Dacob's Super Silver Haze and Super OG Kush LED/CFL Garden #1

[Dacob]

OK! So, where to start...

I'm a medical patient in the original MMJ state and I grow as I can not afford the exorbitant prices that are required to obtain my medicine from my co-op.

I jumped on the LED bandwagon a while ago, and I've never looked back.

I'm very satisfied with my results so far, but of course I'm just growing for myself, so I do not care too much about quantity... quality over quantity is a motto/cliché that I subscribe to whole-heartedly.

That is not to say that I don't care at all, but I'm not going to argue with anyone that my choice of LED and CFL lighting might have hurt my chances to have produced as much as is absolutely possible per square foot of space.


NOTE: If you want to rant about that... please go away. That is not why I'm taking the time to post this information. I'm doing it to help -- that's all. Comparing what you "could" have achieved with another lighting system is just not useful.


I elected to go with all LED/CFL lighting because I had no interest in noisy fans or other cooling systems -- I was looking for a lighting system that would be harmonious with my life, rather that one that would require me to isolate my garden to a remote room due to the extreme noise associated with large duct fans, which of course are essential for venting MH and HPS systems.


That being said, my choices of lighting and such were my own, and were based on my own needs and requirements, which are absolutely not typical. The "average" gardener, if there is one, would likely have no problem with a fan that pulls hundreds of CFMs, but I do not have the luxury of working with such large units, nor would they be effective for venting a small tent, if one was not trying to add a very hot MH or HPS light into a small tent.


I decided to start this journal now, rather late into flowering, as I did not have the time to post regular updates until now, and while I don't have hundreds of photos to share, I'm very happy with the results I've been able to coax from my ladies, and based on my success so far, I felt it was both appropriate and apropos that I post some photos and a very condensed copy of my notes for this, my most current garden.


I hope all that take the time to read this enjoy it, and hopefully LEARN from what I've learned. I've found that LEDs are effective, efficient and absolutely applicable to the process of growing excellent medical cannabis.

As such, I feel that my sharing my experience now, and hopefully in the future with my next garden, I will be able to help show that LEDs are already a viable lighting system, and that they, for lack of a better word... work.


Thank you for taking the time to read my journal so far, and please feel free to ask any questions you'd like...


I'm going to start with the photos, as everyone loves that, and then I'll post a copy of my notes so far, I might have to break those up into multiple posts.

After that, I'll update as regularly as I can with new photos. I recently picked up a nice digital scope, so I'll see if I can't upload a new trich photos too, those are always fun...

 

[Dacob]

OK!

So we begin with some photos.

As noted above, we are 3-4 weeks into flowering, at the time of these pictures.

Veg time was about 3 weeks, during which plants did very well.

Above is a pretty little Super OG Kush plant in flowering.

This particular plant was, unfortunately, crushed in a horrifingly noobi-esque accident that involved me, a UFO, and... stupidity.

Needless to say, trimming the top of your plant after flowering is not an effective way to enduce new growth!

Regardless, after a period of rest and plenty TLC, she recovered nicely and the lower branches have been filling in. I'm scared to think what the auxin levels were like after that little mishap! No matter how good you are, you will always make mistakes. Believe me, I was mad as could be after I did that, but it happens and I learned from it, so I consider the cola I lost to be fair payment for the important lesson I learned from that accident.

Everything happens for a reason.

The above is an over-all photo of one tent, the plants on the left are all OGKs, the right-most is an unhappy SSH.

The above is a little closer to the plants, as you can see, growing more than one strain per tent/area is a big challenge, as the lights have to be moved accordingly. I've delt with this in the past, and I think at this point I'm done with it, as LEDs are so directed and need to be close to the canopy, I'm just going to go with just one set of clones per tent to make it easier on me in the future.

 

[Dacob]

This is a picture of a tasty SSH bud forming, I've been really happy with the Haze genetics, I have no idea how they got a sativa-dominant hybrid to produce such amazingly dense buds, but I'm not going to argue with the evidence is so clear...

Unfortunately due to stretching like you would not beleive, the SSH's ended up lounging in their own tent, which I normally do not do. But, they needed the space, and considering their heritage, I decided to give it to them.

This next image is of a SSH cola that I, unfortunately, managed to heat stress with just a simple UFO.

Yea.

It can be done, and I just had to push it to see what I could do with LEDs in flowering. I've done my homework, but I decided that I'd try to run by LED's 1 to 2 inches off of the cola tops, to help maximize light to the lower parts of the colas, as of course we all know that LED penetration is not the same as gas discharge lamps.

In the photo above, you will notice that the bud is not a gargantuan monster, and is only a few inches in width. This is not important to me, as I did not expect my plants to be able to go into overdrive and really produce huge colas, as I'm not providing enough light to drive their photosynthesis to the maximum possible levels.

