Prof's Lab: Diary Of A Bedroom Farmer

[ProfessorFlora]

Totally man. Grow light term doesn't mean shit. People are growing with any kinds of light. Just make sure its not totally green Grow light term can only indicate more efficient diodes as a plus but, that is rarely the case. People are being screwed in the LED industry forever. Nowadays, the market is better with several great manufacturers.

About the comparison, it would be nice to observe the difference on this grow. I can say that the frost difference can be caused from either the heat or the lack of blue in HPS. My opinion leans towards the heat because personally, I don't think blue or UV-A spectrum provides a lot more frost. It should make %2-3 difference tops when the grow is done properly and I don't think that anyone can notice %2-3 trichome difference. Way too fine to decide.

I will also provide you side by side results on one of my future journals. That grow will start on first week of july and I will probably start the journal in 2-3 weeks. I will demonstrate my DIY LED boards in that journal and compare 4000K only model with 660nm and possibly 730nm one, which will basically become an Emerson Effect boosted board if I can get the 730nm diodes soldered on the pcb for a reasonable price. In worst case, I will be comparing 4000K vs 4000K+660nm. I will install one full spectrum and two red boosted boards inside 4x4 tent. These will draw a total of 720-750W from the wall. I will install three red boosted boards on the other 4x4, and compare the two tents as well as the individual plants that are under 4000K with their roommates. I don't think red gives you more efficiency than %7-8 by all means but depending on how large your grow space is, this number can become very desirable. We will experiment and see the results soon. I bet everyone will end up just using full spectrum mid power LED's in slightly higher quantities than now.



Cheers

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• TriangleCheese
• Jun 24, 2020

I look forward to seeing that.

I have always struggled to keep temps below 27C with HPS which I know effects the final product. I do miss the chunky nugget look you get with HPS but I'm fully in the LED camp in regards to grow lights. I didn't used to be back when they all had cooling fans though. I hated those things. My Roleadro's were louder than the extraction fans lol. My opinion is that it is easier for me to get consistent, excellent quality results using LED because of things like being able to regulate temps more easily. Coverage is also something which has improved since using multiple lower wattage units.
Theres so much passion in the LED industry that it is is only going to get better

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Hey 420. Rapid update time!

We have a package....

It is from The Real Seed Company....

Here is what it contained....

I paid for the X18's and received the rest as freebies. Buy 5 seeds get 17 seeds free lol. I like those kinda deals. These are the seeds I mentioned to @Pennywise over on @Virgin Ground's thread the other day. This heirloom strain apparently has sour or sweet apple flavours and goes by the name of Cider Kush. Sold!
They were in a little sealed capsule so I left them in there until they are needed.

Here are the freebies. First up is 5 landrace afghan indicas. These are from a shipment which got mixed up in transit so there is no telling what they are. They are being sold as mixed seeds at a reduced rate and are also being given out with each order. The 4 locations they were collected from are Mazar-I-sharif, Balkh, Badakstan and Kunduz. Expect the unexpected....

The next freebie is a generous one. It is also interesting as it is a sativa landrace. The Rasoli is a Himalayan charas plant which can grow up to 4 meters tall. Minimal veg times for these I think. I expect they will probably take 70-80 days to finish up as they are said to finish in October which is very fast for a sativa....

That's some of the new beans out of the way. next I though we could look at some plants starting with the re-vegging Crumbled Lime....

She is pretty much growing again. There were only a couple of single fingered leaves before 3 fingered ones started to appear. It was a shame that I lost the Double D's but It ran out of steam. Now that I have seen the process in action I will know in the future how best to prepare a plant for the process. I left enough leaves but didn't leave enough flowers. The Crumbled Lime is more than happy though and I think she'll be normal again in a couple of weeks time....

Continued....

