VerdantGreen's 104 watt micro grow with custom HG LED (ScrOG)

[VerdantGreen]

hi bobbo, im not really am expert on all the different brands of LED, but if you've done your research and read good reviews/grows using then then im sure they will be good.
as for the manufacturers claims for what hps they are equivalent to i think you have to take them with a pinch of salt really (its a bit like seed companies claims for flowering period - when they say 8-9 weeks then it's more likely to be 10 )
from my experience LED's are about 20% more efficient than HID when you compare then by the power actually used - because a 250hps will use more like 300 watts. changing the flowering period isnt something i would normally recommend. perhaps if you have dialled in a cut really well in every other respect you could experiment - but the response will be dependent on the genetics used. you may get moe growth but it may flower less convincingly. if you were to make the day longer though, i have read that it's better to keep the night period at 12 hours because it is the dark that stimulates the flowering response.

these haze in the cab atm are the first strain i have ever messed with the light period on - they are 10 hours light/14 hours dark in order to push them into flowering quicker and keep them smaller.

VG

 

[VerdantGreen]

right! some pics

haze 6 is about 4 weeks in now and im pleased with how it's going

nug - they are tric-ing up now. smell is of long forgotten bagseed grows - any old-school cats will know what i mean

and just when you think - that looks pretty sativa, - you see haze 3 which is on week 3 now and looking very hardcore sativa. these are the narrowest leaves i have ever grown

tried to get some pics of the cab but it's awkward. the door is at the small end.

VG

 

[headseed]

Big up VG! Looking more and more fantastic every time I check in. Not only are you running what some consider unconventional lighting but at teh same time you are running what look like pure to near pure sativa in a micro grow! Props

 

[VerdantGreen]

hey headseed yeah the haze3 really does look very sativa indeed
i guess i should be prepared for that one to keep stretching for some time to come.

VG

 

[Marley15]

Hi VG,

Just wanted to hop on and tell you how much I appreciate your threads and that you are a huge inspiration for my grow. Here are a couple pics of my mod. scrogs when they were just put on. This is my first grow and I've already learned tons. As you can see the screens aren't quite filled correctly, but I imagine I'll get things dialed in next grow now that I kinda know what to expect.

Thanks a bunch!

Marley

 

[VerdantGreen]

hi marley and welcome! those screens look good, nice mesh.

have you flipped those plants to 12/12 yet? either way i think they will stretch some more
the strong shoots you have going towards the corners can be bent back round and down one of the sides as they grow. like you say doing this even once teaches you so much. good luck with it!

VG

 

[McSnappler]

Looks like you're taming the haze so far dude, not letting her get the better of you!

 

[Marley15]

hi marley and welcome! those screens look good, nice mesh.

have you flipped those plants to 12/12 yet? either way i think they will stretch some more
the strong shoots you have going towards the corners can be bent back round and down one of the sides as they grow. like you say doing this even once teaches you so much. good luck with it!

VG

Hey VG,

No I have not flipped the ladies yet, the picture that you see is only half the cab. On the other side I have my 2 indica's, one who is just barely filling up the screen and the other who is too short for a screen!

I feel like I should flip the switch, and probably will this weekend, because the two Larry OG's in the pic seem about ready..dunno what I am going to do about the others, their screens will be undergrown I think.

All part of the learning experience I suppose! I will be lurking, your grows are absolutely superb. Your 250w scrog journal is pretty much what I would like to achieve somewhere in the future.



Marley

 

[VerdantGreen]

hey snap - yeah the haze is being pretty well behaved atm, i think its just going to carry on growing slowly throughout flower - which may turn out to be a long time!. to tbh i cant see the chunky one, haze6, going for 20 weeks, but the skinny one may well go longer.

marley that sounds good - even a badly filled screen will yield well. remember for indicas you can set the screen lower (nearer the pot) and then put something under the pot to equalise the height. i tend to veg them into bushes - topping them once or twice. a little veg cab can come in very handy for that but for now just enjoy growing and dont expect it to be perfect as long as you have some smoke at the end of your first grow then it has been a success

---

i dusted a couple of buds on the hazes this morning with pollen from the male i got (just a couple of branches kept in water has given me plenty of pollen over the last few weeks.) i have dried and frozen some, crossed a little with the sour d x chemdog i have in my bigger cab, and sent a little out to others to spread the genetics and love
it was a nice short male so it may turn out to be a good dad.

cheers

VG

 

[qdavid]

My compliments to the chef! Good work. I'm vegging with a 90W ufo. I have used cfl. I like LED better (way cooler, healthy, albeit kinda slow growth). I'm about to flip (6wks veg, probably flip at ~8). I'm thinking I'll flower with my 150W HPS. Anyway, I have pollen from branches too, but I keep mine just refrigerated. I've read bad things can happen freezing. But apparently yours is okay. What procedures do you use to freeze your pollen? I do imagine freezing would keep it viable longer.

