(2) 240W TaoTronics w/ 2 x Blue Cheese, Sour Diesel, Chem Dawg #4

First off thanks for your time in looking at this thread. I know there is a knowledgeable group of LED users on this forum so that's why I decided to make this place my grow friend home. In the state I live we are allowed 6 plants per 21+ person (3 flowering), and on the flip side I hold a medical card. This will be my first grow, I know it will be a learning curve but I have spent numerous hours in an attempt to educate myself before wasting my own time as well as yours.

Grow room: 4' x 2' x 7'
Lighting System: 240W TaoTronics (1 for veg, 2 for last two weeks of veg and flower)
Exhaust: 4" 200CFM inline fan w/ 18" carbon filter
Intake: Passive
Air Circulation: Ozeri Brezza II Dual Oscillating 10" Fan
Grow Medium: 3gal Smart Pot with 80/15/5% FFOF/FFHF/Perlite
Nutrient line: 100% Fox Farms w/ added cal/mg as needed



Plants: Clones from xxx Dispensary
(2) Blue Cheese (http://www.leafly.com/hybrid/blue-cheese) 7-8week
(2) Sour Diesel (http://www.leafly.com/sativa/sour-diesel) 8-9week
(2) Chem Dawg #4 (http://www.leafly.com/indica/chemdawg-4) 9-10week

I am currently in Day 6 of my transplant from their hydro Grodan Block transfer to soil. The BC plants took the transplant well, but I am fighting off the backend of nute lock on the SD, and CD from the PH change. I'll get some baby pics up tomorrow, and get this journal started proper.

Day 7 24/0, 75°/60%RH, 20" from LED

Blue Cheese:
Sour Diesel:
Chem Dawg #4:

All 6 plants:

Day 9 24/0, 73°/60%RH, 20" from LED

Blue Cheese:

Sour Diesel:

Chem Dawg #4:

All 6 plants:

I personally like 50/50 soil/perlite. The more drainage the better and it has me watering every 3 days.

nevergoodenuf said:

I personally like 50/50 soil/perlite. The more drainage the better and it has me watering every 3 days.

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Well the FFOF mix already had some added perlite so I do have a higher % of perlite than described but still not 50/50 like you. There is a chance I will be repotting into 7gal for flowering, in which I will be using grodan blocks for better root growth and proper water retention in the bottom few inches of the smartpots.

Day 11 24/0, 75°/63%RH, 14" from LED

Blue Cheese:

Sour Diesel:

Chem Dawg #4:

All 6 plants:

Day 14 24/0, 73°/60%RH, 17" from LED
First feeding of FF GB 410ppm (~1tsp)

Blue Cheese:

Sour Diesel:

Chem Dawg #4:

All 6 plants:

How are the Taotronics LEDs doing for you? I just had one fail after 4 months. If you look at the panels there is one different colored light (looks purple to me) in each side of the panel. That LED completely burned out on one side and took out the whole side. I can see the exact same LED on the other side is starting to burn out also. They are very good about a replacement but wont send one until I return the broken one. Kind of sucks to be back to CFL's for the last 2 weeks before harvest waiting on a new light. I can post a pic of the LED in question if you are interested in checking yours.

CMAJE thanks for stopping in. I've had mine running 24/0 with no issues so far but I have less than 3 weeks burn time on the unit. I do know what LEDs you are talking about, and they are the UV ones (Hence the 405nm Uv/purple ring of color from that diode). I'm actually buying another unit today so I have 2 for flower, I guess if 1 goes down at least I'll have a backup. The 2-year warranty was one of the reasons I decided to make the purchase.

Any chance you have taken the glass out of the unit, if so have you seen any 'extra' benefit from it?

I have actually completely disassembled mine prior to sending it back at their request to check to see if one of the power supplies was bad. Other than preventing the plants from growing up into the led's I don't think there would be any problem removing it. It could possibly dissipate the heat a little better. Maybe I will try that on the replacement. It is very easy to disassemble the unit.
I asked Sunvalleytek to contact the manufacturer about the problem. No answer yet but I'll let you know. If I get a satisfactory answer I may buy another one as a backup. But I don't really want to have to send them back every 4 months. I ran this one 12/12 for 4 months straight before the failure.

