I am all for lowering costs especially the electric bill 
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lol yeah forsure, that and upfront costs, like there will be a point and its up to each individual grower of where that cross over point is, but the less light you run the more efficient you can be, but its counter to how much you can grow.
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Yeah its finding that sweet spot that balances it all out.
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A side thing ive been looking more as of late for even more reduced costs and say if were able to run less light is using say a standard Laptop charger as your driver, as ive been doing some measuring and hunting all the ones i have access to but a lot are rated at 19-19.5v but range from 19.2-19.8 v with current ranges that would put them at 45w to 65w and say the older dell chargers of 90w, alot of these are easy to find, and or can be had off amazon for around $20cnd.
Like sure you dont have the adjust-ability power output wise but if you know it will work, say you have a small cab like mine at 3sqft and you figure you only need say 65w max coupled to 10 of the 280mm strips or 5 of the 560mm, were only looking at about $70-80cnd if you needed to buy the charger which considering is quite cheap and say compatibility my xlg drivers and 14 strips i initially used and im not using to there full potential but they were in the $120-130 range per light for my setup.
Like at that point your cheaper than even SILâs and at 1.5+ times the efficiency.
So another reason i want to see what can be gotten away with.
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Played around earlier today, but laptop power supplies âchargersâ wonât work effectively due to them being constant voltage, so was running into the situation where the strips I was playing with would be only pulling about 1/2 to 2/3rds the amperage because the power supplies werenât a precise voltage and more say 19.2-19.7v when listed at 19.5v, so once the strips had enough voltage they stayed at that bottom threshold point making them only pull so much currentâŚ
Oh well, constant current or I guess even constant wattage drivers are what is actually needed
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I guess it is kind of a cheat but thereâs always Banggood
(all of us perpetual 10 year olds love that name)
Cheers
G
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there is that or aliexpress, but most of the led drivers arenât in the appropriate voltage and or current ranges but would have to really dive into them, but was jsut trying to look for an easy cheap alternative
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Since no one else will adress this, I will. I have enjoyed your thread on three different forums. I found you on ICMAG and Autoflower. I was blown away with what you grew in a computer and waited for Sunday when you posted. I like when you update and we wonât think you are turning into a D Bag because you post more. 
I like posting on my thead because it gives me a place to put my thoughts on growing and this lifestyle. Also, I am a stoner on a deserted island, not many stoner friends. Itâs nice to talk with others.
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Yeah the more one posts the more discussion that is had regardless if its about plants, and yeah im not over on those forums much, well been reading on Autoflower a bit more as of recent but thats just reading.
Also since going to updates every three days i have noticed a pretty sharp drop in discussion, but you also get out what is put in so âŚ
and yeah full agree its nice to talk and discuss with people with similar interests cause how else can you share in the things that interest you when around people who are or wouldnât be interested in those topics.
and on that note its update time too 
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Day 35/33/2
Left side plants doing their thing, been keeping down the EC of the res periodically but the pH has been stable been filling up at around 1.85ec but it raises over time to 2.2-2.3+ range before i dilute it or add fresh stuff.
Plants are starting to bulk up more, and im planning to pollinate the back right plant come the weekend, at 5 weeks in now and looking back at past seed runs it looks like ive typically had good success at from now at week 5/day 35 to day 40, as im just trying to go for as many seeds possible with that plant.
Left front plant i may remove, but also have no reason to do so such as needing space so it remains for now.
The right side seeds still maturing, some basil plants growing, and as for the bed need to give it a water today but new seedlings are coming along, the one in the center is a crinkle that i havenât removed yet, and will probably go with the left most seedling but i can wait a bit longer before doing anything.
Also been playing around with Lux readings and calculations and such based on distances, was using my phone which i knew read a little high compared to other phones, but had a cheap meter show up yesterday that i trust a bit more so will be playing with that.
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When youâre trying for max pollenation, do you use a brush or stick them in a box and let it go naturally
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actually found if you could say grab with tweezers a just opened pollen sac when they splay out you could easily dust a lot of bud sites with it.
But in this case ill be using a brush and tapping it over the buds as its pollen i collected awhile back, and i find actually brushing does work but you typically end up gumming up your brush cause well trichomes, but that works better if you just have a bud or two you want to pollinate instead of a whole plant
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Iâve typically brushed it⌠always gum up the brush lol. Iâve got a few clones in solo cups I want to fully pollenate. I was debating just blowing a fan at them lol. But the pollen will be collected long before theyâre ready, so brush it is
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yeah it works, i just tap it over bud sites in a non windy area of my house, you can do a fan but i found pollen just goes typically into the air more and not onto the pistils
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Whatâs your method for storage? Last time I let it dry, put it in a vial, put the vial in a mylar bag with desiccant packs then stick that in a vacuum bag with desiccant packs and into the freezer . It Was gummy and clumpy when I tried to use it
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right now open glass vial, the same one i used to collect the pollen in, and its been sitting on a shelf since thenâŚ
longer term i have use desiccants in with the pollen in vials but even still after 6-9 months viability has always been quite reduced, so i usually donât try and store pollen other than for say relative immediate or short future use like 2-3 months is usually good for me.
If it went gummy then it wasnât fully dried out and i have had that happen before, and why i usually leave any pollen i collect open to dry either till i use it or for say a couple weeks before i add some form of desiccant.
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had to look up to see when i started collecting, been about a month since i was pulling pollen sacs
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Yep, I use the âtapâ method too. I feel brushing it on can damage the pistils.
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I dip qtips in the pollen then dab them on the the female. Or iâll zip lock bag two or three qtips around a branch. Shake it up.
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Felt like I could share my âmethodâ of pollinating at the moment. Its a little barbaric but I got a good few ml of pollen collected and drying so I have sacrificed two of the boys and am keeping one alive as a stud for he keeps on dropping pollen and making more flowers. I pick the boy up and (I should say Iâm sitting beside the plants smoking at this point laughing to myself) I make up some scene, sometimes Joey from friends âhow you doinâ and then make kissing sounds as I brush the male flowers all over the female.
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