Yum, carnitas! LOL.. I hear ya on the bad apple bit, I've seen a few such threads around here spread out over time... Always gonna have a few poor sports around I suppose. Luckily, that's not my problem If I had the extra space and time, I would probably do this sort of thing. In fact there are plenty of grow room myths In would like to more or less bust. Like the no light in the grow room after dark... bunk... I have a host of controllers AC's, Dehus, power strips, not to mention a 6 inch hone in the wall for a fan and I grow some nice colas. People say cover that stuff up.. no light... lol!! If Mars wins, cool, if Platinum does, awesome, cuz I got one... or three...
Light leaks can cause hermie I've personally experienced that. And fixed the leak. If it's significant enough light leaks can screw a grow I guarantee that. But your right there are a ton. Of myths to be busted.
Dang guys, hope y'all aren't hating on me about this biased thing I just thought duttys comment was funny. I dont have a preference seeing that I use flouros. This comparison is awesome and hopefully you'll keep doing them. I dont think anyones opinion matters anyway since theyre both getting the same treatment. Maybe if you pissed on the Mars plant every night that might make you biased haha
I think at this point if someone were to have luck with a Mars not going out or a fan seizing, it seems to be doing decent for a grower who can't spend the extra cash on a Platinum or some other expensive company but still wants that edge with LED technology. Those IB's do look to be the same pheno. I've grown about 8 of them from seed up to this point and I've really only found 2, MAYBE 3 phenos and they're all pretty distinguishable. One seems to stretch more than the other, which is about the only thing I've ever noticed. And the convo about light leaking into a room, as long as it's not enough to read a sheet of paper but very subtle, nondirect lighting you're fine. Think of the moon at night. I put green tape over any small lights in my room since they were all white led read outs (AC unit). Hadn't had issues from light ever.
Yeah there's a ton of myths like Dutty said. Some of the ones I don't believe are harvesting before lights on, lights out for 24,36,48 hours etc.. before flipping to 12/12, lights out for 24+ hours before harvest, and things like that. I just don't believe a lot of them actually produce any more than negligible results. Nah man lol. At least I wasn't. I was talking about a few people who came in several pages back saying I was biased for making notes on observations (such as things that can easily be seen in the pictures), and things that can't be seen as easily, like mentioning the Platinum Bulk was drinking more water than the Mars. I'd never knock any successful growing method, I started growing with CFLs myself, with the right combination they can produce some killer weed. Real good growth, and potent. Not to mention amazing terpene profiles as well. I always ran a blend of bulbs, in Veg it was mostly 6500K, and a few 2700K. In flower I ran mostly 2700K with a few 6500K. I loved the grows, but the bulbs produced too much heat, and at the time I had poor ventilation (closet grow) which is when I switched over to LED. LOL yeah, no piss here. Both plants will be smoked, vaped, and eaten by myself, and patients, and the idea of urine on something I'm going to consume just doesn't sit well with me.
I've been looking into those "grow techniques" (lights off 18, 24, 36, 48 hours etc.. as well. Seems like logical science, but most likely negligible in return. IMO, doing that opens the plants up for sickness... Here is something as a grower that disturbs me. I spend x amount of time starting from the early stages of growing a plant to train it into a bush... then I cut tons of it away with the idea that I want more energy to push up top. I haven't been growing cannabis that long, but I haven't noticed increased budding by cutting out or culling the weak.
Certain genetics increase yield greatly with training and Defoiliation. Some usually sativa dominant genetics not so much. I've had yield increase 20% from culling lower "sucker branches"
It's always been my understanding that defoliation was basically to open budsites up and give them more light. Removing the lower branches was understood that removing a branch that'll only produce a couple grams in popcorn (which sucks to trim), will make more resources available to the buds that are getting more light. Cutting those lower branches is also a great source for cuttings for clones. I've successfully cloned from cuttings taken on day 45 in flower under just 18/6 CFL lighting. When you get used to the lighting you're using, and are familiar with how far into the plant you get good penetration with solid nugs, and where the popcorn starts, you'll easily know where you can remove branches, I had some good results using this technique, with defol, and tons of LST on Strawberry Blue from World of Seeds, which is Sativa dominant, but haven't tested it on pure Sativas yet.
bud formation on the platinum def looks fatter.. i'm loving my platinum too, but the amare solar specs look great.. ive been watching mainah's thread and he's using them and they look real nice. Thinking about getting one for my next light, if not its going to be another platinum for me.. either a 2nd 150 or a 300.. depends what i can afford. Wish I had a place for a tent.
Hey bud! Been a while, huh!? Your Bulks are looking really good man! We flipped about the same time. I think I'm on day 16 of flower with Jamaica Dream and White Widow. How are you liking the comparison grow?
Welcome back man lol. Looks like we did, but harvest dates will be an entirely different animal. Bulk supposedly runs 7-8 weeks, so we'll see how accurate that is. I haven't had accurate breeder times yet. The comparison has been really cool to watch, there's a lot of differences that are easier to see with 2 plants sitting next to each other, versus just comparing past grows with current ones and going from memory, or pictures. Not really a leave of absence, but much less forum activity. Updates are still kept up with as much as possible, but I've had a ton of things to do around here as winter gets closer. And I still have a list as long as my arm left to do. Anyone feel like rebuilding my backup snowblower's starter for me? That's next on the list.
I still use HPS and MH in bloom but I can see the difference for sure in LED just in the pics between Antics, Dutty, Canna, and Max their grows in LED are awesome. I know the LED is the future as I have said before. I just don't spend money unless I need to or if it makes sense. I spent an entire $1k lol on my room and lights only three years ago and I grow for personal use. With the cost of HPS bulbs coming down since everyone wants LED, it might be a while before I switch. I have no doubt its a better grow in LED. I look at it like this, HPS was good enough for decades, I am in no contest with myself, in a few years after I have saved enough and with the additional savings from the energy bill, LED outweighs just in cost savings alone, with the addition of quality of grow. I'm a cheap fuck - lol
I totally agree with you, but at the same time running the HIDs does cost more money. HIDs have a pretty low initial investment, but the monthly cost of the electricity is higher. You need to power the lights, as well as the fans to keep the grow cool, since HID bulbs aren't as efficient, and produce a lot of heat as a byproduct. There's also the cost to replace bulbs every 9-12 months. LED panels have a much higher initial investment, with a lower monthly operating cost. You also don't need to run as many fans/fans at higher RPMs to keep the area cool, all you need is fans for air exchange, filtration, and minimal cooling. The lifespan of LED diodes is also much longer. 50,000-100,000 hours. To put that into perspective, there are only 8,760 hours in an entire year. If you run the lights 24/0 all year, theoretically they should last 5.7- 11.4 years. If you run the lights 18/6 all year, theoretically they should last 7.6- 15.2 years. If you run the lights 12/12 all year, theoretically they should last 11.4- 22.8 years. If you're buying $30 (just an example figure) bulbs for HPS during these same periods, the cost for bulbs alone, you're looking at: $171-$342 $228-$456 $342-$684 LED panels can also be designed to produce any spectrum of lighting desired, where HIDs produce the spectrum they produce, and that's it. It can't be changed or altered in any way, at least not to the best of my knowledge. And most warranty periods for LED panels seem to fall between 2-5 years from most manufacturers