Drank's Grow from the Batcave "Oh what a long road for such a tiny little seed..." - MonsterDrank

[MonsterDrank]

Greetings people. I am MonsterDrank.

Indoor/Urban Grower from the North East. I have about a decade of experience growing indoors. For those who don't know me.. bound to be plenty here that do not as I have not been very active on Rollitup in years. I recently decided to come back and have been spending quite a bit of time here as of late. The community is so diverse and large that I think it is grand that such a place exists. A place for growers on all levels of experience and wisdom to come together and share from their experiences.. learn.. converse.. all things cannabis.

I wanted to make a thread to show some of my older work as well as newer work and happenings.. share experiences and information. All things related and relevant to the plant we all know and love. I also thought this would be a great way to introduce myself to the community.. and perhaps make some new friends along the way. I do want to say this... as long as it's positive.. and relevant.. anyone can post here. I welcome comments and discussion, questions.. things like that.

I am fortunate enough to have some space here in the "Batcave" to have quite the nice grow going on right now.

My Style...

For years my style of growing was mainly seed plants.. I would grab 10 or 16 or 20 or however many seeds.. and I would rarely run a pack of anything at a time.. usually a few of these, a few of those, a couple of these.. and I would have a decent size multi-strain grow going on.. this way of growing is hard/damn near impossible to find a keeper of a particular pheno of a particular plant.. but that was not what I was doing. I was thinking that mathematically.. working with let's say 10 seeds from decent genetics.. you are likely to find one really nice keeper, so every 10 seeds I ran.. I would expect one to outshine the rest.. but I would have no idea which strain that pheno would present itself from.. as those 10 seeds that I had mentioned..could have been 4 different strains. But regardless and nonetheless..out of 10 I still would usually find a really nice one to clone/keep/run again. Now I don't consider a keeper a true Elite.. I consider a keeper just something worth cloning and running again.. you still have the chance of finding something really special when you run seed plants.. I believe it's something close to 1 out of 100 when you are working with good genetics. I believe that I have come across 3 plants from hundreds of seeds over the past 10 years that I would consider to be true Elites.

When I say Elite.. I mean it.. Elite means of the absolute highest class. A real elite plant scores 10/10 in nearly every category. It's the rare plant that when you run her in bloom your jaw drops at first glance when the lights come on. The plant that gives you the loudest or most pleasant terps... the plant that just emanates dankness and is perfect in nearly every way. The one you never want to let go of. The elite plants that get produced from seed are a reward that any seed grower would find as treasured a gift from heaven itself.. and in a way I suppose it kind of is. When you find that one special plant.. you may have had to go through 100 or 150 seeds to get there... and it may take years.. but when you finally find it.... it's something to be treasured/held on to. I would suggest giving a few cuttings of something that special to friends.. and strongly encourage them to not only clone/keep her but to push the point across that this is something that they absolutely cannot lose.. keep it in their rotation. It's good to spread the genetics out there because if you ever have to tear down your grow.. or temporarily stop growing.. you know your elite cut is still obtainable. When I lost my Space Princess.. I was lost/crushed. She was a once in a lifetime plant.. I doubt I'll ever have anything like her again.


Things have changed since then.. I now have a variety of clones that I consider keepers and 3 plants I consider to be elite. My elephant dick pheno of Bodhi's Apollo11g, my Starfighter from Exotic Genetix/Alien Genetics stock, and the "Golden Ticket" cut of Chernobyl. I am a seed fiend/seed whore/seed collector at heart so I love to run plants from seed..always searching for the next best pheno.. but with a decent stable and selection of killer cuts already in my possession.. I don't have to do so. I could run a whole grow of A11g and pull of a massive ginormous yield.. and I may try that someday.. but to me this is all hobbyist type stuff.. so I am not relying on plant numbers or weights, yield, etc.

The Dirt

I grow in a mix that I mix myself of Just Right Xtra Potting Mix, Fox Farm Ocean Forest, Perlite, and a little Azomite. I top with Earthworm castings periodically and right before bloom I like to add a little Indonesian Bat Guano to the soil.

The Feed

I have traditionally used Botanicare's Pure Blend Pro nutrients from start to finish. This time however I am using Botanicare's new lineup.. the Botanicare KIND 3 part line. Running Pure Blend Pro from Botanicare always gave me amazing results however you had to use CalMag or supplement with Magnesium as the 2 Part Grow and Bloom ferts did not adequately provide enough magnesium. I am hoping that with KIND I won't have the same issues. But there's only one way to know for sure.. and that's by using it.. that is what I am doing right now.

