Bueno Grows w/ DIY COB LEDs

[Bueno Time]

Awesome, I just sent through a lot of the first journal and I am looking forward to your weights from the most recent harvest...quick question though. You begged the plants for what 3 weeks? At final harvest how tall were they? I am just wondering because LED you want to keep at least 12" away from the top of the plant during flowering? Thanks! I am looking at this tent or a 2x2x4ish.

Nice glad you like the thread.

I started the seedlings under the 1 COB for 25 days of 24/0 lighting and flowered under the pair of COBs for 70 days of 12/12 lighting. They ended up around 2ft or a little more including the medium height so maybe 18"-20" tall from the soil level.

I ran the COBs within about 6" of the tips of the colas at one point but I think around 10" is better for my setup. Gets good light spread over the footprint while not being too close to burn the tops directly under the COBs.

I was looking at a 2x2x4 but decided if I was going to upgrade I should go bigger than that and what I could fit was 26" depth and 40" wide so I was looking at either a 2x2, 1.5x3, and then I found a 2x3x5 which was perfect got 2" spare depth and 2" spare height and about 0" spare width with the carbon filter and exhaust fan on the far side of the tent. Fits like a glove.

 

[Bueno Time]

***HARVEST REPORT***

So I will let you all know the results from my less than perfect first run with COBs.

The only lighting source for veg was a single CXA3070 3000K Z2 bin COB at 1400mA ~52w. For flower the lighting was 1 CXA 3070 3000K Z4 bin and 1 CXA3070 3000K Z2 bin both at 1400mA a piece, ~104w LED dissipation.

From four plants in half gallon grow bags vegged for 3-3.5 weeks 24/0 lighting from seed and 70 days 12/12:
Pineapple Express x Cheese n Chaze 23g @ 60% humidity in jar
Blackberry Kush x Chemmy Jones pheno1 26.4g @ 61%
Blackberry Kush x Chemmy Jones pheno2 31g @ 61%
Blackberry Kush x Chemmy Jones pheno3 24.3g @ 62%
+1.1g misc. mixed mini buds I tossed into the bottom of the drying tub
total 105.7g

So around 1GPW, not bad. Definitely my personal best and accomplished some goals I had set for the COB setup.

I wanted to match or beat my yields with 150w HPS with ~100w LED and I was successful in that. Beat my best 150w HPS yield by about 2g with 2/3 the wattage.

I wanted to increase the bud quality and density, and that was also successful. The bag appeal of the buds and frost is very good on these buds. I was impressed by the density of the little popcorn nuggets further down the stalks, with the 150w HPS they were super airy and they were nice dense little nuggets with the COBs. Calyx to leaf ratio was good not really hard to trim, took me a little under 4 hours to trim it all very well. I am anal about any little leaf sticking out so I manicured the buds really well.

I think anyone running these COBs should be able to hit 1GPW of top quality buds fairly easily with the efficiency of these babies.

edit:

Calculated grams/KWH of energy consumed during the grow.

In flower the power consumed by the entire setup was 57.3KWH per 30 days for 70 days of flowering plus 25 days of 24hr lighting under 1 COB module and a 120mm pc fan for exhaust (literally a couple watts so we will ignore that for simplicity). 36KWH for veg and 133.5KWH for flower = 196.5KWH used to harvest 105.7g about .5g/KWH. This is including the lighting, exhaust fan and heatsink fans (double as circulation in this case).

 

[rik78]

congrats for your harvest!!

thanks to your thread, I will be getting some LEDs ASAP!

thanks a lot BT.

 

[Bueno Time]

I tested the COB modules on the Kill A Watt and also the 3 heatsink fans/power adapter draw. I had already tested the exhaust fan on the Kill A Watt.

Here is the breakdown of the flowering tent so far for power consumption:

Panasonic Whisper FV-08VKS2 exhaust fan 0.59PF 14.6w 0.2A 24.9VA
3 COB Modules @ 1.4A (includes driver losses) 1.0PF 181w 1.53A 181VA
3 heatsink fans 0.56PF 8.1w 0.12A 14.4VA

Still have to finish assembling and test the red/blue LED string and driver for power consumtion.

