Congrats CS. That is a nice looking LED panel.
Carestaker's - Hybrid LED / HPS Powered 4x4 - Various Strains
- Thread starter CareStaker
- Start date
My name is Stage. And I have ASE. Acute strain envy.
TH3K3YK33P3R
New Member
Absolutely AMAZING!
Congratulations on the garden Carestaker!
I am very impressed by your results. In your experience using HPS+LED. I am running a HPS right now but I am thinking of adding some LED panels to mix the spectrum, or go full LED. I am very skeptical to go straight to LED since I have never hold a flower that was grew in LED, I would like to feel the density and see the quality. So I have few question. Did you use to grow with HID only before? If yes, what made you decide to add LED? Did you notice any improvement after adding the LED? If yes, could you please describe them.
I have 2, 600w right now. The plan would be turn off 1 of the 600, use the 600w with 2 LED panels of 100x3w draw power of 185 watts, putting me in a total of 970 watts.
I have some Cotton Candy growing right now, check my pictures in the journal.
Thank you so much.
Congratulations on the garden Carestaker!
I am very impressed by your results. In your experience using HPS+LED. I am running a HPS right now but I am thinking of adding some LED panels to mix the spectrum, or go full LED. I am very skeptical to go straight to LED since I have never hold a flower that was grew in LED, I would like to feel the density and see the quality. So I have few question. Did you use to grow with HID only before? If yes, what made you decide to add LED? Did you notice any improvement after adding the LED? If yes, could you please describe them.
I have 2, 600w right now. The plan would be turn off 1 of the 600, use the 600w with 2 LED panels of 100x3w draw power of 185 watts, putting me in a total of 970 watts.
I have some Cotton Candy growing right now, check my pictures in the journal.
Thank you so much.
I,.too., have ASE
Must. Get. More
Seriously, you have awesome plants. Bravo, absolutely sweet plants!!
Can I come for a tour?
Must. Get. More
Seriously, you have awesome plants. Bravo, absolutely sweet plants!!
Can I come for a tour?
Love the new lamp Carestaker & those are some good questions TH3. looking forward to the answers.
- Thread starter
- #646
Thanks bro, it's got some nice attributes, and I'm looking forward to seeing how to best implement it. Strains Anonymous meets every Weedsday at 420pm, in the church basement, hope to see you there!
We are in total agreement on the F'd part, my friend - rats in a cage. Here's to hoping that a new thought emergent will make for a less F'd up tomorrow. Stay vigilant and medicated 420B!- Thread starter
- #647
Thanks TKK, and welcome!
I'm going to follow up on this in it's own post, so I can give it the attention it deserves. I have a dinner planned for Ms. Staker, and I have to run now, but will post a bit later tonight. Truly a lovely obsession.
Thanks brother! It's not unheard of 
Thanks Reg. They are good questions, so I'll come back and give it my best answer. Stay warm neighbor.
- Thread starter
- #648
Welcome again TKK, and thank you for the kind words.
Thanks for the invite to check out your Cotton Candy, I'll pop on over after I type all this out. The stain is growing on me. It's the one I used to test the VapeTower and I swear Ms Staker and I were tripping balls. I'm smoking it now - hence all the vaping smilies. Anyway, I'm going to be doing more with LED in the future, so I wanted to come back to this. So that you know my progression, I started with CFL, and then went to LED. At some point, I needed more light for cheap, and added HPS. I've also had periods where I used just the HPS as well.
The short answer is that if I were to just pick one of the two to use exclusively, I'd go with just LED easily. IMO, an overwhelming amount of narrowband light (HPS) isn't the best way to a produce a plant in high health indoors. It will grow some nice fat buds consistently, but they won't be of the same quality or even density as full LED grown bud grown under good panels. You might have to adapt your defoliation and grow a bit, but when done well, LED is just better IMO. I'm no guru - so I take advantage where I find it, and LED is very much an integral part of my results, for better or worse.
With LED, there's just more spectrum in areas that HPS misses, and those spectra must be represented at minimum thresholds for certain plant functions to operate on time, efficiently and in balance. I'm speaking generally. And generally, the plant will have a way of making up for any deviation or deficiency, as it's highly skilled at adapting to it's environment as it finds it, so HPS works well too. It does come at a cost though. So, if I can find a main LED light that I like and can afford, the HPS will be unlikely to be used except in the coldest winter months to heat my house.
