40+ lbs with 12 Plants in 2 Rooms on a Flip

So I got a package in the mail from a friend down under. Teknik sent me some of his new LED's to play with. They are called "Buddies" and they are pretty freaking sweet.

You can put them right up against the plants and they work great in many situations such as side lighting in confined spaces like tents. They draw 0.72 watts each, run at 24 VDC and can be powered by any 24 volt LED driver out there, doesn't matter if it's constant current or constant voltage. 24 volt drivers are the most common ones out there and can be had cheap. They have a super wide spread allowing them to be places really close to the plant and are not completely water proof but they are "IP65 light which means water can be sprayed on them from any angle without damage".



Right now there are 2 spectrum available, a red and a 4000k 95 CRI white. They come on strings of 20 LED's and have adhesive tape on the backs. They don't make any heat to worry about. I think I am going to place some back to back and string them on the inside of a tree like Christmas lights. Get some light in areas that don't get any from my other lighting.

I’ve been waiting for you to slide some leds inside your trees for core penetration!

So Teknik said any 24v driver will work, doesn't matter what type so I found this to power 4 strings of buddies.


So $10 and we will see how it works. It's as basic as basic gets wiring these up, 4 strings in parallel.

Hey man, I'm a yield grower myself and have been looking for a better metric than grams per watt or grams per plant. I assume you run a perpetual grow. What would your grams per week per plant be? I think this metric would be more accurate in determining what true output is like.

Renfro said:

So Teknik said any 24v driver will work, doesn't matter what type so I found this to power 4 strings of buddies.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N6I77W3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So $10 and we will see how it works. It's as basic as basic gets wiring these up, 4 strings in parallel.

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I'm no expert but I don't think you will be getting the .72 watts with that driver.

4 strings with 20(?) LED's = 57.6 watts

Your driver says it has a max output of 48w. Not that it really matters but it is a 17% decrease in watts to the LED's (I think).

Teag said:

I'm no expert but I don't think you will be getting the .72 watts with that driver.

4 strings with 20(?) LED's = 57.6 watts

Your driver says it has a max output of 48w. Not that it really matters but it is a 17% decrease in watts to the LED's (I think).

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I picked the 3 amp version so it's good for 72 watts.

Teag said:

I'm no expert but I don't think you will be getting the .72 watts with that driver.

4 strings with 20(?) LED's = 57.6 watts

Your driver says it has a max output of 48w. Not that it really matters but it is a 17% decrease in watts to the LED's (I think).

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I sorta wonder if they are all actually the same 4a unit with different labels. Would be interesting to tear a few open and see if the components are actually different.

I figure I'll hang the strings as the plants finish their stretch, when they get a defoliation treatment and we can see where they will be the most effective.

Got flowering room B cleaned up after it being empty so far this year, has some cob webs and dust lol. I really wish I had spent the cash to epoxy coat those floors, they look terrible after 8 years of growing in there! They were 2X scrubbed with physan 20 solution so they are "clean".



I've six mimosa plants in the veg room that I plan to move to flowering room B tomorrow. I will do the usual routine of pressing them under the trellis and spreading them out sideways, easing up the light intensity, temperature and CO2 levels while they veg into the trellis.

We will see how beefy we can get six mimosa plants to be in the 10 gallon buckets. These are potted in Berger BM6. The pH is fighting me a little trying to drop, seems like they have perhaps changed peat suppliers? Anyways it's nice to have the soil pH numbers so I can address issues before the plants even show signs. I have been feeding them with a high pH, they are happy and aren't showing any signs of deficiency and the soil is gradually working it's way up. I had put these cuttings in the 6 inch square pots, fought the pH for a while, transplanted into the 10 gallon and having to fight the pH again. I'll probably go back to my old way, just pot the clones directly into 10 gallon, never had a problem when doing that. These were vegged under the COB LED and I must say I am very pleased with them. They were cut on 1/29. I have another batch of 6 mimosa cuttings vegging, currently in the small pots, for the other flowering room. They are staggered about a month behind these.



