315 Watt LEC CMH 4200/3000k, 3x Barneys Farm LSD, 1x Bubba Kush (Organic /Natural Based)

The last journal was incorrectly titled as I thought I was going to go with a different setup but decided to invest in a sun systems 315 watt LEC after hearing/seeing great things about their results. The plan is to add the backup 400w HPS during the final month of flower. Just switched from the 400w HID to Sun System w/4200k bulb yesterday.

Room
Unfortunately I live in an apartment and open the garage on a daily basis, so I've decided to grow in a tent in the living room. Temps also swing far more than I'd like in the garage. Plan on flowering during the winter, keeping it cool in here is a bitch as I don't have central AC and don't want to pull cool air through a window unless absolutely necessary.

Pots/Soil
Started off in 1 gallon pots, transferred to 3 gallon air pots. Soil is Happy Frog mixed with perlite, coco, EWC, mulch for top dressing, and amendments mixed into soil.

Nutrients
I plan to use almost exclusively AACT for feedings, trying to keep the grow mostly chemical free unless they need a kick.

Any advice/comments/tips would be greatly appreciated!


Day 23

The LSD are looking very nitrogen hungry and I have a vegetative tea to feed these hungry twats this evening consisting of EWC, piss, and various amendments. Bubba Kush (not sure if that was what it was called, it was a freebie) is dwarfing the LSD, blowing them out of the water vertically and looking far less starved. Light spacing from canopy is ~20", temps reaching ~86 degrees F, unfortunately this unit isn't any cooler than my 400w HPS with adjustawing reflector.

Day 27

Soo the plants got a wee bit of an overfeeding with a tea or two too many so I thought it would be prudent to update. This was a mistake that definitely stunted them a bit. Based on the necrotic leaf tips, leaf yellowing, and interveinal dark green color, it may have been Mg lockout but I can't be sure. The LSD were far more affected by it than the Kush, which will now be referred to as "honeybadger", or HB. It didn't have a care in the world, handling the feedings without batting an eye and absorbing nutrients like a champ. Two tops were tied down on HB with some copper the electricians threw away, but I also snapped two tops trying some bending about in order to bring more tops to canopy level. The leaves died (RIP). Nodal reinforcements on honeybadger are a beautiful thing, the stem is quite well developed. Thinking about adding in the 400w HPS shortly, in the next week or two if heat isn't increased significantly. I plan to feed with straight RO water for at least a week before the next feeding. I also buried all stems up to the first node in order to promote maximal rooting/plant development, and sprayed a bit of soluble root zone on them to facilitate that.

What is a LEC grow light? I have never read about those

Subbed, glad to see someone else using these LEC's, nice! Haven't seen any running in a tent, what height is your tent? I've always thought you'd need a minimum of 6ftH to dissipate heat, with 7ft ceilings in my room they didn't increase my temps more than 3 - 4F over the LED's I had in there prior, lots of air circulation though.

Here's what you have to look forward to in a few weeks, current grow, 2x batches about 4 weeks apart, under 2x 315w LEC's using the 3100k bulb (I only flower with these)

fers93 said:

What is a LEC grow light? I have never read about those

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Light emitting ceramic, they are more efficient than HID. Google is a great place to start reading, there are also grows on this forum utlizing them.

GroErr said:

Subbed, glad to see someone else using these LEC's, nice! Haven't seen any running in a tent, what height is your tent? I've always thought you'd need a minimum of 6ftH to dissipate heat, with 7ft ceilings in my room they didn't increase my temps more than 3 - 4F over the LED's I had in there prior, lots of air circulation though.

Here's what you have to look forward to in a few weeks, current grow, 2x batches about 4 weeks apart, under 2x 315w LEC's using the 3100k bulb (I only flower with these)
View attachment 3522320

Click to expand...

Thanks! I have been lurking in your journal as well, your plants are looking awesome. It is a gorilla light line I'm n out exactly sure what the height is but at least 6ft. maybe closer to 7. What is your air/ventilation setup? I have a 440cfm ventech and a 190cfm. Not sure if that will be enough but I'd appreciate any advice you have. It kind of sucks because I don't have enough room for a dedicated, light tight room in the 1 bedroom apt here. Also have a full time job so the tent will have to be sealed during flower as I won't be there to open it during the day. LED's would be better for summer, will probably have to bite the bullet and invest in a standalone AC and electricity. Ha!

subbed! I've been using two of these lamps side by side in flower, thinking of a third for veg!

