500w DIY led 4x4 organic 2.15 lb grow

Due to my old phone dying and loosing all my pics and write up this journal will start on week 3 of flower. This grow is finished and I'll be uploading the rest over next few weeks. It did pull 2.15 lb dried and cured.
This run is in a 4x4 tent running 1 gallon 50/50 coir and perlite using advance line of Nectar for the Gods plus Persephone's palate to replace molasses and photosynthesis plus.
I'm running 25 plants. 8 Pakistan Valley, 10 Cheese Candy, and 7 Bomb Berry.
My flowering light I made myself it consists of 16 Bridgelux Vero 18 cobs @1.05 A
Running them off 2 meanwell HLG-240h-c1050a puts each cob at just over 31 watts each.
Mother and veg lights are Vero 13's run 6 per 150w meanwell drive. Thank you so much to growmau5 and his early posts and videos for turning me on to making my own high quality led lights.
Babies were started ass clones off of my proven mothers, made 30 in my DIY aeroponic closer, 28 lived and I picked the 25 strongest to go to production.
Flower tent has large 16" fan for air movement, DIY co2 via 5 gallon bucket and air pump, 6" hyper fan with blackops filter, 4" active intake and 2 vents on tent open.
These pics are week 3 and though it doesn't show well in my camera the Pakistan and cheese Candy have been covered with crystals since week 2, heavy crystal production for so early (thanks nectar for the gods)
Any questions I'll gladly answer anything I can.

Shawndeadhead said:

Due to my old phone dying and loosing all my pics and write up this journal will start on week 3 of flower. This grow is finished and I'll be uploading the rest over next few weeks. It did pull 2.15 lb dried and cured.
This run is in a 4x4 tent running 1 gallon 50/50 coir and perlite using advance line of Nectar for the Gods plus Persephone's palate to replace molasses and photosynthesis plus.
I'm running 25 plants. 8 Pakistan Valley, 10 Cheese Candy, and 7 Bomb Berry.
My flowering light I made myself it consists of 16 Bridgelux Vero 18 cobs @1.05 A
Running them off 2 meanwell HLG-240h-c1050a puts each cob at just over 31 watts each.
Mother and veg lights are Vero 13's run 6 per 150w meanwell drive. Thank you so much to growmau5 and his early posts and videos for turning me on to making my own high quality led lights.
Babies were started ass clones off of my proven mothers, made 30 in my DIY aeroponic closer, 28 lived and I picked the 25 strongest to go to production.
Flower tent has large 16" fan for air movement, DIY co2 via 5 gallon bucket and air pump, 6" hyper fan with blackops filter, 4" active intake and 2 vents on tent open.View attachment 4036558 View attachment 4036560 View attachment 4036558 View attachment 4036560 View attachment 4036561 View attachment 4036562 View attachment 4036563 View attachment 4036564 View attachment 4036565 View attachment 4036566 View attachment 4036567 View attachment 4036568
These pics are week 3 and though it doesn't show well in my camera the Pakistan and cheese Candy have been covered with crystals since week 2, heavy crystal production for so early (thanks nectar for the gods)
Any questions I'll gladly answer anything I can.

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How long have you been running Nectar of the Gods for? have you run any other organic nutrients?

are the vero's 3500k

nice plants

This really makes me want to make the swich to good LEDs in the near future.

Need to get a few more runs done with my hps though, my funds are short due to buying a house recently.

What would be a good budget friendly light to build for a 3.5' x 6' area?

Subbed to see the rest of this.

SAMMYB913 said:

How long have you been running Nectar of the Gods for? have you run any other organic nutrients?

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I started with using General Organics, I've done super soil grows, to me it's just to much to try and pull off indoors with mixing everything the large size of your bulk ingredients and then it has to sit for a month or 2 to cook. This is my 3rd nectar for the gods run. I've got 7 years in this game and never seen such vigorous happy healthy plants.

verticalgrow said:

are the vero's 3500k

nice plants

Click to expand...

