# LED Grow



## blancolighter (Sep 24, 2008)

Well, the past 2 months have been long and hard. I'm new to this growing thing and have been subjecting my plants to every hardship possible, nute burn, over and under watering, bad PHing and so on. Well I've finally stabilized those girls and put them in flowering, but not before I got good heathly clones from them. 

So in this journal I'll follow the clones I just put in, which are as follows, 2 Mangos, 2 Sensi Stars, 1 Afghan, and 1 Macado. 

For Lighting right now I am using a Procyon 100 LED light. The clones seem to be enjoying it and growing quickly without stretching (though I could be wrong). Right Now I'm vegging with the Procyon and Flowering with a HPS, but I might keep the Procyon with these girls all the way through flowering, because I know there's alot of curiuosity about what kind of quality plants LED lights produce. 

I've got em planted in 8 inch clay pots with ProMix. I plan on fertilizing with DynaGrow tonite. I have a bag of seabird guano I would like to use, but I'm unclear as to whether or not I should let it sit and ferment a bit before feeding my plants with it, so untill I figure that out, I'll use dynagrow. I'm gonna start at 1/4 strength for these guys and see how they like it. 

I'll get some more pics tonite when I water and feed them.

Oh if anyone could give me some direction about letting the guano stew or not, I would really appreciate it. Thanks for checking out my grow!


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## jb247 (Sep 25, 2008)

Hey Blanco...there is something of a learning curve for all of us when just starting out...at least you didn't kill them all, like I did with my first run...I learned from it tho, so it is all good, eh? I've been using modern growing methods (first learned to grow back in the '70s, but didn't grow for 35 years) for about 4 years now, and have gotten to where I'm very happy with the medicine that I'm growin'. Just keep at it, and learn from your mistakes and soon you'll be growing some of the best meds you've ever seen.

I use guano as a top dressing for my soil...I use a small rake  to get it down into the top couple of inches of the soil, then the water washes through it and carries it down to the roots...

Hope this helps...

Peace...j.b.


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## Timmyjg6 (Sep 25, 2008)

Found it! Pulling up a chair...


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## Runbyhemp (Sep 25, 2008)

> I have a bag of seabird guano I would like to use, but I'm unclear as to whether or not I should let it sit and ferment a bit before feeding my plants with it


Hey blanco', when I use guano, I sprinkle it into a bucket, then I add hot water to it and stir very well. The guano I use is fossilized. There's lumps of it as hard as pebbles. It would take months for this to break down by itself in the soil. The hot water makes it break down a lot faster. When I'm happy that it's broken down ok, I just dilute the mixture with cold water and use.

Hope this helps.


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## blancolighter (Sep 25, 2008)

Thanks for the guano help guys! Those pellets are crazy hard! I've been crushing em up with a hammer and then dissolving them in warm water. Sounds like u got the process down RunbyHemp, thanks for the knowledge. So JB247, how long does that guano last when you put it in the top soil like that?

I got some more photos today that I'll post up tonite, thanks again guys.


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## papabeach1 (Sep 26, 2008)

I let my real guano (bat's dried bowel movement) 1 to 3 tbsp per gallon of water in the jug sitting for 3 days before i pour it to the soils all around..

not really hard and I do love the real stuff..


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## blancolighter (Sep 28, 2008)

Sorry for no posts in a sec, I still haven't had internet installed at my house so finding a safe place to discreetly do things is tough... Anyways, the girls are lookin great, added another Macado (I dont know the spelling of this guys, but thats how it sounds) to the family. They're lookin great veggin under the procyon more. Look heathly and showing vigorous growth. I don't think they're stretching, but this is my firstish rodeeoo so you be the judge of that, and maybe tell me?

The girls in the pics are: Front row: Sensi Stars. Second Row: Macados (sp?)
Third row on left: Afghan, on right: Mango. The back row are Mangos as well. 

I'm using DynaGrow at half strength right now once a week. I accidently did twice in a week a sec ago, so the tips did burn a bit, but still all good. 

The girls are also protected by my PSUEDOSCORPIONS! Mites Beware!

Thanks for lookin!


