I’m surprised more folks aren’t putting 2 + 2 together on this. Maybe I’m wrong. Like you, I just never remember “Cal-Mag” being anywhere near the grow space. Most commercial/bottled/dry nutes always had plenty to offer the plants. I never remember bringing it into my store when I had the hydro shop. (20 years ago before LED)
Shoulda bought stock in Cal-Mag! 
Nah man me either and i still dont use the stuff. If you use modern salt base ferts it should have all calmag in for plants needs and if you seeing summink like issues its generally just a case of upping base ferts. Only time i use calmag is for re-buffering old coco or i should say i re-soak the old coco in calmag overnight at correct PH of 5.8, i think this lot of coco is on its 3rd or 4th use now. But nah I’ve constantly been growing in coco 20 years in different grow spaces and I’ve never once used calmag in my feeding regime. That said in that 20 years ive only ever used Canna coco pro+ from a sack.
Most branded coco straight from a sack will come washed, pre-soaked and inoculated with beneficial goodies. The blocked compressed coco especially the cheaper stuff may need, washing, buffering overnight beforehand. Usually tells you on packaging. Lots of the decent branded blocked stuff is already treated too.
Apparently not cus the newer digital ballasts are more soft starting at start up unlike the old school magnetic ballasts which just clunk straight on. That said i still use a contactor relay with hps lighting or a heavy duty plug in timer for just one HID here in UK, but the cheaper end timers can stick on so lights running 24/7 and they still do even with digital ballasts, my mate recently had this problem till i gave him an Lumii heavy duty one.
Theirs a nice 315wattage CMH bulb test here. Picture will look good blown up and stuck on wall in living room over fireplace. 
So today was 8 days on bloom and the small room was getting crowded out with plants and leafage, so i decided to lollipop and defoliate plants a lot of big fan leaves along with netting the plants. Usually i try to net plants at 12 to 14 days into bloom at canopy level which is perfect time to do it with 1 net imo, cus it just gives the plants a week or so stretching like mad to grow those tops through and properly support the bigger buds in full bloom. But yes what with it getting a little bit crowded i added it today a few inch just above the plant tops and i gave them a good drink to destress the fuckers afterwards and jobs a good en.
Feeds are now A&B and seaweed juice at EC 1.6`ish & PH5.8. Just a few pictures to look at. Cheers guys.
I thought id get a picture of the lighting which im using in bloom now is set, just cus i can 
. Basically its a Philips 315cdm in middle and 2 x 60watt Samsung quantum boards one with lm301b and other with the lm301h chipset.
Heck ya looking good ready for the fun part flower definitely can’t wait to see these beautiful ladies filling out
Ha, I’ll probably just go back to using my old Philips lamps 
Packed in tight, you really know how to work your space… mine would drive you nuts 
Sneaky working that seaweed in with salts. How are you doing that? I’ve been tempted, but with no micro herd figured I’d just be pissing in the wind, lol!
Thanks for posting the CMH info and links @2-scoops , that’s good info, I’m fully down that rabbit hole now. I think I could get 4 maybe 5oz off a 250w hps which isn’t far off what I get from 250w led. So I’ve been leaning that way or maybe a 400w hps with digital ballast so I could dial it back a bit on the hot days. But 315w seems a good balance between the two. Is the heat comparable with HPS? Watching videos about it the timeline over the last few years is interesting, how they keep pushing led until some pitfall becomes undeniable and then they acknowledge it and the goalposts move a bit.
Now we seem to be at the stage where “they” are saying there’s a world of difference between a $200 Vipar/Vivosun/budget led and something of the same wattage but 4x the price like ACI even though spectrum graphs and par charts look almost identical. They say the charts are fake or to ignore the numbers for those budget lights and look at the results. Then in the next breath they will use graphs and numbers to prove that led is better. Which is it, they can’t have it both ways. I notice with HPS most 600s are alike, there’s maybe a few % benefit paying a bit extra for a Phillips son-t bulb, but with led is a minefield, easy to buy an expensive dud it seems. I wonder if it’s like push-bike lights, they’re blindingly bright to look at, I can see the bike coming from 3 miles away, but when they reach me that light is barely lighting the road in front of them.
Great take on all of it. I guess I’m just old and jaded…and even though I did jump into the fire with both feet…I’m not that impressed with “LED” on the whole and am heading back into HIDLand. Those pale plants >everywhere<…it kinda makes me cringe. Never saw that in the old days. If you did the guy was just fuckin clueless AF. 