It's a mix of 8 Vero 18s at 4000k and 8 Vero 18s at 3000k. I just put one then the other when building each row of lights. I like the Vero 18s because they can stay 6-8" to the top of canopy I've found. Though when I expand again ]I'll probably start using Vero 29s and 600w per 4x4 for some extra weight. Thank you I take very good care of my girls to ensure they are always

Keystone-grower™ said:

This really makes me want to make the swich to good LEDs in the near future.

Need to get a few more runs done with my hps though, my funds are short due to buying a house recently.

What would be a good budget friendly light to build for a 3.5' x 6' area?

Subbed to see the rest of this.

Click to expand...

Personally I'm a Bridgelux fan when it comes to LED manufacturers they are putting out just as efficient lights sometimes more efficient than Cree's who make great LED cobs but are over priced in my opinion. As far as building an affordable LED grow light I would recommend going to YouTube and checking out Growmau5 video's, his early ones go over everything you could imagine.
Only advice I can say when it comes to building a light is buy quality components. Your saving so much money compared to buying a commercial unit. Yeah I used top quality COBs and Meanwell drivers but it's because they are quality and reliable. Yes I could of built my lights from eBay parts for half price, but your going to be replacing burnt up drivers and cobs with dead spots. I built my lights over a year ago now, not one single problem. I spent $550 building mine, commercial light to get the quality I put in buying parts it would be $1000 light easy.
For your space I would probably use a couple Meanwell HLG-320 for 600 watts, as to how many cobs it just depends on how you want to spread them out. Smaller ones will be closer together larger ones further apart.

Shawndeadhead said:

I started with using General Organics, I've done super soil grows, to me it's just to much to try and pull off indoors with mixing everything the large size of your bulk ingredients and then it has to sit for a month or 2 to cook. This is my 3rd nectar for the gods run. I've got 7 years in this game and never seen such vigorous happy healthy plants.

Click to expand...

have you ever run hydro?

SAMMYB913 said:

have you ever run hydro?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've run ebb n flo before and I built my own aeroponics cloner that I take all my cuttings with.
Basically what I'm doing now I think is called fertigation which is just hand watered hydroponics. I run 1 gallon of 50/50 coco perlite and hand water them once a day. I could go through and just water them a small amount a few times a day and they would never know they were not in a hydroponic system. But I usually run 50 in flower between two 4x4 tents, plus mothers, clones and early veg is already enough hand watering once a day lol

Shawndeadhead said:

It's a mix of 8 Vero 18s at 4000k and 8 Vero 18s at 3000k. I just put one then the other when building each row of lights. I like the Vero 18s because they can stay 6-8" to the top of canopy I've found. Though when I expand again ]I'll probably start using Vero 29s and 600w per 4x4 for some extra weight. Thank you I take very good care of my girls to ensure they are always

Click to expand...

3 week veg

Shawndeadhead said:

Personally I'm a Bridgelux fan when it comes to LED manufacturers they are putting out just as efficient lights sometimes more efficient than Cree's who make great LED cobs but are over priced in my opinion. As far as building an affordable LED grow light I would recommend going to YouTube and checking out Growmau5 video's, his early ones go over everything you could imagine.
Only advice I can say when it comes to building a light is buy quality components. Your saving so much money compared to buying a commercial unit. Yeah I used top quality COBs and Meanwell drivers but it's because they are quality and reliable. Yes I could of built my lights from eBay parts for half price, but your going to be replacing burnt up drivers and cobs with dead spots. I built my lights over a year ago now, not one single problem. I spent $550 building mine, commercial light to get the quality I put in buying parts it would be $1000 light easy.
For your space I would probably use a couple Meanwell HLG-320 for 600 watts, as to how many cobs it just depends on how you want to spread them out. Smaller ones will be closer together larger ones further apart.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, im going to start my research.

