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MechaniMan

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Here's my first time grow so far. I'm working with what I can afford. I'll post more pics as replies. Built a 4x8x7 mylar lined tent. I have no idea what I'm doing but they look good to me so far. I know all the MG negativity and risks. I'll make it work for now and adjust ratio later by using stronger pk fertilizer. I put these right into MG veg & herb moisture control 3 month feed 1.5 sq. ft. Bag, 1/3 GIANT bag peat moss, 4 lb. perlite. I lightly spread composted manure mix over the top so I'll seep in with watering. I fertilized once with MG purple box npk 30-10-10 at 1/2 strength and only have them about 3 ounces of the water each.

These are 23 days in, the little guys are 3 weeks behind because I thought two died. However the biggest of the little ones I pulled because it wilted and threw it to the side. It was buried but fought back and appeared out of nowhere about a week later. Tough little sucker after all I see, lol. I do plan on LST these once they get tall enough to tie down. Probably lose some as male but if not than 3 will be going outside in May.

I have seeds from three strains I got out of pound bags. They are all mixed up so I have no idea what is actually growing. It is either Gorilla Glue, forbidden fruit or passion fruit.

I ran a furnace duct for heat and it stays between 75-80*f, small heater in there just in case, run humidifier on low. Covered all these rogue leds with tape.

I'd like advice on my current lights if anyone could help. I don't know what my lights actually put out in wattage but I have a lot of information on what they are
They are lights that I picked up at a scrap yard. They are industrial, more than likely used as street, parking garage or stadium lights. High end CREE XPG 5k led panels. Each led diode is 5w max. There are 60 leds per panel driven by 4 drivers. I put 3 panels on each heat sink so 180 leds and 12 drivers. These are extremely bright and I'm reading about 1600 PPFD with Photon on a galaxy s10e at 12 in. I have 2 of these but only Run one at the moment. Hopefully someone could inform me what the actual wattage it is running at.

Look forward to how Ya'll think they look so far.
 

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Hello MM and welcome aboard

your plants look like they are off to a good start
 
Your little plants look pretty healthy but I don’t know much about your lights even with some good pics. I’m sure someone will chime in that knows more. You can get a lot of good advice from our senior growers here. Looking forward to seeing your progress. 😎
 
Sorry 40 watts.
Going to need more light for a 4x8.
40 watts per driver or 40 watts per board? Each light panel is separated into 4 sections and it takes 4 drivers to power each board. I have 3 boards driven by 12 drivers on each light setup. Here is a picture of one panel and the drivers it takes to light it just for an example.
Sorry 40 watts.
Going to need more light for a 4x8.
I was just doing some math, the spec sheet on the diode says roughly 3v at 700milliamp which is what the drivers put out. From my math that equals 2.1 watt per diode.
They're are 60 diodes per board.
The drivers put out 37.8 watt Max each. So 15 diodes per driver 15x2.1=31.5w which sounds reasonable because they don't want to drive them at full power. These drivers are actually rated for half of the total milliamp current rating of the diode.
And 31.5x4=126w per panel.

In no electrician but that's what I'm coming up with. There is a good chance that I am wrong though.
 

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Is 1600 ppfd even possible to achieve at 40w?

This could really suck because I just don't have the money for more lights. I just hung the other fixture in there so there are 6 panels and 24 driver's total running right now.
 
Not sure about ppfd.
But yes, you are correct on your watt usage. I didn’t see that there was 4 per panel.
But still with 3 panels that’s only 360 watts in a 4x8?
I run 460 watts in one of my 4x4 tents and the other flower tent has 600 watts running.
 
I put the other panel in the tent today. It is now ungodly bright in the tent. Kinda hard to explain.
You know them scenes in a movie, "it pans out, goes green white yellow kinda monochromatic with intense white. The character flash is back and it's like somebody's talking to him from the other side and then the look on his face is this intense realization that the world is not as they really thought that it was"? That is what it is like being in that room for 5 minutes, and then you were completely blind for 5 minutes after walking out of there.
I'll see how it works with two lamps in there and keep everybody up to date. Thank you for your input.
 
I put the other panel in the tent today. It is now ungodly bright in the tent. Kinda hard to explain.
You know them scenes in a movie, "it pans out, goes green white yellow kinda monochromatic with intense white. The character flash is back and it's like somebody's talking to him from the other side and then the look on his face is this intense realization that the world is not as they really thought that it was"? That is what it is like being in that room for 5 minutes, and then you were completely blind for 5 minutes after walking out of there.
I'll see how it works with two lamps in there and keep everybody up to date. Thank you for your input.
Where some shades in there bro and don’t look at the lights even if your stoned. It’s not good for you.
 
Don't know if these 2 are going to make it. 😕 Ironically these are 2 seeds that I placed directly into dirt. I topped the one in an effort to make it shoot out some leaves. My best guess is that the combination of the food that the Seed stores and the fertilizer in the soil was just too much for a seed right off the get. The small one has been this height for a week and stopped developing, hopefully it's putting it into root development.
 

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Now it has been one month since these babies were placed in the dirt and they seemed to be developing well in my opinion. The one I accidentally broke a limb and it was not able to be saved. Today I did some extremely light pruning by removing the original single fan leaf and the triple fan leaf from the very bottom. The largest one is developing within and becoming very bushy so I'm looking forward to it putting on some height so I can start to train them,, they are not quite tall enough now to get a hold of in start pulling over. Started to get some development at the top that I'm not sure what it is but it may be the beginning of pre flower. I hope not because I have not begun to train them yet. Any input would be appreciated .
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