I also use Liquid Karma by Botanicare as this is my favorite supplement and I would highly recommend to anyone using any type of growing media or fertilizer product to still acquire and use. Liquid Karma is a staple in my garden. I would not grow without it. It does all kinds of amazing things.. helps clones root faster, even helps old seeds germinate when all hope was thought to be lost, helps plants revert from bloom to veg at a quicker rate if you're stuck in that type of situation, helps the transition period accelerate from seedling to veg or from veg to bloom.. it's a catalyst and by definition catalyst means. "a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change." That is exactly what this stuff does. It also minimizes shock after transplant. It makes for healthier overall better plants. Botanicare says it increases metabolic rates. I can say first hand it really does do what it is supposed to do. I have run side by side tests using it and witnessed the difference myself. Liquid Karma is definitely worth every penny.

I am for the first time ever experimenting with their Rhizo Blast root product treatment. It's a product similar to House and Garden's Root Excelurator or the Canna's Rhizotonic. I can definitely see that the Rhizo Blast does help get those roots bigger, thicker, and the growth of the mass looked exponentially larger than I would have thought when I went to transplant a few of these plants after only a month of use. I've also taken the plants out and given them a foliar feed of the Rhizo Blast a couple of times,, as it is recommended by Botanicare to feed the root stimulator product with lower feedings if possible. But they also go on to say that foliar use is okay.. so I have applied it in that manner a couple of times.....

 

[MonsterDrank]

The Lights

I actually own quite a few ballasts.. mostly 600 watt electronic ones, both Lumateks and Phantoms. My current grow is actually a 1000 Watt Quantum electronic ballast connected to a Magnum XXXL sized reflector made by a company called the Horizon Super Nova. I've had it in storage, brand new in a box for a couple years unused.. just opened it up recently and hung it.. the Magnum XXXL 6" was 38" x 29"... the Horizon was close.. it's 37" x 26".. it is a really good quality reflector and was about $80 less than the Sunlight Supply Magnum 6" XXXL

When it comes to HID and lamps, I only use Ushio Hilux Gro Super HPS lamps.Top quality german design. I love these lamps, I've always replaced them before they've blown.. I've never blown one. I definitely can't say the same thing when it comes to other lamps I've used in the past like Hortilux or GE or cheaper bulbs.

I used to run HPS and MH lamps side by side. This combination of the 2 types of lamps gave a complete spectrum for what the Cannabis plant desires and uses to create what Clarke describes in the infamous Marijuana Botany book as a "fully realized cannabinoid profile." When you are providing a plant the complete light spectrum for photosynthesis you are creating an environment closer to resemble outdoors under the sun.

I decided to try something different this approach.. instead of Metal Halide I chose to invest close to $1k on one of these new LED lights from a company called Optic Lighting. They make and sell a 500W LED light using VERO 29 LED chips that the manufacturer claims outperforms a 1000 Watt HID light. You can choose your spectrum when you place your order.. either 3000k, 3500k, 4000k or 5000k.. I decided from what I am trying to accomplish 4000k was the way to go.. Here is a chart showing what 4000k covers..

I want to get another, probably 3 more of these lights... but for now am starting with one to see how it performs before I spend another thousand or two or three thousand dollars. I imagine it is going to be amazing running several of these around a big HPS hood.. but without seeing the performance of one light first hand running from start to finish, its hard to make that kind of judgement call. 4 of these lights total with the discount that I had managed to work out with the manufacturer would cost about $3300 total. That's quite a bit of cash to invest so I will run my single light from them for now to see how it goes in a cycle before I make that determination.

I do have to say this though about the light.. I did tons of research before pulling the trigger on the Optic Lighting 500 Watt Vero 29 LED grow light.. and thanks to a lot of the "Light Geeks" here in the forums running scientific tests and showing results of efficiency and performance data.. I was able to steer clear away from making a rash purchase decision and not buy a piece of junk LED or something that I wouldn't have been happy with. I've seen up close first hand the kind of performance a light by KIND or LUSH LIGHTING produces at their more expensive higher end models. There's a local store that sells the $1800 KIND LED light that is supposed to outperform a 1000w HPS.. and they have it plugged in and running all the time. These types of LEDs from KIND or LUSH or the BLACKDOG.. whatever you see are using the traditional LED chipset design that looks like this...

