Max's First Grow - Soil - LED - Painkiller XL

BeaverIslander said:
You mights well order at least one small digital hygrometer for peace of mind. The ones by Caliber lV (digital hygrometer) are good and will fit inside your standard one quart mason jar, along with about 3/4 Oz of bud. Leave a little room.
Click to expand...

I ordered some mechanical ones from China that fit in the jars. They are surprisingly accurate. Of the four I got only one is 2% out. The rest match the digital meter.

Thanks for the advice on how much to put in the jars. I should get some more just in case I get a surprise happy ending to this grow :-) I very much hope that 3 jars won't be enough.
 
yeah the 5inch tube is shite really mate. i used them couple years ago and cost me ££££££££ in lost revenue. It was a 36 light set up and averaged 7.5oz per light. i was like a broken man lol. needless to say they were destroyed. long and complicated story how i ended up using them but never again. big shades and ones with the wire coming out of top not the bottoms. To be fair most my rooms run with open shades or parabolics now as i dont think there is any need at all to use cool tubes if you know how to extract correctly. Then you lose no light through glass and duct work. The bigger shades you see in my grows ive had for a while. I wont buy any more.
 
I recall reading that you've moved away from the tubes after a disappointing (for you) result. Alas I have to make some compromises because I'm not going to cut holes in my ceiling or walls, but a 6" cool tube would have been an easy win. It was only £38 for the 5" so I could go 6" at some point. I'd have to buy yet another fan to go with it though.

I'm a hobby grower so I can't chop and change so easily. Let's see how this pans out and I'll take it from there.

If I was still smoking £120 of weed a week it would be a no brainer, but I doubt very much I'll ever reach that level of consumption again.
 
for sure mate. just slow and steady.
 
MaxHeadroom said:
Can I ask how much you put in each jar?
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're going to need more jars. :)

I just dropped in buds until it was about two thirds full, don't think we recorded how much went into each jar.
 
Day 21 of Flip, Day 10 of Actual Flowering

It's getting busy in the tent and all hope of an even canopy has gone out the window
IMG_43549.JPG


Lots of new bud sites appearing
IMG_43568.JPG


IMG_43586.JPG


IMG_43694.JPG


The girls got a good watering from the top and bottom on Friday morning. When I got home on Saturday evening they had shot up. They tend to be under watered through the week and get a good soak every weekend.

Still on half strength bloom nutes, but they get a feed with every water. I may start alternating but at full strength from now on.

Every watering they get 1.5ml of CalMag per litre.

Temps are around 84 with the HPS on 400w. Today on 600w the tent would top 90 degrees if not carefully messed around with (open tent and extra moving air).

The largest stalk is under the LED but the buds do look a little fluffier. Next week I'll swap them round again so each half of the tent gets time under LED and HPS.

There are over 50 flowers, so if I don't screw things up there should be a reasonable harvest :-)
 
High Max, the plants are look great man. The mix of HPS and LED lighting is working well.
Cheers;)
 
stealthgrow said:
High Max, the plants are look great man. The mix of HPS and LED lighting is working well.
Cheers;)
Click to expand...

Thanks Stealth. Temperature control is a bit of a struggle and it's still possible bud density will be sacrificed for an easy life with LED. I'll try a couple more things before giving up on HPS though.
 
80f is fine mate. nothing to stress over.
 
Cultivator said:
80f is fine mate. nothing to stress over.
Click to expand...

It's currently 89 degrees and the tent has been open all day. I like to give them 600w at weekend and when I get home from work. The rest of the time it's 400w.

Do you think a 6" cool tube would be a good investment? I'd get more ducting and draw cold air from the window in like I do with the 4" extraction system. Trouble is that's another hundred knicker when I'm thinking of cutting my loses and geting a pair of true 385w LED (each badged as 900's).

By the end of this run I'll be building a custom enclosure in my office, which is a much smaller room.

Making a stealth inlet thingy to cover the window would be good, but at night I don't want cold outside air coming in through the extractor. I'm in danger of over engineering and putting flanges on the window thing.
 
To mist or not to mist?

The girls are thriving without ever having got their leaves wet. This feels a little unnatural so I'm wondering if it's worth using the spray mister and giving the leaves a tickle. Is this a good thing to do and if so is it best morning or evening?

My concern is that the water droplets will act as magnifying glasses and burn the leaves.

Over to the experts...
 
use a 6inch cooltube. it will cost you 40quid 45 max with some 6inch duct. its much easier to grow with hps and i still think cost vs reward there is no comparison. Alot of the guys pushing led here dont have huge amounts of experience. a few do but let me tell you now most leds are over priced and over exagerated.

Do not spray the plants. you will raise humidity and damage the plants if the lights are on. There is a place for foliar feeds but dont over complicate what you are doing. There is a tendency to want to do stuff but the plants will grow just fine without too much interference. Spraying during flower can lead to burnt buds and bud rot.
 