Regardless, it is healthy and full, with plenty of pistil formation and good calyx to leaf ratios, typical of a highly specialized, connoiseur-level cannabis like SSH.

Much gratitude must be sent to all the hard working cannabis breeders all over the world, they are the ones upon which all my effort is built, for without their time to produce such amazing varieties, I would never have been able to have grown such amazing cannabis.

 

[Dacob]

Above is another photo of a SSH flower in bloom, another great example of how excellent breeding can lead to a plant that invests an enormous amount of time in its flowers. I've really settled, in the most recent years, on the supposition that genetics is key to all cannabis grows, with environment being secondary on a level that technology will never overcome.

The above is an all-over photo of a SSH, to show the lanky-ness of the plant. It stretched more than 2 times in flowering but if course that is just its genetics. It amazes me that a plant with such a sparse assortment of fan leaves could produce such nice, dense buds, but it seems to do well under the LEDs.

Since they are so tall, you will note I've used CFLs on the side of each plant to help illuminate the under-buds. This is a technique that is absent in many gardens, as gas discharge lamps usually provide enough over-all illumination to encourage under-buds to grow, but in this case, my LEDs are providing illumination primarily for the colas only, so the CFLs are essential for covering the rest of the plant.

Again, using a very small tent helps enormously here, as with a larger tent, my little 42 watt CFLs would not work anywhere near as well...

I can not emphasize enough how important it is to tailor your environment to the lighting you want to use, and vice-versa. It makes all the difference in the world.

Another all-over view above, little stanley-etta is in the middle, she is tiny but I just can't help but take good care of her, I guess it's a flaw, but I always seen to spend more time on my sick plants than my healthy ones...

 

[Dacob]

OK, the above is another SSH close up, I will have to post some more pictures of the OG Kushes next time. Their resin production has really started to ramp up, and I'm sure some close-ups would yield some good results.

Regardless, the above is still gorgeous so I just had to share it. The SSHs are nute monsters -- they just take all I have and want more. I've had to adjust a lot of things as I've adapted to these new LED lights, and so I'm still working on an nutrient regiment that works with the new environment they are in.

The stems, as you may notice, are red in this photo and that is not due to the purple LEDs at all, it is also a bit of nute stress I believe. I went with a pretty light schedule of nutes this round, but as the plants were so happy with the lower temps and the LEDs, I see for next time that I could have gone much higher.

Above is one more photo of the SSH's, showing some orange pistils.

As the SSH is more of a sativa-dominant hybrid, it is showing the typical sativa-related longer ripening/maturation time, which again is why I appreciate the excellent genetics it exhibits. If it was not for selective breeding, the stretch would have been uncontrollable and I would have been, literally, out of luck as I do not have the space. As it is, they are touching the tent walls and wanting to grow more, of course they want to grow more but when they encounter resistance, all grow in that direction stops, a feature that always amazes me, but I guess is actually frightingly elementary.


Anyway, the following is a concise version of my notes for this particular garden, which I share to help others understand what I went through. I was expecting to have to veg for a month, as I though LEDs would lag behind gas discharge lamps for getting clones going. I was wrong, so much so that I over-vegged my plants and, since I hate to prune for any reason (just me, most people are not like this) I had to expand to fit my newly oversized plants before they went to 12/12.


I'll divide the notes into sections, if you don't read any of it, please know I will not take offense in the slightest...

 

[Dacob]

Dacob's Garden #1


What strain is it?

Super OG Kush (indica dominant) and Super Silver Haze (sativa dominant)


Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?

Percentages are unknown, both are hybrids. SSH is a descendant of the famous Haze line, and it has been living up to its genetic heritage. I have no idea what the "super" in both names signifies. OG Kush is local to my area, with an interesting heritage. While it is generally more of a sativa-dominant hybrid due to the OG lineage, in these clones I found a typical indica, short as could be and amazingly strong, with very predictable growth patterns and wonderfully short internode lengths, which helps enormously when one is working in smaller spaces. I enjoy working with indicas much more due to their smaller stature and love of intense light and intense feeding schedules, resulting in excellent flower formation.


Is it in Veg or Flower stage?

Flowering now.


If in Veg... For how long?

1 to 2 weeks when first cut, unknown exactly when clones were first taken. Clones were pretty mature at time of transplant, so possibly they had a long life before I got a hold of them. They were dipped and vegged under flouros, in small rooting cubes.

Approx. 3 weeks in veg under 18/6.


If in Flower stage... For how long?

6 weeks.


Indoor or outdoor?

Indoor.


Soil or Hydro?

Soil.


If soil... what is in your mix?

Fox Farm ocean forest with ¼ perlite mix for drainage. Bottom of flowering pots has coarse pumice up to the tops of the drain holes, I find this helps to promote drainage out of the bottom of pots, and helps to stop roots from clogging drainage holes. I like fast drainage for my soil, but I always have to balance that with water retention. I may add some vermiculite in the future, I've not used it in a while but now I'm seeing the advantages of using perlite for drainage and vermiculite to hold water.


