After much study and observation over the past year, I've decided that LED grow lights have finally gotten to the point where they are clearly superior to HID. I've watched several of the growers that I admire and follow, who are using or have tried LEDs in the past several months and they're all pretty happy with the results. In the 70s I grew under T-12 shop lights, in the 80s I ran Metal Halides, for the past year I've done CFLs and HPS - now it's time for the latest and greatest!
INTELLIGENT GRO STORE: Best LED Grow Lights Product With The Biggest Yields for your Indoor Garden
These are so cool! A 10-band, 3-channel, fully programmable LED panel, with big honkin' COBs, truly bleeding edge LED tech. I got the 810W model, 540W draw, recommended coverage 5x4 feet - absolutely perfect for my bloom room. With a 2 year warranty and an expected life of 50,000 hours, I'm all set for quite some time.
So, here are the particulars:
What strain is it? Utopia Haze, Carnival, Destroyer, Nepalese Jam, Buddha Haze, Grapefruit
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? Mostly sativas
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Both
If in Veg... For how long? Typically 60 days
If in Flower stage... For how long? Typically 9-11 weeks
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Organic Soil
If soil... what is in your mix? Doc Bud's High Brix Kit
If soil... What size pot? 6 gallons
Size of light? 540W LED
Is it aircooled? No
Temp of Room/cab? Typically 69 - 85
RH of Room/cab? Typically 30-70
PH of media or res? Dunno
Any Pests ? Pet whiteflies
How often are you watering? Typically 5 days
Type and strength of ferts used? Doc Bud's High Brix Kit
And here's my new whiz-bang light. It came in a nice plain white box with David's name on the label instead of some LED lighting company- nice. It was double boxed and fully packed in foam.
Three channels - blue for veg, full for grow, and red for bloom.
But the thing about this company is the programmable controller. You can set the timing and intensity of each separate channel, so the light will slowly brighten in the morning just like the sun and will radiate a spectrum just like the sun. At noon, it will run at full intensity with the same spectrum as a noonday sun. In the evening, it will slowly dim and run more red, just like a setting sun. Groovy! And because of the morning and evening dimming, it uses less power over the course of a day - roughly 25% less.
Icemud was one of the first to use Intelligent-Gro and he has some really great info in his journals.
Icemud's Grow 8.0 - New Intelligent-Gro LED - 2 x IGRO-228 LED - Testing & Review
Icemud's Intelligent Gro 2 LED Grow With V-Scrog - Going for 1lb & Beyond!
So, anyway, those of you who've read my first journal know that I grow in organic soil with Doc Bud's High Brix Kit. I'm still using the same soil I started with, after roughly three runs, and I think I probably have some buildup of salts, so in the next few weeks, I'm going to flush the crap out of everything I have in bins, and then add about 50% more straight Pro-Mix w/EWC. I think I have enough amendment in the soil, since I've been re-amending after ever use, and I've been recycling all my dead plant material like Curso, so the soil is getting richer. In the fall I'll probably pop for a soil test to see where I'm at after the fresh Pro-Mix.
I'll journal the Utopia Hazes and the other youngsters here while I let the older ones finish in the old journal. That's it for this first post. I'll get some more pics up in a day or two.
I'm jazzed!!!
INTELLIGENT GRO STORE: Best LED Grow Lights Product With The Biggest Yields for your Indoor Garden
These are so cool! A 10-band, 3-channel, fully programmable LED panel, with big honkin' COBs, truly bleeding edge LED tech. I got the 810W model, 540W draw, recommended coverage 5x4 feet - absolutely perfect for my bloom room. With a 2 year warranty and an expected life of 50,000 hours, I'm all set for quite some time.
So, here are the particulars:
What strain is it? Utopia Haze, Carnival, Destroyer, Nepalese Jam, Buddha Haze, Grapefruit
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? Mostly sativas
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Both
If in Veg... For how long? Typically 60 days
If in Flower stage... For how long? Typically 9-11 weeks
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Organic Soil
If soil... what is in your mix? Doc Bud's High Brix Kit
If soil... What size pot? 6 gallons
Size of light? 540W LED
Is it aircooled? No
Temp of Room/cab? Typically 69 - 85
RH of Room/cab? Typically 30-70
PH of media or res? Dunno
Any Pests ? Pet whiteflies
How often are you watering? Typically 5 days
Type and strength of ferts used? Doc Bud's High Brix Kit
And here's my new whiz-bang light. It came in a nice plain white box with David's name on the label instead of some LED lighting company- nice. It was double boxed and fully packed in foam.
Three channels - blue for veg, full for grow, and red for bloom.
But the thing about this company is the programmable controller. You can set the timing and intensity of each separate channel, so the light will slowly brighten in the morning just like the sun and will radiate a spectrum just like the sun. At noon, it will run at full intensity with the same spectrum as a noonday sun. In the evening, it will slowly dim and run more red, just like a setting sun. Groovy! And because of the morning and evening dimming, it uses less power over the course of a day - roughly 25% less.
Icemud was one of the first to use Intelligent-Gro and he has some really great info in his journals.
Icemud's Grow 8.0 - New Intelligent-Gro LED - 2 x IGRO-228 LED - Testing & Review
Icemud's Intelligent Gro 2 LED Grow With V-Scrog - Going for 1lb & Beyond!
So, anyway, those of you who've read my first journal know that I grow in organic soil with Doc Bud's High Brix Kit. I'm still using the same soil I started with, after roughly three runs, and I think I probably have some buildup of salts, so in the next few weeks, I'm going to flush the crap out of everything I have in bins, and then add about 50% more straight Pro-Mix w/EWC. I think I have enough amendment in the soil, since I've been re-amending after ever use, and I've been recycling all my dead plant material like Curso, so the soil is getting richer. In the fall I'll probably pop for a soil test to see where I'm at after the fresh Pro-Mix.
I'll journal the Utopia Hazes and the other youngsters here while I let the older ones finish in the old journal. That's it for this first post. I'll get some more pics up in a day or two.
I'm jazzed!!!