Jon705's First Attempt at Organic SuperSoil Featuring TopLED's New COB LED Panel

[jon705]

You notice how long they take to turn around compared to hydro. hydro one day soil ten days.

yep, thats definelty the main downfall of growing with soil, I could literally throw every training tecnique in the book at once in hydro and the next day they are giving me the finger with another inch of new growth lol

 

[jon705]

how are you finding the super soil, just had a quick flick through the last few pages so ill skip back and read a bit more,

also do you have the hps and the led at the same distance from the tops of the plants, would that be a more fair comparison then or maybe your doing this all ready, when i raise my hps to 2 or 3ft above the tops of the plant i dont get any stretching either like your not getting with the led, but when the light is 1ft or less from the tops of the plant i get more rapid growth, so im not getting stretch even from 3ft above the plants but plants grow quicker when the light is much closer,

i know theirs a light chart for hid lights and wondered if their is a light chart for led's so we can see how the distance compares and how much light you lose after a certain distance, the hid light chart shows the ideal range for me 400watt hps is 1ft or just less from the tops of the plants, so i like to keep it their, but in the middle of summer the light was 3ft above the plants from seed to harvest due to high temps and i didnt get any stretch at all,

im am using a dual spec light though so not sure if that changes anything, im tempted to try a mh for veg and hps for flower but i think giving the plant more of the light spectrum may give them an extra boost, ive only used dual spec bulbs hps bulbs though.

just wondered if the distance from the plants was the same for your hid and led,

unfortunately the soil ran out of food to quickly, this is my fault though, the plants were originally in the same 6 gallon grow bags I was using and I transplanted them into the 10 gallon nursery pots with supersoil, so theres only 4 gallons per pot, these are pretty big girls and they like to eat lol..next round im going from 2.5 gallon pots right into 10 gallon pots so 7.5 gallons of ss with no buffer, this should be enough to make it through flower.

My big panels are further away than the hps, like I said, I set my lights at 48 inches from the plants and let them grow up into the lights, thats what I did last round and I was very happy with the results so im sticking with it, its also the way the guy that designed them told me to use them. You guys have to remember, the closer you get led lights to the canopy the smaller the footprint,with a hps the light shoots out in every direction, with led's the lense directs beams of light at whatever angle they are, literally 2 inches outside of that beam is probably half the umols, you can literally see the shadow on your hand. my lights have a core footprint of 48 x 48 at 28 inches from the canopy with 850 umols(perfect for flowering) at 18 inches the core footprint is 36 x 36 with around 1200 - 1400 umols, not only do you lose a foot of coverage but the light is too intense, sure they will still grow but not as well as they could if the lights were at the right height. I ve already experimented with several different heights with these lights, the tecnique I use now works the best for me by far. as for the cob it didnt come with instrutions or even suggestions so im guessing really, i ll measure tonight to see how far it is from the canopy, I did move it about 6 inches closer last night.

 

[BigIrishDoode]

yep, thats definelty the main downfall of growing with soil, I could literally throw every training tecnique in the book at once in hydro and the next day they are giving me the finger with another inch of new growth lol

Have you tried coco? I hate to be a broken record but you can get a hydro similar grow with it quick response easy to flush,run sterile or wiggling with microbes ,more forgiving than soil or hydro, just saying sheesh stop throwing popcorn at me! I'm fat enough!

 

[jon705]

nah bro, the growth I saw in veg with this supersoil recipe was as good as hydro easily, it blew me away, im sticking with it, once I get the amount needed for plants this size figured out its smooth sailing from then on, I did alot of training and topping while they were in the veg room and they recovered very quickly from it, maybe a day or two, the only reason it took so long this time is there was no food left, if there had been enough ss in the pots to finish they wouldn't of even slowed down from the bit of spreading out they got, i'd be at the beginning of the third week of flower by now. This is my first crack at organic growing, im pretty confident that after 2 or 3 rounds I ll have things dialed in

 

[B A R]

no buddy but i will post it on here in ur journal if u dont mind afterwards? only if i dont get dusted haha

My moneys on you C.

nah bro, the growth I saw in veg with this supersoil recipe was as good as hydro easily, it blew me away, im sticking with it, once I get the amount needed for plants this size figured out its smooth sailing from then on, I did alot of training and topping while they were in the veg room and they recovered very quickly from it, maybe a day or two, the only reason it took so long this time is there was no food left, if there had been enough ss in the pots to finish they wouldn't of even slowed down from the bit of spreading out they got, i'd be at the beginning of the third week of flower by now. This is my first crack at organic growing, im pretty confident that after 2 or 3 rounds I ll have things dialed in

After I finish with this free bag of compost I'll be looking in that direction.