So I run the exhaust fan 24hrs a day for a 30 day month it consumes 10.5 KWH of power.

The 3 COB modules running on a 12/12 cycle would be 65 KWH of power per 30 day month.

The 3 heatsink fans I leave running 24hrs a day even when the COBs arent on during dark period it provides plenty of air movement for the plants, I dont need to add any fans to provide air movement in the canopy this way. Ran 24hrs a day for 30 days they consume 5.8 KWH of power.

So in flower the tent will consume 81.3 KWH per month plus whatever I figure for the red and blue LEDs too which I will post up when I finish them and get them installed and tested on the Kill A Watt.

I did the Kill A Watt testing on the red/blue LED bars today:
0.99PF 30.4w 0.25A 30.6VA

So they would consume 11 KWH per month on 12/12 for a 30 day month.

Total flowering tent power consumption on a 12/12 light cycle ~92.3 KWH per 30 day month. Not bad at all.

 

[clp]

***HARVEST REPORT***

So I will let you all know the results from my less than perfect first run with COBs.

The only lighting source for veg was a single CXA3070 3000K Z2 bin COB at 1400mA ~52w. For flower the lighting was 1 CXA 3070 3000K Z4 bin and 1 CXA3070 3000K Z2 bin both at 1400mA a piece, ~104w LED dissipation.

From four plants in half gallon grow bags vegged for 3-3.5 weeks 24/0 lighting from seed and 70 days 12/12:
Pineapple Express x Cheese n Chaze 23g @ 60% humidity in jar
Blackberry Kush x Chemmy Jones pheno1 26.4g @ 61%
Blackberry Kush x Chemmy Jones pheno2 31g @ 61%
Blackberry Kush x Chemmy Jones pheno3 24.3g @ 62%
+1.1g misc. mixed mini buds I tossed into the bottom of the drying tub
total 105.7g

So around 1GPW, not bad. Definitely my personal best and accomplished some goals I had set for the COB setup.

I wanted to match or beat my yields with 150w HPS with ~100w LED and I was successful in that. Beat my best 150w HPS yield by about 2g with 2/3 the wattage.

I wanted to increase the bud quality and density, and that was also successful. The bag appeal of the buds and frost is very good on these buds. I was impressed by the density of the little popcorn nuggets further down the stalks, with the 150w HPS they were super airy and they were nice dense little nuggets with the COBs. Calyx to leaf ratio was good not really hard to trim, took me a little under 4 hours to trim it all very well. I am anal about any little leaf sticking out so I manicured the buds really well.

I think anyone running these COBs should be able to hit 1GPW of top quality buds fairly easily with the efficiency of these babies.

edit:

Calculated grams/KWH of energy consumed during the grow.

In flower the power consumed by the entire setup was 57.3KWH per 30 days for 70 days of flowering plus 25 days of 24hr lighting under 1 COB module and a 120mm pc fan for exhaust (literally a couple watts so we will ignore that for simplicity). 36KWH for veg and 133.5KWH for flower = 196.5KWH used to harvest 105.7g about .5g/KWH. This is including the lighting, exhaust fan and heatsink fans (double as circulation in this case).

And this is why I've converted.. Thanks for the inspiration Bueno!

 

[clp]

What's your veg time looking like? I'd also love to see more pics of the tent! Exhaust setup etc. Those LED bars sure are looking cool.

Think you could fit 3 gallon bags in there or is 2 the max? I plan on doing the exact same space with 4 Cobs, 4 - 3 gal smartpots, and a SCROG. Should be interesting to compare!

 

[Arthritis_sucks]

Nooooooiiiiiccceeee! Way to go Bueno on the numbers. Congrats brotha.

 

[Bueno Time]

What's your veg time looking like? I'd also love to see more pics of the tent! Exhaust setup etc. Those LED bars sure are looking cool.

