G-Force LED closet grow

smokeyjoes

Well-Known Member
Tube thingy connects to a reservoir under the soil to allow watering from the bottom but I've been watering normally as everyone else does lol.
 

smokeyjoes

Well-Known Member
Thanks Crunkyeah for compliments about LST. Had said i'd read lots on the internet pays to get some knowledge before setting out on a grow at least you know what to expect most of the time anyway lol.

Wasn't how i intended the LST to go, expected 2 new shoots after i topped her not the 11ish i got. But worked out great for me should cover the top of the pot quicker this way and can flower sooner, and looking forward to starting 12/12 and seeing some buds grow.

going to let her grow some more for a few days see if she'll cover the rest of pot then final lst then give her some time b4 flowering
 

crunkyeah

Well-Known Member
Research is key in this little hobby of ours! Sometimes we make mistakes that benefit us right? ;)

Eager to see buds grow on her too! Haven't seen one quite as trained as that flower so it should be really interesting!

-crunk
 

smokeyjoes

Well-Known Member
Another bit of LST carried out soon have all the planter covered and then let her grow upwards.

Given her 1/4 nutes today to give her a boost she still looking good but will help her bush up even more.

Forgot to say i put a fan in with her a week ago for some fresh air circulation and a bit of movement, and importantly when doing this form of LST to keep air moving between the soil and leaves.

I've also been looking at cfl's looking at 300w 9u red and blue bulbs, with a reflector, what do you think about these bulbs are they too big for my grow closet?

Can't wait for the time to see her begin to flower and see the results of all the hard work to date.
 

smokeyjoes

Well-Known Member
She had her last LST yesterday pot almost completely covered so will let her grow upwards now, and a few of the new shoots, coming of the original 8 branches are now starting to clear the other leaves will put some pics up soon.
 

smokeyjoes

Well-Known Member
Oops had to make a mistake sooner or later think nutes were too early or too much still plenty in the original compost had a few leaves looking as tho they were brown on the edges, i've flushed the pot out with plain water and hope she'll be ok.

Any advice if that is enough action would be appreciated don't want to harm her too much.
 

crunkyeah

Well-Known Member
Yeah I'm sure she'll pull through if you've got a nice root base goin down there. If I might add something, I don't EVER give my plants nutrients. Maybe I'm just lucky and got a bagseed strain that doesn't need much more than what's in the soil itself. But even if my buddies grows, I've always advised them to not give them nutrients until they start showing signs that they need some. Yellowing leaves, brown tips, leaf curling, leaf twisting, etc. That way you know she'll be taking all the nutrients because she's deprived. If you load her up early on you can burn her and perhaps even kill her depending on how much ya give her.

So my advice is: Just give her plain water until she starts showing signs of nute deficiency. Don't let her get too low on nutes though. Plants are living creatures, if you study and observe them they'll tell you what they need. They're way easier than pets and helluva lot easier than kids :P but I can tell you my plants are my kids.

Hope this helps.
 

smokeyjoes

Well-Known Member
thanks Crunkyeah,

will do that, sounds sensible to only give nutes when she needs them.

Couldn't have an easy grow for my first grow that would be too lucky and learn more from mistakes lol

looked at your grow looks good will have to try scrog on one of my future grows, and when you work out your new LED light you are designing i'm sure there are plenty of people interested in doing something similar, i know i am.
 

crunkyeah

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the encouragement :) I will definitely make a how-to thread. And I definitely agree, gotta learn from your mistakes one way or another!

And as for the scrog thing, I really believe that this is the only true method for getting LEDs to produce good. People go on and on about how they don't penetrate like hps blah blah blah. Well if you have a densely packed canopy you don't NEED penetration at all. That's the point of the whole scrog thing ;) Plus I find them to be really efficient. From the one I'm growing right now, and the ones I've seen on the net. And I have to say, I probably shouldn't have waited nearly so long to put the screen in. As you can see, there's still a ton of undergrowth. This was probably a mistake on my part for not recognizing how large the indica could get just by herself. I tell ya, if I could have put my sativa outdoors then the indica would have taken up my whole grow tent! Really robust strain and she's hardy as hell.

One thing I'm going to forewarn you about the whole LED panel thing. I'm designing it to be strictly for micro growing. It's going to be tailored to my grow area specs. Roughly 1'L x 2'W x 3'H. It's really not that big at all. People will find that my light has intensely bright light, but it won't cover nearly as much space as a 90w UFO. And it will only be drawing about 31w total. It will also be more expensive than a 90w UFO, so I really don't expect too many people inspired to build their own unless it really proves its worth.

Really it's just an experiment of mine, learning a bit more about all things electrical, and also designing a light that can grow a plant. I mean really, how many people can say, "oh yeah I made the light that grew my homegrown bud, and it's way more potent than shit you find on the street". Everyone buys their lights from someone else, and then uses them. I think I'm going to be one of few who can actually say I built my light for my plants. Not so much an ego sort of thing, but more a personal goal.

