Gazolenes - 450W Chinese LED - Easyriders - Soil - 12/12

[Gazolene]

After completing my first grow with CFL's I have decided to try out a 450w LED.

My main focus will be on the 2 easyriders that have just sprouted.

They were bought from Demon seeds. As I have only just installed the LED these are the only plants not to have been grown under the CFL lighting board.

Again I will be only using a 12/12 on the lights from start to finish. The plants are in a 900 x 900 x 1600 grow tent. The LED is about 24 inches away from the top of the canopy, so about 40 inches above the top of the easyriders.

They are in store bought multi purpose soil. Its likely I will be using some advanced nutrients this time around, but for now they are just getting some mild potassium water, with the ph altered to 6.2 - 6.3.

The tent is heated by a 120w cylinder heater, with adjustable thermostat. The fan inside the tent is on 12/12 with the lights. The fan extracting air from the tent is on for 15 minutes every 4 hours. This is so I do not extract all of the warm air from the tent. It is very cold in my basement.

I spent a bit of money and some time building a control panel to centralize all the main functions.

I will probably experiment a little bit so If you have any ideas or tips then please feel free to comment.

regards

Gaz

 

[Gazolene]

Day three

These will be ready within a few weeks.

 

[Gazolene]

I'm back from work for the week and I am not too impressed with progress.

The "450w" LED is made by a company called "Supor" and is sold on ebay. I got it for £109.99. The actual output of the light is just 0.54A or 130watts! disgraceful. There has been progress with the plants but not as much as i was expecting. I took the risk of buying a cheap LED, and you know what they say - Buy cheap and buy twice!

However I will continue with this light until harvest so that I can put the results out there for people to see. I was unable to find much info on the cheap LEDS, so hopefully my experiment can help future growers decide whether to buy cheap or not.

 

[Gazolene]

After a bit of research it seems that the LED Drivers can be upgraded to boost the performance of the light fitting.

The light has come fitted with 3 x 50w drivers. The company has given the rating of the 150 x 3W LED's rather than the actual power consumption. I have ordered 3 x 150w drivers from amazon, a further 72 quid.

The light will have cost me £182.00 when upgraded. The premium brands are still charging well over £350 for this much power and spectrum.

I will let you know what happens when the parts have arrived and I have done the modification, its unlikely that the new drivers will fit inside the casing.

It seems I always go about things the hard way The things I do for you guys in the name of science, and saving money!

 

[Gazolene]

Day 10

I've added in a few CFL's until the new drivers for the light turn up. No major changes.

 

[Gazolene]

Extremely slow progress this week. I ordered a ppm pen and took some readings of the water run off. The numbers were massively above the recommended amounts. Probably explains the slow growth and discoloured leaves. I've flushed the pots out with tap water and orange juice ph adjuster. How long should I wait before flushing again? If you are reading this, please advise!

 

[Gazolene]

Day 19

More visible damage from the overfeed and flushing. The twins have made a bit of a recovery.

 

[Dchannn]

Hey Gaz,

Hope you are doing well. Can you put more "clear" pictures of the discoloration of the leaves?

- all the best.

 

[Gazolene]

Thanks Dchannn,

Sorry the pictures are not much better, any thoughts on what I should do?

 

[Dchannn]

I will get in touch with a few growers that have helped me, and u will send them your way.

A few questions will help you and I out.
Are you still using the low 6.0 ph range?
What type of soil are you using?
What type of nutrients?

This is the place to come. Good community and we will help you out. I am on my first grow and I was directed by some great growers.

All the best. Talk to u soon

 

[Gazolene]

Much appreciated DChannn. The water is always between 5.9 and 6.3 and yet the run off is still about 7.0ph.

The soil I started with was from a growbag similar to this miracle grow soil bag

The feed is made up of banana skins soaked in water with various other natural ingredients to boost the nitrogen and phosphorous. The banana skins are high in potassium.

The readings from the water run off with a ppm pen were over 2000+ and everything I read was saying keep the numbers below 1400 in the latest stage of flowering. Younger pots should be on no more than 500.

I'm pretty sure that the overfeed and flushing process is responsible for my slow growth and discoloured leaves, but I welcome any other ideas, tips and advice that you may have.

Thanks for checking back.

 

[Gazolene]

Ive lost patience with the led and have installed the 600w hps. I'm hoping it will help me save this grow.

Here is a picture of what is happening to the girls. Anyone know what might be causing it?

 

[Gazolene]

Day 24. The recovery continues.

 

[Gazolene]

 

[Hortus]

Hey gaz I reckon your plants where still adjusting to the 600w mh that's why they went pale in colour it looks like they've recovered and are gonna start there accent to glory.

Keep tabs on temperatures with a 600w those buggers get hot hopefully you've got it covered with a decent extractor.

I'll start from the beginning of the journal so I'm more up todate with what you've got going on.

 

[Gazolene]

Thankyou for the positive comment Hortus. The temp rises to 30 degrees max at the moment, I'm going to have to invest in some more extractors when we get to summer.

If the plants continue to show signs of problems I am thinking of starting over, new soil, new feed and new seeds. Fingers crossed it doesn't come to that.

Thanks for looking in

 

[Hortus]

Your welcome gaz, 30c isn't the worst I've seen but if you could drop it slightly the plants may do better.

By the looks of your two seedlings I don't see why you can't recover, so you reckon your soil is similar to miracle grow if so you could always upgrade to a new soil that's got less ferts already in the mix. Then buy some grow and bloom nutes and a bloom builder and take it from there.

Roots are stronger than many think but still becareful when removing the old compost and simply replant into the new compost I'd advise watering with only ph'd water for a week then add your nutes at a reduced rate to what the bottle says.

Also are you still running 12/12 lights?

 

[Gazolene]

30 degrees is the best I can do right now, I'll upgrade the extractor fan when the local temperatures start to rise. For now i'm gonna soldier on with the high temp. I'm thinking about jointing another inline extractor fan into the existing ducting, and keeping the existing one. Twice the power

Got some new soil today, westland multi purpose compost. It has some added nutes that should last 4 to 5 weeks. I'm going to repot the twins asap and then just continue with ph water for a bit.

Lights are still on 12/12

If this grow doesnt work out I will be scrapping the 12/12 from seed to harvest technique. It has shown very small yields on the 5 harvested plants.

Will be looking for further advice if it comes down to that.

Thanks for checking in again Hortus.

 

[Gazolene]

Ive picked up this and will use next time i feed unless otherwise advised not to! Any thoughts?

Regards

Gaz

 

[Gazolene]

ive mixed up the chempak trace elements and the ppm pen says there are 6000+ppm!

I think im gonna dilute it to about 800 ppm.