verticalgrow said:

3 week veg

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Yes I only veg 2.5-3 weeks Max and then flip them because I cram 25 plants into each 4x4 I'm running. I've tried big plants, small plants and everything in between , I found that a quick veg works best for me and by far I hit my best yields when I pack them in like that. Plus I'm severely limited on space if I had more room for veg I would probably grow out huge low stressed trained girls. I've run 2 flower tents 4x4 each and then a 4x4 for mothers veg and clones. Hopefully looking to move this somewhere with more space in the future as I can't keep up with business demands. All my pics uploaded are the start of 3rd week of flower, if my notes are correct with the pics I took those were on day 23 of flowering.

Keystone-grower™ said:

Thanks for the info, im going to start my research.

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No problem glad to help, I was clueless about building my own Led and was close to buying a manufactured led unit until I came across people on here talking about building COB leds and I was given a link to growmau5 YouTube Vids.
I used to run 1000w hps per 4x4 to maybe get 1.5-1.75 lb. I'm now getting just over 2 lb using only 500 watts, the savings are huge half the electric on the light, I hardly ever have to run AC, I don't have to have my exhaust fan turned up much past 50%, no air cooled glass hoods to worry about. You will be glad when you make the switch.

Yeah the biggest thing holding me back is time. I work 60 hr weeks and have young kids. The amount lf spare time I have is nill.

It's the main reason I've not switched yet, because I've gotta try hard to find time for anything more than plug and play. Thankfully winter is quickly approaching so i should be able to build something soon. Just have to get a few more runs in as the wife and I agreed that the room needs to fund itself.

Shawndeadhead said:

It's a mix of 8 Vero 18s at 4000k and 8 Vero 18s at 3000k. I just put one then the other when building each row of lights. I like the Vero 18s because they can stay 6-8" to the top of canopy I've found. Though when I expand again ]I'll probably start using Vero 29s and 600w per 4x4 for some extra weight. Thank you I take very good care of my girls to ensure they are always

Click to expand...

So around 37 watts per. SF is what your running with good yield ...close to canopy ?

Shawndeadhead said:

Yeah, I've run ebb n flo before and I built my own aeroponics cloner that I take all my cuttings with.
Basically what I'm doing now I think is called fertigation which is just hand watered hydroponics. I run 1 gallon of 50/50 coco perlite and hand water them once a day. I could go through and just water them a small amount a few times a day and they would never know they were not in a hydroponic system. But I usually run 50 in flower between two 4x4 tents, plus mothers, clones and early veg is already enough hand watering once a day lol

Click to expand...

Does the excess water stay in 1 big 4x4 tray

Also do u use a trellis in late flower

Dave455 said:

So around 37 watts per. SF is what your running with good yield ...close to canopy ?

Click to expand...

I think it comes out to about 31.5 watts per cob with the forward voltage on the Vero 18s and I'm only pushing them at 1050 mAh and only 500w coming off my drivers. I run them about 8" from canopy and have had them as low as 6" without signs of stress or bleaching /burning.
Yes yields have increased a fair amount, that was my 6th grow under the led lights I built and each time I've pulled 2.05 lb, 2.3 lb, 2.15 lb, 2.2 lb, 2.4 lb, 2.2 lb cured and dried each crop per 4x4 tent. I usually run 2 separate 4x4's at the same time. I never thought I would see a day where 2lb is possible from 500 watts thats for sure

verticalgrow said:

Does the excess water stay in 1 big 4x4 tray

Also do u use a trellis in late flower

Click to expand...

No trellis used them once big pain in the ass to me at least. Mine are just sitting on the floor of my grow tents, when I have lots of run off I turn on the shop vac and push the hose though the bottom of my tents, if the run off isn't a lot I don't worry about it the liners in tents are usually water proof

Week 4 of flower
Pakistani Valley

Week 4 flower Cheese Candy