LowRyder 2 in soil with 2 X 125 watt CFL

[Citizens Aux PD]

Organic Soil
2 X 125 watt CFLs (red)
LowRyder 2
Biobizz, Nirvana Bloom, Canna Magic

They started under 240 watt LED on 27 July.

I am fed up with LED. Been experimenting with it since last year. Not enough penetration to lower branches---even with LST. Only the tippy tops of buds get nuggy & gnarly. The rest get wispy. LED is like cold digital music whereas CFLs are warm like analogue.

Switched to 125 watt CFLs yesterday. The plants LOVE it. It's nice & warm in more ways than one.

Pics taken today. The majority of the plants started 27 July but some were started outdoors and were then brought inside.

DAY 27
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[sergiana]

I noticed you are using 2 liter containers. One thing I did a few times was cut a second 2 liter and fit it to another one then just tape it with some cheap tape to get nice deep pots and had pretty good results with that and sour 60.

This time around he in a few weeks I am going to do the same thing but with those 3 liter soda containers like they sell at the dollar store.

I cant afford to get normal pots right now so those should work nicely.

One concern I had in doing such deep but narrow pots was the oxygen may not be penetrating as well as a wider pot.

I suppose if the soil mix is really breathable that's not such a big deal.

 

[Citizens Aux PD]

I noticed you are using 2 liter containers. One thing I did a few times was cut a second 2 liter and fit it to another one then just tape it with some cheap tape to get nice deep pots and had pretty good results with that and sour 60.

This time around he in a few weeks I am going to do the same thing but with those 3 liter soda containers like they sell at the dollar store.

I cant afford to get normal pots right now so those should work nicely.

One concern I had in doing such deep but narrow pots was the oxygen may not be penetrating as well as a wider pot.

I suppose if the soil mix is really breathable that's not such a big deal.

Thanks for stopping by and making the first comment, Sergiana!

Actually they are 1 litre ginger ale bottles cut down to the tops of the labels.

I was influenced by Dr Bud Green Genes:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=69713

What kind of lights are you gonna use? How many watts?

 

[sergiana]

Well I gave away my 400watt digital hps and all I have left is a 135 wall blackstar uv so I am gonna have to eventually get some more lighting of some kind. Probably another led but I'll be stuck with just the 135 for a good 3-4 months but maybe I can swing some flouros to light up the lower bits till then.

Keep us posted on how your doing.

 

[Citizens Aux PD]

Have you ever seen these:
http://www.vertical-farmers.com/brightest_smallest_grow_light.html

But yea, if you have space for some 23 watt CFLs to place at the lower regions you should get fatter buds...

Small wattage LEDs are fucken heart-breakers...The tippy tops of the buds look soooo good but then everything under them turn out airy & wispy...

 

[sergiana]

Those are very interesting little lights. The big thing for me is low power for the leds and heat emission.
I love HPS so I will be getting a 150-250 digital eventually and I might just give these small ones a try to since you can just ad them as you can afford them instead of one big cost purchase.

In terms of cost they seem like a good deal. They have the little square next to the picture with the light spectrum output. Which do you think might be good for autos?

The one with a thin stripe of blue and mostly red seems to me like it would be the better choice but I am not terrible knowledgeable on this sort of stuff.

 

[sergiana]

How are your beasties doing citz? I scored a job today so hopefully I can get up to speed soon.

I was curious about those mini leds and what they are equivalent to as in I did not see what what each chip was listed.

I know 3 watt cree is pretty good but I am unsure if those measure up well against them.

 

[Citizens Aux PD]

How are your beasties doing citz? I scored a job today so hopefully I can get up to speed soon.

I was curious about those mini leds and what they are equivalent to as in I did not see what what each chip was listed.

I know 3 watt cree is pretty good but I am unsure if those measure up well against them.

Congrats on the job, Sergiana!

I know what a relief it is to have a job after you haven't had one for awhile. It's nice to have a regular income.

I don't know a thing about those mini LEDs. They were pointed out to me at Auto Flower Network.

I am not quite sure what lights you already have...nor what you are about to use for your upcoming grow project...but if you are gonna use an HPS then you don't need those LEDs or anything else---but you WILL need a fan or two.

As for Autos: I would strongly discourage growing them until you have alot more experience. They can be quite unforgiving and low-yielding. Sure, some people grow big yields with them but they usually have mega-watt lights like 600+ (CFL or HPS) and plenty of growing space.

I suggest you read some or all of this thread about 12/12 light cycle growing regular non-auto plants (known as photo-period plants---anything NOT autoflower)..:https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=51760

Auto-flowering plants seem like they are easy and don't take up much space but they are extremely sensitive to nute-burn and don't like their leaves removed nor do they like to be topped. Whereas regular plants are much more hardy and don't mind being trimmed to allow better light penetration.

Only use organic nutes/fertilizer regardless of which kind you grow. It's more difficult to upset the plants with an organic nute like BioBizz than say, Miracle Grow.

