How did you build your cob? That's an amazing result from a single unit. Especially at that wattage #patientsovercups
Thanks man. Here's a short thread I made about the build....I didn't go into great detail since there's a lot of cob tutorials out there. If you want to know all about COBs, I recommend checking out some growmau5 videos on youtube. Here's a quicklink to a playlist with all the DIY info you need about cobs. He explains everything really well..both on building the COB setups and on why they are so efficient. Feel free to ask me questions, those videos can probably explain it far better then I can.
Brilliant thread, I hope to see more updates in the future. I have a couple of questions that'd i'd like to ask you - What is your opinion on this 20w, 3000k, 120 LED disk thing? Sorry I don't have any proper pics of it right now but you get the idea: I know it's underpowered but do you think it's worth it for about $10? For comparison, the 6400k LED bulb closest to the camera and is 10w and about $2, and I can get those in 2700k. Would you go for a mix of bulbs and disk things, or just stick with bulbs arranged for best coverage? My second question is to do with building my own LED light fixture. I saw these strips of LED's while light hunting and wondered if they could be used for growing: They cost around half of the displayed price (foreign currency), and I'm sure I could rig up an old computer PSU instead of buying one. Would these strips of LED's be worth investing in, as long as they're the right light spectrum? Sorry if you've answered similar questions before, it's a bloody long thread and it'l take me a while to read all of it so I thought i'd ask directly
hi man, thanks alot. I'm not sure on the led disk thing. The best way to test it is to grow with it ..seriously though those little white leds can have a really broad range of efficiency. Older/cheeper white leds like that might get only 70-80 lumens a watt...while the new samsung diodes [quantum board tech] are pushing near 200+ lumens a watt. I'd bet the disk thing will work fine to grow with..but once you start getting into flower you need alot of light density. Looks like those disks would be limited to how closely you can space them together. With regular bulbs it's much easier to pack them in close if you need to. So far you plant looks nice and stocky. With weaker light sources it's easy to spot the stretch and thinner leaf stems from lack of light. On the led strips: I know there's some good strips out there that have that super high efficiency but I haven't looked into them much. I think @Jane_Bellamont just wired up some led strips for a pc case. Lemme dig a link of that for ya. There ya go.. a few short strips wired together. Maybe jane has better info about those If you go with strips the 5050 strips are much better then the umm..3520[?] or something like that. I think there's some more discussion somewhere on RIU about led light strips and what the best brands are. The main thing with lighting is getting the right amount of light over a given area. With those type leds shoot for about 50-60 watts per square foot and it should be plenty of lighting for flowering and producing fat buds. have you considered cobs? *also old PC power supplies aren't the most efficient source of 12v. but if you decide to use one you will need to jumper it to get it to turn on without a mobo attached. I think you have jump the green to black wire, I'm sure you can find the info somewhere. Just a heads up
Thanks for your input, I might try dismantling the disk thing and mounting the led's in a better layout.. but you're right, the LED bulbs are better for light density and adaptability. The disk thing would be better for vegging a group of seedlings maybe. Thanks for the link, hopefully I can find out if those are any good as $2.50 for 14.4 W of LED's seems like a good deal. I don't know much about COB's, in fact I thought the term referred to any type of LED on a circuit board haha. I've just done some research, and if I can get hold of some I definitely will if I can find a good price. However, i'm currently in Bulgaria and can't get stuff delivered to where i'm staying, so am limited to physical stores. Thanks for the warning about PSU's, although i do have a few old motherboards lying around anyway haha. I hope to see more updates in this thread, I love seeing imaginative grows, especially micro grows. I've had numerous issues including a house change, rootbound plants and inadequate lighting, but my journal's here if you wanna have a look: Low Budget CFL/LED Grow (It's nothing compared to yours haha)
Hey friends, I just thought this might interest some micro cabbers out there somewhere. This may be the smallest t5 I've ever seen. Sent from my 2PQ93 using Tapatalk
Hi guys! just wanted to share some pics of this magenta '99 that is curing. I tested a small chunk, but I'm still waiting a few more days on the cure. It smells and looks amazing. Bud structure kinda sucked though. All the buds were really foxtaily and stuff. I'll run it again but it took like 3 months to finish and the structure sucked so I might not end up keeping it. hope everyone is doing goood! I had a great day today, best in a while. cheers!
Hello GC! I got my new quantum board up and running and I love it. I want to make sweet sex to it in the face. I have it at about 80w right now, it goes to 150w. this is a chemdog cross that I'm running. It's only been under the new light for about 2 weeks now. This is one of a few tests seeds I popped, and it looks like a keeper. Sweet and dank fuel smelling with a light hint of menthol. here's a superskunk cola tucked back in a corner: looking nice and happy ..here's a shot of the left side of the cab: I had my mars reflector panel go to shit on me so I replaced it with some extra led bulbs I had left. I wish I woulda swapped that panel out sooner, these bulbs seem to put out much more light per area than the mars did. This white light is so much easier on the eyes too. I definitely plan on getting another quantum board to replace this side of the cab though. They are far more efficient than these bulbs. They are also more low profile, by switching to a quantum board on this side I will get back about 3 inches of head room. It's kinda hard to see in pics(especially with flash), but the lightspread on the QB is amazing, it's like my plants are glowing. enough about those, I probably sound like a broken record about these lights, but I'm that excited about them. --------------- anyways! In my twin boxes I'm starting a side-by-side with Botanicare (PBP, liquidkarma,koolbloomand cal-mag) vs. General Hydro (5micro,10bloom,koolbloom and cal-mag). GH side: Botanicare side: ( mint-green labels on the wall to distinguish botanicare side in pics) There's only a few plants in each side at the moment. Just waiting on a day or 2 of veg on more clones. I like to put them into flower at an exact height (3-3.5")so I can get them to finish at just the right height. These will all be superskunk clones in order to try to keep everything as uniform as possible. I hope everyone is doing awesome!