 

[VerdantGreen]

hey qdavid, i would be interested to hear about the 'bad' things that freezing pollen can do.
it only works if the pollen is fully dried - otherwise it goes mushy and is useless.

i collect the pollen on a fold of paper and then put it in an airtight container (i use a butter/margerine tub) with a load of dried rice and/or some silica gel (like the sachets that come with electrical goods etc to keep them dry).
i leave the closed container at room temp for about 24 hours. then i decant the dried pollen into a vial - or a paper wrap in a baggie will do - label and date it and freeze in a jam jar or something. i have used pollen after 6 months or so this way just fine and i think it would keep for longer.

VG

 

[qdavid]

Thanks! By "bad things" I just meant ice crystals forming during freezing, and expanding, and so damaging the pollen and rendering it useless. Thoroughly drying and using the desiccant before storage seems key. But I wonder, when my pollen dropped there was a lot of plant matter from the "pods?" that fell into the yellow pollen. I tried to avoid collecting this matter but I'm pretty sure some small particles were mixed in. Have you encountered this, and do you think that might be a potential problem?

That water absorption step before putting the pollen into a vial is a good tip, I think, instead of just leaving the pollen in a container along with a desiccant. Thanks again.

 

[VerdantGreen]

hey mate it's best to take out all the little bits of pod etc as these contaminants will reduce the life of the pollen. i use a small pair of tweezers for that. ive got some deep chunk pollen in the freezer thats about a year old now i think - i should try it to see if it still works!

its the same with seeds too. for every 1% of water content you get out of a seed you double it's life

VG

 

[unthing]

Hazes looking real good, just couple more months to go..

 

[qdavid]

I have another (quick?) question for the guru of the LED. I'm flipping in the next week or two. But I'm apprehensive about going to my 150W HPS from the 90W LED. I'm concerned the shock/stress to the plants might kill em or hermi em. That 90W LED is kinda weak. I could try to flower out using it, I suppose. I will definitely try flowering with the LED in the in the hot summer months.But after 2 consecutive grow disasters (first both boys, other over fert. killed em I think) I'm completely dry and want to see some results (flowers). The plants growing now are Northern Lights #5 X Blueberry, so a hybrid, mostly Indica, so shouldn't take forever to finish, like a Sativa might. But have you ever switched from LED to HPS?

BTW, them hazes look yummy.

 

[VerdantGreen]

hi unthing!

david, i veg all my plants under LED and flower them under HPS just fine. they dont seem to suffer at all and LED's are much better than CFL for veg imo. you get nice short stocky plants.

VG

 

[daoboxer]

Hiya VG.
Have just recently returned to maintaining a garden after a few years without. Have set up a microgrow with 125w LED.
I just wanted to say a big 'thank you' for your fantastic threads and all the knowledge you have shared. Your grows are an inspiration to many, myself included.
I'm really glad I stumbled upon your threads when I was researching the viability of LED for growing. You (and a couple of others) convinced me that it is possible. And as a bonus there seems to be a thriving community of U.K. gardeners on these forums.
Great work. I'll be hanging around for sure. Peace.

 

[VerdantGreen]

thanks daoboxer - yeah LED's are a very good choice for small spaces.

im looking forward to trying some nice fat indicas in this cab too - when i ran the sharksbreath under this light it was in a smaller cab than this.

the haze is going to take a while longer. i suspect haze 6 might finish in under 16 weeks but haze 3 - the skinny one - may take 20+
im guessing though as ive never run it before

VG

 

[daoboxer]

Heh heh, I read somewhere that Ben Dronkers (co-founder of sensi seed bank) said a true haze takes 8 months to flower! I wonder if it would be worth it?

 

[VerdantGreen]

hey daoboxer perhaps dronkers was trying to flower them on 12/12. as i recall sensi kind of dropped the ball on preserving haze genetics as they discarded many long flowering plants.

haze was grown as an outdoor crop in cali every year so it should be able to finish quicker than that- but i guess 20 weeks is 5 months odd so not far off.

ill try and post up some pics tomorrow.

VG