First Grow In Over 20 Years! Northern Lights Under 600W LED

[Dutchman1990]

Thank you, thank you, thank you….. I thought no one was ever going to mention my new avatar, LOL. It actually is the same avatar I started with but I changed and added a few things using Photoshop and I admit it makes me chuckle still when I look at it.

And my plants are definitely loving the Mega Crop so thanks for the tip.

Stoned homer haha!

Wouldn’t expect anything less! Keep em green brother

 

[Homer Simpson]

Oh he's perfect. You nailed it.
You bet, you wont be sorry and you may decide to change later, but dollar for dollar it's the best imho and easy to work with each feeding. Speaking of which, it is time, as the lights just turned on.

Glad you like it!!
I am not sorry at all I got it and yes, for now, it is great. I may experiment with some boosters on my next grows but I think I will use this as a base for the foreseeable future.

 

[Homer Simpson]

Stoned homer haha!

Wouldn’t expect anything less! Keep em green brother

Glad you like it, thanks bro!

 

[Homer Simpson]

Although I am pleased with my LED light because it seems to conserve a lot of energy compared to what I have used in the distant past which was metal halide but I can’t help thinking that they are not utilizing the real advantages of LEDs in any of the designs I have seen for growing.

With any single point source light like a metal halide or sodium vapor or whatever the problem is that like any light the intensity falls off with the square of the distance so only the plants directly under the light get the right intensity of light and any plants on a flat plane away from the center suffer from considerable falloff in intensity.

And unfortunately the great advantage of LEDs which is that they are multiple point sources sadly to me is not being utilized because all they do is stick the lights in a small box and point them straight down so that you have the exact same problem that you do with a single point source in that the plants under the light get way more light than the plants on the same plane do farther out from the center.

They could correct this several ways by either making a platform the same size as the growing area with the LED’s pointing down so that every area would receive the exact same amount of light so that a 600 W light would be mounted on a 3 x 3’ platform. Perhaps that would be cost prohibitive but all they would have to do is take the size platform they have now and instead of pointing all the lights down point most of the lights away from the center area to obtain even illumination.

It’s really too bad no one has utilized the potential of LEDs in growing in these ways because if they did you could have a 3 x 3 area and illuminate the whole thing with the exact right and even illumination. Here are some photos to illustrate how bad LEDs are for even illumination with current designs from my garden and a manufacturer’s illumination chart. Maybe we can start a movement to get a manufacturer to make a proper light. Or figure a way to start making our own.

 

[Homer Simpson]

I am now 26 days into flowering so I am pretty sure I have some good strains and I know which plant is the best. I believe I read that cuttings can be taken from a flowering plant and that if it is put under 12/12 lighting it will revert back to veg state.

So I am wondering if that is true and if at day 26 I am not too far into flower to take a few cuttings for my next generation? I hope so because I would rather do cuttings than buy seeds constantly.

 

[Pennywise]

It's not to late, it will take time for them to reveg. You want to put the cuttings under 18/6 light schedule.

 

[Homer Simpson]

That is really great to read. I have another light on the way that I am going to use to veg so I can bud at the same time so 18/6 is no problem. I got pretty good at cloning back in the old days so hopefully, it works out. Thanks, Pennywise, again....

 

[Pennywise]

Good luck with your cuttings.

 

[Homer Simpson]

Good luck with your cuttings.

Thank you.

 

[Dutchman1990]

Hey homer the plants are looking great.
Good luck on taking the cuttings !

I took a few cuttings from my EM back on Nov.5 here is one today going through reveg.

B14C3CFF-7504-447A-B222-8B80C1D9C42E.jpeg

• Dutchman1990
• Dec 16, 2018

Early Miss 1.1
Day 40

E175359D-3E94-47A5-B45A-B57C238C5C14.jpeg

• Dutchman1990
• Dec 16, 2018

Early Miss 1.1
Day 40

The new leaf growth just started coming back to being serrated. I can see the start of 3 blade fans starting so we’re on our way!

I’ve been told to allow your reveg plants to get back to at least 5bladed leaves before flipping them back into flower. This avoids the chance of higher hermie possibilities.