DesertGrow89 said:

Thanks! I have been lurking in your journal as well, your plants are looking awesome. It is a gorilla light line I'm n out exactly sure what the height is but at least 6ft. maybe closer to 7. What is your air/ventilation setup? I have a 440cfm ventech and a 190cfm. Not sure if that will be enough but I'd appreciate any advice you have. It kind of sucks because I don't have enough room for a dedicated, light tight room in the 1 bedroom apt here. Also have a full time job so the tent will have to be sealed during flower as I won't be there to open it during the day. LED's would be better for summer, will probably have to bite the bullet and invest in a standalone AC and electricity. Ha!

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Hey thanks, I have 2x 4" inline fans (one In one Exhaust) that run around 400cfm but I have them on variable controllers and rarely on high. Typically fall/winter/spring they're both on the lowest setting, sometimes around 1/3 exhaust when the room is full to maintain humidity. But it's a completely different setup/environment, I have incoming air from my HVAC so through summer I get air conditioning and winter it brings in heat, my flower room is a converted cold cellar so I actually have to heat it in the winter, native temps in that room middle of winter can drop below 50F, huge advantage for managing the environment.

In your room, the native temps will be more like 70F-75F year-round which will be tougher to cool down. You may want to consider an air conditioner with a built-in thermostat so it's not running all the time, or bringing cold (filtered) air through that window (not the stealthiest option though). Bringing in cooler air is usually easier and more effective than exhausting hot air out in my experience.

Appreciate the tips, wish i had a more sophisticated setup such as yours! Yeah pulling air into the living room in winter would look a bit odd. 70-75 is a very tight range, isn't it ideal to have about a 15 degree range to "mimic" nature, and for carb production at night? I think uncle ben mentioned something re that. I have a small Vornado room heater that work quite well, is there some inexpensive way I can have it kick on when temps hit 65-70 at night during flower? Suppose a timer would work as well but that wouldn't be as consistent. But only one wall of the apt shares with outside, last winter I didn't have to turn on central heating once here in central oregon.

borbor said:

subbed! I've been using two of these lamps side by side in flower, thinking of a third for veg!

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Thats a pretty sweet setup! Been checking on your grow as well. Thinking of how I'm going to incorporate the 400w hps, perhaps both reflectors will have to be tilted in to mix the light. Hum.

DesertGrow89 said:

Appreciate the tips, wish i had a more sophisticated setup such as yours! Yeah pulling air into the living room in winter would look a bit odd. 70-75 is a very tight range, isn't it ideal to have about a 15 degree range to "mimic" nature, and for carb production at night? I think uncle ben mentioned something re that. I have a small Vornado room heater that work quite well, is there some inexpensive way I can have it kick on when temps hit 65-70 at night during flower? Suppose a timer would work as well but that wouldn't be as consistent. But only one wall of the apt shares with outside, last winter I didn't have to turn on central heating once here in central oregon.

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Yeah a 10-15 degree difference is supposedly good, doesn't hurt mine, usually runs about 13F difference. Winter I can drop it down to 65F or lower, summer around 68-70F. The heater would work but space heaters can get expensive to run. Don't know of an cheap way other than a timer, probably the cheapest, you'd have to figure out the best cycle by trial/error though. Whatever timer or ideally a thermostat you use, it has to be able to handle some amperage, those heaters can pull quite high on start-up.

GroErr said:

Subbed, glad to see someone else using these LEC's, nice! Haven't seen any running in a tent, what height is your tent? I've always thought you'd need a minimum of 6ftH to dissipate heat, with 7ft ceilings in my room they didn't increase my temps more than 3 - 4F over the LED's I had in there prior, lots of air circulation though.

Here's what you have to look forward to in a few weeks, current grow, 2x batches about 4 weeks apart, under 2x 315w LEC's using the 3100k bulb (I only flower with these)
View attachment 3522320

Click to expand...

Damn man...that's pretty sick. I'm probably gunna hit you up soon to chat about those lights.