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## bombbudpuffa (Sep 28, 2008)

You should put that light right at the tops of those plants,


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## papabeach1 (Sep 29, 2008)

bombbudpuffa said:
			
		

> You should put that light right at the tops of those plants,



oh yes,  like 5 cm from the light...your lights dont burns as much floursec can by half inch away from the lights, even thought hps lights has to be 12 -18 inch away from the lights depends on the high wattage..

put these leds really close to the plants, would be super SWEET IMO!!:hubba:


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## blancolighter (Sep 29, 2008)

bombbudpuffa said:
			
		

> You should put that light right at the tops of those plants,


 
WEll I'm gonna get my chain out and try lowering this bad boy. However, this might be the first con of the Procyon, the lightspread. I noticed when putting up the light that I had to put it up a bit higher than I would have liked to get the lightspread I need. That was with my other crop though, which was a forest. 

Anyways, I'll try lowering it and get back more about the light coverage.


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## Timmyjg6 (Sep 29, 2008)

Lookin nice, you might want to use plastic pots next go around. It would be lighter... Just sayin..


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## blancolighter (Oct 5, 2008)

Well its been a sec since my last update, but since I just got the internet in my house, the updates should come more often. Well since the last post I've topped all the plants but the Sensi Stars, which I'll probably do later this week. I also lowered the light a bit. So the one possible quam about the LED light so far is the light coverage is pretty narrow when you try to get it real close to your plants. The plants, however, are looking great and it seems the love the LED.

These girls have grown since my last post! I didn't even Realize!

The plants are in the first 3 pics as follows: 1st row: Sensi Star. 2nd Row left: Afghan. 2nd row right: Mikado (finally found the right sp!) 3rd row left: Mikado. Remaining plants are Mangos.

My next pics are of the plants under the light and they show how far I was able to lower the light and still cover the plant area with light.

Ferret on the guard.


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## i_love_amsterdam (Oct 6, 2008)

Nice grow man. Pretty interesting with the LED u got goin. Looks like they love it. Are those all clones? If so those look nice man. i've only tried a couple times but cloning seems a little tricky to me. Keep farmin


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## spacecake (Oct 8, 2008)

Nice one  Looking V good  Like the Feret as well 

Peace and good luck !!


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## blancolighter (Oct 13, 2008)

Alright well another vegging update, nothing too exciting. There'll be a few more of these as I wait for my first batch of plants to finish flowering (shown in the 1st pic). 

The plants are looking great, though I noticed some signs of nute deficiency so I brought the fert mix to full strength. I had been feeding them half the recommended amount of FF Grow Big. Sigh, my little girls are growing up so fast. They have all been topped and are growing nice and bushy. The Sensi Star is taking a bit longer to get up to size, but thats just the nature of the strain, squat and bushy. 

So I wanted to make a few points here from what I've seen and maybe clarify a few things about LED lights. First off, the LEDs in my light are 5 watts each. Alot of other lights and DIY use the 1/2 watt and 1 watt type which just don't put out alot of light. People have been saying that LEDs can make a great canopy of leaves, but just can't penetrate it to grow anything beneath. As you can see with my plants, this isn't the case as there is healthy growth from top to bottom of the plants. I think its the 1/2 watt LED grow lights that this applies to. Same goes for the stretching rumors, as you can see, my plants aren't stretching either. So for Vegging in my experience, LEDs are great. I was reading in High Times that a UFO LED light they used produced more resin on its buds than its conventional lighting counterpart. This makes me tempted to keep the LED light with these gals throughout the flowering process as well. I guess we'll see though. 

Pictures are as follows: First off we have the Mangos, they're branching out quite nicely. Next is a pic of the Mikados, thriving just like the Mangos. Third is the Afghan, gonna have to watch her, looks like she could take over some other plants space if left unchecked. Finally is a pic of the Sensi Stars, a bit squat, but still nice and healthy. 
Next com two pics showing how they grow under the LEDs. One with flash, one without.


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## blancolighter (Oct 14, 2008)

Man I could use a fast forward button. Its gonna be a while before my current flowering batch is done and I really wanna put these ladies in now. Dang. Anyways, Trimmed them all up and took a nice set of clones. I don't have any room for mothers so I'm just taking clones from ones generation to the next. I have a record book so I know which clones off which plant to keep, depending on the taste and quality of the mothers. 

Whenever I work in my grow room the ferret jumps in, he loooves being where he isn't allowed... 

Transplanted a couple of clones, a Mango and Afghan, and threw them into the mix. They're kinda malnourished, so they'll be gettin some TLC here, starting with a good light source.


