Skinny Ninjas 220W Led Garden

What's up organic crowd! I've wanted to do a journal for a while and now I finally have a chance to. As the title says, this is an led grow. I'm using a 220w Solar Flare Bloom Booster from California Lightworks. It's my first time using this light but I'm really liking it so far. For anyone who's wondering though, this unit does put out a good amount of heat. I was a little surprised by that but it's basically expected with 5w diodes. Definitely more than a CFL setup, i'd say not too far off from a properly vented 250w HID.
For nutrients i'm using Roots Organic. I have most the bottled nutes and a few topsoil feeds from that line. I use the Roots soil too. Just straight from the bag into airpots.
This journal is starting kinda late. I'm on day 10 of 12/12 already. This first picture is from day 1 and the second is from day 7. I have two Ace of Spades plants that are confirmed females (both from seed), one Ace that is a suspected male (the little one), and a Master Kush cut (top left on second pic). Stay tuned!
 

 

Yeah the heat isn't too crazy I was just expecting it to run very cool because people always praise leds for that reason. I've heard people compare the heat output to that of cfls but that comparison is pretty far off in my experience so far. It'd probably balance out with better ventilation though.
I'm flowering them now. I probably should've let em go a bit longer in veg but i'm not too concerned with it. The master kush cut stretches by almost 3x and the ace of spades plants are a jack the ripper cross so I was anticipating a good amount of stretching. Doesn't seem like they are but this grow is more of a test to feel out the strains anyways.

 

So it's been a little hot lately and i've had to battle with the temps in my tent. It reaches the low 90s way more often than i'd like. I put a bigger fan in and i'm gonna try rearranging the exhaust soon. The plants are doing good though. That little plant I had turned out to be male as I suspected so I pulled him out of the tent yesterday and put him into a super cheaply made pollen cab. I'm thinkin of making myself some F2s. I have some pictures up later for those.
 
Took a few clones right before I started flowering them and they finally rooted. Took them almost exactly two weeks rooting in coco. Translated them today into small pots. The one labeled Godzilla is just a nickname I gave to an Ace plant.

 

Haha thanks mike. Yeah it should live up to it's name, the bigger one I pulled the clone from is a pretty good plant all around. Some of it's leaves have 10 fingers! Pretty crazy, I normally only see about 5-7 in a leaf. I'm hanging the carbon filter from the ceiling now in hopes that it keeps the tent cooler. If that doesnt work then I definitely need a new exhaust fan. It was around 86 last night which isnt too bad so i'll have to wait and see.

 

The best advice for cloning is keep it simple. I use coco coir as the medium to root them in. I've also heard some good things about peat moss plugs. I dont like using rockwool, I think it kinda sucks. Bubble cloners are great but too expensive for just a few clones. Be sure to cut the clone at a 45 degree angle. I like to scrape off some of the stem from the base of the clone to help the rooting process. Be sure to use a humidity dome, much better success rate. Spray the dome with plain water twice a day to keep humidity as high as possible. Use a foliar feed on the clones once a day. They need to stay alive for ~2 weeks without roots so taking in nutrients through the leaves is important. Last thing, I don't keep them that close to the light. They dont need to be right up on the cfls when they're not rooted.
That's pretty much it. I got a 100% success rate doing exactly that.
 
edit: After reading back my post simple might not be the right word but you get the idea haha

 

So I learned something over the past few weeks, I fucking suck at keeping a grow journal. Sorry for the lack of updates to anyone interested. Luckily I have been taking pictures throughout most of the grow so i'll post them in a bit to show everyone the progression. It's been a set it and forget it kinda grow on this run. The plants are doing good though. They're on day 40 of 12/12 and healthy for the most part. The clones have really started shooting up as well, 100% success rate on that batch of clones.
 
 

Yeah I have my carbon filter hooked up to a ~100CFM fan that exhausts the air from the tent and I keep the flaps open for a somewhat good intake. I try to keep negative pressure so air is always moving thru it. 
I set the light up without the exhaust originally to see how bad the heat is. It reached 90-96F pretty quickly so I wouldn't suggest it. These leds are much hotter than CFLs but a little cooler than HIDs. Even with my exhaust setup I've been battling high temps this entire grow but it is summer time so its expected.
 

Thanks man! The bushy ace is a vigorous plant that does its own thing without a much help but the skinnier one is super temperamental. 
The tent is 36"x20"x60"

 

Day 18
 


 
 
 
 
Day 29
 

 
 
 
 
Day 47
 

 

Well the plants are doing good for the most part. The master kush cut I have sucks though. At least from what I can tell so far. The plant structure is flimsy even after a long veg, the buds have very little visible thrichs, it has a x3 stretch, it has very little odor, and the buds are airy. But maybe the smoke will be good, i'm waiting until that before I toss the clone out of my veg cab.
The ace of spades plants, on the other hand, are fucking awesome. The one on the right has been great and should be ready to harvest right around 8 weeks.The plant on the left has been very finicky the entire grow but it still looks like it will be a decent harvest of trich covered buds. Its a JTR leaning pheno from the looks/smell. I'll probably wait until about 10 weeks before chopping it. If I can take the heat that long.
It's been really hot lately and my tent is constantly in the 90s when lights are on. I was really hoping I could use this led for summer grows but its just too much. Just a heads up for people looking at how the unit performs.

 

Thanks man and yeah it definitely is. I'm gonna put a halt on any more grows until winter after this one is done. 
The airpots are alright. They can be messy though because dirt leaks out the bottom and sides. They have better growth over traditional pots but nothing too crazy.

 

So I ended up harvesting my plants at day 59. I'll get some pics of that up soon. This journal was done as part of a feedback program for California Lightworks so i'll have a review on the Solar Flare unit and GPW/dry yield soon as well. Right now everything is hang drying in a little makeshift cab.
My humidity is around 35-44% in the dry room. Six days of drying sound right at this humidity level? I always seem to mess up this part a bit so i'm looking for some suggestions.

 

 
After a little research, i'm gonna be using this method for drying/curing.
http://forum.grasscity.com/harvesting-processing-medical-marijuana/424138-simple-harvest-cure-step-step.html
It seems to be a tried and true way of doing it. I really don't want this harvest to smell like grass or be too dry, so i'm following it to a tee. I'll be brown bagging em tonight. The OP of that thread says it's a good way to dry in climates that aren't ideal, like your low humidity problem mike. 
I always jump the gun with jarring the buds though. I've come to realize, even if they feel very dry after 3 days they still have a lot of moisture deep inside and jarring them early ruins the cure every time.