For my next grow I will be growing sativa-dominant photo-period plants (Jack F1 & NYC Power Diesel) but I will also being growing some auto-flowering plants (LowRyder 2s) since they will finish sooner and give me something to smoke whilst the sativas take their sweet time maturing. I will be starting all of them off at 12/12 and then eventually reduce their lighting to 11/13, 10/14, and finishing off at 9/15. Reducing the light will reduce the yield of the autoflowers but I don't care. That's one good thing about autoflowers: You can give them any kind of light cycle and they don't seem to mind.

I'll post some pics of my current autoflower grow in a few days to a week.

Thanks for stopping by, Serg!!

 

[sergiana]

Hey cit I was wondering if you could direct me to the site you got the cfls your using from as I want to add at least 1-2 of those.

I have been reading like mad about led, HPS, led and going mad trying to decide what to get.

Suddenly it hit me that the mini-leds you mentioned are right up my alley since the power consumption is 11 watts.

I plan on converting a van to a camper at some point and rigging it with solar/mini-wind turbine and being able to grow herbs and what have you on the fly would be pretty bad ass.

I looked everywhere including Autoflower Network and and could not find review or feedback on those lights so I decided fark it I will get one in a few weeks to test out.

If it does well I will do a review of it.

If anything it would make for a badass dwarf stealth light on top of being good supplemental.

 

[Citizens Aux PD]

Just google it, Serg.
Google "125 CFL eco-light".

If you DO buy one or more of those mini LEDs, DO review it even if they are crapola. We'd like to know one way or the other.

Cheers.

 

[I_Love_Seed]

Organic Soil
2 X 125 watt CFLs (red)
LowRyder 2
Biobizz, Nirvana Bloom, Canna Magic

They started under 240 watt LED on 27 July.

I am fed up with LED. Been experimenting with it since last year. Not enough penetration to lower branches---even with LST. Only the tippy tops of buds get nuggy & gnarly. The rest get wispy. LED is like cold digital music whereas CFLs are warm like analogue.

Switched to 125 watt CFLs yesterday. The plants LOVE it. It's nice & warm in more ways than one.

Pics taken today. The majority of the plants started 27 July but some were started outdoors and were then brought inside.

DAY 27
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You should check out Lighthouse Hydro, it's the most advanced LED. I found this info. A lot of growers are using them in unison with HID.

Based on research done by scientists at Cornell University and other horticultural centers, Lighthouse Hydro has developed LED lighting products that optimize the usable light wavelengths absorbed by your plants. Neither HPS nor MH bulbs provide significant light output below the 580nm wavelength. This means that one of the largest portions of the light spectrum used by plants (420-455nm) is not supplied by either HID product. Additionally, the majority of HID output is in the green-yellow spectrum which is not only reflected by plants but also barely used in Photosynthetic reactions. The most important wavelengths for plant growth and flowering is found at the 420nm, 450nm, 630nm, and 660nm wavelengths. Red is more important for flowering and yields, and blue more important for node intervals & faster growth and absorption. We deliver these wavelengths, scientifically balanced for maximum efficiency. What once was 70% of light wasted is now light harvested. Lighthouse Hydro LEDs use a optimized blend of individual 60 degree, 90 degree, and 120 degree LED chips. In the configuration Lighthouse Hydro has designed, light coverage for the grow area is maximized and light penetration is increased when compared to lights using a single spread angle LED light.

 

[aridbud]

You also need to know about 'chip sets' per each LED. I've had great success with 5w chip sets. 400w red/blue/white and orange spectrums is my favorite. Also run a 180w and/or 240w @ 3w ea. chip set for male room, depending on which males I will grow for breeding. CFL's do the trick, depending on wattage, square meter/feet of lumen space. Used MH/HPS for years- did not like the heat build up, nor the electric bill. LEDs I can have plant close (4" or less) to light and no plant burn, yet generally have them 6-8" above plants. Electric bill far lower than MH/HPS and no need to replace bulbs as often. Personal choice and monies spent.

 

[Citizens Aux PD]

DAY 39

I don't know if you can see any difference between today's pics and those of Day 27 on the 22nd of August, but in person the plants have certainly come along further since then. You can't see all of them but there are 8 females in the 1 litre bottles; one female in a bigger container which was rescued from outdoors; and 2 tiny females in the orange container which was also rescued from outdoors.







I feed them about every 3 days: Nirvana & Canna Magic...and sometimes I only give them water. The buds smell nice. So far I am liking these CFLs, much better than the LED. I can get light to all the lower branches. The buds feel firmer. However, it should come as no surprise by looking at these pics that each plant won't yield more than about 3.5 grams a piece. That's because they spent too much time under that 240 Watt LED before I purchased the CFLs.

Cheers for stopping by!


UPDATE---For security reasons I had to dismantle this grow a few days after the date of this post. I managed to sell my lights at a bootfair. Got what I paid for from the CFLs but had to sell the LEDs at nearly half their original price. I will be moving soon to another country with lots of outdoor acreage. It is warm there all year round. There is plenty of privacy. I will start my new garden as soon as I arrive there. I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[sergiana]

Hey cit looking fabulous brother keep up the the good works.

Still plugging away at work to get my self in order so I will be keeping eyes open here on the auto postings.

I grew lr2 years and years ago and loved it cause the smell reminded me of sage (not the cooking herb kind). Take care

 

[konopek]

Looks nice. Good luck bro.