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## rami (Oct 14, 2008)

everything looks great man.

but i have a question, how is it goin with your electric bill?
does the LED waist a lot?


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## blancolighter (Oct 14, 2008)

Rami, the LED does to the electric bill the exact opposite you asked about, makes it much cheaper. I run that guy 24/7 and it costs less than 5 bucks a month to run.


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## bombbudpuffa (Oct 14, 2008)

> I was reading in High Times that a UFO LED light they used produced more resin on its buds than its conventional lighting counterpart.


I have that same issue. It also said it's yield wasn't comparable to it's counterpart, if i'm not mistaken. You do have some of the biggest, bushiest LED grown plants i've seen. I think you're doing an outstanding job. I like the purple plants.


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## blancolighter (Oct 14, 2008)

bombbudpuffa said:
			
		

> I have that same issue. It also said it's yield wasn't comparable to it's counterpart, if i'm not mistaken.


 
Yep. You got that dead on. The UFO only uses 1 watt LEDs though, so I'm thinkin that had somethin to do with the yield. This also makes me curious to try a combination of both LED and HPS and see what happens. Thanks for the comment!


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## gmo (Oct 17, 2008)

Hey blanco, those ladies your growing look real nice man!  Have you decided if you are gonna flower this batch with the LED's or with HIDs yet?  In your last set of pictures, in your flowering room, is that an HID setup?  What kinda wattage?  Keep up the good work man :hubba:.


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## blancolighter (Oct 17, 2008)

Yea I have a 600w hps in the flowering box hooked up to some duct work and fans to keep it cool in there. I think what I'll do is when the time comes, I'll put the LED lamp in there and see what kinnd of light coverage I get in there. If I feel its giving a good amount of coverage, I'll keep it in there for flowering. Also I'll be putting the plants in a bit staggered, like 2 or 3 a week, so I might not put the light in right away, but we'll see.


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## blancolighter (Oct 27, 2008)

Well nothing too exciting to update with. Plants are looking great still. Have a lovely canopy just covering my closet floor. The LED light seems to penetrate the canopy nicely. I maybe need to only pull off one leaf on the underside of the plant a week from the lack of light, so that seems pretty good to me. I've been topping the plants and cloning them pretty regularly, keeping their size down as my flowering box isn't too high and I'm bumping some high wattage in there. Don't want my girls getting too close to the light and burnin up. 

I harvested a plant out of the box yesturday, so my first LED vegged plant just took its spot in the flowering box. I threw one of the Mikados in there and I'll be keeping track of her and the others I'll be throwing in there shortly. I won't switch the LED to flowering untill I get half of my LED girls in there. 

The pics: You can see the gals lovin the lightin in the first pic. Second pic is one of the colas from the plant I harvested to make room for the Mikado. I forgot to take a pic of the whole plant, bummer.


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## Thorn (Oct 30, 2008)

not sure how i missed this one...LED grows fascinate me. They look fab! And that bud...well just delicious! Have you smoked any of it yet?


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## blancolighter (Oct 30, 2008)

Thanks thorn. Well that cola is stll drying, but I did vape some of the pop corn buds. It's def a one hitter quitter! I microwave dried a couple of the pop corn buds (I was out of weed otherwise). I found a great microave technique that works quite well in conjunction with a vape. Its called steam drying and its relatively simple. I'll post the method if anyone wants. I tried to smoke the microdried bud before I vaped it, terrible. I wouldn't try this technique unless you had a vape. The microwave popcorn buds I haven't smoked yet are now curing and turning out pretty nice. I might try smoking em later tonite for the sake of science, see if they got any better.


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## 84VW (Oct 30, 2008)

are you using  the leds for veg and flower without any extra light?

im curious because i am also using leds, still vegging


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## Rogue (Oct 30, 2008)

The ladies are lookin good. How long have you been veggin?


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## blancolighter (Oct 30, 2008)

I've been vegging for a little more than a month Rogue. I'm not vegging for so long for any reason besides I'm waiting for the gals in my flowering box to finish flowering so I can throw in my current crop. I should have harvested everything in there in the next 2 weeks. 

84vw, I've been vegging only with the LEDs, and they're looking great. I've been keeping them trimmed cause my flowering box is only 5 feet high, so I can't have bushes going. In the flowering box I have a 600 w hps, but I'll switch that out here soon and try flowering with only my LEDs, so we'll see how that goes!