The LED light from OPTIC LIGHTING.. the Vero 29 is nothing like that.. it uses Vero 29 COB chips.. and my model, the 500 Watt has four of them.. COB Chips look like this..

As soon as you mention LED lighting to a professional or seasoned grower they want to knock it.. they are assuming you are talking about the older more trational type of LED powered by 3w Cree chips with Red and Purple Diodes like the example I posted above.. but I jut say to them.. and I have to stress this.. it's different.. this is new tech.. "This aint yo grandmas LED light son." Hahahhaa... people just aren't educated on COB lighting and not many know what a VERO 29 is.. there aren't many companies that have started using this tech yet.

Here's a photo of the 500 Watt Optic Lighting Vero 29 Grow Light turned on...

So obviously a completely different type of product.. Completely different type of design. You can't really compare. Yes they are both using LED.. but a different type of LED. The Vero 29 like I am using, each of those 4 chips is basically getting about 125 Watts of power each. If one blows or goes bad.. it can be replaced by unscrewing it with a phillips head screwdriver and you can pop another one in.. costs $28 per chip to replace. The light is a bright neutral white that covers the wide range needed for photosynthesis at 4000k. At 4000k you could run an entire grow from Veg to Flower without changing a thing. The efficiency of these chips were so great that the person testing them went on to say that the Vero 29 model from Optic Lighting was the most efficient grow light he had ever tested. They make a variety of models from 120 Watt all the way up to 500W which is the highest power model they manufacture. I chose the most powerful one of course.. as I want performance!

Sunlight Supply makes a product called a Grow Beast which is a HPS fixture surrounded by LEC lamps.. I am essentially going to mimic their design but use Vero 29 LED fixtures instead of LEC. This will create a beastlier Grow Beast of a Light! My light design will have a much larger footprint and will be providing more light.

I currently have a Titan Helios 5 HID Controller mounted on the wall that I plug my HPS into running at 240V. I am all set and ready to be able to plug in and run several more lights at any time.

The Genetics

I am a collector at heart. Seed collector.. and really big on genetics.. learning lineages.. and trying my best to preserve the genetics and keeper cuts that I have acquired over the years.

Currently Running

Bodhi - Apollo 11 Genius - my elephant dick pheno cut (apollo 11 genius pheno f3)
TGA - Chernobyl The Golden Ticket Verified Cut (bloodwreck x jack the ripper)
TGA - A13BX - A13 Leaning cut Monster Yielding, & another cut undetermined pheno (apollo 13 x vortex)
Exotic Genetix - Starfighter (lemon alien dawg x tahoe ogk)
Motarebel - Citrus Grove (orange diesel x long bottom leaf)

Alphakronik's Cheshire Kush from seed.. (las vegas purple kush x gobbstopper)
Alphakronik's Snozzberry from seed.. (urkle x snowdawg bx)
Private Breeder - from seed.. [Skywalker OGK x (Tahoe OGK x Agent Orange)]
Private Breeder - from seed.. Long Bottom Leaf (San fernando Valley OG Kush x Jacks Cleaner)

I'm excited about the Longbottom Leaf. It's creator, a guy by the name of Loran, an old school farmer/grower who created it has went on to say that it is his favorite smoke. I have such a respect for the man, as he has been around so long and has quite the reputation in the circles that I am from.. when he says something is really good or special.. I listen to him. Not only that..but a well known breeder Motarebel has used Longbottom Leaf in many of his crosses the past couple of years. It has gotten praise not only from Motarebel but also from Obsoul33t of Franchise Genetics (creator of Alien Tech and Las Vegas Purple Kush)... I have heard it referred to as "Heart Attack Kush." According to Loran.. Longbottom Leaf is a true improvement over both the SFVOGK and the Jacks Cleaner.. giving the plant better structure as SFVOGK can grow like a vine.. and also removes the astringent flavor of the Jacks Cleaner.. making it a better plant than either parent. I was lucky enough to score close to 20 of these seeds.

My Citrus Grove with is an Orange Diesel crossed with Longbottom Leaf.. has a delicious light orange peel scent, not as orangey as something like Agent Orange.. but the orange is definitely there.. and a more pronounced lemony kush,with a little bit of fuel like aroma coming off of her. She is at Day 50 at a friends place.. and is a real frost machine..looks like she is going to yield really well too. I have 3 cuts of this same plant I speak of here. She is a beauty. The Citrus Grove seeds are really rare. Motarebel supplied them to a seedbank called "The Seed Depot" right before the site's owner shut it down. He ripped off his breeders and customers, me included. I'm not sure whatever seedbanks got a hold of Citrus Grove Seeds but I do know this.. I have looked and looked.. could not find a single grow or plant shot of it online at all whatsoever. I am proud to have these seeds and now this awesome plant in my possession.