Hot Diggity Sog said:

Damn man...that's pretty sick. I'm probably gunna hit you up soon to chat about those lights.

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Cheers Hot Diggity, your current setup looks awesome, would love to see what these can do in your octagon!

Added in the 400w hps, which is running at 75% power (it could be 300w plus or minus several watts given the made in china apollo ballast). Both reflectors were rigged to tilt in (extra ghetto), with the HPS most aggressively so. The plan is to veg for at least another month, through thanksgiving. I'd like to upcan to 7-10 gal pots, but wont have enough cooked/prepared soil. Does anyone have suggestions for a ready out of the package medium? Pro-mix? Cheers!

DesertGrow89 said:

Added in the 400w hps, which is running at 75% power (it could be 300w plus or minus several watts given the made in china apollo ballast). Both reflectors were rigged to tilt in (extra ghetto), with the HPS most aggressively so. The plan is to veg for at least another month, through thanksgiving. I'd like to upcan to 7-10 gal pots, but wont have enough cooked/prepared soil. Does anyone have suggestions for a ready out of the package medium? Pro-mix? Cheers!

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pro mix is great stuff if you want to feed right off the bat.
also organic soil+coco coir mix will give another month of veg nutes with water only feeding.

either one works fine in my experience, nice grow i wanna try LSD strain next. been eyeing it on tude. just waiting for Christmas freebees.

DesertGrow89 said:

Added in the 400w hps, which is running at 75% power (it could be 300w plus or minus several watts given the made in china apollo ballast). Both reflectors were rigged to tilt in (extra ghetto), with the HPS most aggressively so. The plan is to veg for at least another month, through thanksgiving. I'd like to upcan to 7-10 gal pots, but wont have enough cooked/prepared soil. Does anyone have suggestions for a ready out of the package medium? Pro-mix? Cheers!

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Nice, the mixed spectrum should do well for you. Any time I've mixed spectrum in a little breeding tent I run, the yields improve and they tend to increase frost. Can't recommend any soils as I've always mixed them but pro-mix is good in a mix for drainage and water retention, but it doesn't have much in the way of nutrients so you have to supplement feeds in flowering. I use a local triple-mix that's nice and clean, then mix it 50/50 with the Pro-Mix which takes them through veg for a few weeks, then I supplement feed around 500 ppm towards end of veg, and 600 ppm in flower. I tried full organic when I first went indoors and found it a little dirty and got flies/bugs, so I switched to this blend I'm using now and haven't seen a single fly/bug since.

OdysseyGrower said:

pro mix is great stuff if you want to feed right off the bat.
also organic soil+coco coir mix will give another month of veg nutes with water only feeding.

either one works fine in my experience, nice grow i wanna try LSD strain next. been eyeing it on tude. just waiting for Christmas freebees.

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Thanks for the tip! If I happen to get any males the lower branches of the ladies will be seeded, and if you come to central oregon I'll give you some freebies.

GroErr said:

Nice, the mixed spectrum should do well for you. Any time I've mixed spectrum in a little breeding tent I run, the yields improve and they tend to increase frost. Can't recommend any soils as I've always mixed them but pro-mix is good in a mix for drainage and water retention, but it doesn't have much in the way of nutrients so you have to supplement feeds in flowering. I use a local triple-mix that's nice and clean, then mix it 50/50 with the Pro-Mix which takes them through veg for a few weeks, then I supplement feed around 500 ppm towards end of veg, and 600 ppm in flower. I tried full organic when I first went indoors and found it a little dirty and got flies/bugs, so I switched to this blend I'm using now and haven't seen a single fly/bug since.

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What are the ingredients of the triple mix? May just do promix and feed with peters all purpose.

DesertGrow89 said:

What are the ingredients of the triple mix? May just do promix and feed with peters all purpose.

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They say it's a mix of humus, compost, and peat moss, very clean and dark, almost black. I had to try a couple and this one was the cleanest mix, a local hardware store and Lowes carry it up here. I mix it about 50/50 by volume (not weight as the Pro-Mix is much lighter than the soil mix). Works well, no packing, good water retention and the plants love it.

Sub'd been wanting to see how these flower. Tho i was mainly thinking about the dual bulb system.