Chinese LED Grow – 75 (actual draw) Watts per plant veg/100W per plant flower

GroErr

Well-Known Member
PM or Powdery Mildew is classified as a fungus. It is a pain in the ass because unlike most fungi/moulds it doesn't need obvious conditions like wet/humid/dark places, it thrives in light, cold and even what you'd consider dry conditions. It's travels fast when airborne so once it hits, your fans transfer it to your whole grow. I've seen it many times, including outdoors which is where I'd grown for many years before going indoor last year.

If you catch it early and stay on top of it, it's relatively easy to manage and keep it from spreading. If left alone, it can take over your grow in a matter of days and spread to your buds, making them useless (unless you like smoking or ingesting mould).

There are all kinds of sprays, many commercial products are sulphur-based, problem is it contaminates your buds and I don't like the idea of smoking sulphur ;)

Once it starts, it's pretty well impossible to kill while your grow is going. Anything that kills it will kill or destroy your crop. So the only thing you can do is try to catch it early, stop it from spreading, and manage it until harvest. After that, indoor, you need to thoroughly clean (I'll be using diluted bleach) your room, instruments, anything that may have come in contact with it.

If you haven't seen it, it can initially look like something minor like spots from over-spray when watering, but it quickly spreads and turns into a whitish/grayish cover on your leaves. It's a bitch and can be easily overlooked until it's too late. If your buds get it, about the only thing you can do to be safe (e.g not smoke it) is turn it into extracts (oil, hash).

For whatever reason, plain old MILK has something in it that will manage it (as long as it hadn't gotten out of control), spraying the plants down, adding a bit of dish soap in the mix (helps it stick), about once/week will control it and keep it from spreading further. It's unknown why it works, not a lot of scientific studies on it. But it has been used by many for years and considered an effective and safe way to deal with it.

I use about 15% mix of Skim (0% fat) milk, a teaspoon of soap and filtered water. Seems to work well, as long as you do it about once/week until harvest. Reason I use skim is there's no benefit in the fat, and fattier milk seems to smell when it dries. The skim milk has no smell to speak of. I spray the plants down on some garbage bags to catch the drips, let them soak for about 10 minutes, shake off any pooling and stick them back in.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
I have used 3% h2O2 to great results

Just make sure light is higher than normal until water dries
Have heard of that option, and supposedly baking soda works as well by changing the PH on the leaf surface which stops it. I like the milk in that it's the least risky/intrusive on the buds, less risk of burn or contaminants that could change the flavour. Anything but PM on the buds though, whatever works, specially in the last couple of weeks before harvest. Will be taking my weekly pics when lights come on later. Hoping JTR has <15 days now, PBK's <21.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
My weekly update. Day 44 of 12/12. Bad week, found some PM on the PBK's so just trying to keep it under control for a couple of weeks. Plants are doing fine for now though. JTR is starting to fade, it's definitely ahead of the PBK's in bud growth and trich production, another 10-15 days should do it. PBK's are more like 15-20 days, may pull them early though if the PM comes back :(

On a brighter note, since they're frosting up will post some general plant shots, then cola/bud shots in another post to follow.

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GroErr

Well-Known Member
Couple of bud shots last night while doing some maintenance, Day 47 from 12/12 flip. The PM is under control, sprayed them down with the 15% milk solution again and it's now only on some of the lower leaves but no spreading and still nothing close to the buds, whew!. Plants continue to suck up whatever I feed them in 3 days, they're healthy and obviously hungry :)

PBK's are fattening up the buds and smaller leaves attached to the buds are turning purple, nice :) Still not stinky but if I brush them anywhere around the buds there's a nice earthy/skunky smell to them.

JTR is just about at the final stretch, according to TGA they pack on some fat around day 50 and finish around day 60 so the next 10 days should develop some fat on them before the yank. Thinking around June 1st for JTR and about a week later for the PBK's. Trichs continue to milk up and no slowing down on packing the trichs. Incredible lemon smell now when I walk into the room, now hurry up and finish!

Neither of these strains are known for quantity, more quality, but I am impressed at how the buds have developed and trichs on both are oozing out, should be some nice meds :bigjoint:
 

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GroErr

Well-Known Member
Hi all, this week's update, Day 51 from 12/12, getting there...