Now it’s the norm. “Get ya some Cal-Mag”…LOL.
Nah. Nope. Rock on folks!
U going back to HPS than ???
Is Phillips making the Horizontal CMH again? They were the first ones with it, and then stopped making it except in the vertical. That was years ago, I’m 100% LED now.
Marty
Yes. I’m limited to a well-insulated but (other than a woodstove) unheated garage space and found out last year that the LED’s don’t offer any help in heating the space w/o frying the F out of the plants. I also miss those purty blues and oranges…though I’ll likely do a mix of the two to snag that wider spectrum of light.
I’ll keep the LEDS up high just in case the HID’s don’t work
Awesome brother can’t wait to see ur pics gonna be pretty cool
Yes really thick stems on this one from Growers Ark NL and sure all 3 look indica heavy types to my eyes. i do have some same name different breeder i may try those out to see how they grow at some point in near future. See how we go int it cus i do have cuttings of these for next round.
Cheers bud.
I add it a day into my mix a day few days before i feed and give it a good stir which i do quite often through out day, doing that alone should help break it down. But if you or i wanna really give it a head start just add a few carbs to mix and do the stir or bubbling thing, that should break it down even more as sugars come to life in your mix and those microbes go to work on the organic seaweed matter. But my coco i load up with mycorrhiza and trichoderma, so that shit alone will help out too. I’m a believer in that it breaks down good enough to get a little benefit of the stuff. Ok peeps may differ with opinions but yes that’s way i do it and what i believe. I use it as a foliar spray too if plants are looking stressed out in veg or early bloom otherwise it goes through roots.
It runs hot so its still great during winter months so i dont have to use the electric heater in room when lights on but its not as hot as the 400hps. I got temps set at 28c and fan hardly ever cranks up higher to deal with temps maybe 2 to 3 times nightly going by what my smart temp app doo-dah is telling me, unlike the 400hps in their the app tells me fan is firing up a lot more to keep temps in line.
Yes for real i see that too. TBH I think its snakey as fuck the LED light game. A lot of it is down to parts used i think and where they are made. I mean you can get a £200 led that’s saying same as a more expensive LED with readings and charts so it has to be that.
Basically if looking for an LED i go by parts used and anything that contains the Samsung lighting chipset of the lm301b, lm301h or the latest lm301h evo chips with a rating of 2.7umol or higher should rock it right up, Meaningwell drivers are said one of best too but the light chipset is more important imo.
Don’t fall for all flannelling bollox from light makers they are as good as bottled fert & additive makers for spewing it out. If you get a Chinese made light that has the lm301b chip or above and all readings are saying same as your more expensive locally made led with same parts you can bet your bottom dollar they are more or less same light. What i think can let Chinese brands down sometimes are the workmanship a bit and sometimes the follow up service, i would say that’s about the only big difference. Don’t fall for the “my light is better than theirs” just cus its locally made, when they have same readings on graphs etc and are built with same parts, that`s just snakey talk.
I also think the even cheaper led lights that aren’t made with those parts mentioned but get a good umol rating can rock it too but its how long do the lesser parts last in comparison.
I’ve had the more expensive locally made and cheaper Chinese made led & both worked fine.
Your not gonna get led buds grown as fat as a 600hps but that’s just my opinion cus i haven’t. Yield either but maybe that’s cus i grow in a tight cramped space if i had more space for plants to spread out like in days of old then maybe that scenario might differ i just dont know although everyone seems to think LED kick hps when i read around net.
One I’m using is set Horizontal as are many others i see running same bulbs. Its only 2nd grow I’ve used it but i presuming so, that’s unless they should be vertical
Yes after a few years faffing with that shit happening under LED with cuttings and seedlings i reverted back to old school t-5 in veg cab. Usually if it happens with larger plants its a simple fix of just upping your base ferts imo but you cant always do that with tiny little plants
I hear ya. T-5’s down on the “canopy” always kept em short/bushy until they hit the big lights. I may work on something similar here if I can cobble enough stuff together from the pile of old equipment I still have on hand. My big 8 light Tek-Light died last year and that’s when I bought the Atreum panels and a Viparspectra for the veg tent and started growing pale plants. 
IIRC the old 330 and 400’s could either be oriented base up, base down, or horizontal. I haven’t gotten a 315 that cares It’s all universal now! There were also lamps for enclosed or for open fixtures… I don’t see that as a concern anymore, either. What’s next?
Has anyone heard of a sky blue light for veg I actually just ordered one