If soil... What size pot?

1 gallon for veg cycle, then 3 gallon for flowering.


Size of light?

Four 90 watt quad-band UFOs — 2 per tent. Each flowering tent is 2 by 4 feet. I like smaller tents to help with reflection of light off the sides — I don't like tents larger than 2 by 4 or so, due to how fast light falls off, but that is just me. Others may disagree, and will I'm sure, but the inverse square law applies regardless and so I try to minimize that by using smaller areas to work in.

LEDs are not name-brand. This is deliberate — I'm curious to see if they will last. As long as LEDs are cooled properly, they can run for years, but running them above their ideal operating temp can really degrade their lifetime. I disassembled the lights, they have no heatsink, but they do have three decent PC fans, and seem to run cool. The PC fans are very quiet, but I have no idea what their total CFM's are, probably low, 20 to 30 CFM I'd guess. But, these could be upgraded easily, as they are just standard 90 millimeter case fans, and many nice models are available that can move a lot of air, and run on ball bearings, to help with noise. A heatsink over the back of the LED's would have been nice, but we will see if it necessary. Again, with a simple upgrade of the fans, I suspect all excess heat in the rear of the LED's could be vented quite well indeed.

I supplemented the LED's with three 42 watt CFL's per tent, all are in a 2700K spectrum for flowering. I have 6500K lamps too, may try adding one next time — still experimenting with the exact spectrums for flowering. I'd love to add 6-7K and 10K lighting for late flowering, but I'm not convinced that would really be worth the cost and additional heat load. The CFL's are mounted in aluminum reflectors to help direct light towards center of tent. The CFL reflectors are grounded, as is everything in the tents other than the misters. Why? Safety. Two CFLs are side mounted to help cover lower branches, with 3rd up top to cover colas and upper branches. I find that works well to cover most of the tent. It looks bright, but actually is not really all that much at all.

Most all of the lumens from the LEDs are in the 660 nm red range, but the LED's also provide some blue-spectrum light at around 450 nm, which should help. I may need more of the blue-spectrum light to help with flowering in the future, but so far the results are impressive. Still researching that, much props to Roseman's CFL tutorial for getting me started on my CFL research.


Is it aircooled?

Yes. Using one Dayton four inch inline axial fan per tent, pulling 55 CFMs per minute. No cooling is needed at all, ambient temps outside of tents are about 75 degrees. Fan is amazingly quiet. It can not be heard unless the room is totally silent. This is my favorite part. Ambient temps inside the tent are five degrees above ambient temps outside the tent.


Temp of Room/cab?

At night, temps are around 63-73, during the light cycle, temps are 75-85 or so. (I try hard to avoid temps above or approaching 85 degrees.) Night temps drop below ambient, but that is to be expected. On average, I see about a total temperature range of about 20 degrees at most, which is decent and does not seem to stress plants all that much at all. I would be unhappy with more than a 20 degree range, which is why I try to keep temps at the upper range below 85 degrees. I can't really control the night time low temps, so I try to control the day time high temps instead. At times though, temps have reached 87 degrees with no obvious signs of immediate stress, but I attribute that more to the heartiness of cannabis than anything else. I find 80 to 83 degrees is ideal, but of course it's hard to hit that exact range on a daily basis. That is with LED lighting of course — the plants seem to love the higher temps when they are not stressed with a light source that is very high in infrared heat, like gas discharge lamps.


RH of Room/cab?

Shooting for about 50%. Ranges from 40-60% during day and stays good at night, usually around 40-50% during dark. 60% is OK, but I try to stay below 50% if possible. Ambient RH at 72 degrees in my area is 20-35% or so, so I have to use a mister all the time, during veg and flowering, to achieve a good average RH around 50%.

Extreme RHs recorded by my meters are from 35 to 65%, but those are rare. I highly recommend using a digital RH monitor, the instant feedback is essential for understanding what is going on in your grow space. My RH meters are my single most important tool for understanding the atmospheric conditions inside my tents.

RH remains in the 40-55% range 90% of the time. I think 50% is perfect.


PH of media or res?

Fox Farm is generally good about their soil mixes, so they usually tests a little below neutral, to around 6.0 or so. Honestly, I don't even test the pH much anymore with a bag of FF but of course I should, just on the off chance that they have messed up somehow.


Any Pests?