 

[Pennywise]

That’s a good score, the Rasoli will be a good one.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Next we have the Miami Heat from Exotic Genetix, the Balkh and the Tashkurghan or Kholm. I had a weird problem with these when I was away. One day they where fine and then the next all 3 went limp and pale. I noticed that the leaves were growing a strange and twisted shape. It was puzzling and I couldn't put my finger on it. I re-potted them as they were beginning to get root bound but I was sure that that wasn't the cause of the problem. They got worse and I started to think that the damping off had evolved and now wanted to kill my adult plants as well. Then I noticed a little caterpillar walk across a leaf on the Miami Heat. It was tiny but moved with graceful and speedy agility. Then I noticed another, and another. Dozens of the little things covered these 3 and the re-vegging plants. I sprayed them with alcohol and haven't seen one since. The plants immediately recovered but I had to remove all of the original fans as they were munched lol....

The Miami heat is a beast of a (little) plant. It feels like it is going to be a monster. It also feels like it is going to be a male....

The Balkh (Left) and the Tashkurgan (right)....

My first landrace genetics. They look a little messy but they are still recovering. Not a lot I can say about them at the moment other than they look like lovely little indicas. Both of these have the potential to reach a huge size in their natural environment. The Balkh can reach 4 meters and the Tashkurgan can apparently be any height, colour, scent and flavour lol. I am aware that there is a chance that these could be quite weak in strength though I still really want to have a go and grow them out to see for myself. They could have high CBD content which would be a new one for me. They really are a dice roll....

 

[Pennywise]

Nice looking landrace plants

 

[TriangleCheese]

I look forward to seeing that.

I have always struggled to keep temps below 27C with HPS which I know effects the final product. I do miss the chunky nugget look you get with HPS but I'm fully in the LED camp in regards to grow lights. I didn't used to be back when they all had cooling fans though. I hated those things. My Roleadro's were louder than the extraction fans lol. My opinion is that it is easier for me to get consistent, excellent quality results using LED because of things like being able to regulate temps more easily. Coverage is also something which has improved since using multiple lower wattage units.
Theres so much passion in the LED industry that it is is only going to get better

If you need an active cooling system on a device, than its probably working at a low efficiency. Middle power LED's are just more efficient than HPS whereas almost all of the COB assemblies or high power LED's(equal or greater than 1W) are don't. Using these assemblies of COB or high power LED's with fans are not doing much good compared to HPS. Maybe they are heating your grow space slightly less. I've read lots of datasheets throughout the DIY project and the only diodes that worth replacing HPS or CMH are LM301B/H and LM561B/H series. As I said, I am waiting for people to give up on red and use higher watts of full spectrum LED's only. That will be the ultimate LED grow board until some new technology outperforms the LM301 series.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

That’s a good score, the Rasoli will be a good one.

It sounds a bit intimidating lol. I have 5 Malana's to go with them which are already growing. I'm hoping I can find one that I'm happy with and then cross it with one of the Afghans. Maybe the X18 as well.

If you need an active cooling system on a device, than its probably working at a low efficiency. Middle power LED's are just more efficient than HPS whereas almost all of the COB assemblies or high power LED's(equal or greater than 1W) are don't. Using these assemblies of COB or high power LED's with fans are not doing much good compared to HPS. Maybe they are heating your grow space slightly less. I've read lots of datasheets throughout the DIY project and the only diodes that worth replacing HPS or CMH are LM301B/H and LM561B/H series. As I said, I am waiting for people to give up on red and use higher watts of full spectrum LED's only. That will be the ultimate LED grow board until some new technology outperforms the LM301 series.

It is passive all the way now. The old COB's with the fans started making a crackling sound so they've been retired. They were also heavy in the red spectrum and created a milky pink glow which my eyes didn't agree with. They did get very hot and I could compare the two 200w units running together to a 400w HPS at least. They did grow some nice flowers though but not very efficiently.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Nice looking landrace plants

Thanks Penny. I really wanted a real sativa but just couldn't pull trigger on some of them. I settled for some Himalayan strains as they dont take 6 months to flower. The effect is described as being uplifting but not as intense as say something like a Thai or African sativa. I think my family would kill me if I said that the next round of plants would be ready in 15 weeks plus lol

 

[Pennywise]

I’d love to get a hold of a nice Nepali

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Here is where I'm keeping these for the moment. In the Auto tent. Spoiler for the Barney's thread. They are still alive so it looks like we will see some autos after all. Back to these. I need to work out how everything is going to go but for now this is there home as the little veg tent is full....

