GroErr Grows...

dangledo said:

looks good as always. ive noticed my plants suck down water like no other under these lec's, too. causing me to only run 500 ppm to not get any tip burn. although im in my second run in hempy's, so thats probably a given.

what kind of shades do you wear in your room? between the hps, mh, and led shades, not sure which to go with under the lec's

you fellas must be in GREAT shape. went skiing again a couple weeks ago, for my second time, and I was sore as hell the next few days, and im in pretty good shape myself. also, a pretty good skier for only my second time, if i may say so myself. played a lot of hockey, so that probably helps.

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Yeah, they do drink more, the healthier the plant the more and faster it'll drink. All of this goes along with the faster maturation rate, they demand more and it takes a little getting used to. Mine was just bad timing, too busy and got pulled away with family the night they needed watering. I had to originally adjust feeds as well, more watering/feeds so I tuned it down to make up for more waterings/feedings in the cycle.

Don't usually wear glasses myself unless I'm changing out bulbs or something where I'll be looking into the bulbs, but it's good practice, if I do I just wear my normal sunglasses. Getting older I should probably pay more attention to that and get some higher end glasses.

Ha, always try to stay in decent shape, I play hockey and soccer too. But no matter what, when you change or start a season with a different sport, first couple times out you'll feel it. Different muscles used, and the older you get, the longer the recovery. I can vouch for that one, thereby my regular batches of 50mg coconut oil caps, they do wonders for those transitional periods

I am very glad I got some Method Seven glasses for my LEDs. I could feel it hurting my eyes.

I had to stop growing indoors because I reached the point where my girls were drinking so hard they were oversaturating the RH in my room. Now I need to finish the screen room and I can start on my C02 grow lab with all of the modern conveniences including IR TV

Mohican said:

I am very glad I got some Method Seven glasses for my LEDs. I could feel it hurting my eyes.

I had to stop growing indoors because I reached the point where my girls were drinking so hard they were oversaturating the RH in my room. Now I need to finish the screen room and I can start on my C02 grow lab with all of the modern conveniences including IR TV

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That's when the girls are finally drinking enough!

A couple of Day 25 buds from those F2's starting to frost up. Some fine smells when opening the flower room door now. There's a fruity short pheno which is smelling close to the original mother including some background lemon. Next couple of weeks should separate any potential keepers from the pack.



Cheers

Mohican said:

I had to stop growing indoors because I reached the point where my girls were drinking so hard they were oversaturating the RH in my room.

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This is my first time growing indoors where I have to use a dehumidifier in the room. It kicks out a lot of heat and that has become its own factor in balancing the environment. I imagine within another month I'll need to alternate between the dehumidifier and the air conditioner, and some weeks after that it will just be 100% AC. Those units probably use way more electricity than all of my lights (DIY & pre-built COBs) and fans combined.

It is amazing that running just COB LEDs, my grow spaces are usually about 2º above ambient room temps (measured from a sensor @4' off the floor -- at approximately 6" from the floor where the intakes are, the outer room temp is 3-4º below the temp of the canopy, still pretty impressive).

Humanrob said:

This is my first time growing indoors where I have to use a dehumidifier in the room. It kicks out a lot of heat and that has become its own factor in balancing the environment. I imagine within another month I'll need to alternate between the dehumidifier and the air conditioner, and some weeks after that it will just be 100% AC. Those units probably use way more electricity than all of my lights (DIY & pre-built COBs) and fans combined.

It is amazing that running just COB LEDs, my grow spaces are usually about 2º above ambient room temps (measured from a sensor @4' off the floor -- at approximately 6" from the floor where the intakes are, the room temp is 3-4º below the temp of the canopy, still pretty impressive).

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Before I finished my flower room I had a portable AC/De-humidifier unit and found the same thing, it worked but generated additional heat to deal with. I'm considering trying it again through the summer but in De-humidify mode only (I have heat and AC coming in from my HVAC now controlled by a variable controller/inline fan). Summer gets hot and very humid here, I can handle the temps Ok but humidity can be a pita. Going to get it setup and test it soon, I'm thinking of putting it on it's own timer so it would only run during lights off, then let the built-in humidistat handle when it goes on/off. Humidity with the lights on is never an issue for me as I'm typically in the 78-82F range for temps and below 50%, but it can climb beyond 60% in summer lights-off, no matter how much air I pull in or exhaust. A couple of degrees higher lights-off would not be an issue if it can keep the humidity in check.

I've been considering some COBs for the summer in my main room and would have already pulled the trigger if our dollar wasn't so low here. But I would mix or run 1x 3x3' with COBs and 1x 3x3' with CMH just to maintain the temp range I like. Lower heat (e.g. running all COBs) in a high humid area/environment can trigger it's own problems and humidity imo is tougher to manage than heat.

