I decided I need a perpetual grow log for all the parts of my grow that aren’t a part of larger projects like the Bodhi Preservation Project. So, I’ve changed the original title and I plan on treating this thread like a long term investment of knowledge, research and plant porn! (10/25/2018)
Not much to see yet, but here’s a group photo!
The soil is recycled from 2 years ago, mixed with kitchen scraps and aged a year with earth worms. Amended with insect frass, rabbit manure, Build-A-Soil Craft Blend, Grow-Sil rice hull silica, BioAg TM7, Ground Malted Barley and drenched in Compost Tea (brewed in a Tim Wilson bioreactor). Then topped with straw, last crops fan leaves/stems and native clover seeds.
Each cannabis seed is nested in a peat moss plug and rested on top of mycorrhizae inoculant. I also keep a Blumat moisture sensor hovering at around 100mb with hand watering.
This should be a shorter run as I plan on flipping to flower once all 4 plants hit 8-12 inches in height. The veg light is just an old 400w LED panel, and the flower light will be an 800w equivalent LED light.
My goal is just to test strains and determine their usefulness for headstash or commercial production.
My prediction are that the Brothers Grimm genetics will be stable and top shelf, the Rare Dankness genetics will be headstash but bushy and thin stemmed, the Swamp Donkey & Mosca genetics are unfamiliar to me, for now! I’m not planning on taking clones of any of them, unless I luck out on a what might be a vigorous keeper. After a smoke report any clones that aren’t keepers will get given away or maybe just “released into the wild”!
Currently residing in the Washington state, Seattle area, so I’m already expecting to have to combat PM and spider mites as they are everywhere in the outdoors. For PM I maintain a consistent relative humidity around 50% and avoid fluctuations, as that triggers spore formation. For spider mites, or other mites, I release various species of predator mites as needed, sourced from Arbico Organics.
20 gallon I believe, filled about half way. Each is in a 2’ x 2’ area and appear to be about 2’ tall, placed in a 2’x4’ tent. Since I’m doing a shorter cycle than I usually do I decided filling them probably wasn’t necessary.
I had a friend on the commercial site that gave me some cured OG ghost train haze #1 and it was an awesome haze with a hint of mint. I’m hoping for a similar terpene profile.
With all 4 seedlings really reaching for the sky, I decided to top the pots off with a couple inches of vermicompost, along with 100s of worms fed on scraps, soil mix and BAS blend top dressing. At this point I have 2 year old soil in the bottom, an equal layer of 1 year old soil on top of that, and 6 month old vermicompost on top of that!
Have to run and help my brother rescue a shrub from a neighbor, but tomorrow I’ll add a layer of straw again so it has mulch. I also tossed on some alfalfa seeds for a make shift cover crop, waiting on the mail for clover seeds.
Oh, I have also been watering every couple days with sprouted seed teas, either by grinding up the compost seeds that keep sprouting or with sprouted alfalfa seed, depending on how lazy I am that day
@sneaky I’m actually guessing for the most part at the 400w LED, but I’m basing it off of what I know it’s equivalence probably is. A friend bought the light and said it was 1000w, but it’s from the generation of lights where they hadn’t started completely lying about wattage and were only mostly lying. Based on what it was capable of putting out last year I believe it’s between 200w and 400w (really only good for veg). Your question caused me to wonder what it actually is, which made me realize that one of the power supploes is actually dead, and I’m only getting light from the 4 outer lines and not the inner most pair.
I took photos of what I can see, maybe someone can help me figure out what wattage it’s actually putting out. It probably wouldn’t hurt to teach me about what else is available, inexpensive stuff as I refuse to pay for name brand stuff (a whole rant about the exploitative and deceptive nature of capitalism should go here, but it won’t), as it’s guaranteed that I need to buy/build something more appropriate for our purposes! (Planning on researching the SolStrips I’ve been seeing referenced on various threads!)
The internet says it’s probably an old LED light from these guys, with the QR code referencing the highlighted numbers. Fixture measures approx. 16" across by 4’ long.
This is the best I could find researching, but I’m not an LED pro, so the numbers are mostly unintelligible to me.
The other lights I have are (2) 2000w LEDs, that are actually about 400w a piece. Both 2Kw’s were purchased locally from a commercial op that bought too many. I can’t find the specs on them, but I remember researching them before I bought them and they were putting out a true 400w, although, I think some of the diodes recently went bad, because I noticed them when I was looking at them today. They’re currently being used to light a shed w/ 20 strains that I’ll running a S1 project on to preserve the genetics. It’s about a month from completion so I probably won’t be documenting it.
I messaged @Baudelaire a bit ago, thinking there was no reason not to enlist the pros!
From your posts I’ve gleamed that I probably need a “SolSheet X” for my 2’x4’ grow tent.
I like running my plants just on the edge of too much light, but not so much that I need to pump CO2.
I’m well versed in wiring things up, metal work modifications and soldiering when needed so SolStix are an option too. Additionally, as you suggested in your posts I’d like to push the ballasts, but run the LEDs as efficiently as possible. I usually keep a canopy distance of about 18", for your calculations.
I grow mostly sativa leaning hybrids so hitting more into the blue spectrum is important for me and I’m a huge supporter of tossing some deep red/blue into the mix.
If you could help me form a parts list for ordering off the Solstrip website I’d really appreciate it.
Yeah, I didn’t want to come off as some wiseass, when I bought my first LED’s I went to a local hardware store and got a 15$ wall-draw electricity meter, because I didn’t trust the watts…
Good move. Until you’ve got a Kill-a-Watt meter, you have no idea how powerful your typical off-the-shelf LED light is. Most are advertised as “HID equivalent” watts, which vastly inflates their power estimates (and obfuscates one of the main advantages of LED vs. HID, efficiency.)
Buy LED (or HID) lights based on PFFD and PAR output, not electrical consumption.
so far. 4 days from planting and all four plants are up and running with no signs of trouble!
I messaged 