Think you could fit 3 gallon bags in there or is 2 the max? I plan on doing the exact same space with 4 Cobs, 4 - 3 gal smartpots, and a SCROG. Should be interesting to compare!

I dont know what you mean, how long am I going to veg these this round? I think Im going to go to about 35 days from seed before I flip them.

Can fit any number of combinations of pot quantities and sizes in the new tent I got.
4 deep x 6 wide 1/2 gallon bags (24)
3 deep x 4 wide 2 gallon bags (12)
2 deep x 3-4 wide 3 gallon bags (6-8)
etc.

Bigger the pots, the less quantity that will fit.

Nooooooiiiiiccceeee! Way to go Bueno on the numbers. Congrats brotha.

Thanks Art, good to see you stopped in to check out the Bubba cross project.

 

[clp]

I dont know what you mean, how long am I going to veg these this round? I think Im going to go to about 35 days from seed before I flip them.

Can fit any number of combinations of pot quantities and sizes in the new tent I got.
4 deep x 6 wide 1/2 gallon bags (24)
3 deep x 4 wide 2 gallon bags (12)
2 deep x 3-4 wide 3 gallon bags (6-8)
etc.

Bigger the pots, the less quantity that will fit.

Yea that didn't make much sense did it.. Gotta stop browsing the forums at 4AM.

I'm thinking of running the same veg times going up to 3 gal pots by the end of it. How tall did you plants get with those veg times? I've got more limited vertical space than you do.

Also how close can the LEDS be to the canopy and are you adjusting them often as the plants stretch?

 

[Bueno Time]

Yea that didn't make much sense did it.. Gotta stop browsing the forums at 4AM.

I'm thinking of running the same veg times going up to 3 gal pots by the end of it. How tall did you plants get with those veg times? I've got more limited vertical space than you do.

Also how close can the LEDS be to the canopy and are you adjusting them often as the plants stretch?

Well I am planning 5 week veg this run since they are short stocky slower vegging plants being in large part Bubba dominant genetics.

In my 3ft tall tent I would flower 3-3.5 weeks so around 21-25ish days from seed, I transplant from red solo cups at ~14 days from seed and then top a couple days later and veg until I flip them. They would finish around 20-32" tall depending on strain including the pot height. I had a couple too many grows where height was an issue in that dinky little tent I was stuck in for a couple years. Still managed to pull an average of close to 100g per run out of it though with the 150w HPS.

I have 2ft more height in this tent so I can veg a little longer now if I want or flip them early and keep them shorter like I had been doing in the 3ft tent.

With a 3 gallon pot you would really want to veg for kind of a large amount of time to build a large and healthy enough root system to take advantage of that size of container. I used to think more medium was better but have been pulling decent yields off smaller grow bags lately though they require more frequent watering and feeding.

If you want to use 3 gallon bags with a short veg its not going to hurt anything though just might be a bit overkill if your not vegging very long. But a larger pot size is good for if you cannot or dont want to tend the garden as often. I tend to peak in daily or every other day anyway so I might as well water them while Im staring at them.

I keep them as close to the canopy as I feel necessary but not so close to burn tops. Its like any other lighting system you will play with it a little and dial in your preferred distance for your setup. They get adjusted up as needed when the plants grow and during stretch ya probably every couple days they get moved up a hair.

 

[clp]

I've got about 4 feet of vertical space. Any ideas on veg time with a 3 gal pot. I'm thinking I'll go red solo cups -> 1 gal smart pot -> 3 gal smartpot. 4 plants with 1 cob over each plant.

 

[Bueno Time]

Hard to say so many variables, probably 3-4 weeks from seed depending on how fast and tall they grow.

 

[rik78]

I would say it depens on the genetics, indicas only strech x2 while pure sativas could strach as much as x4 or x5...

Lets say that you need one feet for space over the light, another feet for the light and you can grow plants of 2 feet, I would flip indicas with one feet, plus another of strech then you have the 2 feet plant, and sativas with 6-7 inches plus the x4 and you have the 2 feet plant.

so forget about the time and go for the height your plants

 

[Bueno Time]

I would say it depens on the genetics, indicas only strech x2 while pure sativas could strach as much as x4...

