Twin 70w CMH Cab

[Gnz]

Check these out big dog as supplement. A little pricey but if they worked it'd be great.

I'm a little skeptical of the benefits vs plain white LEDs at a higher wattage, 240v here too. I think if I was going to spend more than $50 on LEDS I'd build a pair of DIY lights.

I think I'm going to cut back to just CMH again once the 150w bulb arrives, I'll run it in the top cab and check light levels to the sides. I may add a spacer so the bulb isn't recessed.
Once the stressed out girl finishing flower has been chopped I'll mount both 70w cmh bulbs in the bottom cab.

Running only 3 bulbs total is going to keep the cab less cluttered, simplify the wiring and I feel like the CMH bulbs provide better light penetration than CFL/LED bulbs.

 

[Gnz]

9 days since flip for the skinny plants up top, veg cab should be back up and running this week to start the next generation from seed.
Going to keep these 3 together as they'll barely fill half a cab anyway.

Day 66 flower downstairs, where there were amber trichs there are now many more milky ones so it's a mystery how long it will run yet. Possibly up to 80 days unless things hurry along.

 

[Gnz]

Bought a pair of those 60cm adaptors, probably won't even use them in this cab they just looked useful haha. Might mount them to the walls for some LED spot lighting, who knows.

 

[MiniFridgeLED]

Bought a pair of those 60cm adaptors, probably won't even use them in this cab they just looked useful haha. Might mount them to the walls for some LED spot lighting, who knows.

Yeah spotlighting is exactly was thinking and to direct the light exactly where you want it. Especially with CFLs on the underside of the buds

 

[MiniFridgeLED]

9 days since flip for the skinny plants up top, veg cab should be back up and running this week to start the next generation from seed.
Going to keep these 3 together as they'll barely fill half a cab anyway.

Day 66 flower downstairs, where there were amber trichs there are now many more milky ones so it's a mystery how long it will run yet. Possibly up to 80 days unless things hurry along.

How are your temps in the flowering area the pic on the right looks heat stresed

 

[Gnz]

How are your temps in the flowering area the pic on the right looks heat stresed

Temps in this cab are a bit on the low side, struggling to keep it at 70f at the moment. When it was in the smaller cab it saw ~160w/sq ft for the first month of flower and the leaves never recovered. Surprised with how the plant is yielding considering how toasted it was!

 

[Gnz]

I bought some 3000k 18w LED bulbs today, they were ~$10USD for a pair in B22 rather than ~$17 in E27. Compared to the other 18w bulbs I've seen they were quite large at about 3" across rather than 2 1/4".

The diffusers came off quite easily, I just drilled a single hole and popped them off with a screwdriver.

They certainly seem much brighter than a 24w CFL, the light is far more directional and I expect the light penetration will be much better.

 

[Gnz]

LED bulbs in, much brighter at soil level.

The smaller of the NL's has gone back into veg for a month or two, just going to run the mystery bagseed (pending sex) and the larger of the young NL plants for now. These two plants had their final transplant yesterday and the NL had a "light training" today. It will be moved closer to the lights once it's recovered and stretched further.

 

[Gnz]

Day 76 flower, chop time tonight!

 

[chronosync]

This is awesome what your doing here, very cool.

 

[Gnz]

Chop time, my goal weight for this stunted plant was 14g which I think I will exceed after a dry and final manicure.

Pictures below after a rough trim, drying like this in an open box in the corner of my cab room for 5-7 days, then will be manicured and jar cured for 3-4 weeks. Quick drying a little tester bud also.

 

[Gnz]

This is awesome what your doing here, very cool.

Thanks dude, should hopefully get way more interesting once it's all dialed in!

 

[chronosync]

Not a bad pull right there I can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

[Gnz]

Bagseed didn't enjoy the LED at all while I was away, I've moved it downstairs under 70w CMH/48w CFL for now but it looks like those LEDs need at least 12" of distance which is crazy for screw in. Could these also be symptoms of low temp? It may have got as cold as 55f while I was away.

I've ordered some e27x3 adaptors to run 6x24 w cfl on their sides in the future. I might try some different LED screw in bulbs in the top cab.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Hard to tell in the photo but it looks like a bunch of other issues possibly caused by a potential lockout, which brings up the question whats the pH, or are you doing anything to level it out ?

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Went back and went through your photos to see if i could see a reoccurring pattern or anything, do you get left curl quite often, but not to bad of it ?

Typically when leaves curl up its to expose the stoma to allow more perspiration , which sometimes is caused by too much water, or being too hot.

But if your experiencing slight nutrient deficiencies as well, something is out of wack, and i would start with looking at your pH.

 

[Gnz]

Went back and went through your photos to see if i could see a reoccurring pattern or anything, do you get left curl quite often, but not to bad of it ?

Typically when leaves curl up its to expose the stoma to allow more perspiration , which sometimes is caused by too much water, or being too hot.

But if your experiencing slight nutrient deficiencies as well, something is out of wack, and i would start with looking at your pH.

I've only had curl on the last plant and this one, last time it improved with a reduction in light intensity after developing under 100w+/sq ft.

PH wise, I'm feeding at 6.2-6.3ish and soil soak is showing a little higher at 6.6-6.7. Lockout is definitely a possibility but I feel it's not likely to be PH related. It's also only effected the bag seed rather than the NL and only the area directly under the LED, which is why I'd figured light was the case again.

It did have a heavyish water before I left but was quite dry after 4 days when I got home, its also just shown sex and started to stretch again after transplant so may have dried out too much.

I'm going to switch to a more inert medium for the next batch of plants going into flower and pick up some chemical nutes rather than staying organic as my next theory is non-lockout def or toxicity. The NL is thriving under the same conditions so it might just be fussy unstable bagseed genetics.

 

[Gnz]

I've realised/remembered that this plant, which has been a lot smaller than the NL, has only really had light waterings as I was trying to avoid stagnant soil.
The only time I think it's been watered to runoff was before I left, and even then it was only a small amount compared to the 15-20% the NL regularly gets. So there's a possibility it needs a flush, I'll wait for some input on that. Soil PH (soak sample and test after settling) is higher than normal today at a little over 7 which I think might also point to salt buildup?

For now, since moving under the CFL'S the issue hasn't got worse and new growth is healthy so I'm a little relieved. Damage is limited to wrinkling of 4-5 of the main fan leaves and the plant has perked up a little so I think it may have just dried out too much while I was away.

 

[Gnz]

Everything is dry and has been curing in a jar for a few days, certainly smells a lot stronger than it did on the plant! Final yield would have been significantly more than expected, I don't own scales but estimate around 22-24g.

Smoke is quite motivating if you have one bowl and puts me on the sofa with 3 or 4. I think it's quite sativa heavy and could have gone another few weeks.

I think the plan next is to clear this cab out and start fresh from rooted clones, including veg cycle under these CMH with some higher kelvin CFLs.
I'm going to use a new medium and am leaning towards hand watered 50/50 coco/perlite but am put off by daily waterings. Will see what I can find tomorrow without going near a grow shop.

 

[Gnz]

Settled on 50/50 soil/perlite, I figure this should provide better drainage and a more inert mix than my current mix which is light on perlite and heavy on ewc. I've chosen an organic additive free potting mix largely composed of peat, hopefully this will minimize any hot spots.

Nutrient wise I'm using an organic 10-3-7 at half strength for veg and an organic 0-2-3 for flower, I have some PK 13-14 too but hopefully won't need it.

I've transplanted the unhappy plant into this new mix and it's had a major turn around over the last 48 hours. Will update once there's something in the other half of the cab again!