All are on track, maturing nicely. JTR is 7-10 days, PBK's 15'sh. All are healthy, drinking heavily still which is a good thing, fatten them up towards the finish. Lots of frost and starting to cloud up, lets keep things on track and finish these ladies :)

Some group shots, individual plants & buds to follow next post...
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GroErr

Well-Known Member
Wholly shit that PBK stuff is dank. Dried a small bud that had fallen off one of the bottom branches a week ago. It was still 50% clear trichs and still had a nice punch. Nice taste and that classic kush smell, considering it wasn't cured, it wasn't harsh at all.

Too bad I had to cull the clones coming up, well, planted them outdoor/off-site. They were the one's that supported/started the PM so won't be growing them indoor. But I did cross 2 that were about 18" and 3 weeks into flowering with a JTR male, figured they can PM my tent in the spare room (although it's now under control), well away from all other plants. If they seed maybe JTR will pass on the PM resistance, will know in about 14-16 weeks if those seeds grow out...

PM is gone (will still bleach the room after this run, but it's not coming back or spreading) btw in the flower room, after spraying them a couple of times, adding a second fan (freak'n turbine winds in there), and dropped the humidity below 50% lights-out.

I also sprayed the Blueberry, PPP, and JTR clones I had coming up in the veg cabinet, since they were in veg and no buds. They were in the veg cabinet with those PBK's I threw outdoor and had some marks on the leaves, nothing serious as all 3 of those strains seemed to resist the PM, but they were still exposed. I used a stronger solution of baking soda, soap and veg oil on them, the PM is gone, no signs of it on those plants :) Will have a small run next round again since I culled the PBK's, and tossed the JTR Twins male clones I'll be stripping down and bleaching the flower room, then veg cabinet, but if all 5 Blueberry, PPP, and JTR's in veg end up fems, I'll get a nice bounty from them. One of each of the strains are in 5gal root pouches, they're filling the pouches nicely now that I've LST's an FIMmed them. The 6-7 zips coming from this current flowering round will keep me in meds until I get that flower room full again, it's all good :)

Here are the upcoming Blueberry (2x reg seeds), PPP (2x reg seeds), and 1x JTR female clone, developing into some nice round/fat ladies(?) Well I know JTR is fem, the others are looking like fems but not 100% sure yet...
Top-left largest one is Blueberry seed @57 days, Center-front is PPP seed @57 days, Top-Right is JTR clone @40 days, two smaller one's are 1x Blueberry and 1x PPP from seed @30 days, scrawny, both also had a tough time after transplanting them with a cal-mag def (same soil mix, same nutes as the older one's?), but they're recovering and seem to take off around 4 weeks so will see in the next couple of weeks if they make it into flowering....
2xBB-2x-PPP-1xJTR-Day57-1.JPG
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Well fellow growers, looks like we're at the end of this run, whoohoo! :) Virgin run in the new room, very happy with the room design & performance, was able to manage temps/humidty at will. If density is as good I think it will be, the lights outperformed my expectations, specially considering that JTR is 70% sativa, and they can be a pain to finish. I'm also impressed with the TGA genetics, that JTR strain is a keeper, a fast flowering and super frosty sativa, no complaints here...

Only glitch was that I'll need to put an inline filter if I'm bringing in fresh/cool air through the winter as I'm pretty sure that's how the PM issue came in, I had no other external factors like bringing in clones from another location or anything like that.

Did a thorough check and took some pics last night to get a good representation of all 3 plants, top/middle and lower buds. All are at slightly different stages, depending on the bud site locations/plant,which is great because I'd like a mix of highs for different times of the day.

JTR is cloudy, some clear/slightly cloudy on one bud, but the rest are nice and cloudy, even a couple of ambers - interestingly, down below the top canopy.

Both PBK's are about the same, nice and cloudy/white, a couple of buds have some amber starting up. These being indica and a little taste tester bud that fell off a week ago, will be couch lock material even without further maturing.

Will be giving them 1 more night of light tonight. Then putting them into about 48-60 hours of darkness, they were fed Tuesday so that'll be it and should be nice and dry by Saturday for the chop.

Guesstimating about 6-7 zips dry so 180-210g, that's based on what I'm seeing in bud sites and good density from that little bud l taste tested this week. But we'll see when all's said and done. If it falls in that range I'd be happy since neither of these are supposed to be big producers.

Will get some pics with something in the background before chopping for perspective and update that on the weekend update. Then it'll be a waiting game for the dry, then the cure. Will eventually post the dry/trimmed/cured weight.

