"Home made" LED grow lights...

[Gastanker]

Personally I think you have it down - 3 or 5w CREE diodes mostly w/w with a few blue and a few red if you feel like it. Ideally spaced out over a large area on a large heatsync. Unfortunately that'll cost you a shitload more than the cheap options. A few days ago I priced together a 300w CREE system from RapidLED and I want to say I was up to $700 before I decided against it - of course still much cheaper than buying an equivalent unit but still pretty expensive for the amount of light. My 200w system - admittedly much worse, is only costing me $180.

 

[PetFlora]

300 watt LED DAMN Dude!

The area I would be lighting is 2 X 4. I should be able to do that with RapidLED for $~400. I have damn near that in my 8 bulb HO T5 + the wide variety of aquarium bulbs. It's doing an excellent job, but LEDs intrigue me, and I think with what Rapid is doing, they are finally 'there'

 

[MajorCoco]

Even though I rashly claimed that my small and frosty lady might be ready in just 45-50 days of 12/12 she does look to be slowing down on the new pistils at the top, and a quick look at a bud leaf from the top cola showed this...

A closer inspection shows that the top cola is starting to show a very few amber trichs on the bud leaves (still much less than 1% of the total, and none yet on the bud calyxes), so I guess we're approaching the end for this plant.

Do some varieties get random orange trichs early, or does the very first appearance mean that this is definitely the start of the harvest countdown? I never used the trich colour to test when harvest was due when I did this years ago!! If I was looking at how swollen the calyxes are to judge the harvest I'd say I still have at least 1-2 weeks left. An early harvest would really, really help me out though...

Here's a quick pic of the top cola (it's a little one, but perfectly formed ), and some of the buds just under it.



I'm hopping up and down with excitement here...I think I'm going to harvest her early in the whole Milky/Amber ratio. First the main cola, then leave the rest to bulk up. This is supposed to be quite heavy couch-lock weed genetically, so no point adding more CBN to that. So it may not be long now.

Good plan bad plan?

 

[Slixxor]

That's a good plan. Aim for more realized thc rather than CBN. CBN can cause nausea and the dreaded washing machine affect if you made bubble hash or oil it would be quite an unpleasant buzz. Mind you I love sativas! Lol

 

[thatsmessedup]

It looks spectacular! can we see a picture of the whole plant?

 

[PSUAGRO.]

What up Cocco..........I think it's a little early(pics), i would give them a couple of days at the least/i hear ya on the heavy couchlock, but that happens around 35%+ amber...........But it's your girl/kill her if you want

 

[MajorCoco]

What up Cocco..........I think it's a little early(pics), i would give them a couple of days at the least/i hear ya on the heavy couchlock, but that happens around 35%+ amber...........But it's your girl/kill her if you want

No, no. Don't worry, I know she isn't quite done yet, but bearing in mind I've not smoked my own for 10 years I'm squeaking at the first sign. If I harvested tomorrow then she would have been only 42 days from the flip to 12/12!! Even if I leave it another week that's still a crazy-short flowering period for a 4 week veg from seed.

I've always believed that seed bank flowering times were always exaggerated, and were usually counted from the first sign of flower rather than the flip to 12/12. So if this plant is ready in a week then it's obviously some weird early-flowering, mega-frosty mutant which I will no doubt forever regret not having cloned....!!

Anyway..I'm impatient, but even I'm not going to risk cutting before she's ready because she is a tiny plant anyway, and I'm sure every day counts at the end yield-wise. I know the leaves' trichs go amber before the bud ones too, so I'm aiming to account for that..

I'll get some full-length pics up soon! Bedtime now!! It kinda feels like the night before the night before what might potentially be the night before christmas...

 

[PSUAGRO.]

Ha ha...........sorry I misunderstood you , figured it was way early for the chop.........wait for the cure, it's a bitch staring at the jars

 

[Gastanker]

Holy smokes talk about a bit of icing on that plant. Looks like you left it outside in the snow overnight.

 

[FranJan]

"I will no doubt forever regret not having cloned....!!"
Then leave a little bud and some leaves and re-veg.
Now I know a little about what you dealing with cooling those arrays Major. I just got a couple of those 20 watt LED wash lights (5500K, 20 x 2 watt diodes (blue based) running at slightly less than 1 watt each) just for corner coverage in the veg cab and I see how hard it must be to cool the higher wattage ones. Since the body of these lights are the heat-sink it's pretty impressive how hot they get. Haven't put a thermometer to it yet, but I don't think they're running much cooler than 2x23 watt 6500K CFLs. Still they're doing the job it seems and I'm saving a "whopping" 45 or so watts and I guess every little bit helps, right?

And I'm digging that frostiness too Major so please don't pull the trigger just yet. Let's see where they go!!!!