I started growing to save money. Bought CFLs, then PLL, HPS, then LED (China light), then screw in LED, then COBs (just upgraded about a year ago). Now this comes along. Now I have a light obsession to go a long with cannabis. I have been following a grow with these (another website). I worried about penetration for larger grows (COBs seem to have deeper penetration), but for micro it makes sense. Can you speak to penetration yet? I want a Quantum board. It will be difficult to talk El Presidente (wife) into this. I want a Quantum board!!
I only have mine at like 80 watts right now. They go up to 150w. With buds about 4-6" away I'm not seeing any bleaching or burning. I read on riu that some guys were seeing burning on the buds at like a foot or so when they ran them at 150w. To me that says the overall power of the lights at 150w seems as strong as a 400w hps or so(I'm not saying a 150w QB would replace a 400w hps! I'm saying similar penetration based on intensity distance). IME those are a similar 'budburn' distance. If that makes sense. More importantly, quantum boards also have the huge advantage of being a large light surface which reduces shadowing and imo helps the light 'penetrate' far better then a single source whether it be an hps or a cob. This is especially important in a micro grow. I think there's detailed heatmaps and par map data stuff on riu comparing quantum boards vs hps and stuff. There's a bunch of ppl growing with QB's on riu too. As far as bigger grows and penetration, I've seen a few guys switch from 1000w hps to 4 boards and they have no complaints. I'm sure those journals have some good data. good luck with the wife lol.
Wow...what a great thread, I'm only a dozen or so pages but there is alot of info....thanks for starting this thread. I'm convinced that I can make a go at a small cabinet after reading so far. I have an old side dresser that I will be using, the inside growing space I have is 20"w x 16"d x 27"h I'd like to go with CFL for cost reasons using a couple porcelain bases with 3 way splitters for 6 bulbs (still need to figure out the required total wattages/lumens needed) any suggestions would be appreciated as well as suggestions on cost friendly intake and exhaust fans that would work with the pencil holder carbon filter. I read a little about the "sea of green" technique, is that worthwile trying in such a small cabinet ...and how many plants do you think would be most successful for highest yield. I hope to build a smaller cabinet for clones. Thank you in advance.
thanks alot At this point I recommend led bulbs instead of cfls. Led bulbs have dropped alot in price in the last few years and they put out about 2-3x more light as the same wattage of cfls. I'd go with about 60w per square foot with led bulbs...with cfls that would be closer to 100w per square foot. Lesser wattage of leds will also be easier to cool. I've done sea of green in my small cabs for a while now. The most important part is getting a good mother plants and getting your cloning technique down. It's much easier to run clones then it is to start from seed each time. I've done small sea of green with a bunch of plants in 1 liter pots. They usually end up producing about 5-7 grams per plants and I can fit about 16 per square foot. Running that many plants requires solid clone production though...and it's also a bit more work to water all those plants then it would be to water a single plant in a sq. foot area. I personally just use small computer fans for my pencil holder style filters. If you need anything larger then that, I'd go with a panasonic whisper fan. They're around 100$ but they are dead silent and well worth the money if you want a strong but quiet exhaust fan. I own several of them and I'm very happy with them. One of them has been running for about 8 years straight now with no problems.
Thanks for the tips Bongsauce... I looked around for a few hours last night at different LED's but the selection ton and manufacturers is so varied...can you recommend a budget friendly reliable brand for my 2.2 sq. feet?
There is a another growing site that compares led bulbs. Off the shelf retail store screw-in LED and CFL bulb comparisons - Micro Grows - International Cannagraphic Magazine Forums Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Thanks for linking that @Captain & El Presidente . I was gonna post the same but you beat me to it. Pretty much any generic warm white should work. Removing the domes will help too.
Mr. Sparkle is another grower who messes around with off the shelf bulbs. He takes the bulbs apart which is nice for low profile setups. He also has some of the cleanest and most high tech micro grows online. Check these out for sure. Mr.Sparkle’s Arduino Controlled 5 Gal Bucket Micro Grow 2017 Off the Shelf Screw in LED Bulbs as a Viable Alternative Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Hi. I made some 'green' dragon. Here's how it went: I started with an ounce and a half of very purple GDP trim. It was decarbed and ground up. Small buds and sugar leaves, no fans. fresh green leaf to contrast color. I've used this before, it goes well with this cheap apple vodka and it's got the cool little lid thing too. Did a 3 minute soak, stirring vigorously the whole time. I should have just shook it in a mason jar. Both the trim and vodka were frozen temps. and then as I was straining it through the cheese cloth I started to notice the color it was turning pink! some of the last drops that I squeezed out were almost blood red. The finished product turned out a nice and red/burgundy color. So I guess I made red dragon Tastes great, the red apple flavor mixes really well with the slight purp weed flavor of the gdp trim. About a shot and I'm feelin groovy for a while. Cheers!
Thanks alot jak. I think I'll double the potency next time though...I'm a super lightweight when it comes to alcohol....so I want the weed potency to be much stronger then the alcohol potency if that makes sense.