Nope. I have found a few small black flies, possibly thrips, they are very very small black flies with translucent wings, flying around Stanley-etta. These pests were actually present in my location before I set up this garden, so it's no surprise that they have shown interest in what I'm doing. I always found them around water before, usually just one at a time. But since I keep everything extremely clean, they have found no place to set up shop. It does not surprise me that they are attracted to Stanley-etta — it seems that pests are always attracted to weak, sick and unhappy plants, and Stanley is certainly in that category. To help combat the problem, I've been adding 5 to 10 milliliters of H2O2 per gallon to my mister water, that that seems to have stopped them in their tracks. Of course, the distilled water I use is already at 5 pH or less due to the fact that it's not buffered, but I still like to make the water reservoir as inhospitable as possible. While I don't use H2O2 in my watering, as it's useless for the plants in soil, (plants do not uptake oxygen in its free form, but rather in its stable, O2 form...) it has been amazingly effective in helping to prevent any outbreaks in the water reservoirs for my misters.


How often are you watering?

With LED's, much less than I expected. Every 2-3 days in flower, less in veg, but then sometimes much more at the later stages of flowering, depending on the strain. At first, plants seemed to take less water due to the lower temps from the LEDs, but that has changed in later stages. Still, it seems clear transpiration is excellent and growth benefits accordingly from that. But, I work hard to keep the RH stable. Now, watering seems to be based more on what plants want, and they do not seem to be stressed at all to cool themselves.


Type and strength of ferts used?

Fox Farm full line, plus additional supplements, see below for details.

 

[Dacob]

Dacob's Garden Log #1:


Planted 2/17/10


Plants:

4 Super Silver Haze clones

3 Super OG Kush clones

1 real runt in the SSH — nicknamed Stanley. Everybody needs love...

1 smaller plant in the SSHs, not a runt but still a little unhappy.


Environment:

Two tents of 2w x 4l x 5h size, mylar laminate inside. 4 inch vents bottom and top, plus mesh intake vents. Not name brand, but decent, and sufficiently light-tight for flowering it seems.


Lighting to start: 18/6.

Fans: Started with Dayton 4 inch inline axial 105 CFM fan. Too loud, too noisy. Moved too much air in tent. Switched to smaller 55 CFM fan. Much better. Young clones were actually getting dried out, at 105 CFM, volume of air in tent was getting exchanged at 2 times per minute or more.


Nutes: FF's full line — 3 liquids, Grow Big, Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom, plus three concentrated salts -- Open Sesame, Beastie Bloom and Cha-Ching.

Supplemented with Superthrive at recommended low dose — 1 ml per gallon. At times, increased Superthrive to 2 ml per gallon per label. I have no idea what is in that stuff, but it really seems to work! Also used Cal-Mag supplement at 5ml per gallon. Upped this to 10ml per gallon later at times, as plants were still showing signs of calcium deficiencies. Not a lot, but enough. Also included AR's Micro (4-0-0) as needed to supplement nitrogen. I don't like N deficiencies — while I'm OK with them later in flowering when the plant is getting ready for its final spurt of growth, I find the FF line is short on N sometimes and so I like to supplement it.


Transplant notes:

All roots look good. Minimal water to start. Can see roots at the bottom of all rooting cubes.

Clones are older, perhaps a week or two, have been vegging for a bit under smaller flouro tubes and are happy. Clones were dipped when first cut, so no pest or diseases should be present. Examined each clone before transplanting, did not see any evidence of mold, etc...


Lights to start:

Approx. 2 feet off of tops. Don't want to freak out plants as LEDs are so different from florours. Jumped straight to LED's this time, perhaps next time may break in clones first to they are not shocked at the change.

Lamps are four 90 watt quad band UFO's. Two per tent, so coverage per UFO is exactly 2 feet by 2 feet. I feel this is the maximum coverage area for this type of lamp, but others may disagree... and probably will, I'm sure!

My LED's are based on the following configuration: 70 LED's at 660 nm (red), 10 at 455 nm (blue), plus 5 white (full-spectrum, whatever that means) and 5 orange at 610 nm.

1800-2000 lumens per light, per the vendor. That's pretty low — each 42 watt CFL puts out about 3000 lumens to start, but of course the CLF's primary emission spectrum is in the green/yellow range, which is what we humans are most sensitive too, but which is conversely the least sensitive range for cannabis. As such, I ignore the lumen ratings, even the PAR ratings for my lamps, and instead I rely on my knowledge of biology to see what I can achieve with this very tailored form of lighting.

Two UFOs raise the ambient air temp in the tent about 2-5 degrees or so over the outside air temp, but 3 UFOs per tent seem to raise ambient temps too much, sometimes over 10 degrees above air outside the tent. A faster vent fan would help with this, but noise is annoying. This is just me, other's will find that they have no problem with a much faster, and louder, vent fan. As such, I've elected to stick to 1 LED lamp per every 4 square feet of space, but I would like to try to pack in more than that if I can in the future. This is really all a matter of personal choice — I'm sacrificing the ability to add more light to the benefit of getting to run a very quite vent fan, so for me, that works out.

