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" Blackmesa " Led Grow Journal

BlackMesa

By BlackMesa
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BlackMesa Advanced Member

BlackMesa

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Hello all,

 

I will being doing a pure LED grow from seed to finish. Please understand that this will not be a best case scenario in terms of yield as I have seedlings spaced 2 weeks apart and have 2 seedlings that are recovering from an over-watering issue due to evil pete moss. :P To show you maximum yield I would need a total of 6 females for the space and coverage each in it's own 3.75 gallon pot and working with either SCROG or LST tactics applied. Rather then waiting for perfect conditions I figured this way you can get an idea of what LED growing is like.

 

The strains:

 

4 - Purple Widow - currently 2 days from seed.

4 - Mystery Michigan strain - currently 13 days from seed.

 

Not a primary focus:

 

4 - Mystery Michigan along the perimeter just to see if they produce anything at all rather then throwing them out.

 

Lighting, Soil, Grow environment:

 

2 - 240W LED panels each running at 140 watts of actual output. The panels use all 3 watt diodes and are 6 spectrum plus 1 UV diode in each panel.

 

Custom soil mix as LED growing requires a very light mix to make up for lack of radiant heat. I use 40% organic potting mix, 40% Perlite and 20% Black potting soil.

 

Grow environment includes 4' x 2' grow tent @ 5' height, 8" floor fan & 6" suspended fan, 4" Inline for Carbon Scrubber. I am also using an intelligent electrical fire prevention power strip with advanced sensors for added peace of mind.

 

Temperatures are between 77F - 82F based on outside temps. I have noticed a pattern that LED lights only kick up the grow area temps 1-2 degrees beyond room temps.

 

 

As mentioned it is impossible to provide you with a "maximum results" grow due to not starting with the required 6 females all in proper planters, since I am starting from non-fem seeds I had to make compromises I wouldn't normally make such as 2 seedlings sharing a 3.75 gallon pot in regards to possibly having to remove one due to unwanted gender. So with that in mind... Enjoy! I will be adding pictures at some point today via editing the second post. Feel free to question and comment.

 

One last thing! I will being doing a experiment near the end to put the "Purple" in purple widow that doesn't require and type of chemicals or additives! Stay tuned...

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BlackMesa Advanced Member

BlackMesa

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First batch of plant pics, I topped all 4 of the Michigan Mystery strain and will continue topping as necessary untill the Purple Widow catch up in size. I used "Grow Big" for the first time at seedling strengh and 48 hours later I am getting a decent bump in growth. The 2 smaller Michigan plants are actually 4-5 days older the other 2 and have made a great rebound from an over watering nute lock issue due to starting them in pete moss which is a very bad idea under LED light (they virtually never dry out)!

 

Below is a pic that shows the LED panels, I will be inserting a 23 watt CFL just for taking pictures because as you can see LED light is very funky on the camera and eyes.

gallery_26699_926_37762.jpg

 

Below are the Purple Widow seedlings (nothing exciting yet).

gallery_26699_926_100195.jpg

gallery_26699_926_173267.jpg

 

Below are the recovering 2 Michigan plants that are now out of the gate showing decent response to the topping.gallery_26699_926_286279.jpg

 

Below are the 2 Michigan plants that were started in my own mix to avoid any and all over watering stress and problems. Please note that the plant in the back is a mutant that has 4 fan leaves per node so I was quick to top this one to see if I will get 4 new tops. ;)gallery_26699_926_28538.jpggallery_26699_926_359441.jpg

 

Sick of all the red and pink? Here are a set of pics under LED & Normal lighting, Notice how dark green the plants respond to the LED light.gallery_26699_926_140224.jpggallery_26699_926_19269.jpggallery_26699_926_111551.jpggallery_26699_926_143329.jpg

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BlackMesa Advanced Member

BlackMesa

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A big thank you drtarzanmd for quickly addressing my issue and being so helpful, I appreciate it! =) Feel free to delete Jipo's comment and I will just re-edit my first 2 comments into the starting of the journal.

 

@ Bisharoo, Thanks for the kind words and I see you know what BlackMesa is. :P I'm a huge half-life fan! I will be doing a LED grow of Purple Widow and a Mystery Michigan strain that is 10+ generations that I know of "possibly one of the Paralyzer variations" who knows. See the first 2 post's in this thread for more info as I will edit them into the starting of the journal.

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BlackMesa Advanced Member

BlackMesa

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I am wishing I could add some LED for my sides, I only have a 1000 W HPS overhead now with some good reflection around, but some LED action around the sides would be nice to try out.

If I could ever afford it, what type of side lighting array would you recommend? This is a flower room and is 5 X 5 approx. Thanks for your input and others as well on this.

