Starke's Story: An LED Tale

[40AmpstoFreedom]

Not that I know of I was about to hit them up and ask what the process is for replacing in case shit goes bad so I had everything lined up. I am just now getting around to finally testing mine out. Almost have room done. I have some 1k bare bulb set sups still I used for veg at old location so I think I will keep one of them or maybe a mag ballast on hand.

Hate to be paranoid, but this is your third system you have had issues with? I was told there were 2 drivers. A starlite one and a meanwell. I am guessing the meanwells are the replacements that were supposed to be better but no Idea. I pre-ordered mine though I was in line well before anyone else so I question whether I have the updated drivers or not.

 

[starke]

40Amps: This will be the second unit of mine they will be replacing for the driver. Like you I pre-ordered two of the units (got the free Helios when they failed to ship on time). Received mine in March 2017 and put one of them to work. I only used one light on the first and second grows. One driver failed on the first light in September and they replaced the light. This failed driver is on my second original light. I noticed that the replacement light in September had different center lenses, presumably to help alleviate some of the bleaching issues.

As far as I can tell the four drivers in my two lights are all Mean Well HLG 320-H-36A. I am handy mechanically and electrically and could probably replace the driver in a short amount of time - and in this instance would be willing to do so just to have the light back up and running ASAP since my new flower room requires both lights. But rather than just sending me a driver over night, I'm sure I'll be waiting for the entire 50lb unit to be UPS trucked across country again.

Don't get me wrong, I love these lights and continue to marvel at the power and penetration. I am sure you will be happy with yours. I'm just frustrated to be dealing with this issue in the final, most important, weeks of flower.

Peace,
starke

 

[40AmpstoFreedom]

I am handy mechanically and electrically and could probably replace the driver in a short amount of time - and in this instance would be willing to do so just to have the light back up and running ASAP since my new flower room requires both lights. But rather than just sending me a driver over night, I'm sure I'll be waiting for the entire 50lb unit to be UPS trucked across country again.

Yeah this is exactly why I wanted to know. Doing it yourself probably voids warranty. It doe sin most cases. I am not handy with electric and things so it is particularly important. I am definitely curious as to the new light angles as well as I too am fearing bleaching when I use these and starting seeds under them. I luckily have a nice light tester from apogee and 12ft ceilings. Really think I should be able to start seeds under them. Test will be interesting.

Have you by chance grown under them from seed?

 

[starke]

As usual Jon at URSA is on top of things and I'll be receiving a replacement light shortly. Guess if I'm going to be a serious grower I need to look into a backup system to cover moments like these.

 

[starke]

Weekly Update Flower Day 49

Weekly Update Flower Day 49

The seventh week of flower has come to an end and the ladies have put on some major chunk this week. They were fed at 450ppm/.5 and will be again on Tuesday. Then it will be just ph'd water for the last 12 days (six feedings).

Aromas on the Hawaiian Snow and Super Lemon Haze remain strong in the citrus department. The Liberty Haze keeps a funky garbage smell with some fuel begining to become apparent. The Juan Herer now smells like Pine-Sol and dog shit.

The 100W Helios freebie LED has been keeping the Hawaiian Snow in the game so far and can be seen on the upper left in the below pic:

Sorry for the sideways pics. Got the phone replaced but still waiting on a new laptop. Here are a few bud pics from this morning but I lost track which was which. You know...fucking stoners.

And a pic of the girls for the next run:

Peace,
starke

 

[starke]

The Liberty Haze that hermed went into jars last night at 62% rh. Weight was 4.82 zips. The misses and I tried a tester last night and it was not bad for a plant harvested three weeks early. Not as racy as I expected an early sativa dom to be. That might be because the Liberty has a small percentage .1 - .2 CBD. Just taking a wild ass guess in that department because I don't have a clue about how the aging chemistry of cannabis works. Anyway, would not be bad to keep for some "when I run out smoke" but I have faith in the remaining harvest and think I'm going to turn it into QWISO and butter.

 

[starke]

The replacement URSA Optilux came this morning and is now hanging in it's rightful place. UPS driver picked up the defective unit and it's on it's way back to Cali. Have to admire the URSA customer service and a special shout out to Jon for making it all happen so smoothly.