That is really the essence of gardening in my opinion — adapting your methods to match your environment and lifestyle requirements.


Soil mix:

1 large (38 liter) bag of Fox Farm ocean forest.

Mixed with ¼ ratio of coarse perlite.

In future, may increase this ratio to 1/3 for better drainage. Drainage is good now though, so in retrospect, 1/3 may be the best ratio, as plants are already wanting water every 2 to 3 days in later flowering.

Added a small, ½ inch layer of pumice rock at bottom of each pot to help with drainage.

(Note for next time — increase pumice to cover all of drain holes, pumice seems to help as a natural root pruner.)


2/28/10 11 am.

All plants show transplant stress.

All are dry — tried not to water cubes, to force plants to search into the soil for water, but ended up watering cubes a bit to help plants get some moisture. Soil was watered/saturated before transplant.

Started hand spraying from bottle to help with moisture uptake. Spraying frequently throughout the day to start.

#4 (SSH) is very unhappy, major wilting and stem collapse. Not a surprise. #5 not happy either.


2/28/10 1 pm.

Intensive hand spraying has revived #4 — amazing how hearty cannabis is. Started up mister/humidifier to help with RH — it's much better, up to 60% or so.

Light notes. LEDs are 120 degree coverage 1 watters. I like the 120 degree angle, helps to allow for close placement of LEDs without loosing light to a narrower emission angle. For new plants, about 12 inches off top is good to start, less than that is too much. LED's really don't look that horribly bright to me, but at first I had to use sunglasses to just look in the tents, so I suspect I've adapted.


3/2/10

Transplant shock seems to have passed. All pots are showing signs of new growth.

Watered all pots fully with H2O only, all drained. Not quite ten percent run-off though, and I like at least that if not more.

Humidifier is putting out about 1 gallon every 18 hours on the higher settings, so moved it back to the lower setting.

Seems watering is indeed reduced with LEDs.

Going to veg for 30 days to see what kind of growth results.

3/3/10

Looking good so far. Temps are 65-70 at night, around 77-82 during the day cycle in the afternoons. Temp is very close correlated with ambient temp outside tent, of course.

All pots are showing vigorous veg growth.

All plants are adding at least 1 full set of leaves per cycle, some are adding 3 or more. Most growth seems to be in the dark cycle, which justifies my feeling that 18/6 is better than 24/0 lighting. Plants clearly seem to put on a lot of veg growth when lights are off. I've never understood why people use constant lighting.

Keeping lights approx 12 inches off tops. Plants are not stretching too bad for light at all — new nodes are relatively tight and plants all seem to be very happy with the wacky purple light.

Still getting a little yellowing a dry/dead leaf tips, but not too bad at all. Much less than normal for sure.

Spraying with H2O lightly only 2-3 times a lighting cycle.

Humidifier is putting out about ½ a gallon every light cycle now.


3/5/10

Removed #5 from tent (Stanley, the SSH runt) and replanted him in a small one quart ceramic pot. He had possible mold showing on his rooting cube, so cut away most of the rockwool and re-planted him back in to a smaller pot. He is clearly never going to be much of anything anyway, so while he will be root bound in the quart sized pot, that does open up more valuable floor space for everyone else.

Left Stanley outside overnight in isolation.

Brought Stanley back in after his (technically her) overnight isolation... I'm sure she froze, but since there was no sign that the mold had invaded her, just the rooting cube, I decided to put her back into the tent.


3-15-10

Solid growth under LEDs, nice short internodes. Very good veg growth. Was going to veg for a month, but may need to cut that short.

First nutes given, about 1/6 a gallon per plant.

Plants seem to love the LED light.

Been watering every 3 days or so.

Stems are thickening up nicely.


3/20/10

Going to induce flowering now.

No sign of preflowers, but veg growth is so fast I have to do it now or they will be way too big by the end.

SSH is pushing 3 feet and OGK is around 2 or so.

Vegged for about a month, that was a bit much, next time need to shoot for 2 weeks or so perhaps... LED lights are not the same for sure.



3/24/10

All ladies are female of course, all showed pistils after just 2 days which is very impressive. LED lights make them happy for sure it seems.

I did not give them 24 hours of darkness or any of that, I just switched them to start up on a new 12/12 cycle at the same time they would have started their day anyway. This always seems to work for me, but I have to admit with an unhappy plant, drastically changing the lighting regime overnight would probably be a bit much.

Little Stanley-ette is fine, root-bound but oh well.

Staked the SSH with bamboo so they don't topple over when colas start to form.

Have to be careful to keep LED's off tops by about 6 inches, apparently less can cause bleaching — need to research that a bit more.

H2O uptake is so good because of the RH and the LEDs, nute program will probably have to be adjusted.

Will wait a bit before adding supplemental lighting.