These aren't the best pic.. but you can get an idea.. Here is the Citrus Grove.. the one I took my clones off of..

 

[MonsterDrank]

I recently helped a friend, the same friend I just mentioned above start a grow here locally..he is a new grower.. and besides giving him access to my Apollo11g or A11g we simply call it.. he picked up a pack of TGA's A13BX at my recommendation. As pure luck would have it.. he found this one pheno of A13BX that just blew my mind. The plant is a mirror image of the Apollo 13 mom that Subcool used to create A13BX in a lot of ways except size..this thing is a monster. I've run A13BX a few times and I was one of the original TGA testers to test A13BX before it's release... and I gotta say..I've never seen one so large. This thing had a cola that was approaching 2 liter soda bottle size. A13BX is known to be a medium to lower yielding strain.. most plants are not going to yield exceptionally well..just average. But this one pheno.. monstrous! I actually took cuttings off all his A13BX plants a couple months ago..and have one of these exact same plants almost ready to flip to bloom. So naturally when I saw how special she looked.. I took multiple cuts off of my Veg plant.. I am definitely holding on to this one. She may be the next elite!

Some of my TGA A13BX from the past..

A13BX - the "just like mom" pheno which closely resembles TGA's A13 that they used to create A13BX

full plant shot-

apollo diamonds on the table..

funky growth. funky plant! so much fire!

Apollo 13 BX was mentioned in a breeders article in Hightimes and is worth a read. Great article- LINK

Anyone who knows me, knows I have an obsession with Apollo 11 and Apollo 13. I love Apollo buds. It is my favorite thing to smoke and grow.

The Brothers Grimm who created Apollo 11, Apollo 13, and Cinderella 99 had originally paved the way for a lot of breeders and their projects to surface. They non directly gave us some of the most amazing Cannabis ever to have existed as the genetics are used in many of today's strains.

What makes Apollo 13 special and sets it apart from the rest of the bunch.. and I can't stress this enough when I try to explain this to someone.. it has ZERO paranoia/negative/down traits. The high is very cerebral and it's the perfect thing to smoke when you want to chill with friends. It is the most UPLIFTING weed I have ever smoked in my life. The flavor is like orangey, mango, tangerine and cracked pepper. The high sets in as soon as you smoke it.. not a creeper at all.

Two hits and you can leave your own footprints on the moon.- The Brothers Grimm


Fun fact- Apollo 11 & Apollo 13 are from the same mother plant (Genius). The father of Apollo 13 was P.75 whereas Apollo 11's dad is Cinderella 99. Apollo 11 will therefore be more Sativa dominant.

I've grown a variety of of A13, A11, C99 and crosses/hybrids with these plants in their genetic profiles. Some of the best weed to have existed IMHO. I love the Grimm strains.


One of my very first indoor strains was Space Queen (Romulan x C99).. I grew it alongside some Greenhouse White Widow at the time.. and I thought to myself... man.. these Space Queens really make the White Widow look like garbage. They did too.. there was no comparison. The Space Queens were so much healthier looking plants.They were so vigorous in comparison to the White Widow. In bloom they produced way more resin.. was much whiter than the White Widow. The smells on the SQ were funky and fruity..slightly cherry.. but after harvesting and putting in jars turned to a nice fruit punch smell during and after the cure. The White Widow on the otherhand was plain and not impressive.. just average in all categories except potency.. I found it to be sub-par (TERRIBLE) in that department.. I would rate it probably a 3/10 in potency. It smelled like green tea and was just as potent. That's what I would tell people. total waste of time, money, and effort. From now on I stay away from Greenhouse Seeds and really pretty much any of those coffee Amsterdam seed shops. I try to support American Breeders. But I'm glad I got to try the Space Queen so early on in my growing path.. because it was that flavor.. probably due to the C99 used in the cross.. that got me so excited about growing Cannabis.


More updates.. pics.. things to follow. But that's alI I will add for now.

So if any of you all want to follow me as I flower out some really sick plants and learn/try new things.. Subscribe/Watch this thread..


