Hello fellow blades! First time grower here checking in. So looking back on this experience so far I'm disappointed in my lazy self that I didn't take notes. That's one thing I would recommend to anyone. Anyways I wanted some people to take a quick look at the ladies and tell me how everything is going. So here is the current set up: light is a 300W (140w) Mars hydro LED light. The light works absolutely great for veg. We will see about flower. Plant started in miracle grow organic with pearlite then transplanted into 3 gal smart pot with happy frog. I also put a scrog on and After probably 2 months of vegging transplanted again into 7 gal smart pot with happy frog soil. At some point I counted 28 tops on her. I also have another plant in a 1 gallon pot flowering and a third plant producing buds and trichs that was a test flower in a solo cup to make sure she was female. All plants are from same mother bush. 2 more mini bush plants are in veg cab. My plan is to take cuttings and get a perpetual cycle of some sort going where I never run out of herb. I smoke at least an ounce every 3-4 weeks so I would like to pull A few ounces from big mama. Here are some pictures so far.
They look pretty good. I definitely wouldn't recommend using LED's in flower. They tend to leave you with fluffy airy buds. What kind of nutrients are you using?
I heard LEDs produce way more thc, any chance it depends on the quality of led? I've seen some great results from led! nonfiction's multi-strain grow
They increase cannabinoids due to the spectrum they emitt but using LED'S alone in flower will decrease the yield depending on a few variables. The light doesn't penatrate as deep into the canopy which leaves people to have smaller plants. My veg room is a mix of LEDs and large CFL grow bulbs. They were cheap and work just as good as t5 bulbs. My flower room has 1000 watt hps's. All in all, LEDs only are great if you only have a few plants, heat is a problem, or just don't have room for larger plants. I know running a hybrid light system (LEDs and HPS) in flower has the best results as far as yield and potency. I only know of one person personally who uses LEDs only so I don't know much about how well they do. Most of what I know is from reading here.
No additional nutrients besides what was in soil. My first grow in going no nutes as a test. I think most of the products especially the ones marketed for flowering are bs ( my opinion ) I feel if you can provide the plant a well balanced growing medium it will have all nutrients it needs. I used we will see.
Led penetration is alright I mean if you have a thick canopy like I do I'm not sure how the popcorn and lower buds will do considering there in basically no light lol. That was the reason for the scrog.also I grew my plant horizontally as opposed to vertically. The main reason I went with led is because I didn't have room for a peoper grow tent. I wanted a somewhat stealthy closet grow and so far for personnel needs I really can't complain about the light. Virtually no heat or noise. Closet stays right at 80-81.
I removed it when I transplanted from 3 to 7 gal smart pot and started to flower. Btw never transplant from smart pot to smart pot unless maybe you plant the entire first smart pot into the other one. The roots grow into the fabric and holy fuck was that a complete bitch to remove.
I make my own soil. Have been for years now. I've found most can thrive off the nutrients in the soil alone, but later towards the end of flower (2 to 4 weeks before harvest) I have no nitrogen left. So I feed my soil teas to resolve this issue. This is what I get when I don't.
Scrogs are left in until the end of flower. That's not really a scrog the way you did it. There's also no reason at all to up pot fabric containers. Containers like smart pots air prune the roots so they won't become compacted.. You'll never get that burst of growth people claim by rootbinding and up potting. Start your seed or clone in a solo and go directly to the final container next time. Up potting isn't possible in a scrog grow anyways. The plant should be grown into and once its entangled its not something you want to be removing
I agree with this 100 percent. If anything, you'll just shock the plants even more. Best to transplant once or not at all. And never change your growing medium. It should stay the same. I would stay clear of miracle grow as well. Most miracle grow has nutrients that are released over time, which will cause you problems later on.
For what it's worth I agree. I have a real pro Hydroponics store here and he's always running two or three led experiments. His conclusion has been that led's are most effective when used in hybrid light setups. He's seen better results with every combination - even led's and cfl's.