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## papabeach1 (Oct 30, 2008)

damm  I would check LEDS out!!

but I need stores that sell leds...it gotta be high output!!

If I got it fixed up as 2 cent.. man!!!  nohing impossible!!.. I like that buds and the way it look... IMO   HPS lights can swell the buds to swell out and flaky..

I notice flours get buds to be tights... this bud you shows  it look just right.


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## 84VW (Oct 31, 2008)

blancolighter said:
			
		

> 84vw, I've been vegging only with the LEDs, and they're looking great. I've been keeping them trimmed cause my flowering box is only 5 feet high, so I can't have bushes going. In the flowering box I have a 600 w hps, but I'll switch that out here soon and try flowering with only my LEDs, so we'll see how that goes!



i'll definately be watching, i am vegging with leds and so farthey are looking very nice...not how the flowering will be since pictures and info are few and far between


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## blancolighter (Oct 31, 2008)

Yea papa, ya gotta look for those high output LEDs for sure, only way to go. In my book if the light isn't using 5 watts per led, its just not worth it. 

84VW, yea I wont be doing LED vegging prolly for 2 weeks, but when its goin I'll keep all the details comin. Tell me if ya beat me to the punch flowering with LEDs, I'd be interested in your progress.

I don't really have room for mother plants in my grow, so I just clone off the gals in the vegging cycle. I keep charts of the strains so I know which plants tasted best and I keep those clones. I take alot of clones to so I can weed out the shabby plants and to keep my vegging girls trimmed. My ceiling in the flowering box is at just a litle more than 5 feet, so I need to keep my plants trimmed down. In the process of doing this, my girls have gotten bushy!

Photos:

In the photos are 3 of the strains (left to right: Mikado, Sensi Star, and Mango) that are bushing out quite well. 

I've noticed on the lower fan leaves of a few of my plants tiny brown spots appearing. The plants are otherwise vibrant so I'm not to worried. I am going to look into it though. If anyone reading this has an idea about it to throw out that would be appreciated as well.

Trimmed all of the plants, you can see the canopy prolly looks lower than in my other pics.

Workin on my clone army.


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## Thorn (Oct 31, 2008)

blancolighter said:
			
		

> Thanks thorn. Well that cola is stll drying, but I did vape some of the pop corn buds. It's def a one hitter quitter! I microwave dried a couple of the pop corn buds (I was out of weed otherwise). I found a great microave technique that works quite well in conjunction with a vape. Its called steam drying and its relatively simple. I'll post the method if anyone wants. I tried to smoke the microdried bud before I vaped it, terrible. I wouldn't try this technique unless you had a vape. The microwave popcorn buds I haven't smoked yet are now curing and turning out pretty nice. I might try smoking em later tonite for the sake of science, see if they got any better.



Yes please, that'd be really interesting, thanks 

And don't worry I microwave my buds when i really need a smoke too. I just put them on a peice of kitchen roll and fold it over so they are covered, then put them in for 10 second bursts with a little break inbetween to cool down and air off. Some buds have been absolutely phenomenal this way and not harsh in the slightest. Have had a few that were pretty harsh but sometimes I had to rush the nuking


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## Wiseguy_Chef (Oct 31, 2008)

looking nice, them led's doing nice for vegging. gl with flowering


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## Mountain420man (Nov 4, 2008)

Where did you find the 5 watt LED's, that makes it look great.  I've also wondered about using them with my other lights since power cost me nothing I try to use as much as I can and I've been reading about the LED and they say they use the LED's light better that MH & HPS but I've never heard of 5 watt LED's that might be the ticket.  Happy growing  Peace


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## 4u2sm0ke (Nov 11, 2008)

Nice looking plants..nice to see some LED grows..I have some red i was going to put in flower room to see if it helps..enjoyed your grow  and have subscribed..thanks and KEEP M GREEN


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## blancolighter (Nov 16, 2008)

Well its been a second since my last post, and I certainly haven't been posting from lack of excitement. I'm in the process of battling mites and a magnesium def. I think I have both under control (knock on wood) but we shall see. 

I just put my LED in my flowering box so I'm eager to see how that goes. 

Let me go through the pics to show ya what my plants have been up to:

1st: Wide shot of all my ladies, the ones in the back right have been in about two weeks, and the ones in front just four days.