These little tubs are ideal for bottom feeding plants in pairs....

Speaking of the little veg tent. Here is what we have inside it....

5 x Malana Cream another Himilayan sativa type similar in nature to the Resoli
1 x Doz Z Doz fem from Pheno Finders
1 x Pineapple Express #2 fem from G13 Labs
1 x Romberry fem from Freedom of Seeds

That should keep me busy for a little while lol.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Hey 420. Update time. It is flowering day 43 with this grow and so far so good. The light is growing weed, the pots haven't been flushed and the bottom feeding is still easy. We just had a few seriously hot days and I was concerned for a moment. I had the doors opened up wide and got myself some extra fans to move the air about. The plants seem ok and look very good. We have good frost on all and they certainly smell lovely. The Fat Purple looks to be into the harvesting window already. I checked her trichs and she does actually have a few ambers. I won't be pulling her early though and will try to do them all at the same time again which means we will be waiting for the Tropicanna Banana which is the slowest. I wouldn't call her slow though....

Hashplant D....

Fat Purple....

Tropicanna Banana....

Critical Jack....

Here is the state of the surface of the medium. It's not as bad as when I didn't flush with the fabric pots but there is still a good layer of nutrient salt build up. Still, no problems this time around either and I can't see us getting any at this stage in the game....

 

[ProfessorFlora]

More frosty goodness for you all....

 

[Pennywise]

Girls are looking good!

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Girls are looking good!

Thanks Penny. This round has gone smoothly and thankfully hasn't cause me any concern at all. Wish I'd done a slightly better job with the training early on but hey.

 

[Pennywise]

You can do the training next run

 

[ProfessorFlora]

The 2x4 tent has become the temporary auto/veg tent. I shut the smaller one down for now to reduce the heat though the weather is much more mild now....

The vegging photos are at various stages in their development. Some will be cloned before flowering whereas others are there as a back up....

The Malana Cream's are looking nice. No problems with getting these started. Some look quite sativa whereas others look like they could go either way. I read that these can display quite broad leaves early on which suggests that at some point throughout history they were crossed with an indica. Likely from China. Also there have been hybrids introduced to the area back in the 80's which are contaminating the local stock. This is an endangered strain which may not be with us for much longer. At least not in its pure form....

The 3 fems are to use just in case cloning and preparing the landraces take too long. I don't want to rush my landrace pheno hunt and having something else to grow while I wait will prevent me from making mistakes by becoming impatient lol. I need to transplant these pronto as they are a week old now and have been sat in those tiny starter trays....

The Crumbled Lime reveg attempt is still going well. Now that I pretty much have her back I'm not too sure what to do with her. Would it be too late to stick her outside in the ground? She goes about 70 days indoors so I think I could get away with putting her out soon. I'm not sure if she's completely finished re-vegging yet though....

 

[Pennywise]

Crumpled Lime should be a good one.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

The Miami Heat is looking great. it is one of those plants which goes droopy an hour before lights out. Her it is after just waking up....

The Balkh is also doing fantastic. It has grown a lot recently and I like how it looks. This one is ready to be cloned....

Tashkurghan is not doing quite as well. it looks like it might have dwarfism which isn't a bad thing. I could technically take a clone from it but it would be fiddly and I don't think it is quite healthy enough just yet. There is also some yellowing on the larger leaves. It looks like it wants more food but I'm feeding these 3 the maximum amount recommended for veg. I can see a tiny bit of tip burn on it as well so I'm not going to increase the feed just yet. Instead I have re-potted it as it is the only thing I can think of which might do something positive. We still have plenty of time so we will continue to watch what it does for now....

Finally we have another seed drop. I went with the 5 unknown afghan indicas to see what we get. I'm hoping for something exciting with these....

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Crumpled Lime should be a good one.

Crumbled Lime is a good one. Frosty as fuck and has a really nice turp profile. It is get shit done smoke but becomes relaxing towards the end....

 

[Heavenly Hybrid]

Crumbled Lime is a good one. Frosty as fuck and has a really nice turp profile. It is get shit done smoke but becomes relaxing towards the end....

That sounds so fantastic right about now!