2 Girls & 1 Kit: Major PITA Takes High Brix Outdoors, Summer 2015

The Weakly (Week #11 / Day #74)
3 days and counting to legal recreational in Oregon!​

This will be a quick update. Life is getting in the way. I have end-of-month business duties to attend to. Also, I have family coming into town tomorrow. Some I haven't seen in 25 years. Some are very conservative. Could get interesting. I won't rub their noses in my grow, but I don't hide anything or lie about it either. I will be reading journals, but if I seem absent this coming week, I'll still be with you all in spirit.

Only a couple of pictures this time around. Nothing new to show. Once again each plant added between 6" and 8" growth last week. They received their drenches and are getting 4 gallons each, every three days. The HB plants got Brix this morning. The HB AoS is now at 54", about chest high. The real surprise is the PB in organic soil. It seems to have hooked up and had the most growth. It might be the second biggest plant in the garden. I think the HB PB probably still has a little more bulk. Current brix readings are about the same on all plants. They are surviving the heat OK but this will likely be the only day below 100 for the next week+.

If I think of anything else to add, I'll do so, but not much else to report for now.

Here are all four girls. From left to right: HB PB, HB AoS, OG PB, OG AoS. They are planted 4 feet apart.
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Typical leaf pic
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Get out and have a great Sunday!
 
Major PITA said:
I don't care where something is made. China, Mexico, USA, India - they are all capable of making excellent gear. They can also turn out pure crap.
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Exactly! We live in a global market now.

Major PITA said:
have a great Sunday!
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Holy Smokestacks Pita, how can we not after viewing that garden.
 
What FF said there.........What a nice lookin lil garden Major. Havin some conservatives strolling around eh...asking lots of Q's.
Your attitude is right where it should be, and i believe you and Mrs. Pita will have a fantastic time and many laughs and good times brotha! Have a great Sunday Major. We'le be thinken of ya next week....what a hoot ...:passitleft: Have some Mazar ....
 
Major PITA said:
I figured the higher wattage claims must be a light equivalency. I wish they would come up with universal standard way of measuring. Taking the least efficient light source and then comparing the wattage to that source is just dumb. Likewise, even when using the current draw from the electrical service, you get a false comparison. One power supply can be considerably more efficient than the next. It may appear to offer higher wattage to the diodes, but if it is of poor design, some of that power will be nothing more than added heat. I swear my old mechanical MH ballasts were so loud and hot, I think half their power draw went to generating noise and heat.

The whole LED rating B.S. reminds me of early audio gear spec' wars. Some companies would offer amplifier ratings in I.P.P. wattage. This "instantaneous peak power" is totally misleading for anything you'd want to listen to. A 1000W amp might only be able to provide 100W of clean power over the full audio spectrum. Luckily they did standardize on R.M.S. power. Now with home theater, even that standard is gone and we are back to comparing apples and oranges.

Again - no shit storm here for being skeptical about these cheap LEDs. I hope this doesn't cause a storm, but I don't care where something is made. China, Mexico, USA, India - they are all capable of making excellent gear. They can also turn out pure crap.

I was going offer some sort of review of them, but after reading the 420 posting guidelines (again), it appears we are not allowed to mention non-sponsored LEDs. While I strongly disagree with this kind of censorship, this is not my forum so as long as I'm here, I will try to abide by the rules.
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Hahah, another old audiophile, eh? I sold the gear in the heydays. :cheesygrinsmiley: I still surf the 'bay for the old classic pieces. I want me a couple big monster-transformer power amps, y'know, the 200+ watters.

The panels are Mars-Hydro, so we should be able to talk about them all we want. :cheesygrinsmiley: They're a great deal at less than 50 cents a watt (130W) - not as good as the 100x3s (180W) were, but still a steal. And they only have a 5 band spectrum, but as a fill-in panel they fit the bill very well.

:thumb:
 
Very cool Gray! Still more stuff in common. I started out rebuilding old tube gear I would pick up in pawn shops down in Beverly Hills. We would occasionally find a steal on some McIntosh amp or receiver. I started my own stereo store in 1975. I still have some pretty crazy gear, but that would be off topic. :)

IDK MH is a sponsor. Looks like I need to review that list.

I'm sure we will have a ton o' fun next week. We're going out for dinner at a tiny little place we love, and then a BBQ to celebrate my sister's BD the following day. It falls on the 1st, the same day we go legal. Could get VERY interesting. :blunt: Hiking and swimming - doesn't get much better for me.

Roll a fatty on July 1st to celebrate no matter where you live. Let the dominoes keep falling.

Thanks to all of you!
 
The good: We are legal.
The bad: 107 - 110 today.
Have a great one!
 
hahahaha This evening I am having a little get-together to smoke our first legal pot even if it is 100+ Then maybe a swim in the river to cool off so we can turn that heat to our advantage! Then we will live in my tent which has the only air conditioning in my old house. :cheesygrinsmiley:

Oh Happy Day! :green_heart:
 
Tranquilgreen said:
hahahaha This evening I am having a little get-together to smoke our first legal pot even if it is 100+ Then maybe a swim in the river to cool off so we can turn that heat to our advantage! Then we will live in my tent which has the only air conditioning in my old house. :cheesygrinsmiley:

Oh Happy Day! :green_heart:
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:thumb:
Sounds like a perfect way to spend the day.
 