Your light plan sounds like an optimal progression IMO. In that scenario, I choose lensed LEDs, over COBs, to keep the light on the sides pointing straight down instead of spreading too far out. You can put them a bit closer to the ends than the middle if that makes sense, as the HPS will spill over, and there's still some good third-off effect. If the panels are efficient at delivering PAR to canopy and below (some might not be) then you should be great if you keep the sizes reasonable. When you see your plants respond to the LED, you'll not want to grow without them. Then maybe go full LED.
That's my next step I think. 
'n 
Great descriptive answer with the reasoning behind it.
- Thread starter
- #651
Update: DAY 30 Flower (pics from day 30, posted a day late)
Amherst SourD, HSO BlueDream, Master Kush, Holy Grail69, Ken's Candyland
So far a pretty good run. There's a couple of minor issues. BD is moderately Calcium deficient, but not too bad. I'm going to feed her more in general, as this is the last heavy (40%) week before I start decreasing. Trich density is getting there, but are still fairly short and young. Some promising signs though. Thanks to all that lurk, follow, post, question, and encourage! 
The support is very appreciated and welcomed. 
Pics were a bit rushed, but I think they came out okay.
Ken's Candyland, CL1, Born, 12/10 Topped 12/28, final pot 1/8, Flower 2/7, DAY 30
To protect the rest of the girls, I've pretty much stripped her over the last couple of weeks. She's was so shaggy due to her being stunted in late Veg, I was worried about hidden pollen sacks (she threw a couple of nanners after the flip), and mold, as the fan leafs would create pockets of high RH around her sugar leafs and bracts. I have a male, and a couple of clones of her going. I was going to toss them - but the smell, and the color, made me reconsider. There is something archetypical about this one. She won't produce much, but she's still a lovely little runt. I left the one purple leaf for good luck.
BD, Born, 12/10 Topped 12/29, final pot 1/8, Flower 2/7, DAY 30
She a blueberry bud factory. Some of these are pretty chunky already, and she's got 4 wks left. She's surpassed the Diesel in bud size, and is looking like she's going to go 200+ pretty easily, if she doubles from here. I'm sure there is so much more that this genetic could deliver. I did a conservative defol on her. This is my first grow using Spring water, and I'm still working out my Ca/Mg levels. She's a bit Ca defic and maybe a bit of N too. I didn't see it, until I pulled her out for pics, due to the LED lighting. I should have; I was expecting it. Anyway, I've bumped her up to 10ml gal for this week. The larger fans will be pulled at 45 days flower, so no real harm. She's a really nice plant, I'm loving the HSO gear.
Master Kush, Born 12/11, final pot 1/8, Flower 2/10, Day 27
She wasn't putting on much weight, so I feed her a bit more. So far, so good. She's getting pretty frosty, definitely up there with the Diesel. She has had a fairly high level of defol. I had to light her branches up, and there's a lot of plants in there, so the leafs are all touching. She is pretty tame smell wise, but has some berrygrape smells and a light pungentness.
HolyGrail69, Born 12/11, final pot 1/8, flower 2/7, DAY 30
She's got a berry dankness with something I can't put a finger on, but it's very floral and intense. Unique, it's not the typical thing - so nice too. Wow. She's got a few consecutive nodes where she puts out three branches per node, so she's kinda triangle shaped. She's certainly looking very rich genetically. Her buds are still pretty small, but there's plenty of time left.
HSO Amherst Sour Diesel, Born, 12/10, final pot 1/8, Flower 2/7, DAY 30
She's got that cola thing going on, very stacky and chuncky. She's still pushing pistils, but seems to start and stop more than most. She's a light feeder, and a little finicky about nutes, but is fairly easy to work with. I took tons of fans from her to light up her colas, as they were too shaded. She's had a high, but not radical defol. She smell like citrusy lime, and fuel, with some light fruit and floral undertones. I love this girl's structure and strength. Hoping for a great smoke too.
Peace 'n Love!
Amherst SourD, HSO BlueDream, Master Kush, Holy Grail69, Ken's Candyland
So far a pretty good run. There's a couple of minor issues. BD is moderately Calcium deficient, but not too bad. I'm going to feed her more in general, as this is the last heavy (40%) week before I start decreasing. Trich density is getting there, but are still fairly short and young. Some promising signs though. Thanks to all that lurk, follow, post, question, and encourage! The support is very appreciated and welcomed. Pics were a bit rushed, but I think they came out okay.