 

[Dacob]

4/2/10

Added supplemental CFLs today. All 42 watt TCP 2700K.

Temps up a bit. Now running 10 degrees over ambient at times, generally less than that. Not horrible.

We will see how ladies like the new lights.

Switched to strong straps for UFOs.

Accident: One of the three best OG's got crushed partially by a falling UFO. What fun... Should be OK though. I knew that was going to happen... need to be more careful!

(Note — stupid rookie mistake here. But, it happens... plant has recovered nicely, but I do not recommend this as a pruning regime!)


4/10/10

Seeing some slight under-curling of leaf tips, perhaps some slight salt build-up in the soil, not sure. Run-off has been about 10 to 20 percent, but may need to run higher than that to ensure all excess is washing out each time.

Put UFO's about 2 inches off of tops of SSH, will need to watch for bleaching. Not sure of a simple 90 watt UFO can bleach a bud or not...


4/18/10

Stanley is starting to show signs of nitrogen deficiency, no surprise there. As she is doing so well, decided to transplant her to a 1 gallon pot, to help with the extreme root-lock she is stuck in. I honestly never expected much from her, but she is growing like a champ and clearly is trying to produce some nice flowers.

Decided to move Stanley to the other tent with her two SSH clone-mates, I hope being next to them will help her to feel better.

4/30/10

Tops of colas of SSH are showing heat stress, and fan leaves are burning at the edges. LED's are 1-2 inches off of tops — as I discerned later, even though these are low-powered LED's, they are still capable of burning and bleaching colas.

At first, symptoms resembled K2O deficiency, so I started with that supposition, though I should have realized immediately that the LED's were just too close. The damage was similar — when plants run short on potassium, they start to overheat internally, especially on the edges of the plant's leaves. Since that was the exact same damage I was seeing, I though at first that must be the answer, as I assumed that since LED's ran so cool, they would be unlikely to ever heat stress a cola. Boy, was I wrong on that one!

Ended up moving LED's up to about 6-7 inches off of cola tops, that seems to help a lot. I was finally able to definitively confirm my diagnosis after I found the same problem occurring with the one "mystery" plant in the other tent. That plant, as it turns out, does not have the same genetics as the others in the tent, though it was supposed to be a clone from the same mother. Obviously, something got messed up when I acquired those clones. Regardless, I was also running the LED's close to that plant, at about 2 inches off the top, and that plant suffered heat stress too.

Interestingly, the mystery plant is clearly a sativa-dominant hybrid, as the SSH's are, and so it seems clear that sativa-dominant strains are not able to handle very intense light, a fact I knew already but had never seen so clearly demonstrated until this garden. The indica-dominant OG Kushes seem to soak up the LED's, while the LED's were never 2 inches above the OGK's, I did run them at times at 3 or 4 inches, which is still very close, and had no problems.


5/4/10

SSH's are showing signs of new growth at the top of the colas, so that confirms that I was stressing them. Sadly I may have lost quite a bit of overall growth from that, but in the end, if that was the price I have to pay for really getting to understand how plants react to the heat from a small LED fixture, I think it was worth it. The section of cola directly underneath the new area of growth is all white — the new leaves are mostly white with some green, the seed sacks are white as can be, and it's clear I heat-stressed them to the n-th degree! There is a lot of nice new pistil growth, but it's clear the plant was really hurting for a while considering all the bleaching. It's going to be interesting to see what the cola looks like at the end, there should be a section of a ¼ inch or so that is almost all white, then normal green growth again above it. That's not one I've seen before, but of course working with LED's is a new ball game for sure.

Going to cut mystery plant soon, trichomes are still not full but its growth is just pitiful, long stringy branches with tiny flowers, just no weight or density to any of it. This is a perfect example of the problems with genetics and clones. This plant was not happy when it was first acquired from the collective as a clone. It was labeled as an OG Kush, so I assumed it to be and raised it in the same tent as the other OGs. It was the runt of the OG clones for sure, which I attribute to a lack of nutrients in its early life. In retrospect, as this clone is clearly not of the same line, it's possible that the growth I was able to get out of it might have been all it was able to do. But I doubt it — it's just not happy.

The mystery plant is clearly a sativa-dominant hybrid, exhibiting much longer branches with much looser flowering and very small fan leaves. Some fan leaves had only 3 leaves total... not good.

Now, mind you I knew this from the beginning, but I had high hopes for my new LED lights, and considering the impressive results I saw in veg, I had high hopes that flowering would go as well. It did indeed for the three "real" OG Kushes, but the mystery plant was never able to totally overcome its initial challenges, and despite my best efforts, it does not look like it will every come to full fruition.

On a more positive note, the three OG Kushes are looking beautiful and are starting to really add a lot of trichomes. All trichomes are clear still, but density per leaf or bud is clearly improving since even a few days ago.