2nd: A closer shot of the older plants. The yellowing plant is actually 2 and a half weeks old and is what cued me to believe my plants were Magnesium def. I started treating all my plants with epsom salts and the plants I put in just a few days later (the other green plants in the pic) stayed green, whoot! I harvested a Mag. def. Mikado that yelloed like that one and it was great, so I'm not too worried, she should turn out fine.

3rd. The plants I just put in are starting their stretch, look at those ladies go!

4th: I'm thinking I might be over doing it with the Epsom Salts. I've been doin a tablespoon a gallon whenever I feed. ( I water one day, feed the next, then break two days and repeat) I think the weird growth and the burn marks are MG toxicity. If anyone has any ideas on this, I would love to hear em. 



I saw I forgot to post that little quick cure method I found, its microwave steam drying, so here goes: 
Grab a tupperware container with a lid and a couple of paper towels. 
Tear off a piece of paper towel and line the bottom of the container. Now take a paper towel wet it and ring it out so ita just good and damp, not dripping. 
Now either fold it in half or use another wet paper towel, and drap it over the top of the container so the wet paper on top is two layers thick. Now put the lid on the container and snap it down on all edges but one so the steam can escape. 
Time to put it in the microwave. But wait! Ya gotta change your settings! Bring your microwaves power down to forty percent before you press start. Zap it for a minute.
Take out the container now and open it up. 
If the paper towl on the bottom of the container is wet, replace it.  Dry off the sides of the container as well. 
Now rewet the top towels and repeat this process four times or so, untill your buds feel dry and smokeable.

Yikes, just sampled and afghan I just grew for the first time, and its puttin me out, I gotta go. Thanks for readin!


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## st00ner (Nov 16, 2008)

Thorn said:
			
		

> Yes please, that'd be really interesting, thanks
> 
> And don't worry I microwave my buds when i really need a smoke too. I just put them on a peice of kitchen roll and fold it over so they are covered, then put them in for 10 second bursts with a little break inbetween to cool down and air off. Some buds have been absolutely phenomenal this way and not harsh in the slightest. Have had a few that were pretty harsh but sometimes I had to rush the nuking



Thats going to be me right around the end of december... 

Time to take the microwave out of the closet lol!


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## Thorn (Nov 17, 2008)

lol st00ner 

Wow they look just amazing blanco! I wanna come play with you when it comes to harvest time  yea that strecth looks very good - they reaching up to give you some budz


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## blancolighter (Nov 17, 2008)

I am not thinking the burned looking tops on that Mikado is from the insecticide I used. Gotta find somethin else, cause it really messed up some clones...


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## blancolighter (Dec 1, 2008)

Well, its been a while once again since last post, but when battling mites I get too flustered to journal, so yea. Luckily the mites haven't mreally made their way into the flowering box yet, so hurray for that. 

So it was the old insecticide that screwed up my leaves like that. It's a sulfur based bug killer so let it be known, marijuana does not like sulfur based insecticides! Now I'm using a great pyrethrin based aresol called Doktor Doom that seems to have the mites on the run. I'm alternating that with neem oil and the girls seem to like this pest treatment much better.

I also figured out that my plants seem to drain of their nutrients during flowering because of my smallish pots. I'm using 8 inch clay pots to hold alot more plant than they should. I sadly dont have the space to upgrade, I try to compensate with a more frequent feeding schedule.  The plants are producing quite well so I'm not too worried, they just shrivel and drop their leaves like no ones business. 

The first pic I have is the Mikado I threw in on October 27. You can see what I mean about the leaf shriveling from the small container, but with buds like that at 34 days I'm not complainin!

Second shot is a bud from that Mikado. Looks like I'm just a few days away from havest. I'll probably pull her at just 5 and a half weeks! I love this strain! Produces big fatty buds too!

Third shot is the flowering box, LED powered!

Next is the plant I'm most excited about, my Afghan. Now this picture doesn't do its justice, but its just got buds all over it! Looks like this girl is gonna have some ridiculous colas if the buds grow like they did on my last afghan. 

My squat little Sensi Star will wind up this little show and tell. I'm starting to run out of the Sensi I have so I'm sending waves of good energy its way. Maybe I should cross it with a Mikado, speed it up, hmmmmmmmmmmm.

