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California Lightworks Solarstorm Trial

cjk

Member
today is day 41 of flower. honestly, at this point i'm having a hard time believing that this light will live up to my normal 1k harvest. the buds just seem smaller and possibly a little more leafy. the weight may be there but if it is it'll be in quantity of nugs and not the size of the nugs. only time will tell and i'm hoping for the best because the energy and heat savings are a real plus. anyway, here are some pics....

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rives

Inveterate Tinkerer
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
today is day 41 of flower. honestly, at this point i'm having a hard time believing that this light will live up to my normal 1k harvest. the buds just seem smaller and possibly a little more leafy. the weight may be there but if it is it'll be in quantity of nugs and not the size of the nugs. only time will tell and i'm hoping for the best because the energy and heat savings are a real plus.

Well, they look very nice to me! It'll be interesting to see what the final outcome is. Have you started using the UV lamps yet, and if so, what kind of schedule on them?
 

cjk

Member
Well, they look very nice to me! It'll be interesting to see what the final outcome is. Have you started using the UV lamps yet, and if so, what kind of schedule on them?

thanks! i may just need to get used to the type of plants the led's produce. they have about three weeks so they could bulk up. because of the lack of uvb created in led lighting i have been leaving the uvb on at all times unless i'm working the tent
 

GP73LPC

Strain Collector/Seed Junkie/Landrace Accumulator/
Veteran
you didn't really think 165 watts of LED was gonna compete with a 1K HPS, did you?

i went back and re-read your first post. this time focused on what you said instead of just focusing on the new LED array. this time when i read it i did see you were replacing a 1K HPS.

in order to replicate your 1K yield you are gonna need 3 or 4 of these CLS LED's...
 
B

BrnCow

I've always wondered what would happen with a 1K HID on top and a couple of the LEDs on two opposing sides of the grow. Would the popcorn turn into regular buds? Would the increased weight (if there is any) pay for the extra gear and electricity? Would the potency of the whole plant increase?
 

oneshot

Active member
you didn't really think 165 watts of LED was gonna compete with a 1K HPS, did you?

i went back and re-read your first post. this time focused on what you said instead of just focusing on the new LED array. this time when i read it i did see you were replacing a 1K HPS.

in order to replicate your 1K yield you are gonna need 3 or 4 of these CLS LED's...

He has their big light. It has 160 5w chips I think
 

GP73LPC

Strain Collector/Seed Junkie/Landrace Accumulator/
Veteran
damn, your right, my bad !!!

and i need to add the solarstorm 800 watter to my list... how'd i miss that? damn !!!
 

abellguy

Member
I've always wondered what would happen with a 1K HID on top and a couple of the LEDs on two opposing sides of the grow. Would the popcorn turn into regular buds? Would the increased weight (if there is any) pay for the extra gear and electricity? Would the potency of the whole plant increase?

I know a guy that uses strip LED lighting he obtained while in Amsterdamn. He places them around the sides of his grow, I can say for sure that it does increase the size of the lower the buds. Potency I would say was the same but wasn't really trying to pick it apart. As far as the cost effectiveness, another thing I didn't take into consideration cause I was just thinking wow the under buds seem bigger and better that has to increase yield.

I don't know how much he paid for his LED's but it doesn't seem like one run would cover the offset in price of fixture and electricity, but I am sure it would offset just electricity so it may pay for itself well in a few runs.

For me I didn't like how you couldn't get under the plants real easy as this is where I need to be to water. Also the fixtures are close to foliar feedings and water being splashed and such, which bothered me cause although I don't know what the price was of them I do know that aren't cheap being new technology and all. Also the room seemed cluttered but that is just cause I am used to seeing lights overhead not completely surrounding the plants :rasta:
 

VerdantGreen

Genetics Facilitator
Boutique Breeder
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ICMag Donor
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looks good, only think lacking imo is far red, which can really help with the flowering times and also helps warm the plants in colder climates like mine

have you found the flowering times to be the same as HPS??
i found LED's a bit slower until HGL bumped up the far red in their spectrum and now its a bit quicker than hps.

as for the wattage - i would still like to see kill a watt proof... often they use less watts than claimed

and as for matching 1000w hps, which probably uses 1050-1100w, i reckon you would need at least 700-800 Watts of LED to do that, perhaps a bit less.

you really have to work the canopy with LED as the footprints tend to be smaller than the hps lights they are trying to replace

VG
 

cjk

Member
looks good, only think lacking imo is far red, which can really help with the flowering times and also helps warm the plants in colder climates like mine

it says it contains deep red up to 650 nm and warm whites up to 700nm. i thought that it was strange that white can hit 700 nm and deep red is labeled 650 nm??

have you found the flowering times to be the same as HPS??
i found LED's a bit slower until HGL bumped up the far red in their spectrum and now its a bit quicker than hps.

honestly, the plants seem to be ripening faster. again, the size isn't there compared to my 1k so hopefully they're not ripening and i'll get some final 3 week bulking. i believe the hairs may be ripening prematruely possibly because of the uvb exposure. this doesn't really matter though as i harvest relative to the trichomes. i'll take a look through the loupe and see if this is true for the trichs as well.

as for the wattage - i would still like to see kill a watt proof... often they use less watts than claimed

i believe what the manufacturer is claiming. first off because they're the only ones i've seen that give a total diode wattage (800) and an actual pull wattage (650 with uvb on). usually the manufacturers give you one or the other so this really helps clear things up a bit. also, running the 800 watts of diodes at 75% would be right around what they're claiming the pull is so it makes sense. i may order a kill a watt in the near future just to have on hand and also test the advanced fixtures i have in the veg room.

and as for matching 1000w hps, which probably uses 1050-1100w, i reckon you would need at least 700-800 Watts of LED to do that, perhaps a bit less.

pending the outcome of this run, it seems i may stick with 50 watts/sq ft for led's for my other room and see what happens. i usually hit around .7 g/w with hps so if i could get 1 gpw with the same wattage it's still worth it and i'll also save on cooling most likely.

you really have to work the canopy with LED as the footprints tend to be smaller than the hps lights they are trying to replace

the spread hasn't really been the problem in the 4x4 with this light but the penetration may not be as good. we will see soon ....

VG

:tiphat:
 

rives

Inveterate Tinkerer
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
looks good, only think lacking imo is far red, which can really help with the flowering times and also helps warm the plants in colder climates like mine

have you found the flowering times to be the same as HPS??
i found LED's a bit slower until HGL bumped up the far red in their spectrum and now its a bit quicker than hps.

By "far red" I am assuming from your context that you mean around the 700+nm range? I find all of the adjectives confusing - red, far red, deep red, hyper red, etc, all of which seem to change with the manufacturer.

Anyhow, I have found on the last two runs with my DIY fixture that the plants are visibly starting their flowering response withing 5 days of changing to 12/12. This is with (4) 2700k PL-L lamps and @ 180 watts of the Golden Dragon 660nm leds. This is the fastest response that I've ever had, regardless of the type of lighting.
 

VerdantGreen

Genetics Facilitator
Boutique Breeder
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hi rives, yeah its confusing for me too. we call it infra red here. my far red diodes are 740nm, and afaik HGL increased the percentage of these for their new 3rd gen spectrum after doing some testing.

but yes if your plants are flowering/ripening nice and quick then thats the ticket. i guess the PLL's may help with that. need to check out your thread.

VG
 

cjk

Member
day 53!!! quality is looking very nice. trich production seems to be a little better than usual. maybe the uvb is contributing to this. lower branches seem more immature and less dense than the 1k. beginning to think canopy management will help a lot next run. nugs are smaller as well...

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