Heavy Duty Fruity, Killawatt, Starbud

[Headys]

Not too much Progress: Just a couple pics of the Nutrient storage, Seedling/Cloner Setup.

I alternated shelves here with the lighting. Eventually, I'll be using a cloner. It's height will require me to pull out one of the shelves.

I really like the daisy chain options with these Hydrofarm T5 fixtures. It saves plug space and allows for the option to run the second bulb.

Thanks for checking in! Today's construction projects: venting & filter, lighting systems. My ballast just arrived, so everything is in and ready for the final push.

-HEADYs

 

[tleaf jr.]

lil babies in their cradle

 

[Headys]

Babies

Babies

lil babies in their cradle

Yep, just a few babies.

Clones of Bruce Banner, Diesel, and Flo will be ready for the trays on Monday, so come on back and check out the setup when I post those pics. I just looked at your room. Looking good!

- HEADYs

 

[Headys]

Setup Progress

Setup Progress

Things are moving along on the build. The venting for this room is elaborate to say the least, so that's where a lot of time and design is going. I'll have a post for it soon enough. On a better note, here are just a few pics of this build.

Testing the water filtration float valve shut off. These trash cans smell like plastic, so I'm going to give them a good soak and scrub.

Propagation Setup, adjusted for the cloner.

Blockbuster 6" with Hortilux Super HPS 600W Bubs

Blockerbuster 6" Hoods ready for ducting.
http://mrheadys.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Sunlight-Supply-Blockbuster-6-in-Air-Cooled-Hoods.jpg

- HEADYs

 

[Headys]

Setup Progress

Setup Progress

Sorry, forgot IMG tags. Just the Blockbuster 6" hoods again.

A pallet full of Solis Tek Bigital Ballasts headed our way.

4x 600 Watt Solis Tek Ballasts & 2x 600 Watt Lumatek Ballast.

I've been using Lumatek for a long time now. I've never had an issue with them. Well I read an equipment test and they mentioned Solis Teks out performed Lumateks. Additionally, they have some cool features like a staggered ignition. We figured we'd give them a try, so we ordered a bunch of them for some private builds we are doing.

The grow store we use kept trying to push the 1000W ballast on us instead of the 600w ballast. I did some research and it appears that even when using the dimmable feature, the ballast still pulls the full power. I'm not sure if they have fixed this yet, but it just confirms my method of never dimming my ballast. For what its worth, I don't run my ballasts on the super setting either. I just run for the actual watts I want and I never have setup issues. If any of you would like to opine on this, I'd love to have an informative conversation with someone who has some tests to reference or something. Thanks!

I fired these four up and the staggered start up is a very cool feature. I'm excited to see how these run next to the Lumateks. I'll let you know my thoughts.

Thanks for reading!

- HEADYs

 

[Headys]

Dimmable Ballast Concerns

Dimmable Ballast Concerns

The grow store we use kept trying to push the 1000W ballast on us instead of the 600w ballast. I did some research and it appears that even when using the dimmable feature, the ballast still pulls the full power. I'm not sure if they have fixed this yet, but it just confirms my method of never dimming my ballast. For what its worth, I don't run my ballasts on the super setting either. I just run for the actual watts I want and I never have setup issues. If any of you would like to opine on this, I'd love to have an informative conversation with someone who has some tests to reference or something. Thanks!

So I just found this test from another forum. I'm going to cite it, below. So pretty much, these ballasts end up drawing more power to run the dimmable option. For me, I'm into running equipment at the optimal design for efficiency over longevity.

"I have a Killawatt wattage recorder and decided to test the actual power usage of my new Lumatek 1000 HPS/MH dimmable ballast at it's different power settings. Previously, the only info I could find on the dimmable Lumatek was that even though there are lower settings than 1000 (600 and 750) they used the same amount of power as the 1000. This I found to be completely FALSE. The setting of 600 used only 663 watts while the 750 used about 825 watts. This makes the Lumatek a truly useful ballast for scaling down power on days my grow room gets too hot to a 1000 watts.

I then checked the 1000 watt setting which used 1055 watts which is lower than the Galaxy which tested at 1080 watts. Another big surprise was the 110% reading required only 1090 watts, about the same as the Galaxy. With that low of a reading I doubt it gets brighter than the Galaxy even at it's highest setting."

Test Source

If you've ran a similar test and had different results, feel free to chime in. Thanks!

-HEADYs

 

[bugman52]

Sweet set up u got going. I was looking forward to seeing that starbud .
I grew out 1 sour power fem[hortilab] its nice.

 

[Headys]

Starbud

Starbud

Sweet set up u got going. I was looking forward to seeing that starbud .
I grew out 1 sour power fem[hortilab] its nice.

