mark's perpetual grow

Markshomegrown

Well-Known Member
I've got three of the Meross smart bulbs in the house, often wonder if I could grow something with them.
My general rule of thumb is 25w ft2, and you need reflective walls to get the best out of them so, you could get away with(12- 15w bulbs, keep the bulb spacing 8" triangle shape)40 cm x 40cm (one plant).
You want the light turned all the way to 2700k (most effective if your running on low watts)

keep the bulbs 6" above the canopy.
 

Markshomegrown

Well-Known Member
How was the uniformity?
It's much better without the reflectors because like HPS the light goes everywhere, I like to focus the light onto the canopy as you put less in and get more out.
The more LEDs you have the more effective they become, the outer layer of LEDs lose some of the light because it's not strong enough for the plants to use(outer edges are about, 4" away from the bulb, they could up lose 25%) with the bulbs in the enter, 100% of the light is used(so you can space these out 12") it's all about every bulb overlapping the one next to it, 50%.
the light chart in this video show this, bulb spacing is not good, high par centre low on the outer edges
 

Markshomegrown

Well-Known Member
Here some pictures, 54 days in flower 12/12, just under 8 weeks
IMG_0956.jpg

some close up bud shoots
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I have trimmed all the fan leaves off and most the sugar leaves, cut the main stem, I will leave them till next Sunday
trim the rest of the buds.
IMG_0958.JPG
 

Markshomegrown

Well-Known Member
I have cut all the buds off the stems and trayed them up, the plants weigh between 167g and 205g
Still need to do a little trimming and the buds may lose 1-2% more, chopped the plants when they were dry.
so I could still lose 5% of the weight, total weight is 1,104g -5% = 1049g
my led was about 400w and the 600w HPS so I pulled 1g per watt, the LEDs covered 1.3m x 1.1, and the HPS covered 0,8 x 1.1m

IMG_1004.JPGIMG_0994.JPG
 
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Markshomegrown

Well-Known Member
I build a led panel made of houses hold light bulbs, total cost, under £150, 360w, most Growers said these where not very effective( 2700k, been told should of used 4000k), thinned the canopy out and removed load of fan leaves, in early flower, again told its not good thing to do. Used cheap compost and dry food from the local garden center, everyone kind of ignored my advice on this. I leave my plants in a small amount of run off( again told this is bad advice)
Feels like everything I do and don't do, is wrong or bad advice, but I do it anyway, you could say I pulled 420g with the HPS 0.7g/watt and 1.5g/watt with the 400w led.

But then again.
First 10 days I started the plants off under the led panel only( guess this is bad advice). So the plants have been under the HPS and LED for 6 weeks

So on average the plants have received about 840w ( added the 6 bulb led bar, 4 weeks in flower).


Don't know what to make of low light early flower and adding more light mid flower but it worked for me,

Cheap lights, low amount of electric used, cheap compost and plant food.( reused soil)
Very basic cheap setup.

Over 1,000g crop, I am really happy
 

Markshomegrown

Well-Known Member
I chopped the plants Sunday morning and Wednesday evening I trimmed all the buds and placed them in trays, yes I weighed the buds and they still need a 3-4 days, guess I could lose another 2% maybe it's 5% but most the water is evaporated in the first 3 days.
 

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
You should try it, works amazing for a SCROG.
Just leave it in the screen but removing all the fan leaves is not easy lol
I would give it try, but I dry trim and it takes me a few days to bring down my whole grow. Also I usually run a few strains and some of them take longer. Luckily I have a separate drying room.

Correction: I *wet trim.
 
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Markshomegrown

Well-Known Member
Does it not mess with the structure of the cola? Especially the ones that are leaning? Sometimes I'll miss a branch that I cut and find it the next day, and it's usually sort of slumped over and sad looking.
I guess it does mess with the structure of the cola, some of them do lean over, but I think I do more damage trying to cut them out of the plant support (wet) and after you cut all the buds off the stem, I don't think you could tell anyway.

When you hang a plant upside down, you have a large number of colas touching each other, I do like the colas spaced out in the plant ring.
guess this is what you mean(structure of the cola) had been drying for just over 3 days.
IMG_0986.JPG
 
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