 

[ronnie6690]

My big panels are further away than the hps, like I said, I set my lights at 48 inches from the plants and let them grow up into the lights, thats what I did last round and I was very happy with the results so im sticking with it, its also the way the guy that designed them told me to use them. You guys have to remember, the closer you get led lights to the canopy the smaller the footprint,with a hps the light shoots out in every direction, with led's the lense directs beams of light at whatever angle they are, literally 2 inches outside of that beam is probably half the umols, you can literally see the shadow on your hand. my lights have a core footprint of 48 x 48 at 28 inches from the canopy with 850 umols(perfect for flowering) at 18 inches the core footprint is 36 x 36 with around 1200 - 1400 umols, not only do you lose a foot of coverage but the light is too intense, sure they will still grow but not as well as they could if the lights were at the right height. I ve already experimented with several different heights with these lights, the tecnique I use now works the best for me by far. as for the cob it didnt come with instrutions or even suggestions so im guessing really, i ll measure tonight to see how far it is from the canopy, I did move it about 6 inches closer last night.

I just raised my lights up all the way , which is 24" . I was at 18 inches. at that height my lights are at 1382 umols. my top colas seemed smaller than some of the lower colas so going to give it a try . at 24" my lights are 831 umols.

thanks again jon for the great info

 

[Hiker]

hmmmm... I know I saw this thread already but somehow lost, or never had, a subscription. I'm here now at least.

Glad to see the SS is working for you Jon. You've inspired me to give soil a try, so I'm watching closely.

 

[BigIrishDoode]

That's cool soil is good too I do both got some soil cooking till spring and can get my high brix goodies stockpiled, I just love a good coco grow too so I'll prob always do both,

 

[jon705]

hmmmm... I know I saw this thread already but somehow lost, or never had, a subscription. I'm here now at least.

Glad to see the SS is working for you Jon. You've inspired me to give soil a try, so I'm watching closely.

welcome Hiker, I figured you were still really busy bro, glad you made it. I think once you give it a try your going to like it better than hydro, it might take a couple rounds to dial things in but it really is alot easier in many ways imho

 

[jon705]

pics are uploading

 

[jon705]

I just raised my lights up all the way , which is 24" . I was at 18 inches. at that height my lights are at 1382 umols. my top colas seemed smaller than some of the lower colas so going to give it a try . at 24" my lights are 831 umols.

thanks again jon for the great info

no worries bro, hieghts will vary a bit from light to light depending on what type of diodes are in them but between 800 and 900 umols is where you want to be in flower, its alot less in veg which is why I let the plants grow into the light instead of raising it.

 

[jon705]

UPDATE
DAY 2 FROM THE FLIP
TEMPS 75 DAYTIME 68 NIGHTIME
RH 40%
CO2 1500 PPM'S

Things are finally back on track looks like the girls are either fully recovered or well on they're to a full recovery. I ve now fed them 3 times with full strength of the unmentionable nutrients and they are praying to the lights bigtime.

Timewrecks are right up the middle, one under the hps one under both hps and led and one under just led.

Now tell me, do these plants look like the lights are to far away?

Heres the Timewreck under the COB light, I ll do a seperate update for them tomorrow and I ll probably lower the light to around 24 inches from the canopy

 

[BigIrishDoode]

they all look great, the cob dfo looks like the sweetspot is closer to the light seeing where and how hard they are hitting the wall, like the light is being bounced to the side almost ant the top of the plant is not as lit up as in the other room

 

[Crawdaddy]

as for the cob it didnt come with instrutions or even suggestions so im guessing really, i ll measure tonight to see how far it is from the canopy, I did move it about 6 inches closer last night.

Not sure if this helps but here is directly from email I got from TopLED with shipping confirmation of my 6-piece COB light.

