LED Grow

[gmo]

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:.

 

[blancolighter]

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.

 

[blancolighter]

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.

 

[Thorn]

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?

 

[blancolighter]

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.

 

[84VW]

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

im curious because i am also using leds, still vegging

 

[Rogue]

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

 

[blancolighter]

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!

 

[papabeach1]

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.

 

[84VW]

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

 

[blancolighter]

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.

 

[Thorn]

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

 

[Wiseguy_Chef]

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

 

[Mountain420man]

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

 

[4u2sm0ke]

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

 

[blancolighter]

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!

 

[st00ner]

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!

 

[Thorn]

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

 

[blancolighter]

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...

 

[blancolighter]

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.