to post in my own grow journal I didn't read the approval message at the end. Thanks for cleaning it up for me and I'll be sure to make a new mistake next time!

I'm already concerned about the height but, like I said, this is a bit of an experiment. There's a link from icmag (don't know if I should link to other forums) that lists some LED grows and I've found some good LED journals here. Plant height and light penetration is always a concern in all those LED grows. But all the grows have different effective canopy. Different wattage, different conditions, different amounts of light penetration)

I want to see what the Solar Storm does under our conditions, in our setup. Normally, we flower @ 20-24 inches from the pot. This light experiment should show us where to make our canopy to for quality medicine. If we happen to get some extra cooking material this run, no big deal, cause next time we'll have a better idea of what this tent will provide.

AW

The approval process is temporary to help protect our members from retarded spambots. I doubt you'll need to worry next time.

Yeah, please don't link other forums, they make their money from advertising and I see no reason to send our members there to make them more money. We do have link restrictions that you'll find here:
Link restrictions due to scumbag spammers...

While I understand that this is an experiment, for you, we've had enough journals here to know that 24" is going to be too big by time they finish, especially for strains that take more than 8 weeks to finish. Indicas tend to stay shorter but even if they only double in size, they'd still be 4' tall and if they triple (like many sativas do) in size they'd be over 6' tall. We've found that even with the more powerful 5w diodes, you're better off getting them to finish below 3' tall. With weak 1w-3w diodes I'm not even sure I'd go 3' or not even flower with them at all. This is why SOG/ScrOG is better for LED grow lights. There's just no penetration comparison between a 1000w (or even a 600w) HPS and a 330w LED light. Even a 400w HPS would probably still beat the 330w LED grow light but by much less of a margin of course.


YMMV...

It has been five weeks now. Remember we are discussing CD4. Here is my update:

First the height issue:

Introduce: The 9 CD4 plants were introduced to the 3 x 3 ft tent with the SS five weeks ago. These plants had seen eight weeks of fluorescent with a fair amount of LST. Height of all 9 was uniformly 14" when introduced.

Two weeks of veg under SS: Plant height between 23 and 25 inches. At this point made the switch to flower. Moved three CD4 to 1000 W HID tent. <--- motivation was the comment that this is a 2' x 3' flowering light.

One week of flower: Took three plants to an complete flower under 1000 W HID. Plant height between 28 and 30 inches, Added three other plants under SS

Three weeks of flower: 33-36 inch range. "Cotton balls" starting and looking good. Nice green color. Healthy plants.


Observations:

1.) Used the light in veg mode for two weeks. Very good performance in the 3 x 3 area. Saw a near double of height over these two weeks: 14 to 24 inches. These results are as good as one might expect with a 400 watt metal halide in the same area. The LED heat issue is trivial compared to the HID. For that reason I believe the LED to be superior to metal halide for veg.

2.) Three weeks of flowering under LED did not appear to differ from 3 weeks under HID. This may offer an advantage over HPS. I believe that I could run this with nine plants per SS 400. In the HPS tent i typically run 18 plants per 1000 W

Next:

All CD4's are now under a 1000W HID light. They have about six weeks to go. At harvest i will compare the group of three that flowered for 3 weeks under LED to the balance. It should be a reasonable comparison: A group of three vs a group of six should even out the data.



Here is what I am thinking: For veg it is easy. I ran a little bit over 200 watts and got performance similar to a 400 watt bulb. No need for me to consider metal halide again.

For flower, not so obvious. Say that test results show that flower under LED or HID for the first three weeks is equivalent then there may be a small advantage offered. Each plant had 35 watts under led and 50 watts under HID If the quality holds up we see a slight financial advantage using LED for the first three three weeks.

AW

1) These GFP journals are supposed to be updated atleast weekly.
2) If you're going to test the LED for flower, you should at least flower 1 plant the whole cycle, otherwise you're not really testing the light.
3) 18 plants, 24" tall, in flower under a 1000w light is a bit hard to believe unless you're using far too big of a tent/area for each one. If I put 4 or 5 18-24" tall plants under a 1000w HPS per 4x4 tent, they're overcrowded by time they finish.

Ask anyone here that already completed 1 or more journals if they think they can fit 9 24" tall plants under their SS400w with top-shelf results...

I already know the answer.

The plants are 32 to 36 inches -- not 24. Yes they fit in a 5 x 5 ft tent. Lots of LST training to keep them in approximately 1 sq ft area.

I don;t have to ask folks about flowering 9 plants under the 400. Please note that I am not. Also note that I had great veg results using the 3 x3 ft area. Also, equivalent flower results through three weeks.

I believe it was your advice that the plants were too tall to flower under the 400. Now it is your advice to flower one anyway? Why do the test if we know the answer?

AugustWest wrote:The plants are 32 to 36 inches -- not 24. Yes they fit in a 5 x 5 ft tent. Lots of LST training to keep them in approximately 1 sq ft area.

I don;t have to ask folks about flowering 9 plants under the 400. Please note that I am not. Also note that I had great veg results using the 3 x3 ft area. Also, equivalent flower results through three weeks.

I believe it was your advice that the plants were too tall to flower under the 400. Now it is your advice to flower one anyway? Why do the test if we know the answer?

A 1000w HID won't properly cover a 5x5 area and 16 plants over 2' tall (when they start flowering) will overcrowd that too.

While you're not doing it you said it would. It wont. Yes, they are great veg lights.

You agreed to test the light, I'm saying that 3 weeks of flower is not a full test regardless if you let them get too big, against advice or not.