So I thought I'd share a few things I've found about LEDs through my grow so far. Actaully what I'd like to do is lift a post I posted to someone else's post inquiring about leds and put it here: 

1. Don't spend money on LEDs that have less than 3 watts per LED. Any less wont penetrate a canopy and needs to be too close to the plant to be usuable in a multiplant grow enviroment.

2. You can easily see the breakdown of the LED light as it goes through the plant canopy, so I bet that the best way to grow with them would be with a scrog.

3. Definately less water consumption. I needed about a third less water when I switched from 600w hps to my 100 watt LED. I think less gets evaporated...

4. Another cool thing I came to find was I can hang my harvested herb right next to the light since it doesnt give off degrading heat or UV rays, so thats nice since I'm space pressed.

I know a few more tips, but weed put them somewhere else, so I'll put some more up later.


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## northernlightssmokn (Dec 1, 2008)

So what percentage of your flowering cycle was pure LED?? 

What led you to believe you had a magnisium definciency?

Did you ever experience a "twistig" of leaves or a "taco" effect?


I'm in deep with an LED grow myself...


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## blancolighter (Dec 1, 2008)

Well I put my LEDs in flowering on oct 15, so half of my plants will flower almost entirely on LED. My other plants will have spent al leat the last half of their flowering life in LED light. 

I figured I had a Magnesium def. after lookg at my plants as a whole. Some plants had a certain necrosis in common and looked like they had nutrient lockouts in step with what a Mag. def. would lock out. I've been adding epsom salts to the plants diet since and they've improved greatly. No twisting or taco effect, that threw me at first, but then I found more symptoms of the Mg def and figured stuff out...


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## Thorn (Dec 2, 2008)

you got it down blanco! Very nice plants and you are very knowledgeable about your grow, I enjoy reading what you have to say  thanks for sharing those fabulous looking plants!


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## blancolighter (Dec 3, 2008)

Whoot, first harvet of this batch! Chopped the Mikado at 36 days with trics at about 15 percent amber, maybe jsut a bit less (I like my a little headier high). I included a couple of pics of the lovely lady. Shes got a nice pungent floral smell to her with a hint of citrus mixed in. With the way air moves in my growroom, I'll hang her for about 2 and a half days then brown bag her for 5 and she'll be ready for the pipe!

I also wanted to kinda put images behind some of the LED concerns most have. Many site canopy penetration as a concern, and rightfully so, LEDs do struggles with that. I;m realizing as I'm typing that I should have gotten a full plant shot, but didn't. Oh well, still have some good stuff. Anyways you can see in one pucs the vibrant top of the canopy, and the not so vibrant canopy interior. Now in this area of the plant, only small popcorn buds would be produced anyways, so it shouldn't be a big deal. Still you can see the plant gets signifigantly less light down there. Also note this is a very busy/leafy strain and this is kind of an extreme example of this...


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## Cannabiscotti (Dec 3, 2008)

Hey looks great! I did a bunch of reading up on the LED thing. Hows the heat in there? Im guessn those LEDs are a lot cooler. I read you could put them about 3 inches off the canopy. maybe check it out and let us know? that could have just been with lower power LEDs. The CREE LEDs in the procyon are pretty potent.


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## Cannabiscotti (Dec 3, 2008)

so my last post i was at work and didn't have time to read through the hole grow. so you moved the LED as close as you could while covering the whole canopy--right on. just to point out, for whoever may be reading this that doesn't know, the intensity of light plays by the inverse square law. in other words, every time you double the distance from the light it is 4 times less intense. but it goes both ways. if your light is 2 feet from your canopy and you drop it down to 1 foot above the canopy your plants get 4 times as much light.

anyways- awesome grow!! 
a few questions...
i was wondering what difference in temp you noticed when you switched to the Procyon? 
that photo above of the hanging mikado, how many plants was that from?

i wonder what results you'd get from flowering under both the HPS and LED

keep it up they look awesome!!


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## blancolighter (Dec 3, 2008)

Thanks for the questions man, one brings up a good point I wanted to share. Switching HPS to LED in my small flowering box dropped the temperature about 10 degrees. To people with smaller boxes this could really help them out. You would need a taller box though to really utilize the light spread properly...

Yea I try too keep my plants as close to the light as I can, when I can't lower the light because of the spread, I'll just raise some of the plants. 

Also those bud photos are from just one plant. It was the Mikado with a bunch of shriveled leave in my previous posting.