Recommended light above plants for seeding and veg time:
600W~900W----------2.5~3(ft)
Recommended light above plants for flowering time:
600W~900W----------3~3.5(ft)

We suggest Each square meter 400w led (power draw 200w-240w)for veg, 600w led (power draw 300w-360w)for flowering
Best way flowering time use some HPS mix with led, Such as 3LED with one HPS, This will make quality and biggest yields flower.
Note: USE LED feed Less water overall less nutrients... but More cal/mag,plant structure will be different, wider leaves even on sativas plant leaf and stem exposed to light will become purple... this is not a deficiency，3 watts you can get pretty close without burning.
Indoor use only

 

[Output]

Hi Jon,

I have a few questions for you.

You wrote...

as for pots I use 10 gallon nursery pots but you could use air pots or cloth grow bags whatever you prefer. from clone I would go 1 gallon pots, 2 weeks later I would transplant to 3 gallon pots then 7 gallon pots to flower.

---------------------------------

As far as the pots for vegging, if I use fabric pots right from the start, I'm a little concerned that it might be hard to get the plant out to put into the next bigger size. Any thoughts on that?

By the way, I'll be using supersoil – organic. From what I've read, it does better using bigger pots as opposed to smaller ones. I just don't know where or if there is a cut off on results versus size.

Would a longer veg time increase my yield? How does one know how long is long enough and how long is too long?

Thanks.

 

[shaft09]

Im a non political American also. Importing products from other countries also makes jobs available for Americans cuz someone needs to work the docks and unload ships/planes and inspect cargo. It doesnt mean the product is in any way better though and sometimes could mean the opposite. Ive worked in Manufacturing Factories for greedy rich bosses and believe me the employees dont give a shit about quality when they hate the prick theyre workin for.

Im a Bitter American thats been screwed over by the system, My own family and the higher ups at a couple different jobs. Doesnt matter that I was one of the best at my job and was promoted years before anyone else at that position. I wasnt and will never be an Ass Kisser or a Conformist so I was fired and denied unemployment because the 2 bosses said I quit.

CascadianDank,

I feel you on that one! Never missed a day, never late, but always called on to fix another persons fuck ups! I guess never kissin' ass and doing a good job means less than kissin' ass and being a fuck up!

 

[Cultivator]

Looking good mate. Will u just continue to use the nutes through bloom now? im assuming u will as u say plants have used up whats in soil?

im am using a dual spec light though so not sure if that changes anything, im tempted to try a mh for veg and hps for flower but i think giving the plant more of the light spectrum may give them an extra boost, ive only used dual spec bulbs hps bulbs though.

I use mh bulbs for veg and there is a noticeable difference in internode spacing and def gives more flower sites from my experience. But mh bulbs run much hotter than hps, so if heats an issue stick with ur 400w hps.

 

[jon705]

I forgot a couple pics last night the first is a Jack and the second is the 8 ball kush, I though using my buddy would give you a better idea of how big these plants are and its only day 2 of flower

 

[jon705]

Looking good mate. Will u just continue to use the nutes through bloom now? im assuming u will as u say plants have used up whats in soil?



I use mh bulbs for veg and there is a noticeable difference in internode spacing and def gives more flower sites from my experience. But mh bulbs run much hotter than hps, so if heats an issue stick with ur 400w hps.

im not sure yet, I have some soil lifeactivator tea in the mail, should be here today or tomorrow, I think I ll try topdressing with ss and some azomite and water it in with the tea and see what happens

 

[jon705]

Not sure if this helps but here is directly from email I got from TopLED with shipping confirmation of my 6-piece COB light.

Recommended light above plants for seeding and veg time:
600W~900W----------2.5~3(ft)
Recommended light above plants for flowering time:
600W~900W----------3~3.5(ft)

We suggest Each square meter 400w led (power draw 200w-240w)for veg, 600w led (power draw 300w-360w)for flowering
Best way flowering time use some HPS mix with led, Such as 3LED with one HPS, This will make quality and biggest yields flower.
Note: USE LED feed Less water overall less nutrients... but More cal/mag,plant structure will be different, wider leaves even on sativas plant leaf and stem exposed to light will become purple... this is not a deficiency，3 watts you can get pretty close without burning.
Indoor use only

Those are the recomendations I gave them bro and the description on different plant and leaf structures with led's, that came from Buck