Good luck homer !

 

[Homer Simpson]

Hey homer the plants are looking great.
Good luck on taking the cuttings !

I took a few cuttings from my EM back on Nov.5 here is one today going through reveg.

B14C3CFF-7504-447A-B222-8B80C1D9C42E.jpeg

• Dutchman1990
• Dec 16, 2018

Early Miss 1.1
Day 40

E175359D-3E94-47A5-B45A-B57C238C5C14.jpeg

• Dutchman1990
• Dec 16, 2018

Early Miss 1.1
Day 40

The new leaf growth just started coming back to being serrated. I can see the start of 3 blade fans starting so we’re on our way!

I’ve been told to allow your reveg plants to get back to at least 5bladed leaves before flipping them back into flower. This avoids the chance of higher hermie possibilities.

Good luck homer !

Thanks a lot for the info and photos Dutchman!! Your clones look great which is very encouraging. I would much rather do clones because not only is it cheaper but you know what you are getting, unlike with seeds.

 

[Dutchman1990]

Not a problem my man I hope they are some what helpful haha

Clones are in my mind a great growing resource! Good luck with them

 

[Homer Simpson]

Not a problem my man I hope they are some what helpful haha

Clones are in my mind a great growing resource! Good luck with them

Thanks, buddy!

 

[Homer Simpson]

Day 67 Total, Day 28 of Flower

My VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 300W LED Grow Light for veg arrived today and I can’t believe how bright it is compared to my 600W from the same manufacturer, like even brighter? The way these darn things point all the LED’s straight down in retrospect I wish I had gotten 2 of the 300W’s instead of one 600W for budding so I could spread the light out more evenly.

Anyway, I took some cutting from my best Northern Lights for the next generation and they are now under my new 300W. Today I took a photo of one of my Northern Lights buds and it seems to be doing pretty well; I think anyway?? Lol.

 

[MrSauga]

mmmm... like sugar on a donut...looking sweet Homer! Hindsight is great isn't it? Expensive, but great.

 

[Dutchman1990]

Day 67 Total, Day 28 of Flower

My VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 300W LED Grow Light for veg arrived today and I can’t believe how bright it is compared to my 600W from the same manufacturer, like even brighter? The way these darn things point all the LED’s straight down in retrospect I wish I had gotten 2 of the 300W’s instead of one 600W for budding so I could spread the light out more evenly.

Anyway, I took some cutting from my best Northern Lights for the next generation and they are now under my new 300W. Today I took a photo of one of my Northern Lights buds and it seems to be doing pretty well; I think anyway?? Lol.

I’ve got 2x of the viparspectra reflector series 450w .... one for my small tent and one for my flower tent. I may mess around with adding them both into flower tent but we will see! It would get pretty tight in there with the 600w HPS and the 2 LEDs lol I understand where your coming from though with wanting 2x 300s instead on the single 600 for flexibility makes sense! Good luck on the clones!

 

[Homer Simpson]

mmmm... like sugar on a donut...looking sweet Homer! Hindsight is great isn't it? Expensive, but great.

Yes, I didn’t’ realise how crystally they were till I looked at the photo. Yes, damn expensive hindsight, lol…

 

[Homer Simpson]

I’ve got 2x of the viparspectra reflector series 450w .... one for my small tent and one for my flower tent. I may mess around with adding them both into flower tent but we will see! It would get pretty tight in there with the 600w HPS and the 2 LEDs lol I understand where your coming from though with wanting 2x 300s instead on the single 600 for flexibility makes sense! Good luck on the clones!

With a 600W HPS and 2 LEDs in one tent maybe you should wear sunscreen when you do your watering, lol… Thanks about the clones.

 

[Homer Simpson]

Day 71 Total, Day 32 Flowering.

I have been busy the last few days with something that came up unexpectedly so I am just today putting up new photos. They seem to be doing pretty good. I am just feeding with Mega Crop and Calmag and correcting with pH and they seem happy.

I guess I could do some supercropping or backbuilding but being my first grow in decades I am kind of hesitant to screw up a good thing? Suggestions welcome!

 

[MrSauga]

My suggestion is to get lots of jars Homer!