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## i_love_amsterdam (Dec 3, 2008)

Nice lookin bud you got there:hubba:  Did u say u harvested that after only 36 days?!?!:holysheep:


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## northernlightssmokn (Dec 3, 2008)

Keep up the Great work. As of now, how many days are you in flower and how many of those are pure led only?? I ask this because, I want to know if there are signs that LED ALONE will flower.... 40 to 45 days is my average w/ strawberry under a 600hp. his is my first under all LED light so I am watching your journal for support while I watch mine....Did you say those are 36 days?? All hps or LED or bolth??


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## blancolighter (Dec 3, 2008)

These 36 days were spent about half and half led and hps, with hps coming first. My girls in flowering now still look like they're growing quickly under the LEDs, so no worries. The next couple plants I pull will be a HPS LED mix, then I'll have 4 left that are pure LED flowered.


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## Cannabiscotti (Dec 9, 2008)

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just a few things about LEDs.

first, not all LEDs are created equal. If you were to decided to put in the extensive research to build your own LED--lets say you decided on a specific high power LED a CREE Xlamp. When purchasing not all XLamp LEDs will have the same rating. When a manufacturer does a run and say makes 100,000 LEDs they get sorted into different "Barrels" with a different rating. the most expensive being the most efficient. This does help to cut down on the price as you could imagine if they only sold barrel A and threw out B and C. Also, an LED may be rated for say 160 Lumens per watt. However this efficiency is usually achieved with much less amperage than the LED is rated for. So when you actually use the LED, the amperage that will be going through the circuit we be greater and thus have an effect on the efficiency(in a negative way of course). please ask questions if i seem to confuse anyone--you know how it is when you get to writen then like 15 mins later you're trying to re-read what you wrote and understand it...good times.

other than the increased efficiency in watts when compared to HPS there are still additional advantages. The lights put off much less heat. A more basic/smaller set up can be utilized for exhaust, also using less electricity. because of less heat, CO2 setups can flood the room longer. one of the greatest advantages is how close the LEDs can be to your plants. with adequate ventilation i've read light scan be 3 inches above the canopy! this would increase the light intensity greatly and it would penetrate very deep. The problem i see in this is the very small foot print and much less area to grow. if they were to spread out the LEDs i think it would work better. I also think LEDs would have a great place in a flowering chamber when used as additional lighting. I think this would be a perfect place to add a little bit of lighting but have it so close to the plants that it more intense. (everytime you divide the distance of the light by 2, the light intenisty is 4 times stronger. this effect works both ways.) Not only is the light more intense, but all of the light is in a spectrum that will entirely be used by the plant and less reflective. (given you did your homework and used the correct LEDs and mix of colors in the correct spectrum of light.)

I have even thought of creating a screen with strings of LEDs throughout. Use it to grow a scrog with random high power LEDs within the canopy. LEDs spread out would not get very warm, especially with moving air. 

beware cheap LEDs. know what LEDs a product uses before you buy. there is a 1' X 1' LED light with 220-somthing amount of LEDs on it-said to cover one square foot for like 35$ this could be great to stand up around your plants. the cheaper less power LEDs, but the leaves can actually be up against them and not burn, they are very low heat. if selecting a main grow light be prepared to spend some money upfront. the UFO everyones seen doesn't seem like a very good buy IMO. i'd check out the procyon 100. It uses namebrand LEDs. It runs at 100 watts but is supposedly the same as 400 watts HPS. think of cutting your electric bill for your lights into one/quarter. 

there is also a 300 and 600 watt LEDs for $1800 and $2500 US dollars. the 600 watt is supposedly compaired to 3000 watt HPS with a 10' by 10' coverage. I doubt the light having the same intensity as 3000 watt HPS when hanging high enough to cover this area. However it has the same capacity to be more intense than the 3000 watt HPS if used in a smaller area and much closer to the plants. 

if you want to know how and LED works check out :
howstuffworks(dot)com and search how LEDs work. 

all questions are welcome. im read-up a lil bit on the topic. let me know what you guys think. i'm not in a position to grow myself right now, but could help with a DIY correspondance if anyone wanted to try something....


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## northernlightssmokn (Dec 9, 2008)

Hey Blanco, How are things?? Hows the flower coming along??