All in all I'm happy with the run. 8 weeks veg, 8 weeks flowering, what's looking to be some nice bud and acceptable weight. Ran 200W through veg, 300W through flowering, pretty well identically split in 8/8 weeks, so I'll consider the average run to be 250W for a GPW guideline (guideline keyword, doesn't mean a lot, just a rough yard stick).

Here are some sample shots from last night's bud checks, The first JTR bud which is one of the bigger heads is actually the least mature, the rest are more cloudy and some lower buds showing amber. Loving that JTR frost but the PBK's were not slouches either...

JTR:
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PBK1:
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PBK2:
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Cheers and happy growing :bigjoint:
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Day 55 from 12/12 flip, almost exactly 8 weeks. Keep in mind that I had flipped them to 14/10, then 13/11 over a 2 week period while I was finishing the new flower room. So, even at the outside they were in flower mode for 10 weeks, 8 weeks at 12/12. That's about right, 10 weeks for strains rated at 7-8 weeks flowering for JTR, and 8-9 weeks for PBK. Considering that JTR is 70% sativa, not bad at all.

Hit the override switch last night on the light timer to OFF. They'll sit in the dark until Sunday morning, will take a few pics Sunday and hang them to dry. End of next week will trim & begin the cure :)
 

nvhak49

Well-Known Member
Looks good man so do you think those led panels are worth if? How much do you think you will yield per plant?

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GroErr

Well-Known Member
Looks good man so do you think those led panels are worth if? How much do you think you will yield per plant?
Hey nvhak, I'm considering them a successful option on the low-end of the price range and Chinese panel market. As you can see from the pics, they can certainly veg and flower well, IF you don't try to stretch them out to cover too much area. What I can comfortably say is that I'll continue to use them, and to me, they were worth the small investment. For the price, it's paid for with this round if I sold 5x qtr's @$60 (not that I will) :) I'm expecting at least 5-6 dry/cured oz. from this run, possibly more if the density is there. Neither of these strains are considered high-yielders so if I get that weight and decent grade buds (which they are imo), I'd say not bad at all. Particularly for personal grows and folks wanting to try LED without a large investment. For someone who doesn't want to bother with getting their hands dirty (e.g. if something goes wrong, take it apart and figure out/fix it yourself or get the parts on warranty and DIY replacement), wants the comfort of customer service/warranty, in other words little risk, I'd still recommend some of the proven one's like A51 or Apache. Next round I have a couple of better producing strains coming up, Blue Dream and PPP sat-doms, and a Blueberry Indy-dom, I'll be targeting 1/2 lb. from 3 plants which I think is quite doable.

The big question of course is how long they'll last or how fast they degrade, but I've had a couple of these for over a year, I now have a total of 7 (2x150W, 3x300W, and 2x450W), none have had a single problem, the cooling fans are still as quiet as they were when I got them, no burnt out diodes or anything like that. Only quality problem I had was with one, I think it was the first 300W panel, had one of the hanging screws loose when I received it, I just took it apart and tightened it, no biggie. The second question and caveat I'd throw in, is that I haven't had to test warranty/repair, nor do I have big expectations. However, topled and easyhydro (same company) sell a lot of these panels, if they want to stay in business and they seem to be a going concern, I'd guess they'll uphold the warranty, we'll see... If I get bored one day I may just call them out on it to see how they handle it ;)

Cheers and hope your grow goes well...
 

PSUAGRO.

Well-Known Member
The big question of course is how long they'll last or how fast they degrade, but I've had a couple of these for over a year, I now have a total of 7 (2x150W, 3x300W, and 2x450W), none have had a single problem, the cooling fans are still as quiet as they were when I got them, no burnt out diodes or anything like that.
Very surprising to me.................And slipon had his for awhile too without issues I think. Well i hope they last for you Groerr................good luck and be safe.

nice run btw
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Very surprising to me.................And slipon had his for awhile too without issues I think. Well i hope they last for you Groerr................good luck and be safe.
nice run btw
Hey thanks Psu, happy with the run, we'll see how long these last, only time will tell, but no complaints here so far. I'm not terribly concerned myself as I'll likely add/change lights before these die ;)

Already working on building some supplemental ghetto lighting for the next flower run. DIY end panels with White E27/5W/3000k & 4000k COBS x 9 per panel, DIY side panels with 2x 48" White 3000k/28W LED Tubes (similar to what I did with 6500k/24" tubes in my veg cabinet). Should be pulling about 500W total on 3 plants, that should grow some bud...
 