Ken's Candyland, CL1, Born, 12/10 Topped 12/28, final pot 1/8, Flower 2/7, DAY 30
To protect the rest of the girls, I've pretty much stripped her over the last couple of weeks.
She's was so shaggy due to her being stunted in late Veg, I was worried about hidden pollen sacks (she threw a couple of nanners after the flip), and mold, as the fan leafs would create pockets of high RH around her sugar leafs and bracts. I have a male, and a couple of clones of her going. I was going to toss them - but the smell, and the color, made me reconsider. There is something archetypical about this one. She won't produce much, but she's still a lovely little runt. I left the one purple leaf for good luck.
BD, Born, 12/10 Topped 12/29, final pot 1/8, Flower 2/7, DAY 30
She a blueberry bud factory. Some of these are pretty chunky already, and she's got 4 wks left. She's surpassed the Diesel in bud size, and is looking like she's going to go 200+ pretty easily, if she doubles from here. I'm sure there is so much more that this genetic could deliver. I did a conservative defol on her. This is my first grow using Spring water, and I'm still working out my Ca/Mg levels. She's a bit Ca defic and maybe a bit of N too. I didn't see it, until I pulled her out for pics, due to the LED lighting. I should have; I was expecting it. Anyway, I've bumped her up to 10ml gal for this week. The larger fans will be pulled at 45 days flower, so no real harm. She's a really nice plant, I'm loving the HSO gear.
Master Kush, Born 12/11, final pot 1/8, Flower 2/10, Day 27
She wasn't putting on much weight, so I feed her a bit more. So far, so good. She's getting pretty frosty, definitely up there with the Diesel. She has had a fairly high level of defol. I had to light her branches up, and there's a lot of plants in there, so the leafs are all touching. She is pretty tame smell wise, but has some berrygrape smells and a light pungentness.
HolyGrail69, Born 12/11, final pot 1/8, flower 2/7, DAY 30
She's got a berry dankness with something I can't put a finger on, but it's very floral and intense. Unique, it's not the typical thing - so nice too. Wow. She's got a few consecutive nodes where she puts out three branches per node, so she's kinda triangle shaped. She's certainly looking very rich genetically. Her buds are still pretty small, but there's plenty of time left.
HSO Amherst Sour Diesel, Born, 12/10, final pot 1/8, Flower 2/7, DAY 30
She's got that cola thing going on, very stacky and chuncky. She's still pushing pistils, but seems to start and stop more than most. She's a light feeder, and a little finicky about nutes, but is fairly easy to work with. I took tons of fans from her to light up her colas, as they were too shaded. She's had a high, but not radical defol. She smell like citrusy lime, and fuel, with some light fruit and floral undertones. I love this girl's structure and strength. Hoping for a great smoke too.
Peace 'n Love!
420Brother
Well-Known Member
happy plants happy life 
spectacular update
spectacular update
Budddyy
New Member
Plants look lovely mate, nice work. One question though, on the very first picture (Ken's candyland) it looks like you've cut the fan "leaf" off but left the stem on, why do you do this ?
- Thread starter
- #654
Thanks Budddyy! It's really habit.... but I once read that if you pinch off the leafs, you should pinch them far from the branch, so that in the case of any infection, it is kept further from the main stem, and might be contained in the petiole. I don't know if any of that is true, but that's what I've always done. Good eye.
happy plants happy life
spectacular update
You go that right!
And thanks for saying, my green brother. I could also add...
Happy Garden=Happy Wife=Happy Life ... and it's also so true. I'm very, very lucky in that regard, but she would say the same
Nice update, very detailed. Thanks
- Thread starter
- #656
Thanks Peter! It only took two days to put together
...I might have been distracted 
Budddyy
New Member
Hhhmmmm interesting, so these stalks just die and fall off in their own time. Never seen that done before. very clean journal btw
- Thread starter
- #658
Hhhmmmm interesting, so these stalks just die and fall off in their own time. Never seen that done before. very clean journal btw
Thanks!
They take about a week or two, and then just fall off.
Damn CS
this update has a 10 drool factor.
this update has a 10 drool factor.
- Thread starter
- #660