GroErr said:

Lower heat (e.g. running all COBs) in a high humid area/environment can trigger it's own problems and humidity imo is tougher to manage than heat.

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Very much so. I was on my 4th grow cycle when I switched to COBs, and I also made a bunch of other changes like trying to run three spaces in one room. I had never had any issues with PM (indoors), and so it was a blind spot for me, it wasn't even on my radar. I made some epic mistakes, like pulling cool (rainy!) winter night air in from outside to try and cool the room like I had all summer... Just typing that the stupidity is overwhelming, but with all the issues I'd dealt with I never saw a single spot of PM, and it didn't exist for me. Long story short, I lost the whole crop. So even after cleaning the space as best I could, I'm totally paranoid about PM now and working hard to keep things extra dry.

COBs definitely played a part in that. In January when I started the current run I had to use a small heater inside the tent just to bring the temps up into the mid-70's. Immediately I lost any electric bill cost savings from the COBs efficiency. Something to factor in if you live in a cool/humid zone and are thinking you're electric use will go down after the switch.

Humanrob said:

Very much so. I was on my 4th grow cycle when I switched to COBs, and I also made a bunch of other changes like trying to run three spaces in one room. I had never had any issues with PM (indoors), and so it was a blind spot for me, it wasn't even on my radar. I made some epic mistakes, like pulling cool (rainy!) winter night air in from outside to try and cool the room like I had all summer... Just typing that the stupidity is overwhelming, but with all the issues I'd dealt with I never saw a single spot of PM, and it didn't exist for me. Long story short, I lost the whole crop. So even after cleaning the space as best I could, I'm totally paranoid about PM now and working hard to keep things extra dry.

COBs definitely played a part in that. In January when I started the current run I had to use a small heater inside the tent just to bring the temps up into the mid-70's. Immediately I lost any electric bill cost savings from the COBs efficiency. Something to factor in if you live in a cool/humid zone and are thinking you're electric use will go down after the switch.

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Sounds like you're in an area similar to mine, some bushes outdoor in my area turn white by end of summer, covered in PM. I made the same mistake when I first started indoor, pulling in fresh air from outside, that was my introduction to PM. Culled everything/cleaned, started again. Sometimes even with low humidity and no outside air, it'll show up on the odd strain or pheno, it's my first culling when I'm running a new strain. Indica's tend to attract it more and if it's in your area it's pretty well impossible to keep it out of your room. Short of stripping and showering every time you're entering, or not going outside (I live outside summer or winter) it'll get tracked in on something. I never bring outdoor plants/clones in, but it will still show up on susceptible strains grown from seed. I recently put in a UVC filter, in addition to a HEPA filter, trying both to see if combined I can keep that crap out of the room. Spring when the snow melts is a bad time for it so it'll be interesting to see if it shows up over the next month, so far I haven't seen any signs of it, fingers crossed.

Heat/environment is definitely something to consider if moving to an all COBs grow. I have essentially free heat, running my inline fan is all it costs so winter would probably work fine. I'd likely have to crank the inline through winter to maintain higher temps and that would keep my humidity low. But in summer, I'm thinking I'd have a humidity problem because I'd have to keep the incoming air/fan on low (it would get too cold, even with CMH I don't crank it full other than maybe 2 -3 weeks mid-summer) which in turn would raise my humidity. Right now with the CMH I can crank it to 2/3 or full throttle mid-summer which keeps the temps in check and reduces the humidity at the same time. Cheers.

The biggest issue new LED growers face is overwatering. Because the plants are not getting baked by HID they require less water to maintain optimal growth.

COBs are more like the sun at the top of a mountain. Intense but not hot. They are great for growing mountain varieties.

Mohican said:

The biggest issue new LED growers face is overwatering. Because the plants are not getting baked by HID they require less water to maintain optimal growth.

COBs are more like the sun at the top of a mountain. Intense but not hot. They are great for growing mountain varieties.

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It's all intertwined, less heat, less watering, but higher humidity. In my little 2x2x4' tent the COBs are perfect in such a small space, they keep my temps at 78-80F and humidity at 40-50% depending on how full it is. But to maintain that in my main flower room I'd have to run 1000w of COBs, not enough sq. footage to use that much COB wattage in there. A mix of COBs and CMH would work well though.

