How does it look? Suggestions/advice?

[Metro 99]

Hey guys, just looking to get some input on my current attempt. First timer here, using some high powered LED. Atomic Northern Lights is the strain, and they are currently on week 3 of vegetative growth.

They are very bushy and are not growing as tall vertically as I thought they would by now. The highest I have is around 6-7". I heard indica is a shorter growing strain.
So in your opinion, do you think they are growing on schedule, or do they appear stunted? Is this a good time to begin LST and topping? I'd like to get about 2 colas going.



Sorry for the light! Thanks for any input.

 

[sold777]

What LED light do you have? How far is your light from your plants?

 

[Metro 99]

It's a 734W array and it's about 2 feet from the plants.

 

[4lomo]

hummmm. In my personal exp. LED is almost worthless. I have grown several small runs with two lumigrows and it took forever. The finished product was def. not as good as my HPS setup. However, the plants did grow very squat and looked good. They just took 3-4 weeks longer, and yielded not even 1/4 than a 600w HPS would have. What a great waste of $3000. The most expensive experiment i have done to date. Remember, lumens, lumens, lumens. Good luck and have fun!

 

[dannyboy602]

2' is a little far IMO. Can you bring it closer? Also for its age I think it looks fine. And turn off the light before you take your pix. That way ppl can see the green leaves and not purple ones. LED's don't penetrate that deep. I've used Blackstars I think they worked pretty well.

 

[mikek420]

I think LED can be about 2-4 inches away. they do look nice and bushy though, week 3, they seem ok to me. How many nodes do they have? when they have 4-5 that is a good time to top, or lst them (I can't tell by the pics, too many leaves)

 

[Metro 99]

hummmm. In my personal exp. LED is almost worthless. I have grown several small runs with two lumigrows and it took forever. The finished product was def. not as good as my HPS setup. However, the plants did grow very squat and looked good. They just took 3-4 weeks longer, and yielded not even 1/4 than a 600w HPS would have. What a great waste of $3000. The most expensive experiment i have done to date. Remember, lumens, lumens, lumens. Good luck and have fun!

After some careful research on LEDs, I decided that most grows are utilizing very low powered LEDs and expecting big returns. The price of LEDs are usually the reason behind it. The spectrum is also concerning, as many are only using blue and red. This set up has blue, violet, red, orange and green in the array. Curious to hear what wattage you were using for LEDs. I bought 2 734W arrays for $1200 shipped. They put out 26,000 lumens at 1M. But lumens are useless with LEDs I've heard due to the type of spectrum not picking up a lot of the light that we don't see as brightly as an HPS would.

I'll try putting the light closer and see if I can encourage a bit more growth as well but manufacturer said that this light is too powerful up close and recommended 1M for cannabis growth (Yes, most of their clients buy for cannabis and they cater to this demographic lol).
I'll put up some more pics without LED on.

 

[Metro 99]

This one above has had a bit of a discoloration on the leaves, and it is the only one besides the runt that shows this. I am using DynaGro Grow nutrient and have just fed with a CalMg supplement about 3 days ago. It seems to still be growing fine, but I have no idea what else it could be. It's been like this since week 2.

This guy here is the runt. Had some disturbing defects from her/his time as a seedling. Likely due to feeding a diluted 20/20/20 nutrient solution too young. He has recovered and is starting to grow surprisingly quick. This one also suffers from the same ailment as the previous

One of the more nicer plants that I'm hoping is a female. It has grown without much problem. The height is a little misleading, this one sits at around 6-7" high.

The tallest and strongest of the lot. It stands at about 7-8".

Another doing well.

The two nice ones and the runt.

The droopiness is caused by the night cycle I believe. Anyway, comments/concerns would be great!

 

[mrCRC420]

Those are healthy looking vegetables Metro 99. Here are some issues: Your plants look too hot or dry under your LEDs; all of your leaves are pointing upwards to perspire heat. And they may be a bit too short; indicas are shorter than sativas but they should be gaining some height at this point; keep an eye of them and maybe make adjustments to your lighting if they don't stretch by week 5 (I use cfl/HID). I wouldn't LST such a short plant; I'd just FIMM it. And make sure you've got a nice big plant before you flower; trained any way you like (lst it when it gets a bit of height/length if the main stem).

 

[Metro 99]

Those are healthy looking vegetables Metro 99. Here are some issues: Your plants look too hot or dry under your LEDs; all of your leaves are pointing upwards to perspire heat. And they may be a bit too short; indicas are shorter than sativas but they should be gaining some height at this point; keep an eye of them and maybe make adjustments to your lighting if they don't stretch by week 5 (I use cfl/HID). I wouldn't LST such a short plant; I'd just FIMM it. And make sure you've got a nice big plant before you flower; trained any way you like (lst it when it gets a bit of height/length if the main stem).

Thank you. The heat is an issue I dealt with at the beginning of the grow, and I attempted to correct this by completely re-building my room for better air flow and that included raising the LEDs from 1 FT to 2 FT. My ambient temps are now at 26.5-28'C. Should I be misting the leaves?

What has me a bit confused is how under an HPS system, for example, it is acceptable to have the plant about 1 FT away from the light. However, temperature always seems to be a factor in growing (Well, ambient temp anyway). Why is it that it's ok to have the plant 1 FT under an HPS when the radiant heat alone would increase the air around the top of the plant to 35'C+?

Should I encourage stretching by raising the lights? I have a feeling that the amount of light is the inhibiting factor to them not growing tall (no real need to).

 

[sold777]

Id have the lights about 2ft from plants and misting is good i mist during veg. I use LED for my plants during veg then switch to HPS for flowering. I found they do take a little longer to grow compared to using HPS through out the grow.