See you all soon.. Same Bat Time..Same Bat Thread.

 

[JimmyIndica]

I have my popcorn ready

 

[Final Phase]

Waiting for the Bat signal in the sky!

 

[JimmyIndica]

There is nothing better than HighPowered CXB3590s/Vero29s 75 to 120 watts High power that is

 

[MonsterDrank]

There is nothing better than HighPowered CXB3590s/Vero29s 75 to 120 watts High power that is

I'm really liking my light.. but I am finding a bit of a learning curve to using it.

For instance.. I read the other day some poster make a comment in the Optic Lighting thread saying this..

Anything under 18" with the optic is a risk of strange growth and bleaching. The footprint is more usefully even and intense at 18 to 20 inches. This is a pretty brutal 120 watts!

And he's right.

I noticed at 18" under the 500 Watt Vero 29s the tops of some of my younger 30 day old seed plants were starting to get affected.. they were not very happy at 18" from the light.. If left like this, I could imagine the entire tops would have been bleached.. I backed the light off quite a bit back up to 24" or so. I'm just glad I caught it before real damage was done.

It's definitely something I did not anticipate seeing as a problem since the manufacturer claims optimal distance from light to canopy is around 16" in the specs.

But it is a different type of product.. like most things.. we won't know for sure unless we try new things. Just hate experimenting on my Cheshire Kush plants. Unfortunately I think I am the only person online who posts, that has bought a 500 Watt Vero 29 from Optic.. no one else to compare notes with. lol

 

[MonsterDrank]

Really happy to have gotten back my cut of the "Golden Ticket" cutting of Chernobyl

There is an excellent thread here on Rollitup Subcool made...
Return to Chernobyl... The Golden Ticket <--LINK

This is the exact same cut I have acquired from a friend of mine who resides in the Pacific Northwest.

Here are a couple photos of my experience with Chernobyl.. these below here are not the Golden Ticket.. but just a great pheno from a single seed grow. I hit the genetic lottery with that seed.

The current Golden Ticket cutting that I have is a small clone that I just got back a week ago or so.. she's currently Veggin out. I can't wait to run her. I've had her in the past but never got to flower her out.

 

[MonsterDrank]

My Favorite Breeders

I proudly support Bodhi, TGA, and Alphakronik and for good reason. They were always here for me when I needed help early on when I started growing.. and helped all along the way in some shape or form throughout the years. Besides the wealth of information that Subcool and Bodhi have provided in documented threads online.. each of these 3 breeders in some shape or form have also helped me acquire genetics that I was either in search of... or just presented as gifts and or awards of some kind, test opportunities, etc.

I know that if I wanted to.. I could reach out and contact any one of these guys and they would take the time to address any question or resolve any issue.. their customer service is top notch in that aspect.

Jay Roller aka Mr Alphakronik Genes actually got my name published in an issue of Skunk Magazine.. I thought that was really cool. I ran a test of his Snowdawg BX back when Alphakronik Genes was new and first to hit the net with it's lineup that consisted of a lot of Snowdawg and Spacequeen crosses. His Jackpot Royale was absolutely phenomenal if you got the right pheno. I had a great one that was grapey "candy like" with highlights of reds and blues and purple. I wish I kept it. Right now I am growing out a pack of his Cheshire Kush with the sole purpose, sole reason being.. I want to find a keeper.. want a cut of that Cheshire Kush that represents what I lost with my Jackpot Royale.

I think the Cheshire Kush has great potential.. it is Las Vegas Purple Kush x Gobbstopper. It's part of his new Wonderland Series..

Alphakronik's all new Wonderland Series just recently became available. Besides the Wonderland Series there are some other new crosses he has dropped as well, all listed on his website. They are using this new Gobbstopper male that is showing to have some real potential. Here is a shot of a plant called Gobbilygoo.. it is Blue Magoo x Gobbstopper.. this shot was taken by one of Alphakronik's testers-

My experience with Alphakronik's Snowdawg BX was amazing. Since Snowdawg BX, Qwaddawg or Snowdawg 2 would be what had replaced the BX in the AKG lineup.
Snowdawg had chemy limey fuely smells and scents. High potency. It's lineage and genetics are Snowdawg BX = Chemdawg Oregon Supersnowdog x Spacedawg