Edit: Forgot to add, the ladies received their first feeding with just ph'd well water this morning so the countdown to harvest has begun.

 

[starke]

Weekly Update Flower Day 56

Weekly Update Flower Day 56

Today closes out week eight of flower. The ladies chunked up a little more during the past week but that little growth was enough to send more stems flopping towards the floor. At this point they are on their own since I'm out of yo-yos. A few white pistils still coming out here and there but not many. The trichs on the all the ladies appear about the same maturity with approximately 20% cloudy and just a few random brown beginning to appear. All but the Hawaiian Snow have begun to show signs of fading from the flush. Thinking I'll be on track to harvest next Monday morning.

The ladies this morning:

Juan Herer:

Super Lemon Haze:

Hawaiian Snow:

Liberty Haze:

Peace,
starke

 

[starke]

Unexpected Update

Unexpected Update

I've been checking the trichs every two or three days with my loupe for the last two weeks. A couple of days ago everything looked on track to harvest all the ladies this coming Monday. Checked the trichs again this morning and the Hawaiian Snow had about tripled it's number of amber trichs in just a few days. She was harvested and rough trimmed a couple of hours ago. The pic does not do the buds justice. I'm thinking around six zips dried:

Had the same green algae problem on the exterior perimeter of the roots. Got a better pic. This is why I've got black, three gallon, buckets for the next run:

Peace,
starke

 

[caljim]

Phew...long bumpy run in the new room, finishing up on the high side.

How are you liking the built room vs the tent?

 

[starke]

Yeah caljim, it's been an entertaining first grow in the room. I am loving the room vs the tent. More space, definitely light tight and far easier to control ventilation and humidity. Think I've got everything close to where it needs to be. Going to try eight smaller, better trained plants on this next run. Always learning, always trying to make the next run a little better. The weed growers perpetual chase.

 

[starke]

Harvest Update

Harvest Update

So the remaining three ladies will receive the chop in the morning before lights on. I unhooked all the yo-yo's and turned out the lights after these pics. Will post a few pics tomorrow after the rough trim.

Peace,
starke

 

[Palindrome]

Are thouse algea root's, from the orange buckets?

Looks crazy

 

[starke]

Are thouse algea root's, from the orange buckets?

Looks crazy

Not so much from the orange color but from the amount of light that was able to get through it. The LED's were hanging six feet plus off the floor. I was kind of impressed at the penetration, although I know algae does not need a lot of light to grow.

 

[starke]

Chopped

Chopped

Neither the misses nor I slept worth a damn so we've been up since 4:30AM ET rough trimming. The ladies are now down and hanging. Will update with final results when they are dry enough to jar. Time to get started on the next round.

Peace,
starke

 

[Boyd Crowder]

looks awesome in there bro, a far cry from those weak infected girls pre flower!

 

[starke]

looks awesome in there bro, a far cry from those weak infected girls pre flower!

All thanks to you my man. Without you catching the russets there would have been no harvest.

 

[bsgospel]

Yeah- he nailed it with that one. You nailed it, too! Great Harvest.

 

[starke]

Next Round

Next Round

It is time to begin working on the next round, although I can't transplant the new girls until the drying buds can be moved out of the flower room.

As mentioned above somewhere, I'm going with black, three gallon, buckets this round. Three gallon in order to fit eight plants in the room and black to try and avoid the green algae that grew on the exterior roots in the orange buckets.

As before, the "Hempy Hole" is drilled about two inches up from the bottom:

Also as mentioned previously, I am doing away with the vermiculite in the Hempy medium - substituting instead hydrocorn clay balls. No magic formula. I took one four cubic foot bag of perlite and mixed in two bags of hydrocorn and it looked about right. After rinsing in batches it filled the grandkids' kiddie pool:

The buckets are simply being filled with this mixture; no separate pure perlite in the bottom two inches like before:

More pics when there is more progress.

Peace,
starke

 

[starke]

The Hawaiian Snow harvested on 5/16 went into jars this morning at 62% RH. In my post and picture that morning I said I figured around six zips. I'm happy to report that in spite of mites and piss poor training she weighed in at 228.78 grams/8.06 zips.

Peace,
starke