Chemist77 315 watt CDL grow

Just switched from 2 600 watt hps to 2 315 watt boulderlamp cdl's over a 4x6ft F&D table.. plants are 2 weeks into flower.. i already see a big diference, my plants have stretched less and have a tighter node spacing under the cdl's.. plants are in rock wool blocks using general hydroponics maxi series, first 2 weeks they got maxi grow, 3rd week half maxi grow,half maxi bloom, next week they will get only bloom untill finish..3 strains, 12 of each, th seeds bubblegum,next generation dynamite, and next gen island sweet skunk..

the only change is the lamps, temps,nutes, even clones are the same..
So will the ceramic discarge lamps yield like hps? lets watch and see!!!
2 600 watt hps=1200 watts, 2 315 watt cdl= 630 watts over a 4ft x 6ft table.. the 600's wer in aircooled hoods, the cdl's are open hoods 2 ft above canopy.. no heat problems so far...
ill put up pix as soon as the lights come on tonight...

if any of you consider switching to ceramic lighting, each bulb lasts 20,000 hours so no more bulb changes every 6 months, same bulb for veg and flower..way better par than hps, closest spectrum to the sun of all indoor lighting.. anyways each lamp costs $500.00 at boulderlamp.com and if you say you wer referred by the chemist77 you can get a discount.. i truly hope the cdl's work as well as hps, i was told a 315 watt cdl can replace a 600 watt hps/mh, lets see...

ok, im in the process of completing my room, still have work to do. the room is 12x12, the flower area is roughly the 4x6 table pluss 2 ft to the left of the table where i put 5 5 gallon dwc buckets. i have another 315 watt cdl to the left of the 2 over the table,sideways to cover the buckets and throw more light on the table(you can see it in the top pic).but it will be off for this run.. to the right of the table there will be 2 ft then a wall seperating a 3ftx12ft section (like a closet) wich will be my veg area. i will have a 2x4ft f&d table, and a 36 site clone king in the veg closet covered by 1 315 watt cdl and either a 125 watt cfl or maybe a 400 watt mh, not sure yet.. i have used hps/mh for 20+ years so this is all new to me..i like the idea of 1 bulb for veg and bloom and really like not having to change bulbs every 6 months so i hope these things work.
i know its a dabate on seedlings becoming male or female by enviroment, but ive always used a mh to veg,especially seedlings and ive always had at least 7-8 out of 10 end up female.. i am about to sprout some seeds dutch passions purple#1 and nirvana's papaya ..seeds are regular and will be grown under a cdl i hope i get a good female to male ratio under the cdl lamps...

my wife is going to put up pix of the paper work that came with the cdl's in case you wanted any more info on the lights.. oh and also the ppfd of the cdl at 2 ft from bulb is 700..

How long do the roots sit in the water like that, do you use air pumps too ?

skunkd0c said:

How long do the roots sit in the water like that, do you use air pumps too ?

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the table floods 3 times a day for 15 minutes, then water drains back into the rez.. there is a air stone in the rez and a 400 gal per hour pump that pumps water to flood the table.... flood n drain...so roots dont sit in water, thats dwc...

Thanks for the info mate, i have run flood n drain with pots and hydroton before , never really seen it with rockwool up so close

i see, so they only sit in the water for 15 mins 3 times per day
and a little bit of time it takes to drain

when the table drains how much do the roots dry out ?

when you do it with the clay pebbles they hold a little bit of moisture and the roots are wrapped all around them
i was wondering how it is with your roots as they kind of have no medium once they grow out of the rockwool

your lights and plants look nice btw, sorry i am not trying to divert your thread away from the lights
just interested in the hydro

peace

skunkd0c said:

Thanks for the info mate, i have run flood n drain with pots and hydroton before , never really seen it with rockwool up so close

i see, so they only sit in the water for 15 mins 3 times per day
and a little bit of time it takes to drain

when the table drains how much do the roots dry out ?

when you do it with the clay pebbles they hold a little bit of moisture and the roots are wrapped all around them
i was wondering how it is with your roots as they kind of have no medium once they grow out of the rockwool

your lights and plants look nice btw, sorry i am not trying to divert your thread away from the lights
just interested in the hydro

peace

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ive also used clay rocks, but they dry out very quickly and i had trouble keeping my ph in check w/ the rocks.. the rock wool holds moisture for hours so they never dry out, and if they did get dry i would simply add more flood times so that they never dry out.. the roots stay in the rock wool, roots will not grow where they would get light..now i could put a cover over the table, then roots would form a mat over the table.. this run im leaving it as is, but i may put a cover over it on the next run..

Covered tables yield more than open ones.

ttystikk said:

Covered tables yield more than open ones.

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good to know.. is it true the bigger the roots the bigger the yield? if so i can easily put a cover over the table, i like to turn plants and once the roots grow into a mat the plants cant be turned without breaking roots.. ive grown f&d, dwc, airo, under current,nft, etc..in all my different grows ive found yields to be roughly the same.. i guess i always just like the f&d method as i keep going back to it..i like watching the table flood and make sure the water is super airated as it splashes to flood the table. i just think its easier to clean, change the rez, etc..