Snowdawg BX

Bodhi of Bodhiseeds, bless him.. is one of the most positive forward thinking people I have ever come across on the internet. He seems so enlightened and almost supernaturally charged somehow by the power of some Green God to have created the "oh so many, creations of crosses" that he put out for us. You will never see him spread or say anything negative. He is like a shining light. They call him the breeder of breeders. Not only does he do work that is beyond dispute as creating some of the most amazing hybrids out there... but he is very kind and will always go out of his way to make the canna community happy. His work used to be so hard to get hands on. I along with many others would stay up late checking late night auctions, refreshing the page over, and over again to see if he listed a few packs of seeds.. seed sniping we would call it..the many of us trying so hard to grab a pack. Now here we are in 2015.. packs are easy to get as he obviously expanded his operation.. his work is readily available to purchase at several seedbanks. He helped me get my hands on some A11g seeds when they were sold out everywhere... a pack went up for $300 at auction for the f3s. I wanted so badly to get some A11g and Bodhi took care of me.. made sure I had some available to me. He knew how much I loved the Apollo buds. What a great guy and I am proud to support him.

TGA.. my relationship with TGA/Subcool seeds goes way back to the beginning. Space Queen being one of the first strains I have ever grown.. and then going on to try Jacks Cleaner, Agent Orange, Jack the Ripper.. I found with these strains that I was thoroughly impressed with not only the quality of the plants.. but how accurate the strain descriptions were.. totally nailing it on the phenotype descriptions. Subcool/TGA had documented testing, and was doing things right.. testing everything before release and documenting phenotypes online.. showing growers what to look for..showing the true potential of the plant and using top quality genetics. When I bought that first pack of Agent Orange I was skeptical about how orange a pot plant could actually smell.. but damn... it really did smell like oranges. Freshly peeled strong scent of orange. I was amazed. So I went on to grow so much more of it.. Chernobyl, Spacedawg, Pandoras Box, Apollo 13 BX, Qrazy Train, Timewreck.. etc... I've grown most of TGA's catalog. My favorites though.. Apollo 13 BX, Timewreck, and Spacedawg. I really want to try Dr. Who. That is the next pack I will buy from TGA.

 

[Mohican]

Welcome back!

I am watching now!

The Jesus OG from TGA is one of my favorites:



I like the Blue Dream for the same reason you said about the Apollo 13. Very uplifting without the face melting paranoia heart attack!


Cheers,
Mo

 

[BobCajun]

I noticed at 18" under the 500 Watt Vero 29s the tops of some of my younger 30 day old seed plants were starting to get affected.. they were not very happy at 18" from the light.. If left like this, I could imagine the entire tops would have been bleached.. I backed the light off quite a bit back up to 24" or so. I'm just glad I caught it before real damage was done.

It's definitely something I did not anticipate seeing as a problem since the manufacturer claims optimal distance from light to canopy is around 16" in the specs.

Weird how LED will bleach plants when the PPFD or lumens are not more than the sun, which doesn't bleach plants. Is it hot at 18"? I saw a video on YT where a guy was messing around with a 400w LED high bay and he was outdoors and picked up a dead tree leaf from the ground and held it a couple inches from the LEDs and it burnt the shit out of it. Smoke came off it and it did everything but actually flame up. Holes appeared in it. I was surprised it didn't actually flame. I guess it was because he fradually brought it closer and stopped when it started smoking. If he put it closer I'm pretty sure it would've flamed.

What you said about WW being weak is interesting. I never grew or smoked it myself. I guess it's only good for making hybrids, to give them lots of resin.

 

[MonsterDrank]

Weird how LED will bleach plants when the PPFD or lumens are not more than the sun, which doesn't bleach plants. Is it hot at 18"? I saw a video on YT where a guy was messing around with a 400w LED high bay and he was outdoors and picked up a dead tree leaf from the ground and held it a couple inches from the LEDs and it burnt the shit out of it. Smoke came off it and it did everything but actually flame up. Holes appeared in it. I was surprised it didn't actually flame. I guess it was because he fradually brought it closer and stopped when it started smoking. If he put it closer I'm pretty sure it would've flamed.

With the included lenses in use, the effect at 18" was the tops of several younger seed plants that were starting to fade.

Holding my hand at the same distance for a moment, it did feel incomfortable. So I did raise the light 6 inches. There is always re-circulating air blowing underneath the LED COB chips. I pulled the plants out of there.. foliar fed with some liquid karma and let them sit on the sidelines a few hours before putting them back in. They look much happier now.

The 500 w model from Optic is pretty intense. It throws off some heat.. and a lot of light.

