Starke's Story: An LED Tale

[Palindrome]

I try not to get too hold up on yeald numbers, from grow to grow, as my enviroment also changes around the year. Can't keep the same night temps at winter, and during summer we stuggle with heat.

Cutting a little early, can also play a big factor IME. But we have to do, what we have to do sometime. But in the end as long it's good weed, and there is enough to cover the needs till next harvest.

 

[starke]

Time to Knock the Dust Off

Time to Knock the Dust Off

Completed a grow of Sour Orange Diesel Fems back on 2/5 and have spent the time since harvest making some badly needed changes in the grow room. Link to that grow is in my signature.

Tried my first SCROG screen in the room on the last grow. It was both a success and a failure. Success in that it worked as advertised and definitely helped the harvest. Failure in that the screen was impossible to work around given the layout of my room. I was unable to defoliate as I like to and had bare spots in the screen from not being able to reach areas to tuck branches. That has hopefully been fixed with my new and improved screen and improvements in room layout.

Mounted the lights and the 10x39 filter on pulleys so I can adjust the lights without needing to climb on a ladder between the plants to do so. Damn things weigh 50 pounds each and were a pain to move with the ratchet hangers. Same with the filter. 50 pounds my 60+ ass does not have to fuck with on a ladder anymore.

Also took my spare 6 inch Hyperfan and installed it to stir up the hot air around the lights.

The SCROG screen was too low and made hand feeding with my wand a crawl on hands and knees affair. That was bullshit so I have installed a top feed system with water rings and a valve manifold that lets me flood two plants at a time.

Since my well water fluctuates between 160 and 220ppm/.7 scale I have installed an RO system as well. It is kind of overkill and will fill my 32 gallon trash can in about an hour and twenty minutes but I got a deal on it I could not refuse from a friend who had purchased it for his business but never hooked it up.

Anyway, this grow will be one each of the following from clones:

Super Lemon Haze
Juan Herrer
Hawaiian Snow
Liberty Haze
Sour Orange Diesel
Big Bud x White Widow

The ladies have been vegging for about 10 weeks and were just transplanted from one gallon into five gallon containers yesterday. They are about 36 inches tall and will be defoliated and placed under the SCROG screen tomorrow. More pics then.

Peace,
starke

 

[Goats]

nice upgrades man! hopefully they make your life easier.

 

[Palindrome]

Looking really great starke, nice upgrade with the feeding system!

A must have IMO, at least with the back pains I have.
Im sure you will be happy not to crawl on all four, and hand water your plants.

I can easy imagin that sight LOL

 

[starke]

The ladies got their legs shaved today. Made a pretty good mess. Going to put them under the screen tomorrow then into flower in a couple of days. More pics with the screens tomorrow.

Yesterday:

Today:

Peace,
starke

 

[thenewstyle]

always nice to see a room evolve

 

[packerfan79]

I like the feeding setup. The pulleys are a great idea. Nice clean work.

 

[insomniac_AU]

Really nice looking room mate. I'm jealous. You just know by looking at it you're going to able to grow some great medicine in there. This is a good argument as to why people should always be allowed to grow their own to their own standards.

 

[DARKSIDER]

Nice upgrade starke will make life a lot easier now and the pullys are a nice bit of thinking

 

[starke]

Finished installing the SCROG screens in the room a few minutes ago and thought I'd post up some pics before I forget.

The screens are simple screwed together 1x4 frames with 2"x3" fence wire stapled to the top. Each frame is 40" x 46". Two frames were necessary because the layout of the veg room and flower room doors will not allow items longer than about six feet to be placed in the room because of the way the doors are offset. Here is the rear screen in place:

The screens are held along the long wall of the room by resting on simple 1x4 cleats secured to the wall studs. The front of each screen is held by a simple block cleat leg in each corner and one leg in the middle locking together the middle frame members.

Wall cleat:

Front corner leg:

Leg in place:

Center leg:

Continued below...