nvhak49

Well-Known Member
Hey nvhak, I'm considering them a successful option on the low-end of the price range and Chinese panel market. As you can see from the pics, they can certainly veg and flower well, IF you don't try to stretch them out to cover too much area. What I can comfortably say is that I'll continue to use them, and to me, they were worth the small investment. For the price, it's paid for with this round if I sold 5x qtr's @$60 (not that I will) :) I'm expecting at least 5-6 dry/cured oz. from this run, possibly more if the density is there. Neither of these strains are considered high-yielders so if I get that weight and decent grade buds (which they are imo), I'd say not bad at all. Particularly for personal grows and folks wanting to try LED without a large investment. For someone who doesn't want to bother with getting their hands dirty (e.g. if something goes wrong, take it apart and figure out/fix it yourself or get the parts on warranty and DIY replacement), wants the comfort of customer service/warranty, in other words little risk, I'd still recommend some of the proven one's like A51 or Apache. Next round I have a couple of better producing strains coming up, Blue Dream and PPP sat-doms, and a Blueberry Indy-dom, I'll be targeting 1/2 lb. from 3 plants which I think is quite doable.

The big question of course is how long they'll last or how fast they degrade, but I've had a couple of these for over a year, I now have a total of 7 (2x150W, 3x300W, and 2x450W), none have had a single problem, the cooling fans are still as quiet as they were when I got them, no burnt out diodes or anything like that. Only quality problem I had was with one, I think it was the first 300W panel, had one of the hanging screws loose when I received it, I just took it apart and tightened it, no biggie. The second question and caveat I'd throw in, is that I haven't had to test warranty/repair, nor do I have big expectations. However, topled and easyhydro (same company) sell a lot of these panels, if they want to stay in business and they seem to be a going concern, I'd guess they'll uphold the warranty, we'll see... If I get bored one day I may just call them out on it to see how they handle it ;)

Cheers and hope your grow goes well...
Thats awesome man yeah your grow looks really well for cheap panels ill probably invest in one come fall time. What is the actual draw on the 450? I ended up getting 6 ounces off the unknown strain I grew I grew it with a 400w hps but ill probably go led on my next actual grow. I have one blue mystic auto that I started with 12/12 its all stretched out but its growing buds so im not complaining haha. Where do you get ur seeds if u dont mind me asking?

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GroErr

Well-Known Member
Thats awesome man yeah your grow looks really well for cheap panels ill probably invest in one come fall time. What is the actual draw on the 450? I ended up getting 6 ounces off the unknown strain I grew I grew it with a 400w hps but ill probably go led on my next actual grow. I have one blue mystic auto that I started with 12/12 its all stretched out but its growing buds so im not complaining haha. Where do you get ur seeds if u dont mind me asking?
Sounds like you have a nice stash going with that hps grow :) The 450W model puts out 205W in veg mode and 300W in veg+bloom mode. I used the switches in this round and it did well, vegged with only with the veg lights on, then turned on the reds/bloom switch when I flipped the lights to flower. It's easier to manage temps in my veg cabinet with only the veg switch on and works well. Turning on the reds heats it up quite a bit, it's a big light for a 2x4x5.5' cabinet when it's running full tilt. Got the seeds through Ontario Seed Bank, they carry quite a few TGA strains. JTR is a keeper, got a male, grew it out and collected pollen for some crossing. Have PPP, Blueberry, and another JTR in veg, then Blue Dream, Acapulco Gold and Critical Kush in seedlings after that. Got those strains through Seed City, was pretty happy with them and they have a great selection.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Here we are folks, harvest day :) 122 days from seed. Cut, trimmed the larger/fan leaves off and hung this morning. Left a lot of the close-to-the-bud leaves on JTR, they'll make nice oil trim, covered in trichs...

Had them in the dark for the last 3 1/2 days, they look a little rough in the group shots of course, stressing them to think they're dying will tend to do that ;)

Looking nicely finished, cloudy, the odd sprinkled amber on some of the lower buds, just the way I like it...

Posting some group shots here, another pot for PBK's and one for JTR. Should be dried and ready to trim by next weekend, I only take the fan leaves and larger leaves around the buds off for drying. If I get the time next weekend (bike weather so questionable) should be able to trim and post a dry/trimmed weight, later I'll post the cured weight, although there's usually not a huge difference if I time it right.

Cheers
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