I recently stepped up the nute regimen to a pretty high level, which I normally do not do but I find is necessary in the last part of flowering, as without ample amounts of nutrients, I've found that plants can really cap out if they are not offered what I feel to almost be excessive amounts of nutrients, but to help with this I usually increase my water/nutrient solution watering amounts in the last stages of growth, to allow for 25% run-off or more. I find this helps a lot to avoid massive build-up of left-over nutrients in the soil, which if unchecked and unnoticed can really hurt a plant.

As for the SSH, I just noticed today something I've not seen before but I was hoping to see — the beginnings of a true "haze" of trichomes on the seed sacks and inner parts of new leaves. I've seen dense trichomes before, but these are really crazy, just a virtual sea of trichomes all over the place. Clearly, genetics is the primary and most important factor beyond all else — the SSH genetic heritage is just outstanding. The bud density looks to be very good (I never touch buds when they are growing, so I have no idea how tight they will be at the end, but I'm very impressed so far with the high calyx-to-leaf ratio) and while some branches are sagging a bit or needing wire to hold them up, I suspect that the weak branches is due more to my failure to provide enough nutrients to ensure solid and thick branches. But, I'm not sure on this one — sativa-dominant strains are not really my balliwick, but based on my limited research, it seems that what I'm seeing is not really abnormal at all.

Trimmed a number of cola-level fan leaves from one of the SSH's today, as they were so badly damaged from the heat stress I caused. It may hurt over-all cola production and size for that plant, but it was clear those leaves were not going to recover. While this may hurt the cola in general, some lower buds have been more exposed in the process, so all is not lost. But in general, I never cut any leaves at all unless they are more than ½ necrotic anyway.

 

[Dacob]

OK!

That's all for today, I will try to post more photos soon, as we are a few weeks beyond those photos now...

Enjoy!

 

[Dacob]

OK!

Everyone likes to start the day off with a little porn, so how about some harvest porn for your friday morning enjoyment?

Above is a photo of some lower branches that I chopped today, from the rather unhappy SSH you may have noticed in my other photos.

Surprisingly, although she was never much of a producer, her buds ripened up pretty fast, and ended up being harvested before even the 50 day mark, which I rarely do.

Another harvest shot. I cut these after seeing about 25% amber trichomes, as this is sativa-dominant and I did not want to wait until more trichomes had degraded, but that is just a personal choice, others may want to let their buds ripen further that that. It just depends, each plant is different so I rarely cut all on the same day.

More harvest pics, aren't they all just so pretty? I did not go for an intensive trim, as you will note, but I prefer it that way. I leave on a number of the smaller sugar leaves as they are generally covered in trichomes, and I could care less how the final result looks.

Another harvest pic, oh so pretty pretty hehe...

Last one, as you can see I like to use a mesh system for drying versus the usual cut and dry on a string, but I prefer flat drying, it helps to avoid dropping nugs, and I like that the mesh keeps out larger flying insects. I've really never had much of a problem with insects, but I tend to be very careful ahead of time and always play it safe -- an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

 

[Dacob]

Alright on with it then, here are some photos of my little unhappy SSH after the first round of harvesting, I'm allowing the cola and upper branches to mature a bit more as they are not ready. This happens sometimes, less so with strains with good genetics as the tendency has been bred out of them, but it's still something to look for and consider. It's not always appropriate to just cut the entire plant at one time, if some nugs are not mature but others are ready.

As you can see, the cola got heat stressed, as I had its LED too close, and so now that I've aleviated that problem, she had started to resume upward growth, which is not really want I wanted to have happen.

But, it could have been worse, and I needed to know how close I could go -- sometimes, there is just no substitute for experience. Now that I know that the limits are, for my particular set-up, I can avoid damaging any future plants, while still knowing that I'm extracting all the effeciency I can from my lights...

 

[Dacob]

OK!

Last but not least for today, I have some lovely photos of some Super OG Kushes that are ripening up nicely, and really starting to swell in their calyxs.

The pistils on these have gone to 1/3 to 1/2 orange or more, but since we're still not even at 60 days, I'm not expecting to cut these any time soon. They will have to start their final flush though soon. I flush for about a week with distilled H2O and I find that is sufficent -- I try to use the lowest doses of nutes I can while still achieving good results, as I see no reason to let the roots soak in high concentrations of nutes they will not uptake anyway.

While I see the wisdom of hydro in its ability to bring H2O and nutes to the plants 24/7, I prefer soil because it is more forgiving -- if I forget to water or wait a day to long, my plants do not suffer too much. I like that, but that's just me, again illustrating what I've been coming to see recently, which is that there really is no "perfect" garden or set up, but there can be one that is 'perfect' for you.

Ah.... so pretty. Trichome formation is great. Yay!