I love the satisfaction from making a design for something and knowing it works. Also, in all of my previous grows I've had some space to work with. My tent right now is 3' x 3' x 6.5'. There's really tons of space that I didn't utilize. This time I will be micro growing, something I have been a little eager to do. And I will also point out that this is the first grow I plan on using a carbon filter with and whatnot. So it's as much of a learning experience as an experiment.

After adding up the numbers I'll only be running ~85w in my LED cab. I think most people would rather save their money and go the easy way, to buy a UFO. What I want to accomplish in the end is 1g/w. If I could pull even 2 ounces off 85w I would be extremely happy. But really my goals are, design light for plants, make true stealth cab, and harvest 1g/w. So call me a pioneer, I will be marching into the depths of the unknown and I hope to return with nice dank sticky icky buds ;) I think people will be interested in watching my progress, but I don't believe that many will put forth the effort and do the same.
 

smokeyjoes

Well-Known Member
size wise your micro grow wont be much different to me i've got just under 3ft height and floor space of 2ftx2ft biggest struggle i'm going to have is getting enough headroom for her as she flowers as lights and pot take up too much of the height i've got.

next grow will be similar to this but i'm going to find a lower pot but bigger outwards will be a bit like a bonsai pot but bigger lol.

We all should be interested in your light that sounds like it would suit my sort of grow and much cheaper to run in the long run and temps down.

I have noticed with my grow that the temps are prob too low but i'll be adding a 300watt cfl for flowering so that'll help. Need to get a temp gauge and humidity gauge this weekend and have to setup my exhaust to outside. havn't needed exhaust so far as not hot and no smell but will smell when I flower, and that's soon, pics be up in a mo so you'll see the shoots heading upwards.
 

smokeyjoes

Well-Known Member
This photo was taken on the 1st of may, she a little taller now the strongest shoot is only 4 inches from the soil level, and i'm considering topping that one as it's much more advanced than the rest and as it's the strongest shoot she has a good supply from the roots.

DSCF3705.jpg

The shoot i'm talking about is if you look at post 31 3rd pic top r/h you can see she's the strongest one.
 

Onlyoneman

Well-Known Member
That is a beautiful plant you have there. I'm growing a couple of plants looking for a mother right now, and once I get a good clone suited to it I'm going to be doing something a lot like what you're doing with this plant only smaller as the space I will be growing in is about half the size you're working with. Might seem silly to try to grow in such a small space, but I think it just makes it more interesting. I have a whole room to spare which I can use if I chose to. I have done my share of massive grow ops and I know I can grow nice plants and get nice yields, now I want to see how many obstacles I can overcome and end up with some quality bud, and how much of it I can muster...OK OK maybe that is indeed partly just an excuse...I wanna watch some bud grow, but I'm too lazy to grow more than a few these days!
My plan is to come up with something very much like what you have going here and then FIM maybe 3 or 4 sites, veg for another week or two, go 12-12, and let her do her thing while praying that I don't run out of head room. I will only have about 2 or 2.5 feet of vertical space total for the plant to grow (thats taking in to account for the lighting and container). I can only hope I get a start as nice as yours. Keep up the good work!
 

smokeyjoes

Well-Known Member
This is basically what i did to LST, but instead of just training i topped a 13 inch clone done to 3 inches and she sent out lots of branches about 11 only kept the strongest and then LST then horizontally around the pot, using metal hooks made from coat hangers, just repeating the LST every few days as they grew more. Actually it's quite easy but does lengthen the vegging stage by quite a bit, it's sisters are now well into i think 3rd or 4th week of flowering and have some nice buds on the way.

View attachment 919771

Pic came from http://www.indoormarijuanaseeds.com/images/low-stress-training.jpg

has helped me out having this as a guide.
 

smokeyjoes

Well-Known Member
Thanks Onlyoneman and Crunkyeah I think i've done very well for my first ever grow, so far anyway.

And I still haven't finished experimenting just FIM'd the biggest shoot rather than topping her. Well I hope I FIM'd her as i've never done it b4 i'll soon see when she grows a bit more.

Also just put the timers into 12/12 as some of the shoots are growing upwards fast and don't want to run out of head room while flowering, well G-Force likes 8-9 weeks flowering time possible 10 weeks so my first grow will get it's results then can't wait to see the weight of the bud dry, from 1 plant.
 

smokeyjoes

Well-Known Member
She's been on 12/12 for 2 days now did have 2 cfl's (20w=150w and a 15w=75w) in there and 2 led bulbs have changed them today to 3x20w(150w eqiv) and 1 led bulb as prefer to have a few more watts of red in there.

Was buying a 300watt cfl and reflector off ebay but seller can't be bothered to send me an invoice with a combined postage price correct on it so will take my money somewhere else. Don't want to give rude ignorant people my hard earned cash, their loss. by the way the seller is basement_lighting_ltd so keep away they useless.
 
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