I'm kinda slackin on the pics because I'm having trouble getting good shots along the way and then I miss my opportunity... but, after I pulled 7 ounces early just before christmas, (whoops, should have let them go! newb) I ended up pulling another 3 zips off the bottom buds which I let mature past the others... (which matured too far and some hermi'd--whoops! newb!) that totals 10 zips off 430 watts... so at least I exceeded the famed .5g/w aim. AND, this was my first time growing buds, and there were definitely health problems with the plants that had nothing to do with lighting, so I feel like I got some really good results all things considered. Oh, and the buds are primo quality, even if some of the plants grew out airier than I'd like. Some grew out damn near rock hard buds, even the small ones at the bottoms of the stems. And everything was absolutely covered in crystals.
They're not the prettiest buds in the world, my hackjob post-dry manicure was pretty bad and my photography lacked proper lighting, but, Here's some of the early harvest... chose to leave foliage on while drying... on the upside, I got a nice slow dry and the buds cured great after... on the downside, it's a pain in the ass to trim out foliage-thick buds on the dried buds. Still, the buds were really nice even with the extra leaf, so it might be worth it for the slow cure. Reminder, this is my first grow, this is from bag seed, and was having some health issues when I opted to harvest (hence the funky leaf colors):
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And, I mean, I harvested some too early and some too late, and both were really awesome smoke. Everyone who's tried it has been blown away. Well, the latter stuff is still curing but it is smoothing out nicely and still has a great smell, taste, and even potency, despite being probably a bit over-developed.
Here's a couple shots I snapped while trimming up the later harvest:
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And here's a few shots of the (already jarred) dried buds... they are fluffy but I don't really care, 3 zips is 3 zips and the potency and smell is still great. Sorry, I apparently failed to take pics of the latter crop dried outside of the jars.
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After trimming all the buds from the stems and into the jars, I was left with a huge pile of shake... here's the fat joint I rolled from it, with a few hermi seeds I found in the shake:
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Overall it didn't end up being the quality I wanted, but I blame myself mostly, and newb mistakes. It certainly wasn't the lights!
I think that this method is proven, and no matter how you look at it, it's certainly a worthwhile method. The MAIN reason I use T5 is to keep heat control and fire hazards to a minimum. I might have spent a little more on bulbs than I needed to, but since this is for self-supply I'm not too worried about it overall, it's paying itself off quickly.
Since I timed everything poorly, I ended up taking clones at a time that gave the results no where to go when they were ready... rigged up a CFL-based veg chamber and used that to hold them over for way too long, over a month. Decent lighting, but not enough really. I transplanted each of these into full 5 gallon bags which gave each of them some new space to grow roots... and I think I can make it work despite the stretching because I supercropped everything over and laid it all out horizontally across the chamber... next I'm going to build 3 screens, one for each, which add up to total the footprint of my T5 unit. I will take pics of this process when I get there. Just waiting for some materials to arrive...
One more, Bulb Porn, here's my current setup with +2 bulbs in center under ballast:
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Hoping to greatly exceed my first results now that I have a better idea of how to care for them, better starting soil mix, and a couple extra tubes.... not to mention this time I am SCROGing 3 plants instead of LSTing 7 in the same space... will be interesting to see how it goes...
) I am shooting for a little higher up the bar.
. I feel like all the bulbs do a great job so don't take what I say as the absolute, this is just what is working for me so far. Instead of not using certain bulbs, it would be better to just buy another fixture for side-lighting, and as far as getting that 6:1 red/blue ratio, the only way to keep it high in the 660nm range is to use LEDs for now. The Flora Suns are a 1:1 red blue so adding more Flora Suns, although will add more 660nm, will not boost that 1:1 ratio. The higher red ratio is what's going to make for bigger, denser buds. A lot of people are having pretty good luck with the red sun even though they are only 630nm. I remember the first UFO LEDs only consisted of 630nm reds and didn't work that well. Now that they've switched to the 660nm reds they are working according to other users. All in all, I'm still up in the air with the red suns, but they are currently the only way to keep the 6:1 ratio and still use T5s alone. Hope this helps ya.