 

Supplementing that many square feet would be expensive to say the least and would require 4 smaller wattage panels (2 on each side). You could get away with doing it with just 2 panels but that would require a light mover. Theoretically a single panel provides enough PAR lighting to supplement an entire side but since the LED's are so directional and close together the coverage just isn't there. I would imagine that it's just a matter of time before someone develops a dedicated side supplemental LED light that is larger in physical size and has a far wider diode pattern. So.... to do it right your looking at $800 in LED panels but then again you could just add them one a time when it's financially practical.

 

And never consider the crappy cheap panels... It's has to have 3 watt diodes to give you the results your after.

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BlackMesa Advanced Member

BlackMesa

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Update: I might have a small PH problem as I'm seeing what looks like some PH stress to a few leaves. I will do a PH test on my soil mix, water & run off to determine if this is the issue. I also am about 5 days from when I did a first feeding on the older plants, I used Grow Big by Fox farm and used the seedling strength (half teaspoon per gallon) so I don't imagine that is the issue but I won't rule it out untill I have the PH results.

 

Other than that all topped plants have healthy new growth coming in and the Purple widow seedling are slowly working on there second set of leaves. I will be increasing the watering of the purple widows slightly due to my soil mix being very light and drying out quicker then expected in the tiny thin planters I have them in. I will also be applying LST to the faster growing plants in order to give the purple widow the ability to catch up as best as it can.

 

New pics in the next few days.

 

New Info: I checked PH and after doing some tests I have concluded that PH seems fine however I decided to reverse my potting mix from 40% Organic, 40% Perlite, 20% Black Soil to 40% Black Soil, 40% Perlite & 20% Organic. This gave me a perfect PH buffer regardless of my water. I will be watering with straight water (no nutes) for the next few weeks to rule out if my feeding was the cause.

 

I also transplanted the Purple Widow seedlings into the new mix and their final pots just to be safe, a bit early for a transplant but better safe then sorry. I'm using a moisture/PH tester so not sure exactly how accurate the thing is.

 

More New Info: So I found my chemical PH tester and did another sweep on the water & run off...Crap! my soil PH tester is off enough to cause concern. The P-Widows should be fine but the others will require their water modified and I hope that does the trick. I suppose this is what I get for trying new soils rather then sticking to my usual brands.

Edited by BlackMesa
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BlackMesa Advanced Member

BlackMesa

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I noticed a storm was brewing today so set up a rain barrel and completely filled it up (50 gallon barrel). It's testing out at PH 6.2 so I will most likely be using this water for the remainder of the grow. It,s a bummer that I'm set back at least a week on recovering from the PH issue but I consider this a perfect opportunity for the Purple widow to play catch up so everthings near the same level.

 

Next set of pics will be a before and after regarding the PH symptom plants....well lets hope there's a recovery. ;)

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BlackMesa Advanced Member

BlackMesa

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Sorry for the lack of update but heres the scoop: I ended up with a serious nute burn issue which I blamed on a PH issue, I am using a nute I have never used before. The plants are looking much, much better now and are growing at a faster rate every day. I lost most of my fan leaves from the nute burn but the re-growth made up for it and then some. There still growing short and packing the nodes so I have been playing with the LED light height every few days to find the perfect distance.

 

The Purple Widow was going slow because of the early transplant but is very healthy and seems to be picking up steam now. I only took a pic of one of the Purple Widows because they currently look all identical anyway.

 

All Mystery Strain have been topped twice to buy time for the Purple Widows to catch up. I haven't decided if I'm going to top the PW yet but if I do it will only be once but that all depends on how far ahead everything else is. I have a feeling the PW will explode soon and surpass the Mystery Strain because it is and hopefully will be problem free. =)

 

I should post some pics of how jacked these plants were, they did a complete 180 and are now almost 100% recovered.

 

Below are the Mystery Strain, notice the 5 headed hydra!

gallery_26699_926_271138.jpg

 

gallery_26699_926_75617.jpg

 

gallery_26699_926_251004.jpg

 

 

Below is the Purple Widow, all 4 look about the same so only snapped 1 pic

 

gallery_26699_926_2172.jpg

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hofner67 Advanced Member

hofner67

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I haven't seen one led grow go through bud and have the grower post his pics.. mainly because i guessing it didn't turn out that great... Led's work great to veg with but lack the penetrating power of hid lights.:thumbsd:

the best part is on top, no need to penetrate real far. Supplement with hps.
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Green-Nubie Advanced Member

Green-Nubie

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Pics...???.. smoke report?? How bout testing?? Intill I see a side by side grow (same everything) except one has led and one uses hid, ill never belive...

 

P.s. Iv seen it already by the way.. and H I D won hands down.... Prove me wrong.....Because id love to save on the electric bill, but not untill I see same results.

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hofner67 Advanced Member

hofner67

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Pics...???.. smoke report?? How bout testing?? Intill I see a side by side grow (same everything) except one has led and one uses hid, ill never belive...

 

P.s. Iv seen it already by the way.. and H I D won hands down.... Prove me wrong.....Because id love to save on the electric bill, but not untill I see same results.

I ain't showing u nothing:)

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