I actually just bought my other one yesterday. Reading your post made me realize how important it is to have a backup unit on hand a little early. I was going to be buying another one in a few weeks, but your story made my money easier to spend. I'm thinking 2 of these in my 2 x 4' tent should be plenty of LED for a lil scrog type grow. Maybe a larger CFL in the middle of them to give a lil boost but otherwise I'm happy so far.

Plants seem to be adjusting well to their first 1/4 strength feeding yesterday. Today I had my first attempting a topping and FIM. Since my 2 best plants are the Blue Cheese I decided I would try out to different growth techniques with them. I topped one of the plants in hopes of 2 main colas, and FIM the other plant hoping for 3-4 colas. I also decided to take some height off one of my Chem Dawg's, as it was stretching a lil to much for my liking. Since the plan is to only flower 3 plants, this will give me some variety on which Chem D I want to keep, the trimmed or untrimmed based on overal compact growth.

Before the Blue Cheese topping/FIM pictures:

Before the Chem Dawg trim: After the trim:

Day 16 24/0, 73°/61%RH
Just added the second 240W LED.

Blue Cheese:

Sour Diesel:

Chem Dawg #4:

All 6 plants:

Day 18 24/0, 75°/53%RH


Blue Cheese:

Sour Diesel: View attachment 2769513View attachment 2769514

Chem Dawg #4:

All 6 plants:

Day 24 24/0, 77°/60%RH

Plants had a small 1/2tsp feeding of epsom salt the other day and it worked very well. I have recently fed the BC plants with a 600ppm feeding of Cal/Mg +FFGB, and the other 4 plants received a little bit smaller 550ppm feeding. All ph 6.3 RO. The FIM and topping I did on the Blue Cheese 9 days ago went great. I just topped both Sour D today, and the plans are to bring everything into flowering in 3-4 weeks in a larger 5' x 5' x 7' tent.


Blue Cheese:





Sour Diesel:


Chem Dawg #4:


All 6 plants:

Looking good! A little update on the light situation. I received my replacement and it is different than the original light. Do yours have a on/off switch? My new one does plus what looks like a much better heat sink inside.
Supposedly this is the newest model but the spec sheet that came with it says the model number is CDL-G80*3W and its actual output is 128W. I looked this up and its a generic chinese made light from cidly that they have rebadged. Its going back into service tonight. Hopefully this one will outlast the other one. I think I am going to buy another light but not another one of these. They offered me a $15 discount on another one for my troubles but I think I am going save up a little more and go with a 200W california lightworks setup.

cmaje72 said:

Looking good! A little update on the light situation. I received my replacement and it is different than the original light. Do yours have a on/off switch? My new one does plus what looks like a much better heat sink inside.
Supposedly this is the newest model but the spec sheet that came with it says the model number is CDL-G80*3W and its actual output is 128W. I looked this up and its a generic chinese made light from cidly that they have rebadged. Its going back into service tonight. Hopefully this one will outlast the other one. I think I am going to buy another light but not another one of these. They offered me a $15 discount on another one for my troubles but I think I am going save up a little more and go with a 200W california lightworks setup.

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That sucks really bad, Im sorry to hear. There is no way you should be getting a refurbed unit, specifically at 50% power output. Mine just have the power port, no on or off switch.

Day 35 18/6, 77°/82%RH *Last day of veg*

Ok well a lot has happened over the past 11 days. I have decided to keep all 6, and have purchased a 5' x 5' x 7' tent for flowering. I will be flowering w/ "480W" of LED, and have a 324W T5 6 blub here by weeks end. I will be running 4 x 3000k bulbs, and 2 x 6400k. Additions to the tent over the next few weeks will be a co2 tank / regulator, and a dehumidifier. 12/12 starts in about 4 hours

Blue Cheese:


Sour Diesel:


Chem Dawg #4:


All 6 plants:

maczabb1 said:

• If so what are the dimensions​
  
  

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Did I miss something?

Looking good. I'm interested in these LEDs Hps/mh is just so expensive with power consumption