 

[ItsChrome]

Nice grow man! I like your set up a lot! I am currently going 100% CFLs at the moment but plan on bring in LED panels to the mix soon. I fell the exact same way you do in regards to your growing methods. I have little to no interest in dealing with HPS or HID. Sure they may have their ups but i believe with the right know how and proper implementation CFL and LED deserve more respect than the tend to get. Al though attitudes are definitely changing. Problem is people get set in old ways of thinking. any ways keep up the good work man!

 

[Dacob]

Nice grow man! I like your set up a lot! I am currently going 100% CFLs at the moment but plan on bring in LED panels to the mix soon. I fell the exact same way you do in regards to your growing methods. I have little to no interest in dealing with HPS or HID. Sure they may have their ups but i believe with the right know how and proper implementation CFL and LED deserve more respect than the tend to get. Al though attitudes are definitely changing. Problem is people get set in old ways of thinking. any ways keep up the good work man!

Hey, thanks for checking out my journal!


I agree, I researched for a while before switching to LEDs and CFLs, and I've not looked back since. But as you said, people tend to get into one mode of thinking and that's it, they just refuse to look at the situation when it changes -- they keep applying old paradigms to new problems.

I'm going to pop over now and take a look at your CFL journal -- keep up the good work!

 

[oks226]

Hey Dacob,

Thanks for showing us this LED grow. I am a HPS guy through and through, but am interested in LED once they can get better yield.

I am really surprised at what the LED can do though, even your lower branches have nice nugs on them, makes me think the LED gets a little better penetration than I thought.

You have 2 90 watt UFO there right? I'm interested to see your yield...2-4 oz??
Any case, plants are beautiful, good job.

 

[Dacob]

Hey Dacob,

Thanks for showing us this LED grow. I am a HPS guy through and through, but am interested in LED once they can get better yield.

I am really surprised at what the LED can do though, even your lower branches have nice nugs on them, makes me think the LED gets a little better penetration than I thought.

You have 2 90 watt UFO there right? I'm interested to see your yield...2-4 oz??
Any case, plants are beautiful, good job.

Hey, thanks for checking out my journal!

Ya, my lower branches have filled in nicely but that is not due to the LED penetration I suspect as much as the side lighting I've been using, but perhaps I'm wrong! On the SSH ladies, they were able to get more light to lower branches due to longer internode lengths and such, typical of a sativa, but I was very happy to see how well my little OG Kush ladies have done, they are much denser and even with that density, and absolutely no pruning of fan leaves on my part (I refuse to trim leaves unless they are dying anyway) the bud density of the lower bud sites on the OG Kush is excellent.

I'm expecting to not have much of any "popcorn" nugs, so common in sea of green hydro grows when plants are kept small and harvested quickly.


I'm indeed using 1 90 watter per 2 sqf, so 2 per 2 foot by 2 foot tent. I'm hoping to pull a ounce from each of the OG Kushes, and hopefully 2 from each SSH, but we will see. Density looks good so far, but you never know for sure until the cure is over! LOL...

Anyway, got some more pictures to follow, trics are filling in nicely now, and the SSH's are starting to show some of their famous haze of trics, so we shall see what the end result is...

 

[Dacob]

OK, more photos, the first four are my lovely OG Kushes, they are going to start their flush soon, I'm thinking 60 days will be about right (I don't like too many amber trics, but that's just me...) but I may take them to 70 if necessary... just have to see how they go.

As you can see, the colas are recovering nicely from their little heatstress incident, but they really did suffer, as evidenced by the extensive bleaching...

 

[Reefa Cheefa]

Looking pretty nice! I've been looking into LEDs they look pretty cool, I'm with you on the point of being over noisy fans associated with HIDs. Although I also do DWC so my pump is louder than all my fans... Anyways keep up the good work!

 

[Dacob]

Looking pretty nice! I've been looking into LEDs they look pretty cool, I'm with you on the point of being over noisy fans associated with HIDs. Although I also do DWC so my pump is louder than all my fans... Anyways keep up the good work!

Hey, thanks for checking out my journal!

Ya, I really like what I have going now, I use just one vent fan at 55 cfms, which has a dB rating of 33.5. It is literally whisper quiet, which I love.

I don't work with hydro, so I had no idea your deep water culture pump is so loud -- that sux dude! I guess my set up would not make much sense in such a situation, it would be rather a waste... ;0


Ya, I love the LEDs for the operating temps, it's a few extra degrees above ambient, that's it. It makes it easy to keep them right around 80-83 degrees, which I find it a good temp that is not too hot for most strains.

 

[gangalicious]

I'm on board Dacob!

Nice journal and thanks for all the pics.

I almost went with SSH for my first grow, but I'm glad I didn't since she would have overgrown my cabinet! And ya gotta love the LEDs for their cool running quietness.

Great strains, SSH and OG Kush. Very nice selection. Can't wait to see how everything turns out!