So I ponied up the cash and started using LED's this year. So far I've had a couple of successful cycles but I decided to start documenting it from now... so, this journal will be back to font as were starting from flower here and when I clone for the next one I'll show that process as I go.
What to say before I begin? LED's are the future. Anyone who was against them to begin with, with the way the tech has progressed the last few years, no longer has an argument. They are an expensive outlay initially, granted, but they more than repay themselves with longevity and power consumption. That is the only one point of contention I can entertain as any claims about inferior bud density, resin production and yield are quite honestly, ridiculous. Pictures as evidence.
So what am I using here?
Light: Flower room - I have just over 1000w of LED's across a 3m x 1m footprint. Samsung diodes and Meanwell drivers. 95% are full spectrum Samsung LM301H diodes and the remainder are made up of far red and UV
Mothers, clones and veg are all done exclusively under T5 florescents. Did I mention that HID's are dead? flouros are just great for young plants as they're gentle and the internode spacing is just great. Putting HID's on young plants and having to keep them at a distance so as not to burn them, with light intensity working on the inverse square law, doesn't make much sense to me. You can use far less light and keep it far closer to get better results.
System: 200l reservoir servicing a 12pot IWS flood and drain system. Helea chiller for temp, circulation and aeration. Upgraded feed pump to 1200l/ph to get a quick fill time. Feed for 10 mins every 2 hours. I clone in an aero cloner, not much to say about that, if you make a lot of clones and you don't have one.. you need to get one. Mothers all use DWC. I'll generally use them for one maybe two cycles and then replace them.
Nutrients + additives: Less is more, but more is also more. This means I don't mess around with all the shit they try to sell you in the hydro store because I've found invariably, it's all shit. At the same time, more is more, so I like to run my PPM's till I can just see burn on the tips.
I use Lucas formula and rarely mess with it. I occasionally add a little Mg mono during the initial flowering stage but nothing else. I don't use RO anymore. My tap water is about 100ppm.
The only other stuff I put in is a batch of Great White when I first fill the res, and Hygrozyme at 1/2 strength. I've always run sterile grows before this year but H202 every other day is just a pain, and as I don't need it for the 02 with the system i'm using, I now opt for a non-sterile system. to be honest, the results are in favour of a non-sterile, though only marginal. It comes down to personal preference I think. I wont knock anyone opting to run a peroxide only grow, I did it for years and never had problems. For anyone that doesn't use a chiller, and has a system like an R-DWC, or NFT, anything where the nutrient is flowing through pipes, under lights, essentially if you have warm water, you have to opt for enzymes rather than peroxide as to keep pythium at bay you'll end up using damaging amounts of peroxide.
Any comments or questions welcomed.
What to say before I begin? LED's are the future. Anyone who was against them to begin with, with the way the tech has progressed the last few years, no longer has an argument. They are an expensive outlay initially, granted, but they more than repay themselves with longevity and power consumption. That is the only one point of contention I can entertain as any claims about inferior bud density, resin production and yield are quite honestly, ridiculous. Pictures as evidence.
So what am I using here?
Light: Flower room - I have just over 1000w of LED's across a 3m x 1m footprint. Samsung diodes and Meanwell drivers. 95% are full spectrum Samsung LM301H diodes and the remainder are made up of far red and UV
Mothers, clones and veg are all done exclusively under T5 florescents. Did I mention that HID's are dead? flouros are just great for young plants as they're gentle and the internode spacing is just great. Putting HID's on young plants and having to keep them at a distance so as not to burn them, with light intensity working on the inverse square law, doesn't make much sense to me. You can use far less light and keep it far closer to get better results.
System: 200l reservoir servicing a 12pot IWS flood and drain system. Helea chiller for temp, circulation and aeration. Upgraded feed pump to 1200l/ph to get a quick fill time. Feed for 10 mins every 2 hours. I clone in an aero cloner, not much to say about that, if you make a lot of clones and you don't have one.. you need to get one. Mothers all use DWC. I'll generally use them for one maybe two cycles and then replace them.
Nutrients + additives: Less is more, but more is also more. This means I don't mess around with all the shit they try to sell you in the hydro store because I've found invariably, it's all shit. At the same time, more is more, so I like to run my PPM's till I can just see burn on the tips.
I use Lucas formula and rarely mess with it. I occasionally add a little Mg mono during the initial flowering stage but nothing else. I don't use RO anymore. My tap water is about 100ppm.
The only other stuff I put in is a batch of Great White when I first fill the res, and Hygrozyme at 1/2 strength. I've always run sterile grows before this year but H202 every other day is just a pain, and as I don't need it for the 02 with the system i'm using, I now opt for a non-sterile system. to be honest, the results are in favour of a non-sterile, though only marginal. It comes down to personal preference I think. I wont knock anyone opting to run a peroxide only grow, I did it for years and never had problems. For anyone that doesn't use a chiller, and has a system like an R-DWC, or NFT, anything where the nutrient is flowing through pipes, under lights, essentially if you have warm water, you have to opt for enzymes rather than peroxide as to keep pythium at bay you'll end up using damaging amounts of peroxide.
Any comments or questions welcomed.
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