Starke's Story: An LED Tale

[justiceman]

Nice looking trichs on those flowers. I like the change to black plastic to avoid algae issues. I'll definitely stick along for the ride!

 

[starke]

Welcome aboard justiceman. Hopefully this run will be a little smoother ride.

 

[starke]

Harvest Update

Harvest Update

Everything else went into jars this morning at between 64 - 65% RH. A little higher RH than I like but I'm afraid to leave them out any longer. Just going to burp them all down to 60% or so.

Results breakdown:

Hawaiian Snow: 228.50 grams/ 8.06 oz

Liberty Haze #2: 344.09 grams/ 12.13 oz

Juan Herer: 234.22 grams/ 8.26 oz

Super Lemon Haze: 164.73 grams/ 5.81 oz

Liberty Haze #1 (Hermed; Harvested Early): 136.64 grams/ 4.82 oz (Already Butter)

1107.91 grams/ 39.08 oz/ 2.44 lb

For the GPW fans: @1280 actual watts: .86gpw

Arrrrrgh matey, at last the booty shot:

Peace,
starke

 

[packerfan79]

That's a nice harvest, Starke. I am going to be giving leds a try in flower here soon. This gives me hope. I am hoping to pull a half pound out of an 2x4 . It will probably be less since I am running seeds.

 

[starke]

That's a nice harvest, Starke. I am going to be giving leds a try in flower here soon. This gives me hope. I am hoping to pull a half pound out of an 2x4 . It will probably be less since I am running seeds.

I have only been growing in earnest for a little over two years. Started out with a stealth stacked storage tote setup running CFLs, graduated to a 5x5 tent and an URSA Optilux LED and now my small room running two Optilux fixtures. My veg fixtures are still homemade off the shelf LED bulbs. I have never vegged or flowered under any of the other incandescent technologies so I can offer no comparisons. I know that I researched anally before buying my LED fixtures and so far have had no regrets.

To my rookie grower mind, when you consider that the plants in this run were overgrown, very under-trained and mite ridden at one point, the harvest just completed is a miracle. If divine intervention was not involved then the results are due to the LEDs, the Jack's Hydro and the simplicity of Hempy Buckets. Grower skill was NOT a significant factor in this grow, I assure you.

Based on my experiences so far, you could probably pull a half pound out of a 2x4 tent with a homemade off the shelf bulb LED fixture and surely with any reasonable quality purchased/built grow fixture.

 

[packerfan79]

I have only been growing in earnest for a little over two years. Started out with a stealth stacked storage tote setup running CFLs, graduated to a 5x5 tent and an URSA Optilux LED and now my small room running two Optilux fixtures. My veg fixtures are still homemade off the shelf LED bulbs. I have never vegged or flowered under any of the other incandescent technologies so I can offer no comparisons. I know that I researched anally before buying my LED fixtures and so far have had no regrets.

To my rookie grower mind, when you consider that the plants in this run were overgrown, very under-trained and mite ridden at one point, the harvest just completed is a miracle. If divine intervention was not involved then the results are due to the LEDs, the Jack's Hydro and the simplicity of Hempy Buckets. Grower skill was NOT a significant factor in this grow, I assure you.

Based on my experience, you could probably pull a half pound out of a 2x4 tent with a homemade off the shelf bulb LED fixture and surely with any reasonable quality purchased grow fixture.

I have a light I bought from Ichabod Crane, Samsung strips mean well driver I belive. I used it in veg but I had to turn it down because it yellowed everything. I was scared to feed as heavy as Ichabod said. I got shutdown before I was able to give it a try in flower. My eyes tell me it produces a ridiculous amount of light with very little heat should be a win/win.only trial and error will determine it.

 

[starke]

I have a light I bought from Ichabod Crane, Samsung strips mean well driver I belive. I used it in veg but I had to turn it down because it yellowed everything. I was scared to feed as heavy as Ichabod said. I got shutdown before I was able to give it a try in flower. My eyes tell me it produces a ridiculous amount of light with very little heat should be a win/win.only trial and error will determine it.

I followed WaxyTaxi's thread on those lights. You should have no problem achieving your goal.