The Weakly (Week #12 / Day #81)

Happy Independence Day to you in the U.S., and a belated Canada Day to my bro's & sis's to the north!​

Meanwhile back at "Rancho Peccadillo"...

I don't know if it is the heat, or the change in photoperiod, but growth has slowed. The only plant that added another 6" this week is the HB Ace of Spades. It is now 60" to 62", depending on the time of day and how you measure. The tallest stalks are growing outward almost as much as upward. Once flowers set, I may need to give it some support. Two of the other plants added maybe 5". The HB Pitbull only gained about 3".

It has been 2 weeks since the solstice. The small reduction in daylight has started all plants showing their sex. If I'm going to take cuttings, I need to do it soon. My neighbors are coming over later today so I'll see if they want to trade some clones. Hopefully they have something interesting I'd like to grow ... like a well behaved sativa.

We've still been running well over 100 degrees every day and it is supposed to continue for a few more before dropping into the 90's. Likely that's where we'll stay for the next couple of months.

I'm beginning to lose old shade leaves now, but no biggie. They are stuff I should have pruned. Four days ago the HB plants received a Transplant/Tea drench at 150% of the instructions. Today they also got 1/4 strength Trans. I'm still using 4 gallons per plant for each drench or watering and it seems to be about right. In addition, they get some misting and a little water when the corn gets watered. I top-dressed the OG plants with some extra OG amendment. It is strong stuff so they will only get 1/4 teaspoon each, once per week to start. I'll adjust from there once I get a feel for it. Brix again tomorrow for the HB's.

Picture dump time - not much today.

This is the HB AoS. It is difficult to get a good focus and angle by myself. If I can sight parallel across the top, it actually looks closer to 62"
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Finally, pre-flowers everywhere. The girls are beginning to show their naughty bits!
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Three of the four girls. It was early this morning while I was watering so a fair amount of shade still.
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I will attempt to give you my impression of the cheap LEDs I received last week. With all my company, I didn't even bother unboxing them yet. At least they arrived in three business days after I ordered. Not bad for free shipping.
 
Looking mighty good there Major. Are you getting any break from the weather?

Have a great celebration today. :party:
 
Hmmm... Not sure what I can tell you about these new lights other than the obvious. Until I am growing back indoors I won't know exactly what they can do or how long they last. My first impression is favorable. At less than $0.50 per watt (actually it is $0.47) they still appear to be a good value. I'm considering picking up two more. Here is what I can tell you immediately:

1) It is a Mars Hydro (60 x 5 watt) 5 spectrum light. The spectrum bands are as follows: 430~440nm, 450~475nm 620~630nm, 650~660nm, and "white". As long as they honor it (if needed) these units have a 1 year warranty. Minimal but acceptable for the price.

2) They do draw the spec'd power - about 140 watts. I will assume roughly 10 watts are used to run the fan which leaves 130 watts for the LEDs.

3) Externally, the construction looks very good. They were packed extremely well and did include hangers.

4) Since I am used to a 600 or 1000 watt HID lamp, this light does feel like it runs cooler - even if I had 6 or 8 of them to replace the HID's. With minimal time and not in an enclosed space for an extended time, I could well be wrong about this one.

5) My impression is each light would do a good job covering about 12" x 18". That's less than the claim, but just looking at the perceived brightness compared to my 600W HPS, that's my guess. At that footprint, the light is only about 14" - 16" above the canopy. Will that be OK? Dunno yet. I get the impression the light penetration will not be nearly as good as HID.

6) The female power receptacle in the light uses small pins to connect to the power cord (smaller than typical). They don't make nearly as good contact as what I'm used to. If you move or bump the light, the power can come and go. This is my only real gripe so far. It would probably be fine when left alone. I am going to bend the prongs slightly to see if I can get a more solid connection. If so, no biggie. If not, I'm not sure I'll keep 'em. I don't need any grief from them right out of the box.

7) Assuming they work out, I think they will be great to fill in with my HPS, or for some small vegging setup. I have a tiny growroom = about 3 feet square. I'd use at least 4 of them in that space all by themselves (maybe even 6 ??). If 4 worked well, it would cost about the same as an HPS fixture and draw about the same amount of electricity. Then it comes down to quality of produce and longevity. I theory it should be a lot less $$$ since I won't need new bulbs. But will it last? That's the big question...


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I doubt this will help anyone on the fence for buying one of these. At least I am able to say, you can get a sponsored name brand delivered to your door for less than $0.50 per true watt. They are old technology but they appear to work well and I should find good use for them. Cheers!
 
scrubby said:
Beautiful work Major! Those are some happy girls! They seem to do better in earth than pots when it comes to dealing with heat :)
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Thanks, scrubs! They do seem fine with the heat - better than I expected.


SweetSue said:
Looking mighty good there Major. Are you getting any break from the weather?

Have a great celebration today. :party:
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Hi Sue! No break at all. We will be over 100 for at least two weeks by the time things cool a little. It will likely stay in the 90's most days until they are well into flower. We usually stay hot until mid-September. So far, so good.
Have a great 4th, too!
Now where's my mojito and pipe? :cool:

:thanks:

-edit-

Worse than the heat is the humidity. I'm OK while in veg, but once they bud, I will be concerned because I can't do a darn thing about it. Right now RH varies between 70% and 14%. Hopefully that makes your tent environment look mighty dandy by comparison.
 
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