PLL Club. (if you don't know, now you know)

[ScrubNinja]

That was actually the high pod, bro! And I believe qatsi just gave a similar grow the chop the other day. The plant was sooo stocky. If you guys haven't seen magiccannabus's grows, check em out, trees with vertical fluoros, although not PLLs, and I think he added HPS now. BUt it shows a lot of the old opinions on fluoros are wrong now

Oh and I must say I don't remember anyone hanging them in the middle of the space like you guys mentioned so, still breaking new ground for sure! Rock it.

 

[growMEDS]

I got a dual 55w pll setup finally. I'm getting about 1 degree above ambient in my DR60 now.

 

[StealthDragon]

Hi want to join the club soon too! I really don't understand much about the ballasts though, I'm looking at a workhorse5 to run 2 55w bulbs..the 120v (I'm in u.s.) is that right? is that the smallest one I can get to run 2x 55w bulbs? or is there a better option? I actually built a cab a few months ago that's designed to be runnin pl-l's but I have some cfls stuffed in there still cuz I'm not sure what to get for a ballast.

also would you be able to use a screw-in type cfl ballast and use it for pl-l's , as long as the watts match of course...but are screw-in type cfls' ballasts rated t-5 HO?

 

[ScrubNinja]

G-meds, very nice bro. My pal has one like that.

also would you be able to use a screw-in type cfl ballast and use it for pl-l's , as long as the watts match of course...but are screw-in type cfls' ballasts rated t-5 HO?

Man, that's a trippy question. This doesn't answer it but I picked up a PL-C bulb which has a seperate ballast which screws into regular light fittings. Maybe that could be more likely to work. Interesting question.

 

[Xero000]

Reminds me of a DIY Phototron! First time I ever grew.

 

[fatigues]

Oh yeah I forgot about R2D2 that was a while ago. He got five ounces too which was great.

Great? That's an understatement in the extreme. It was the best damn microgrow pretty much ever. Might not have the bells and whistle of the PC AeroScrog, but it more than earned its keep on the output side.

I'd forgotten about the High Pod as well. I think one of the main reasons that the High Pod does not get the credit it deserves (and the fame to which it is rightfully entitled) is that it isn't stickied and is not in the DIY Link O Rama (at least I don't think it is; I stand to be corrected). To be fair, it was never presented as a DIY, so Pontiac's not to blame there.

That said, the sheer elegance - and the relatively monstrous yield - of the High Pod puts to shame the output results of any other microgrow - and for that matter - puts to shame a lot of other grows under 400W HID (and that's not a microgrow by any stretch). All from 300w of PL-L.

TBH, I'm a little annoyed at Scrub for posting those pics and reminding me of ineffectualize's awesome system! It's a huge distraction you see, and it's soooo tempting to just give into that distraction and just build one

A single plant DWC High Pod is just so tempting! I have virtually everything I need to do it, all I need is....



Total distraction!

 

[StealthDragon]

I really don't understand much about the ballasts though, I'm looking at a workhorse5 to run 2 55w bulbs..the 120v (I'm in u.s.) is that right? is that the smallest one I can get to run 2x 55w bulbs? or is there a better option? I actually built a cab a few months ago that's designed to be runnin pl-l's but I have some cfls stuffed in there still cuz I'm not sure what to get for a ballast.

sorry..not to be a pain, but can anyone confirm this plz? I'm ordering a few other things from 1000bulbs soon and would love to be able to place the order for my pl-l's

 

[fatigues]

I'm looking at a workhorse5 to run 2 55w bulbs..the 120v (I'm in u.s.) is that right? is that the smallest one I can get to run 2x 55w bulbs? or is there a better option?

sorry..not to be a pain, but can anyone confirm this plz? I'm ordering a few other things from 1000bulbs soon and would love to be able to place the order for my pl-l's

This is correct. In the Fulham ballast line, the Workhorse 5 is the smallest in their e-ballast line that will run 2x55w.

You can check the chart for yourself here. Looks to me like you probably already did.

The cost on the Workhorse 5 from 1000bulbs.com is a shade under $24.00. Mind you, the cost of a Workhorse 8 is still under $40.00. I'd be tempted to go for the Workhorse 7 or Workhorse 8 - even if you don't need to run 4x55 right now. *shrug*

 

[StealthDragon]

ty fatigues, I really only need to run 2x 55w...there simply isn't room for more..2 bulbs is actually gonna be a tight squeeze. I researched everything as well as I could..I just wanted to make sure I wasn't gonna get stuck with the wrong one...I hate ordering stuff online.

 

[ScrubNinja]

TBH, I'm a little annoyed at Scrub for posting those pics and reminding me of ineffectualize's awesome system! It's a huge distraction you see, and it's soooo tempting to just give into that distraction and just build one

You don't even wanna hear about my tubular underground vertical pll/hps hybrid cavern dream!