 

[starke]

...Center leg in place:

And the front screen in place:

Going to veg for a few more days and give the ladies a minute to recover from the transplant and defol. Next update when I flip to flower.

Peace,
starke

 

[starke]

I thought the ladies would need a few more days to recover from the transplant and the defol, but they have not even slowed down. I shut everything down last night at 9pm to give the ladies 36 hours of dark. Lights back on at 9:00am Tuesday morning on an 11/13 cycle for all these sativa dominant ladies.

Here's how they looked before lights out:

More pics and some specs on the room and grow tomorrow after lights on.

Peace,
starke

 

[Itsmychoice]

That’s looking real nice. Good growing! To a frosty pine coney finish.

 

[starke]

So a few notes on this grow for those just tuning in who do not want to start at page one to follow the journey of how we got here.

Like the link in my signature says: "I Grow Hempy Style". I currently use a mixture of about 70% perlite and 30% expanded clay balls because it works better for me than the original mixture with vermiculite. From seedling cups to five gallon flowering buckets, its the same setup and medium.

My buckets now set on a drain table I built at floor level which allows the runoff to drain through the floor into the crawlspace. Much easier than a collection pan under each bucket to be shop vacd out on hands and knees after each feeding as I was doing previously.

Similar to the drain table, my latest feed setup utilizing drip halos and valves is also simply an effort to make things easier on my old ass. I had been feeding with a hose and wand but was tired of crawling on my hands and knees.

Feed consists of Jack's 5-12-26 and Jack's Calnit typically utilized in an equal volume mix in veg between 1.2 and 1.6 ec. Flower runs between .8 and 1.2 until flush and is also reduced N. I just began using my first RO system and it has reduced my .3ec well water to zero and brought the ph from 7.8 - 8.2 to 6.6. Now when I add my nutes my ph ends up at 5.6. Until now I have had to add ph down to every mix. I have now fed about six times with the RO water and it has made a noticeable difference in the appearance of the ladies. Wish I had gone RO sooner.

The room is 66 inches wide by 96 inches long. The drain table is 48 inches wide by 84 inches long. The SCROG net is set 38 inches above the drain table and the inside/usable area of the screen measures 44 inches wide by 80 inches long. With the screen at this height I have room to work underneath it as well as on top for training and defol.

Filtration and airflow is provided by filtered passive intakes and a 10 inch Hyperfan connected to a 10 x 39 Phresh filter that exhausts into the crawlspace. Two 14 inch oscillating fans stir the air under the canopy and one twelve inch oscillating blows across the tops.

Lights are two URSA Optilux COB LEDs. Each unit draws 640 watts at the wall. I purchased this light meter recently and will be using it for the first time on this grow. I'm hoping to train everything in the screen to areas receiving 700 - 1100 umols. Another defol will be done in about three weeks.

The challenge of this grow will be maintaining control of the canopy height. I set the SCROG screen height for my own comfort. Now we find out if the ladies will cooperate. Having grown these strains before, I think I can pull it off. The next two weeks will be some serious nip and tucking. The goal I keep chasing is a three pound harvest. Maybe this time.

Anyway...going to call today flower day one and go from here. Next update in a week.

Peace,
starke

 

[Palindrome]

Looking green and happy, me I'm looking forward to see them again in a week!

 

[unnamedmike]

why im not subbed ? great setup, healthy girls

 

[LungCooking]

Very nice scrog table, you have the hands for the job, no doubt!

 

[Kimura]

oo i like what i see!!!


what kind of wire screen is that? i wanna steal your idea

 

[starke]

It's 2" x 3" mesh fence wire. Comes in a roll 48" tall by I think 50' long in the garden section at Lowes.

 

[Ibechillin]

Lights are two URSA Optilux COB LEDs. Each unit draws 640 watts at the wall. I purchased a light meter recently and will be using it for the first time on this grow. I'm hoping to train everything in the screen to areas receiving 800 - 1200 umols.

Looking forward to this grow, thanks for sharing starke.