 

[PetFlora]

You should be able to grab a little pop corn down low. But even then, you're looking at a couple weeks to cure properly

 

[foreverflyhi]

Is that a iso butane lighter? Once I started using those I stopped using bics lol

 

[MajorCoco]

Is that a iso butane lighter? Once I started using those I stopped using bics lol

Just a clipper. A souvenir from my last trip to Amsterdam

 

[IlovePlants]

Harvest at 45- 50 days based on those trichs. You will be very happy if you wait until day 50. Just something to think about.You still have a lot of pistils that need to retract. Much like the leaves dying off in the fall the pistils are indicative of when the plant is matured, the retraction indicates the hardening of the cell walls at the base of the calyx in order to facilitate seed production, a sinsemilla plant needs this time to add weight into the calyxes that would have otherwise gone towards seed production. I haven't heard of a plant that you harvest with white pistils, but if anyone knows of a strain that is mature before 90% of the pistils are orange let me know! You have some amazing frost Major!
Sincerely,
ILovePlants

 

[MajorCoco]

Harvest at 45- 50 days based on those trichs. You will be very happy if you wait until day 50. Just something to think about.You still have a lot of pistils that need to retract. Much like the leaves dying off in the fall the pistils are indicative of when the plant is matured, the retraction indicates the hardening of the cell walls at the base of the calyx in order to facilitate seed production, a sinsemilla plant needs this time to add weight into the calyxes that would have otherwise gone towards seed production. I haven't heard of a plant that you harvest with white pistils, but if anyone knows of a strain that is mature before 90% of the pistils are orange let me know! You have some amazing frost Major!
Sincerely,
ILovePlants

Matanuska Tundra: apparently the pistils never turn fully orange, so there are lots of white pistils even when it's ready...but it's one of the very few that are like that I think.

Cheers for the detail on the calyx process. Good stuff!

I'm supposed to be getting more stash in on Sunday. Will my plants last until then though...that's the question. Due to popular demand though, I will certainly be leaving my very frosty lady another week or so yet.

 

[MajorCoco]

"I will no doubt forever regret not having cloned....!!"
Then leave a little bud and some leaves and re-veg.
Now I know a little about what you dealing with cooling those arrays Major. I just got a couple of those 20 watt LED wash lights (5500K, 20 x 2 watt diodes (blue based) running at slightly less than 1 watt each) just for corner coverage in the veg cab and I see how hard it must be to cool the higher wattage ones. Since the body of these lights are the heat-sink it's pretty impressive how hot they get. Haven't put a thermometer to it yet, but I don't think they're running much cooler than 2x23 watt 6500K CFLs. Still they're doing the job it seems and I'm saving a "whopping" 45 or so watts and I guess every little bit helps, right?

And I'm digging that frostiness too Major so please don't pull the trigger just yet. Let's see where they go!!!!

Yep. Them LEDs sure do get hot if they're powerful enough!

Good thing you said that about re-vegging. I did read about that a while ago, and the thread I'd read suggested that it f@#ks up the genetics if you take a clone from a re-veg....a little bit more research shows me that this may well not be true. Good news, and I'll definitely look to take a clone to make a mother.

I actually decided last night that I'm enjoying this so much I am going to do a follow-up grow. So I bought myself a little grow tent last night. The cupboard I'm using just isn't good enough. I've got serious humidity problems over night at the moment, so I'm nervously checking for mould every day. I'm regularly hitting 75% at night, but I just can't start cutting holes in my cupboard door for decent ventilation....the tent can't arrive soon enough! Such high humidity could hit my potency, though hopefully not as badly as a sativa flowered in humid conditions!

I'm also going to do one Arjan haze #2 next grow. I like sativas too, and doing it alongside a short-flowering time plant should ease the pain of the long wait for the finish!

 

[MajorCoco]

This is the 3 of them all together. Little Miss Frosty is the one on the right...they get less frosty as you move to the left, but even the one in the corner is putting out some juice now finally....nothing remotely as good as my #1 star performer though...genetics eh!!

Here is a top-down of her...


And a saucy little full-length shot Isn't she cute...


This is the middle one...At least 2 weeks left I guess.


And this is the "runt" who I've been ignoring, but is doing some lovely things in the back there. The top cola on this is the size of a golf ball, and looks about as dense...a good 3-4 weeks left on her though I think...

 

[PetFlora]

Yep. Them LEDs sure do get hot if they're powerful enough!

Good thing you said that about re-vegging. I did read about that a while ago, and the thread I'd read suggested that it f@#ks up the genetics if you take a clone from a re-veg....a little bit more research shows me that this may well not be true. Good news, and I'll definitely look to take a clone to make a mother.

I actually decided last night that I'm enjoying this so much I am going to do a follow-up grow. So I bought myself a little grow tent last night. The cupboard I'm using just isn't good enough. I've got serious humidity problems over night at the moment, so I'm nervously checking for mould every day. I'm regularly hitting 75% at night, but I just can't start cutting holes in my cupboard door for decent ventilation....the tent can't arrive soon enough! Such high humidity could hit my potency, though hopefully not as badly as a sativa flowered in humid conditions!

I'm also going to do one Arjan haze #2 next grow. I like sativas too, and doing it alongside a short-flowering time plant should ease the pain of the long wait for the finish!

Do you have room to put a plastic jug? I fill jugs, freeze them then use them to cool my 2 rezs

 

[MajorCoco]

Do you have room to put a plastic jug? I fill jugs, freeze them then use them to cool my 2 rezs

I'm in soil, so I got no rez! Unless I'm missing something...!? I'm checking for mould on my bud, not in my rez, in case that was what you were thinking.

I was actually thinking about going DWC for the next attempt, but using this wormpoo in soil is just so easy. All the problems I've had so far have been down to me just doing stupid stuff. The half-dead leaves are ALL a result of me over-watering and/or adding unnecessary crap to my wormcasting (and molasses) tea. I'm 100% sure of that now.

I'm buying a dehumidifier soon, so hopefully with the new tent this should sort the air humidity problems..

 

[thatsmessedup]

They are looking good... A little smaller then what I thought they would be though. We never really know what you got till its cut and dried. Hoping for the best for your grow