Was planning a grow break over winter and start again after our holidays in April/May, but realised my stash wouldn't last my wife until August when a new grow would be ready, so popped a few seeds a month or so ago. Hence why I am sitting the new comparative out.
I was planning a cabinet upgrade of both lights and filters, so when I found out that
@diyled is based only a couple of miles from me I got in touch, discussed what I wanted, and a week or so later drove up and had a brew, and came back with some sexy new lights. Bought 3x samsung H-INFLUX L09 strips on a hlg-120-48a driver which he kindly put together for me much better than I could do. The previous led light bulbs served me very well, but I get roughly 6" of extra height with the strips, and they are much more efficient.
I also got rid of the diy carbon filter and added a Red Scorpion 4" fan on a variable controller along with a red scorpion carbon filter. These are in a small cupboard at the side of the grow cupboard, but I don't have any pics at the moment on my phone.
Popped 2x Brooklyn sunrise, one broke after a couple of days, the other took over a week and when it broke looked really ill - yellow cotyledons and a very thin stem. I thought it would die so I popped a Blue dream'matic just in case. The bloody thing lived, so I somehow had to find space to get a third plant in my really small cupboard....it's a hard life.
Rather than my usual 11L pots I used 2x 10L distilled water containers from work and a 10L bin I got from poundstretcher. They JUST fit in, and are roughly the same height as my usual pots, so with the extra headroom I should be ok.
Started them under my old setup then swapped lights to the strips and started them at 90w on 24/0 and have slowly upped wattage over time. The left hand plant started to bleach on the tips at one point so I moved the lights to the very top of the cabinet and all is fine now. I can probably get rid of the radiator for more room as I am keeping them on 24/0 all grow and temps are mid 20's with extractor fan on barely ticking over, although I might keep it just in case the outside temps drop dramatically. Heat sinks are hardly warm at all.
Old led bulbs setup
New strips - pics taken during install so all wiring was still untidy. I put a pc fan on top to blow warm air towards the plants.
Days 18,13 & 05 - left plant in final pot, others in smaller pots but raised to same height.
days 31, 26, 20 - all in final pots. Lights at 90w
Days 39, 34 and 28. Plants loving the lights. On 125w and they go up to 158w so I am slowly upping the wattage if they seem ok.