35 replies to this topic

[Myc]

Just thought I'd post up pics of a couple of plants I've been working with.

 

First up is Afghani #1. This has been my favorite strain for many years.

In the photos, I'm trying to highlight the density and uniformity of the canopy.

 

 

And here is Blue Cheese. i sampled this in Holland several years ago and have always wanted to get my hands on this one.

 

 

The plants were topped after the 4th true leaf-set and again at the 3rd leaf-set on the resultant twin branches. Each plant will have 4 main colas once in flower.

Each was started from seed planted on September 30th.

Sprouts were up on October 4th. Using a T8 flourescent light source for seedlings.

After they began to develop some healthy leaves they were put under 400w metal halide for vegetation. So here we are at week 11.

I'll allow them to get a bit taller and then they'll move to flower.

I just bought some ViparSpectra LED growlights and am curious to see how the plants behave. Up until now, I've always used 400w HPS - so it'll be fun doing all the fine-tuning. The LEDs are supposed to be equivalent to 500w HID. They are full-spectrum and I've seen some seriously nice bud grown under this lighting.

Edited by Myc, Yesterday, 07:13 PM.

[rockyfungus]

Got the specs on that light?
I have a ViparSpectra Blurple LED with bloom and grow. 600W.

Only used it once and it was mexican brickweed seed so results were subpar. Works fine for sprouting plants but never grown anything to fruit or flower under it full term.

[Skywatcher]

Those look great Myc !

You've got my attention now. Looking forward to updates...........................

[Myc]

Got the specs on that light?
I have a ViparSpectra Blurple LED with bloom and grow. 600W.
 

 

I bought two of the XS2000 series for my grow space. The space is simply a (roughly) 2' x 6' space - just a clothes closet turned into an enclosure with ducting and modifications.

 

Several friends grow indoors and have vastly larger budgets than mine. I have doggedly hung in there with HID lighting while watching these guys try out these LEDs over the past 10 years or so. Lately I noticed that they were getting better results with LED than I get with traditional HID. I found myself with a couple of $$ to spend so I decided to go for it. and see for myself.

I still have those HID ballasts and fixtures just in case I'm not happy with the results.

 

I'm still using HID lighting for veg.

[roc]

Myc

 

You have made a good move in the right direction with lighting.

My friend Dave only grows for bubble hash purposes these days and uses LED for veg and fruiting.

 

Tasty...

 

June 2021

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[Mycol]

Pulling up a chair as I have a LOT to learn about growing bud .

Any idea as to the longevity of those lights ?

[Myc]

What a difference one week can make.

Plants were re-potted into 7 gallon cloth pots and moved into the flower room.

First up is Afghani #1:

 

And here is Blue Cheese:

 

For years I have used an eccentric lighting cycle that I learned about here on Mycotopia. It is called the 12:1 lighting cycle. Lighting is 12 hours on and 12 hours off - with a one-hour "on" time which evenly divides the dark period into equal duration.

I use a re-purposed, outdoor rated, LED floodlight to be the "on" in the middle of the night.

Once I'm ready for the plants to begin to flower the floodlight is removed and the plants then begin to experience 12 consecutive hours of darkness for the first time in their existence.

 

Here's a general overview of the setup. You may notice the floodlight hanging between the plants on the back wall. This is the fixture that comes on at 10:30PM and runs to 11:30PM suited to my 24-hours scheme of 5AM to 5PM "On", 5PM to 5AM "Off".

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Edited by Myc, Yesterday, 07:14 PM.

[Myc]

Pulling up a chair as I have a LOT to learn about growing bud .

Any idea as to the longevity of those lights ?

There is a link to the specs in post #4.

Manufacturer states 100,000 hours life. I'm not expecting anywhere near that and will just have to wait and see.

[Myc]

Observations so far:

The ambient temperature of the grow area is about 12*F lower.  I normally use ducted, enclosed, lighting reflectors with two 400W HPS ballasts and lamps. The room normally ran about 84*F in the winter and needed a supplemental duct for cooling during the summer in order to lower temperatures.

Now the room is at about 72*F.  I used to keep the house on the cooler side in the past to compensate for the heat of the grow-room. Introducing cooler ambient air helped keep the room temps lower. Looks like that is no longer a problem and I'll be able to raise the ambient temperature of the house.

 

I like the dimmer feature on the fixtures due to the limited head-space of my cabinet. Will be playing with this over time to get the lighting strength dialed-in. 

Plants can only use a certain amount of light. Too little and the plants become "larfy". Too much light and they are damaged by "sunburn".

Once the lights reach their upper mechanical limit (and cannot be raised higher), I will begin to gradually dim the fixtures as the plants approach the LED array so as to avoid damage to the vegetation.