I dunno what else really so I will close by saying that I hope everyone is safe and healthy with all this Corona virus stuff going down. I gotta go to the grow store tomorrow, at least they are still open as are the dispensaries lol. You can bet I will be practicing social distancing. Gonna grab and go lol. Be safe y'all!

Nice to see you filling stuff back up homie! Stay safe and healthy.

So for anyone that is unable to find isopropyl alcohol at the stores, check your grow store. Mine had lots of 5 gallon buckets of 99.9% IPA for $60.

Renfro said:

Haven't monster cropped since I started running all these different strains. Just top them a few times, let them grow, then super crop them out under the trellis and let them pop all those nodes vertically before flip.

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About how high on avg for a typical indica or hybrid would you let them grow vertical before flip?

Bignutes said:

About how high on avg for a typical indica or hybrid would you let them grow vertical before flip?

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Well first it's width, I take vertical growth from when they are in the veg room and press that under the trellis, spreading a plant out sideways. Once I fill the trellis out sideways I get them to about 4 feet off the floor and flip. They end up well above the 5 foot trellis rig, around 6 - 6.5 feet.

I always thought it was "girth"
But I bow to you
Nothing but trees

Renfro said:

Well first it's width, I take vertical growth from when they are in the veg room and press that under the trellis, spreading a plant out sideways. Once I fill the trellis out sideways I get them to about 4 feet off the floor and flip. They end up well above the 5 foot trellis rig, around 6 - 6.5 feet.

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Renfro said:

So for anyone that is unable to find isopropyl alcohol at the stores, check your grow store. Mine had lots of 5 gallon buckets of 99.9% IPA for $60.

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I'm using ever clear ...tough times

Herb & Suds said:

I always thought it was "girth"

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Only reason to side light is if you have taller plants. Thats where the boost in yield is, getting those side yields. So I want them big in all ways lol.

Now if I can get the insides of the plant to produce with strings of buddies then we really have something. Have side canopy and INside canopy ?? Defoliate the fan leaves down in there of course to let those nodes get light and see what happens. We will have 5 other plants to compare it to if I use all four strings in one plant. We will see how that plays out, I think that would be doable.

One thing about the mimosa strain is she will make good nugs wherever she gets light. She is not a strain that likes super intense light and will be the first to show signs of the tips bleaching if the light gets above 1000 umols on my meter. Done well she makes big frosty nugs with some purps.

Just rolled these in. Gonna fix up the end lights (they make up the extra 6 hours schedule for veg right now) then press them under the trellis.

Renfro said:

Just rolled these in. Gonna fix up the end lights (they make up the extra 6 hours schedule for veg right now) then press them under the trellis.

View attachment 4519905View attachment 4519910

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Those are only 10 gallon? Look like 20's :O!

Can't wait to see how much this brings, so interesting to watch you continually adjust and improve your system.

killakanna said:

Those are only 10 gallon? Look like 20's :O!

Can't wait to see how much this brings, so interesting to watch you continually adjust and improve your system.

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10 gallon, two buckets stacked. The plants were defoliated pretty hard when I moved them in.

The room looks so empty and bright but give it a little time lol.

I was looking around on the computer and some things popped up in the ads (no not pornhub lmao) and got me thinking...



Got me thinking how cool these tools and others like them (I didn't look long) would be especially for those running large recirculating hydro systems. I know the pros do this in their commercial gardens allowing them to simply add back what element/s are lacking instead of dumping all the time.

So you get a solid analysis on what the plants like for feed at any point in their cycle, make that your baseline elemental PPM's. You can test the nutrients regularly and see what elements are being consumed and at what rates, then you can address the shortages without adding excess in other areas.

You can also tune your feed to what the plant is really pulling out of the nutrient solution.

You could chart the elemental consumption over time and if you run into a condition that is favorable you can see exactly what it was that changed.

This is something I will have to put on my wish list and play with when I have more time.