Cultivator said:
use a 6inch cooltube. it will cost you 40quid 45 max with some 6inch duct. its much easier to grow with hps and i still think cost vs reward there is no comparison. Alot of the guys pushing led here dont have huge amounts of experience. a few do but let me tell you now most leds are over priced and over exagerated.

Do not spray the plants. you will raise humidity and damage the plants if the lights are on. There is a place for foliar feeds but dont over complicate what you are doing. There is a tendency to want to do stuff but the plants will grow just fine without too much interference. Spraying during flower can lead to burnt buds and bud rot.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. Just what I needed to hear on the misting or not question.

As for LED - yeah, I'd be dropping £500 on lights if I went pure LED and got the watts per foot I want. I'm just incredibly frustrated with being unable to solve the heat thing. I'm a problem solver, it's what I get paid for, but I'm not experienced enough to get this right. Yes, a 6" tube is around £45, then £10 for ducting, then £50 for a 6" fan. I'm just concerned that a 6" cool tube won't do the job and that's another useless £100... but it's £400 less than a pair of LEDs :-)

If I did that I'd possibly reuse the 5" fan and ducting and get a bigger filter, then retire the 4" filter, ducting and fan. I have a 15A Variac that will do very nicely as a fan speed controller. In fact I have 2, so no worries on fan speed control.

Right now I've got a room fan blowing into the tent to drop the temps. Tomorrow I'll be back to running the HPS at 400w.

Thanks again for the advice.
 
if you run a 6inch you will get better light also. the other option which may be a cheaper and better solution would be to use a cheap euroshade and remove cooltube and duct. That way less duct and a narrow tube will not radiate the space. just use a bigger fan.. a 6 inch rvk would do the job for def.

Just shows it pays to spend some time to consider a set up before the build. Ive rushed into so many builds and i still do it lol. I have a 40-50 light build coming up in next 2 or 3 weeks and ut has my head battered with raising temps here. I have a 5 tonne aircon unit but its going to be difficult to install. ball ache lol.
 
Cultivator said:
if you run a 6inch you will get better light also. the other option which may be a cheaper and better solution would be to use a cheap euroshade and remove cooltube and duct. That way less duct and a narrow tube will not radiate the space. just use a bigger fan.. a 6 inch rvk would do the job for def.

Just shows it pays to spend some time to consider a set up before the build. Ive rushed into so many builds and i still do it lol. I have a 40-50 light build coming up in next 2 or 3 weeks and ut has my head battered with raising temps here. I have a 5 tonne aircon unit but its going to be difficult to install. ball ache lol.
Click to expand...

Good luck with your build.

Mine was roughly planned around LED. HPS is taking the fun out of it all. Now it's not freezing outside the tent gets over 90 degrees quite quickly. I'm working at home today because of pain so it's on 600w. Jeez, I hope these Painkiller XL's live up to their name.

Obviously the LED wasn't fully planned because I didn't get enough watts for flower and it needs a heater in the tent at all times to keep it warm.

I fully understand the cost/performance advantage of HPS, but without knocking holes in walls or ceilings I'm not going to cool this properly. The plants are pretty much neck and neck now I've turned the HPS up to 600w. With the HPS on 400w the 173w LED plants were bigger and faster to flower. I'll get a pair of 350w LED's and get the fun back in this personal grow. It takes a better man than me to use HPS in a room without holes in the brickwork.

I'd rather spend a bit more and get a lesser yield than I would with HPS, all for the sake of enjoying this hobby again. I say hobby, but I really need to try medical strains. I am so fucked if they don't work. Down to 1 x 30mg codeine a day and struggling.
 
remember you want leds running at 85f for best results.
 
MaxHeadroom said:
Thanks for the advice. Just what I needed to hear on the misting or not question.

As for LED - yeah, I'd be dropping £500 on lights if I went pure LED and got the watts per foot I want. I'm just incredibly frustrated with being unable to solve the heat thing. I'm a problem solver, it's what I get paid for, but I'm not experienced enough to get this right. Yes, a 6" tube is around £45, then £10 for ducting, then £50 for a 6" fan. I'm just concerned that a 6" cool tube won't do the job and that's another useless £100... but it's £400 less than a pair of LEDs :-)

If I did that I'd possibly reuse the 5" fan and ducting and get a bigger filter, then retire the 4" filter, ducting and fan. I have a 15A Variac that will do very nicely as a fan speed controller. In fact I have 2, so no worries on fan speed control.

Right now I've got a room fan blowing into the tent to drop the temps. Tomorrow I'll be back to running the HPS at 400w.

Thanks again for the advice.
Click to expand...
I have a 4x4 tent and 2 600w HPS/MH lights currently and a 6" fan. One is a cool tube and the other is the different air cooled hood. My tent runs at 81 degrees. My intake is ambient house temp of 65 degrees. It was well worth the money to say the least.
 
Back
Top Bottom