Welcome back!

I am watching now!

The Jesus OG from TGA is one of my favorites:


I like the Blue Dream for the same reason you said about the Apollo 13. Very uplifting without the face melting paranoia heart attack!


Cheers,
Mo

I always dismissed Jesus OG because I wasn't a big fan of JTR...it was too intense for me. Way too much paranoia.. and I didn't like the way it made my heart race.

I've actually never had Blue Dream before. I had a wonderful strain called Blue Moon that was a Blue Widow x Vortex someone made.. that was absolutely dreamy. Smelled just like blueberry jam.

 

[BobCajun]

With the included lenses in use, the effect at 18" was the tops of several younger seed plants that were starting to fade.

Holding my hand at the same distance for a moment, it did feel incomfortable. So I did raise the light 6 inches. There is always re-circulating air blowing underneath the LED COB chips. I pulled the plants out of there.. foliar fed with some liquid karma and let them sit on the sidelines a few hours before putting them back in. They look much happier now.

The 500 w model from Optic is pretty intense. It throws off some heat.. and a lot of light.



I always dismissed Jesus OG because I wasn't a big fan of JTR...it was too intense for me. Way too much paranoia.. and I didn't like the way it made my heart race.

I've actually never had Blue Dream before. I had a wonderful strain called Blue Moon that was a Blue Widow x Vortex someone made.. that was absolutely dreamy. Smelled just like blueberry jam.

Maybe it's the lenses. Try it with the lenses off maybe. Same amount of light, just not focused into tight circles. Should actually distribute the light more evenly. If you take some kind of flat light colored material, like a piece of cardboard, and hold it under the lamp my guess is that you'll see four circles overlapping at certain points, and those overlap zones will be much more intense than the rest of the circles. That's what I mean about it not being distributed evenly. As long as you have reflective material on the sides of the space I can't see why you would need the lenses. Besides, there's always some light loss when it passes through glass, plus they're holding heat in, which makes the LEDs run hotter. I really think the lenses are a bad idea.

 

[MonsterDrank]

Maybe it's the lenses. Try it with the lenses off maybe. Same amount of light, just not focused into tight circles. ,,

I have actually. I prefer the lenses on. I'm going to gradually move the light closer as well as pick up a light meter soon. I feel confident now that both lights are running side by side and have gone a couple days without seeing anything but new growth and progress. Everything is now looking great.

 

[BobCajun]

I have actually. I prefer the lenses on. I'm going to gradually move the light closer as well as pick up a light meter soon. I feel confident now that both lights are running side by side and have gone a couple days without seeing anything but new growth and progress. Everything is now looking great.

I see. Why do you prefer the lenses, because it makes the light more intense? Doesn't it cause hot zones where the beams overlap? I saw a promotional video for a two COB lamp where they took light measurements and he only put the sensor in the overlap zone. It was 900 something PPFD there, which meant that in the rest of the beams, where they didn't overlap, it must have been more like only 400 something. Problem is, the overlap zone was not very big, at least not at the distance he had the light, which I think was 16". In fact, I think it was the light company you got your lamp from, only it was the two COB version.

 

[MonsterDrank]

Yes because of better light penetration due to a huge increase in intensity I want them on.. however without a meter I cannot confirm any hot zones.. but as I said.. Everything is now looking great.

Just like anything new it takes trial, error, and experience dialing it in. I'm going to gradually move the light an inch at a time closer to the top of the canopy. I appreciate the feedback though.

 

[supchaka]

Very information packed write up! I shall follow along and welcome myself to you!

 

[MonsterDrank]

Very information packed write up! I shall follow along and welcome myself to you!

Thank you. It is very nice to meet you as well. The more the merrier. =)

 

[Binty]

There is nothing better than HighPowered CXB3590s/Vero29s 75 to 120 watts High power that is

So, I may have access to some lights built with these COB's (need to check with engineers at work) although they are not purpose built as "grow lights". Do you think it would be worth it to take a stab at rigging up a tent with these if I can get my hands on them? Also, maybe there is a better place to ask this question on this forum?

 

[JimmyIndica]

So, I may have access to some lights built with these COB's (need to check with engineers at work) although they are not purpose built as "grow lights". Do you think it would be worth it to take a stab at rigging up a tent with these if I can get my hands on them? Also, maybe there is a better place to ask this question on this forum?

I would have to see it and get build spec part#s,but yes its possible . My first question would be ? How are they cooled?