 

[FrozenFire]

Nice haul and nice recovery starke! It's always a special grow when you make a recovery like that.

On the subject of 2x4 tents, you can get some serious weight out of them. I've pulled between 3/4 to over a pound out of one... so 1/2 pound shouldn't be much of a stretch

 

[starke]

Here We Go

Here We Go

Both the flower and veg rooms were bug bombed today, after the panda floor plastic was removed. Both rooms were then scrubbed with a bleach solution. Anything that could not be bleached was sprayed with 91% ISO. New panda on the floor and here we are.

Trying to get at least a little pest management program going this time around or at least get my brain thinking along those lines since I live in one of the critter capitals of the universe. I had never confronted a pest issue until this last grow and the thought of pests had not really entered my mind. Even though I have read many of the pest threads in the "Cannabis Infirmary" Forum since joining, I just did not think about getting pests. My plants are all clones or seedlings that I have germinated here - no outside cuts...etc...so I can't have pest issues, right?? Yeah right! Tell that to the russets.

Any old heads that may read this will shake their heads and think: "Boy, you are preachin' to the choir." The following advice is not for you, it's for the rookies more rookie than I:

You WILL get bugs at some point.

Have a plan and the basic supplies on hand to deal with the most
common cannabis pests. I won't debate the whole organics vs
chemicals thing. I don't care if you use harsh language or plutonium
239...just have a way you are comfortable with to kill the little
bastards trying to destroy your crop.

Searching on here for "pest management" and "IPM" will produce results worth reading.

Ok...this latest convert to the Church of Pest Management is done preachin'.

After all the room prep, the next round of girls were transplanted into their three gallon final homes and in they went. Going to give them a couple of days to adjust to the transplant and big change in light intensity, then I'm going to start in on canopy management.

The girls for this grow are:
2 - Super Lemon Haze
2 - Juan Herer
3 - Liberty Haze
1 - Hawaiian Snow.

All plants this grow are clones. The goal is three pounds dried quality bud. So let's get to it...

Peace,
starke

 

[justiceman]

Very nice harvest you got and already up and running with the next wave. . Time to get some more flowers going!

 

[starke]

Weekly Update Veg

Weekly Update Veg

The girls have adapted to their new pots and enviornment well this past week. I'm about to bump the feed from 500ppm/.5 to around 700ppm to green them up a little. Seems like they always want more nutes under the COBS.

The mother in law ended up in the hospital with major surgery this past week so all my time was spent with the misses at the hospital. Hopefully going to have another go at some defol and training this coming week inow that she is stable.

Last week:

Today:

The leaf damage on the right side foreground plants is due to my piss poor control of the shop vac while vacuuming out the catch trays.

Clones that were transplanted on 5/28:

The tall girl in the back is a freebie Big Bud x White Widow fem I germed. Going to take some clones and give them a try, probably run after next.

Peace,
starke

 

[caljim]

Hey Starke...sorry to her about your mother in law, fingers crossed things heal quickly for her.

Good to see another round potted up. They do look a bit pale.

I run jacks/calnit also...and my 2 cents (without anyone asking)..... run your calnit higher in veg and through the transition and then tapper down as flowers set.

People mix it all different ways....this is working very well for me.

80 grams calnit/100 grams jacks hydro for veg Diluted to 1.3 ec for veg

60 grams calnit/100 grams jacks hydro for flower. Diluted to .8 ec for flower.

Sending well fed plants into flower is so much easier than trying to get them green after bud set has started.

 

[starke]

Hey Starke...sorry to her about your mother in law, fingers crossed things heal quickly for her.

Good to see another round potted up. They do look a bit pale.

I run jacks/calnit also...and my 2 cents (without anyone asking)..... run your calnit higher in veg and through the transition and then tapper down as flowers set.

People mix it all different ways....this is working very well for me.

80 grams calnit/100 grams jacks hydro for veg Diluted to 1.3 ec for veg

60 grams calnit/100 grams jacks hydro for flower. Diluted to .8 ec for flower.

Sending well fed plants into flower is so much easier than trying to get them green after bud set has started.