Backyard Gold IBL Male under the giant COB in the sky:



Cheers,
Mo

Mohican said:

Backyard Gold IBL Male under the giant COB in the sky:

Cheers,
Mo

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That's a beautie Mo, nice colours Hoping one day when they get the legalization thing done here I can have a small greenhouse to extend the season and take advantage of that giant outdoor COB

Coming up in veg, will flip in 7-10 days. Nothing special size wise, this will be a variety pack for the stash/meds. 1x JTR, 1x Blue Ripper 1, 1x Blue Ripper 2, and 1x small Blue Dream. The BD stretches quite a bit and should keep up with the rest, took a bunch of clones off it to gift out but a little super cropping has re-started some decent growth on it. Just watered and FIM'd them all so they're looking a little droopy but otherwise healthy. FIMs should generate a last blast of growth and get them ready to flip.

The 2x smaller 1gal pots on the right are Blue Ripper 2's, not sure where they're going yet. I'd like to self at least one but it'll depend on timing for 2 rounds out. Have a nice looking Fireballs pheno coming up in the veg cabinet but it hasn't sexed yet, if it's a fem I may run it with one of the 1gal Blue Ripper's in 7gal and self the other 1gal.




Cheers

Well the Blue Ripper F2's are well settled into flowering at Day 28. Interesting how they change through the cycle, there's 2 that came from the sat-dom mother that are looking more sat-leaning, indica structure but thinner leaves that look like sativa's but big-ass leaves like an indica. Those 2 are interesting in that they smell strong of lemon-lime, stronger than the JTR that originally mothered them, but little frost on them at this point. Hoping they're just late bloomers because they smell awesome.

The other two I'm eyeing as potential keepers are smelling and looking more indica-dom, very similar leaf structure and smell as the Blue Ripper 2 indi-dom F1 pheno where the seeds came from. Strong fruity/Blueberry smell, underlying skunk funk, and both have the most frost so far.

The first one I was eyeing for structure is bottom-right in the first pic. That one is the only one misbehaving, it's super sensitive to nutes. Most I've fed these is 500 ppm and that one was showing tip burn at that feed rate every 3rd watering, then when I backed off feeding it, it's showing some defs with yellowing leaf tips/edges. Structure is good, stem rub is skunky but has little smell otherwise.

2nd pic has arrows pointing at the potential keeper phenos. The Yellow outlined arrows point to the lemon-lime phenos, the blue arrows point to the 2x fruity/blueberry phenos. That one in the middle-front in the second pic is throwing a decent amount of buds out too.




Cheers

The blue arrows look like definite winners! That out of focus bud at the bottom of the pic looks awesome too!

Mohican said:

The blue arrows look like definite winners! That out of focus bud at the bottom of the pic looks awesome too!

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Those blue arrow phenos are identical and it's funny but so far any of the phenos that pack frost and smell have been some of the better producers - nice That out of focus bud is off that 10gal I burnt to a crisp, but it's drinking again so I'll be able to finish it! Will have lost a bunch of weight from the shock but at least get something off it Cheers.

A couple of buds from that Blue Ripper F2 pheno in the center with the blue arrow @day 29. Frost is starting on the bottom of the leaves




Cheers

So a pretty clear winner is emerging in this F2 hunt, it's the blue arrow pheno in the center row, tagged as BR2-5. The best smelling and better looking phenos have all come from the BR2 or indi-dom mother that produced the seeds (same male, two different females crossed). The others aren't trash, but this one is clearly standing out from the crowd. I had kept one clone of each but kept 2x clones of this one as it was the skunkiest smelling in veg. Skunky as in road kill skunky which is interesting in that the flowers smell nothing like that now, more sweet and fruity, yet a stem rub still has that skunky smell. Won't trash the other clones until I do a smoke test but for carrying this line on that BR2-5 pheno is looking like the winner.

For comparison, first pic is the BR2-5 pheno (both at Day34/5 weeks). Second pic is the BR2-3 pheno which looks almost identical, but the close-up shots show the difference between the two in the frost department.




Cheers

Blue Ripper F2's at Day 35/5Weeks, somewhere in the 3 to 3 1/2 week range left and looking not bad for a bunch of plants from seed in 2gal pots. I was looking at them last night and thought, damn that's a lot of weed under one 315w light. If I were to average 35g per plant x 9 = 315 or 1gpw, if I can hit that in a pheno hunt I'll be very pleased

That center-front BR2-5 in the second pic is clearly one keeper. Will be watching the rest closer as they continue developing, there are a couple that are smelling good and I have at least one clone of each. One has like a rotting fruit thing going on that could be interesting. Will test one or two per night. It's difficult to maintain proper smell profiles when checking more than 1 or 2 per session.




Cheers

Very nice! And that is a lot of plant for a two gallon pot! I've seen a number of discussions on optimal pot size and every time I think I know something, I learn something new. How long did you veg those for?