I'm looking forward to it too. Any tips to kickstart this thing? Maybe I'll put it back in the papertowel to get this root out. If I don't see any progress by tomorrow, that's what I'm gonna do.

- HEADYs

 

[scai]

Nice grow man.

 

[Headys]

Thanks

Thanks

Nice grow man.

Thanks scai! I appreciate the compliment considering I only have 6/7 plants and they're 2 inches tall. I hope the other stuff is making it interesting while I wait on these seedlings to take off.

- HEADYs

 

[HortiLab]

Setup is looking nice Headys! Bummer that StarBud seed did not come thru.

 

[Headys]

Starbud Progress

Starbud Progress

Setup is looking nice Headys! Bummer that StarBud seed did not come thru.

Hey HortiLab. Thanks for stopping in.

I haven't thrown in the towel on this Starbud yet. Nothing has progressed since it was pulled out of the paper towel. So, I've decided to throw it back in a paper towel container to see I can wake it up.

Back to the paper towel and distilled water.

You can see the tail hasn't progressed much.

I'm going to turn off the lights for a little to see if 6 hours off will help this tail grow.

Here's hoping it'll turn around HortiLab. Any tips would be appreciated.
- HEADYs

 

[Hampputukka]

YEAH

YEAH

Im following this one. I might grow these next .

 

[Headys]

Seed Progress

Seed Progress

Thanks for tuning in Hampputukka!

I'll try to keep this thread about the progress of these seeds specifically. New links in the sig for grow room stuff.

Update: Well the Starbud root has stalled and is now in its own container germinating again. Crossing my fingers on this one. I really wanted to see it go.

HDF and Killawatt are doing well. HDF is crushing it really. Super impressed how this batch of seeds has taken off.

I had the humidity dome completely sealed these past two days. I noticed quite a bit of water was collecting on the leafs. So I cracked the vents 1/4 of the way and monitored it for a day. I woke up this morning and it still appeared humid enough to have some serious condensation on the leafs. So I opened them up half way and will monitor them today.

I'm opening these vents up, because, IMO, you want it humid in there but not so humid and stuffy that the plant material becomes super soft and just breaks apart. It's a tough line to find with these domes. I've noticed each brand of dome is different due to the different venting methods. So you have to stay on top of what's happening inside the dome each day.

I saw a few leafs growing on these seedlings! That's good progress in 48 hours. This is the HDF.

These are gradually becoming plants. I love it! Cracking seeds is a fun experience.

Thanks for tuning in!

 

[Headys]

UPDATE: Not too much progress. I should probably dial these updates back a bit so you guys don't have to look through 100 pics of the same thing. Checked in on Starbud and it looked like a little growth occurred, or maybe that was just wishful thinking. The Seedlings are looking strong. They're getting nice color and perking up to the T5's. I'm running 24 hour lights just to maintain a solid temp. I opened the humitidy vents 1/2 way and there was a lot of water loss to the environment. I refilled the tray with 500ml of pH adjusted water again.

Proping up the HDF seedling that grew sideways. This was due to a massive tail. Color is coming into the stem, so I think it will be able to hold itself up in a few days.

Seedlings reaching for the sky.

This actually looks like the tail grew a mm. It also looks whiter than yesterday. I've read that sometimes seeds can take 10 days to germinate. I'm cool with waiting it out.

Thanks for stopping in.

 

[AlbertMarkovski]

What's the temperature inside the chamber?

 

[Headys]

Temps

Temps

What's the temperature inside the chamber?

Hey Albert, thanks for writing.

I hadn't really been taking temps right on the plant, but rather around them. So great question!

Here are the seedlings today. Those first set of leafs are stretching to the light.

Here is Starbud's temp. Disregard that Max temp, because that was from a temp/canopy distance test I was running on the 600w's earlier.

This is the temp in the humidity dome.

Again thanks for the question.

 

[Headys]

Just to get some girls that actually have some grass on the field. These ladies decided to spend the night.

The bigger ones are Diesel. The little girls are Flo and Bruce Banner.

Need to setup the drip system tomorrow.

 

[Headys]

Well, nothing happening with StarBud. That's a shame, I was excited to try this one. Maybe next time HortiLab.

On a bright note, these seedlings at gradually progressing. I Start throwing in 3 eye drops of GH Rapid Start per 500 mL of water. They're using about 250 mL every 2 to 3 days.

That HDF with the messed up stem isn't gaining any stiffness in the stock, so I have to keep it supported until it takes off.

Also, humidity was getting a little low with the humidity vents 1/2 open, so I scaled it back to 1/4 open and they seem to be doing better.

 

[Headys]

I apologize for no real updates, but these plants look the same. The plant that was falling over is looking like a throw away. For my first time running seeds, I'm kinda bummed at the success rate. I'm sure its user error and i'll get better at it.

On a brighter note, I just spent a little time cloning.