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## blancolighter (Dec 9, 2008)

Well guys and gals, I'm pulling the LED out of flowering. It just can't penetrate the canopy well enough. The tops of the plants look great, as you can see in some of the bud pics, but the underside not so good. My Mangos and Mikados and Afghans and kinda bushy and spread out, so its harder to tell with em, but my Sensi Stars look like compost piles underneather their canopies. The buds look sick, but the colas seem shorter than before, I'm thinking it's because the LEDs just cant get deep enough to give nice thick AND LONG buds. 

From the looks of it, LEDs will be best suited for sog and scrog grows, and vegging (which is what I'm putting the leds back to work on). Also Its a big power saver having the leds on vegging 24 7 and having the HPS on only 12 hours a day. 

I'll probably sit down and write up a little more about what I've learned  growing with LEDs at a bit later date. 

That bit of business aside, more about the grow. I've been fighting some nutrient deficiencies as well as spider mites, so I've had my hands full. I started at the mites with a sulfur based pesticide/fungicide as you read about earlier (if you read this thing, thanks if ya do!) which was a terrible idea and didn't work well anyways. After this I went out and got some pyrethrum aerosol spray and started chasing the mites with that. I kept finding more mites here and there though, so thinking I'm missing spots I went out and got neem oil and made up a spray. I soaked every square inch of my plants with that stuff till they were sopping, then I soaked some more. I did this a couple of times with several day inbetween and will continue to do so. I also started feeding neem oil to my flowering plants because they can't get a hose down like the others can (oh, and i'm feeding it to them too). I'm goin all out for complete extermination here. I'll go get some more aerosol and alternate that and neem sprays as well. 

As for the nut. def., I believe they were brought about from me using a soilless promix and not adding dolomite lime. I think I have a Calcium and Magnesium def which have also been affecting the uptake of postassium. This combination explained alot to me about how my leaves looked. I started treating a while ago with epsom salts and just got some hydrated lime to add some calcium. Hopefully things will start looking a bit better. I'll keep the results posted.

Well gotta cut this short, gotta decorate the tree!

Pics are as follows Mango, Afghan, then Sensi Star, buds go in that order too with mango starting the bud pics with two pics in a row.


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## HydroManiac (Dec 9, 2008)

wow if you got thoughs kinda buds from LEDs blanco i applaud you man


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## WeedHopper (Dec 9, 2008)

It would seem to me that CFL's might be a better choice for vegging, when you look at cost and yeild. Right? Are am I wrong? By the way this has been a great thread for learning.Good Job Bro.


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## northernlightssmokn (Dec 9, 2008)

Man now Im realy worried!!!! I dunno man, those still look like good buds. What if you put LED's bottom up and top down!!??


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## Thorn (Dec 10, 2008)

HydroManiac said:
			
		

> wow if you got thoughs kinda buds from LEDs blanco i applaud you man



Why? You never seen an LED grow before?

Thats a shame blanco, woulda been cool to see these ladies go all the way through with leds. But good job anyway man, its been a pleasure watching so far. What wattage HPS you gonna be using?


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## blancolighter (Dec 10, 2008)

Yea, I'm still bummin about my decision. Gonna replace the LEDs with a 600 watt HPS. Thabnks for keeping up with the LEDs! I'm just gonna finish these plants out then start a new journal. 



> It would seem to me that CFL's might be a better choice for vegging, when you look at cost and yeild. Right? Are am I wrong?



LEDs blow CFLs away effeciency wise. Ok, maybe thats a bit of an exaggeration, but I can veg about 10 plants (I like to veg them for a good little bit too) just fine with one of my LED lights. I really dont think you could get near the same coverage with the same wattage (100 watts in my case) in CFLs.


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## Thorn (Dec 10, 2008)

I dunno 100 watts in cfls would be say 5 20watters and you can spread them around nice too. I think you could, but thats just me. I vegged my first 3 plants under 1 20watt cfls to start with then added another and they were pretty good


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## blancolighter (Dec 10, 2008)

Hmm, yea, I didn't think about spreading them out, dunno why... I guess I was just talking from a directional standpoint.


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## WeedHopper (Dec 10, 2008)

blancolighter said:
			
		

> Hmm, yea, I didn't think about spreading them out, dunno why... I guess I was just talking from a directional standpoint.


 
Yeah,,I used 6 CFLs with 14,000 total lumens in a small fridge and had no problem with heat(had exhust fan) and they vegged great.


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