[rockyfungus]

I've only used LED and noticed that they heat up. The COB variety for growing heat my grow tent up maybe 10 degrees. Whereas my LED tubelights for mush don't. I'd imagine traditional lights are very hot.

 

I'm thinking about using my "blurple" for Mex, pans, and warmer species in my tent. Right now I have just a strip of white LED tube lights and they have minimal heat if any.

Going to need to try a canna grow after my gourmet spree is over. 

[Myc]

It looks like 72*F is going to be the winter normal operating temp in the grow area.

My goal is to keep the temperatures within a 10*F differential between day and night.  So if the daytime high temp is 72*F I want to make sure that the night-time low is no lower than 62*F.

 

I may have to consider raising the temperatures. Not sure how the soil microbiology will respond to the lower daytime temps. After all, the plant is just the litmus paper - indicating what the soil populations are experiencing. Maintaining soil microbiology is just as important as getting the lighting just right.

 

The plants have put an inch of growth on in the past two days. I bumped up the intensity of the lighting by adjusting the dimmer ever so slightly. Will continue to monitor. I'll try to get pics weekly in order to demonstrate progress.

[Myc]

I wound up needing to place a heater in the grow room to maintain higher temps. I don't like having the house all dried-out from running the heat and prefer cooler temperatures. 

 

The plants lost their vigor over the past couple of days. The leaves never really raised into the "awakened" position during daylight hours and instead began retaining their night-time droopy or sleepy habit.

The results of adding the heater were evident after just a couple of hours. Both plants now appear much happier. Leaf-sets are raised to the light instead of looking slack.

[Myc]

Raising the temperature totally did the trick !!!

Plants look happy again today.

I raised the house temp to a baseline of 70*F.  The oil heater I installed in the grow area keeps the room at about 76*F.

 

My hypothesis is that soil temperatures were too low to support certain micro-organisms. I suspect bacteria but that's just a guess since they generally prefer higher temperatures. Microbes are the workforce that make nutrients available to the plant. If they're too cold or un-happy - - the plant begins to show signs of that condition.

Edited by Myc, 04 December 2021 - 10:34 AM.

[Myc]

In the interest of displaying the good along with the bad.....

I have no idea what has happened with this character. She just won't seem to recover.

Notice the drooping leaves, curled at the edges.......

 

Maybe just a fussy phenotype. Even the seedling struggled after it first sprouted. I have more seed and had planned on planting today anyway.

Learning a new garden setup can be a challenge sometimes.

Edited by Myc, Yesterday, 07:14 PM.

[Mycol]

She’s not mad about temp fluctuations is she ?

[Myc]

Today I saw an encouraging sight. The fan leaves are rising toward the lights and seeming to recover.

Photos on Sunday will provide a good comparison.

 

The companion Blue Cheese is performing quite well with no setbacks.

[Myc]

Keeping up with updates. Photos taken weekly.

 

Blue Cheeses is doing quite well. All of the tops are developing very tight internodal spacing and the plant is taking up water at a "normal" rate.

 

Afghani #1 is taking a bit of time to recover. She is developing new growth and tight internodal spacing as well. However, she is taking water on a bit more slowly. I believe she will recover in time so long as she is left to do her thing without a bunch of special attention.

I see folks get panicky over setbacks with their projects and then they start throwing the kitchen sink at the project hoping to correct any deficiencies. Sometimes the best policy is patience. Act in small measures - one thing at a time. Allow the corrections ample time to work - 7 days is sometimes just not enough. Often it takes cannabis 2 weeks or more to recover from errors.

 

 

As one can see, Afghani #1 still has a bit of a droopy habit going on but the new growth at the top seems to be getting more normal and is a sign of improvement. I'm pretty sure that this is just a fussy phenotype so I didn't bother with cloning.

Edited by Myc, Yesterday, 07:15 PM.

[FLASHINGROOSTER]

Those plants got me saying wtf I am doing with my lazy ass grows. Nice work man looking primo

[Myc]

With the next set of seedlings I'll document weekly progress and detail the topping procedure.

I'll be planting tomorrow. ;)

[Myc]

I got those seeds planted this morning and will write up a separate thread detailing my usual method.

 

Additionally, I decided to take a small corrective action with the Afghani #1 which still appears to be suffering.

I went ahead and added some Great White mycorrhizae into 1/2 gallon of warm water. Hopefully the addition of some micro-flora will help rebuild the soil populations and help the plant to recover over the next few days.

I have not been giving this plant the usual watering or liquid organic fertilizer until the growth normalizes. Wouldn't want to compound our problems by adding nutrients to the soil when the microbes are struggling.