TheChemist77 said:

good to know.. is it true the bigger the roots the bigger the yield? if so i can easily put a cover over the table, i like to turn plants and once the roots grow into a mat the plants cant be turned without breaking roots.. ive grown f&d, dwc, airo, under current,nft, etc..in all my different grows ive found yields to be roughly the same.. i guess i always just like the f&d method as i keep going back to it..i like watching the table flood and make sure the water is super airated as it splashes to flood the table. i just think its easier to clean, change the rez, etc..

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The truth is that as long as roots aren't flooded for several hours or overnight, oxygenating the nutrient solution in flood and drain systems will only encourage growths in the res, where you don't want them; pythium, algae, etc. Keep that nutrient res covered and dark, as well.

The plants don't need the water to be aerated in this style of growing, just pumping it in and then draining does that job plenty well already.

Like you've already noted, all you need to do is monitor how often it needs to flood every day. Simple!

TheChemist77 said:

ive also used clay rocks, but they dry out very quickly and i had trouble keeping my ph in check w/ the rocks.. the rock wool holds moisture for hours so they never dry out, and if they did get dry i would simply add more flood times so that they never dry out.. the roots stay in the rock wool, roots will not grow where they would get light..now i could put a cover over the table, then roots would form a mat over the table.. this run im leaving it as is, but i may put a cover over it on the next run..

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That is interesting, so they roots never grow much out of those rockwool blocks
what size are they ?

Glad to see you finally planted the papya for her lol. I like nirvana, there cheap but somehow got a bad rap...let me know.

The nodes look streched a bit compared to the afghans i got, but then again mine are probably too close if there is such a thing.

The lights look like they give off a good spec from the leaves responding... I wanna see the results tho!

Maybe ill do 10 tables over 20 315s haha, if only they werent so expensive!

If your results are good, im going to order bulbs and a splitter, run 2 per 600. See if it works, bulbs are $80 each and splitters $60 i think.

Either way, im glad i choose to run tables with maxi, lifes much easier now!

When will you have some real #s for us? Oct 1st?

spec changes on those lamps a bit (+500K or so if I remember right) when run horizontal .
And howdy neighbor.

Also the light looks nice but looks like it should be cheaper than a sun systems lec but it isn't.
I can get SS LEC for $420 +tax.

dbkick said:

Also the light looks nice but looks like it should be cheaper than a sun systems lec but it isn't.
I can get SS LEC for $420 +tax.

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i seen the sun system after i already bought these,,the guys at growgreenmich, told me they are based on the same tech but different bulbs,but idk? both are phillips bulbs so i think they are the same just different kelvins,,not sure though..anyways the guys at boulder wer really good and answered all my questions, and said these 315 will beat a 600 watt hps hands down,, we will see...

jayjay777 said:

Glad to see you finally planted the papya for her lol. I like nirvana, there cheap but somehow got a bad rap...let me know.

The nodes look streched a bit compared to the afghans i got, but then again mine are probably too close if there is such a thing.

The lights look like they give off a good spec from the leaves responding... I wanna see the results tho!

Maybe ill do 10 tables over 20 315s haha, if only they werent so expensive!

If your results are good, im going to order bulbs and a splitter, run 2 per 600. See if it works, bulbs are $80 each and splitters $60 i think.

Either way, im glad i choose to run tables with maxi, lifes much easier now!

When will you have some real #s for us? Oct 1st?

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6 weeks till harvest, after i pull dry n weigh ill know for sure.. ill post total dry weight and i should have the weight off my last run with 2 600 hps's in a week or so.. they are still hanging and im not feeling like trimming just yet.. yes, my wife is happy i planted the papaya she has been waiting almost 2 years for me to plant them.lol..

jayjay777 said:

Glad to see you finally planted the papya for her lol. I like nirvana, there cheap but somehow got a bad rap...let me know.

The nodes look streched a bit compared to the afghans i got, but then again mine are probably too close if there is such a thing.

The lights look like they give off a good spec from the leaves responding... I wanna see the results tho!

Maybe ill do 10 tables over 20 315s haha, if only they werent so expensive!

If your results are good, im going to order bulbs and a splitter, run 2 per 600. See if it works, bulbs are $80 each and splitters $60 i think.

Either way, im glad i choose to run tables with maxi, lifes much easier now!

When will you have some real #s for us? Oct 1st?

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Read your spec sheet more carefully. The ballasts for these 315W CMH lamps are very special little critters; they're low frequency, meaning less than 100Hz and their output is a square wave instead of the more usual sine curve. The first feature keeps the lamp alive because high frequencies will rattle then apart, and the square wave output is the real reason these lamps are so much more powerful than their wattage might suggest.

Try your splitter plan with a standard 600W digital ballast and you'll trash two bulbs in less than a week- and they won't run worth a shit before they blow, either.

skunkd0c said:

That is interesting, so they roots never grow much out of those rockwool blocks
what size are they ?

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ive grown 4ft plants in rock wool blocks, at the moment these are between 20-30 inches tall the island sweet skunks are taller than the dynamite n bubblegum.. the bubblegum n dynamite branch out a bit more tho.. im guessing they wont get much taller tthan 3ft max this run, the bubble gum n dynamite had 1 week of veg from rooted clones and the island sweet skunk had no veg time, rooted clones went wright into flower..