'Ere now be sum pics fi di pll fam'ly...come down mi selecta!

Close to 2 weeks under PLLs now...and a 23w CFL at the moment.

 

[Melkor420]

All your pictures are looking great!!! makes me want to go smoke a bowl... So I think I will. I leave you with this image, of my little PLL nuggie bouquet.

 

[fatigues]

Looking very nice Melkor420.

I presume you FIM'd this prior to scrogging?

 

[MarquisBlack]

After seeing Aerohead and Hydro-soil's success with these, I'm very seriously considering starting a hobby grow with a couple hundred watts of these. Heat's a big issue in my place, and these look to be a God-send.

 

[Melkor420]

Looking very nice Melkor420.

I presume you FIM'd this prior to scrogging?

Yeah buddy... 3 times.

 

[slowandeasy]

Have a small NGB cab with 2 70 watt hps on one side and some CFLs on the other. Size of flower room is 23"w x 14" d x 4ft h. Just hooked everything up today to a Stanley blower. Seems like it might be a tad too warm for DWC. So am considering pl-l bulbs instead. Money is of no concern, so what would be the best size bulbs and ballasts? Am used to bigger set ups, not used to micro grows. What kind of yeilds are you guys pulling? Know it wont be as big as a big HID, but give me your opinions on how to light it up! Thanks

 

[ScrubNinja]

Melkor - great work man, really enjoying watching your progress and I know what to expect being right behind ya.

Slowandeasy, last time I heard it discussed, the 55w are the most efficient as in most lumens per watt. The length was mentioned a few posts ago. They will fit nicely I think.

I didn't investigate it too much but it seems to me like my 23w CFL is contributing approx the same heat as the 55w PLL bulb it replaced. So if you had say, 4 x 23w CFLs, I think you would be much cooler replacing them with 2 x 55w PLLs. I would try to keep your HPS too, just ditch the CFLs, depending on how many you have, it's probably those that are pushing the heat too high. They are dreadfully inefficient compared to PLL or HPS.

Heatwise, it got explained to me as this: Every light has a Power Factor ("PF") rating. He said that this is directly in relation to how much wasted heat it puts out in ratio to how much light energy it puts out. If we look at a a HPS it has a PF of 1. This is the top rating! If we look at just about any CFL, it will have a pf of .5 or .6 or so. If we look at PLLs we see they're >.9.

This would explain why I see roughly the same heat from 23w cfl, and 55w pll. I'll try to do some more accurate tests.

 

[Leviathan]

thx for the info, learned something new.

 

[slowandeasy]

Scrub,
Thanks for the info. If your measurements are right, they might fit. So what would be the right amount to put in? And approx how much would it cost? The CFLs are 23 watts, and there are 3 on the veg side only. Have 8x8 darkroom louvers on back of both veg and flower side and one in the wall that separtes. Scrubber inside, fan on the outside and the temps are around 80-81 in flower and 78-79 in veg side. Doing DWC, so that is the highest I want temps to be. Dont want water to get too warm. Want to drop temps a few degrees for a constant 75ish with lights on in flower side. Gonna run it all night and see. It it is too warm, will unplug veg side and see how much those CFL's effect the Flowerside.

So how many 55watters would you use in the same space? How much are you guys pulling with 220 watts? Thanks for the help!

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Doing DWC, so that is the highest I want temps to be. Dont want water to get too warm.

I'm glad you understand that. I really hate reading about a failed grow because of dwc res temps. You would do well to drop a floating thermometer into your res. Best way to get a good idea of what your res temps will be.

Oh, you might want to dump your A/C during a hot day as well, just to see how your box will do in an emergency. It only takes 2-3 days to kill a plant in a hot dwc

I'm still looking for the best E&F setup that's low enough to fit into a micro DWC setup space. My issues usually stem from not being able to check the res easily when going with stacked tubs.

Your cab sounds great!

 

[ScrubNinja]

Yeah HS is on the money there I think. I've never messed with DWC. All I can really say with certainty is that you will have reduced cab temps if you use PLL over the same wattage CFL.

Yields are still very early days. There's probably less than 10 pll harvests on here and this is my first try with them. I would say just take your time, browse through the threads linked up earlier in the thread, and get a visual feel for what various people have done and the results they got as the general GPW is probably pretty atrocious so far.

Most of the people with them at the moment are just getting a feel for them and a lot of the previous grows have had stuff go wrong. I'll probably be running 220w in a bit less than 2x2' for flower and will be vegging for as long as it takes. Totally guessing as I'm not so obsessive about yield, but I'll be happy if I pull 5 Z's. Hope that helps.