Thanks so much. I love the Jack's but the 1:.67 ratio the PPK folks are running is too lean for my girls in the Hempys under COBS at 600ppm. Looking forward to trying your ratio.

 

[40AmpstoFreedom]

Starke do you run C02?

 

[starke]

Starke do you run C02?

No I don't use CO2. For my small time, personal use operation it would be overkill.

 

[40AmpstoFreedom]

No I don't use CO2. For my small time, personal use operation it would be overkill.

I am not so sure in tight quarters no matter the size depending on amount of fresh air flow/size of plants low c02 can cause a whole host of issues. I am hearing this especially under cobs. The plants always look hungry and show deficiencies because it cant effectively process the nutes. I just noticed it looks similar to your plants and got me thinking. I would buy a meter and test it kind of hunch if more food doesn't help, ph is in check, and you have no off-gassing from plastics issues....

https://www.co2meter.com/collections/agriculture

Might be able to find cheaper stuff elsewhere but they seemed to have a lot of different utility ones from portable to mounted.

 

[starke]

I am not so sure in tight quarters no matter the size depending on amount of fresh air flow/size of plants low c02 can cause a whole host of issues. I am hearing this especially under cobs. The plants always look hungry and show deficiencies because it cant effectively process the nutes. I just noticed it looks similar to your plants and got me thinking. I would buy a meter and test it kind of hunch if more food doesn't help, ph is in check, and you have no off-gassing from plastics issues....

https://www.co2meter.com/collections/agriculture

Might be able to find cheaper stuff elsewhere but they seemed to have a lot of different utility ones from portable to mounted.

Never thought in terms of not enough - only in augmenting. Very good point. Got a good google search term for me to read up on some articles? And thanks.

 

[starke]

Update Veg

Update Veg

Finally had a chance to get the girls out of the room and do some defoliation on the bottoms. Bent over the taller tops to let the others catch up a bit. Hope to be working with a more even canopy in flower this time. I'm trying to restrict each plant to only about a dozen colas.

Mixed up a batch of nutes at the ratio caljim suggested and going to give them a feed with it in the morning.

The girls after their training this morning:

Cleaned out the bottoms a lot, although this picture does not do it justice:

Peace,
starke

 

[40AmpstoFreedom]

No papers or anything saved but you need 400+ ppms in general and 1200 will give you 30% increased yield and that i is not a 'guestimate' it is science. I read up on it few months ago when looking into doing some of my first sealed rooms.

Here is a good example of someone having deficient c02 and pin pointing the problem:

https://www.*********.com/community/threads/hps-vs-cmh-vs-led.95446/page-4#post-2130993

I spotted it right off the bat and had a hunch, but it often looks like a lot things you have to narrow down that i listed. Once those are out of the equation it is time to buy a meter or just do the upgrade because 30% increase in yields it pays for it self quickly.

by the way when you figure out what website that is don't ever use it buy seeds the guy is a rip off.

 

[EvergreenState]

Starke I just finished reading your entire thread and I've got to congratulate you on some great work and perseverance.
On your second grow, great job Boyd with the big help, I was rooting you on like my pick in the Kentucky Derby. You got bumped around out of the gate but caught up down the home stretch, passed every other horse and as you were heading towards the finish line I was yelling, Go, Go, Go!
I was also yelling No, No, No when you switched to Jacks. I know , I know that's blasphemy on this site but, after reading an over 100 page thread about Jacks a couple of days ago, I would have bet a million dollars you would start seeing deficiencies; and you did.
I know a lot of guys kill it with Jacks but it appears that it is very sensitive to water quality and it also appears that you have to have everything else in your room perfect before it works properly. That's just my take after reading that long thread on Jacks. A lot of people were having a bunch of issues after switching to Jacks.
You got over 2 lbs. though last round using it so it obviously can do the job; it just seems to need a lot of tinkering to get it right.
Anyway you are doing a great job and I'm really enjoying your thread; very educational too. Hoping you get your 3 lbs. this round.
I do have one question for you. I think it was the Liberty Haze that threw balls later in flowering, did you consider pinching them off and trying to get it to finish? I've read where some strains are prone to do that later in flowering and that you can watch it, keep pinching them off and they will finish fine.
Good luck this round.