Lets say that you need one feet for space over the light, another feet for the light and you can grow plants of 2 feet, I would flip indicas with one feet, plus another of strech then you have the 2 feet plant, and sativas with 6-7 inches plus the x4 and you have the 2 feet plant.

so forget about the time and go for the height your plants

I agree

 

[Bueno Time]

I'd also love to see more pics of the tent! Exhaust setup etc.

Sure.

It is a XEN-LUX Super Pro 400 tent that is 2' x 3' x 5'. The thing about it is it has an odd duct diameter of 5" which I knew before hand from reading reviews on Amazon, but I already had plans to use duct flange adapter kits for intake and exhaust anyway so I didn't care. I had already modded my mini tent with an 8" duct flange kit and swapped that over to this tent, installed it in the bottom left of the tent and then I bought a 6" duct flange kit for the exhaust and installed that on the top right side.

Passive intake 2x area of exhaust which is recommended.

I built a stand for the carbon filter and exhaust fan to stand on. I built the stand to the height that the ducting on the exhaust fan would match up with the exhaust duct flange on the tent. The 6" ducting piece that attaches the exhaust fan to the duct flange on the tent is connected with a 6" duct/hose clamp.

I am using a Panasonic FV-08VKS2 exhaust fan rated at 80cfm which barely gets the job done, that is the next thing to upgrade. Noise stealth is a big factor so I have to do a bunch of research and try out some fans and ways of trying to silence/minimize the sound of them. I figure if I buy a fan that is too loud I can sell it for a small loss on ebay or whatever until I find something that works for my situation being as silent as possible but moving more air than the current exhaust fan will be the goal when I start testing different exhaust fans to upgrade.

The Panasonic is very trusty though and has worked flawlessly for several years of continuous use with a good cleaning to remove dust buildup inside and on the blades every two runs. I should probably do it every run but its kind of a PITA so I do it every other.

The Panasonic sucks air out of the 6" duct flange on the top right and blows it out through a Mountain Air MA620 265cfm carbon filter. Best carbon filter I ever used, just got a new one and started using it last run because I like them so much and the old one was letting a real slight stank through in late flower. If you get a Mountain Air dont get the Big Air versions they have thinner carbon layer and dont last as long or as effective, the originals are 2" thick carbon layer.

I thought I took more pics but these are the ones I could find.

 

[stihgnobevoli]

wow those lights are insane. i guess they run pretty hot based on that 6 inch heatsink you got there. jebus. but look at that growth. those veg pics blew me away. "here's 2 days after topping" i'm like wtf that's only 2 days. looks like a whole week later.

 

[Bueno Time]

wow those lights are insane. i guess they run pretty hot based on that 6 inch heatsink you got there. jebus. but look at that growth. those veg pics blew me away. "here's 2 days after topping" i'm like wtf that's only 2 days. looks like a whole week later.

No, not really hot. The heatsinks are about 4" square and cool to the touch thanks to the fan fitted on top. If not properly heatsinked they will run hot possibly to the point of failure if operated with inadequate cooling capability of the HSF (heatsink and fan if equipped).

 

[Bueno Time]

I thought these pics were neat, such a difference in space for activities in the new tent.

 

[clp]

Hahah that one is quiet the dwarf tent. A well needed upgrade I'm sure! That setup is very nice. I have the Secret Jardin DR 150 5x5 tent and loved it. Just too big for my current space.

 

[Bueno Time]

Pulled out a little popcorn nug to "sample" of the Pineapple Chaze, its only been curing for a few days so far though. Smells like captain crunch cereal, creamy or milky, slightly lemony almost tropical fruity. Pretty nice smells so far gotta stay out of the jar for a while let it get a nice cure on it. Not too green tasting for being so fresh still.

Its smell seems like a mix of the Pineapple Express mother I used in the Pineapple Chaze cross and a DNA Lemon Skunk fem freebie I grew out a few years ago.