Moody's first LED grow....

So I pulled the rest of the Blue Dreams last night. They are nice tight buds as always! The shuga has all been pulled, dried and been curing for about 2 weeks. I didn't really get the yeild I was hoping for, but it smokes good so I'm happy about that. :jointsmile:

This was a whole new setup for me and I learned alot on the way. I learned that working with coco, you better be prepared to learn about ph adjusting (something I hadn't paid too much attention to in the past). I got the ph pen about 4 weeks into flowering and could see a difference, so I'm hoping this next round I will avoid those problems.

Also, I'm working with a SOG type setup, meaning more plants at smaller heights. I was hesitant to cut too much off before flowering, and now feel like I could have been more aggressive in order to work on the "one big cola" method. I will definately clean up the bottoms more next time so I wont have so many small buds.

I do feel like the LED has a lot of positive benefits. Not stressing over temps has been HUGE for me. And my electricity bill is back to normal. I was working will all new lights, medium, nutes and environment. I get an idea and I just go for it! I'm still learning and working with different techniques trying to find the right one for my situation.

I will be pulling the final 2 strawberry kushes in a few days. They are long and lanky, the buds aren't very dense so I'm not sure about yeild on those. I should be starting a new grow in about a week or two. I'm planning on working with mostly indicas (since they are my favorite and they take the least amount of time to harvest). Also, I think I will do a 50/50 soil/coco mix this time. That way if there are ph issues, it won't be so devastating since the soil has some good stuff already added.

Anyways....just wanted to give you guys a quick update. I will try to get some pics soon! If you have any questions....ask away! :jointsmile:

sounds great and plz post some dry pics of all the buds and give us a final yeild again great grow and congrats to you:thumbsup:

how many of those LEDs did you end up using? thanks for sharing!

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Originally Posted by dopet4h2c0

sounds great and plz post some dry pics of all the buds and give us a final yeild again great grow and congrats to you:thumbsup:

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I'm working on it! I'll get some pics up in the next few days! thanks! :jointsmile:

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Originally Posted by energyefficient

how many of those LEDs did you end up using? thanks for sharing!

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I'm using 2 150w LED panels.

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Originally Posted by Weezard

Khyber is correct.
There's not a lot of help light-wise and the under-leaf is a hard sell, for photon absorbtion.

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I'd like to get back to this, I tried to find a thread dedicated to the discussion of under leaf lighting and/or floor reflection applicable to LED's, but the 60 seconds between searches is kinda killin my ADD. Sorry for the threadjack though.

Anyways, even if the plant isn't absorbing much if any light thru the bottom of the leaf, shouldn't reflecting light back up at the ceiling, which I'm assuming is also reflective/mylar in most cases; cause the ambient lighting in the room to increase? I would think that some of the light would then be bounced back off the ceiling which should raise ambient light right? I would also think this would be verifiable via a light meter that's placed over the top of a plant facing up towards the LED's, to simulate increased ambient light at the topside of the plant which would be farthest from reflection placed at floor level - measuring the difference with and without floor/soil reflections?

Also, shouldn't any additional reflection, help "distribute" around the room, the very distinct light wavelengths present in the blue and red led's, like "homogenize" it basically? I would think this benefit would be more applicable to DIY lighting which may have subpar or at least not as efficient beam angles, lenses, and reflectors.

Just thinking outloud sorry if this is frequently discussed just kinda want to see more opinion on this. And I just chose your post Weez randomly to quote.

first post... I've read hundreds of pages on this forum and thank you all so much for sharing your many awesome ideas, huge fan of a lot of individuals on here... not gonna try and name 'em all lest I leave someone out. I'm a geek that loves LED's and i'm excited to be working on some DIY LED lights for a friend... can't wait to give back too. and sorry, I ramble and make long posts more then even normal when i'm hanging out with my Volcano like I was tonight :vap_smiley:

Plain and simple, you don't want to fight the inverse square law. under-lighting then having it hit a ceiling and scatter everywhere else just cuts down on the overall photon density. It just isn't worth it. Very few plants have chlorophyll on top and underside of the leaf (Jade plants are one example) and those plants are the only ones that would truly benefit from under-lighting.

You want as much direct exposure as possible.

Good thinking, Sunotorp.
As yet, un-absorbed photons, are still
available photons.

I propose that I set my Lux meter up again, then cover the reflective walls and floor and take a second reading.
I did a li'l 'speriment like that a while back, and was quite surprised at how little difference there was between reflective, and non-reflective chambers according to the light meter.

Alas, I recorded almost nothing at the time, and wetware is not to be trusted, so, I'll have to do it again with a camera.

Even if it's only a few percent gain with 98% reflection, the key word here, is gain.:cool:
I'm too under-funded to waste any wee photons.:rastasmoke:

Mahalo for the use of the hall, Moody.

Aloha, y'all
Weeze

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Originally Posted by khyberkitsune

Plain and simple, you don't want to fight the inverse square law. under-lighting then having it hit a ceiling and scatter everywhere else just cuts down on the overall photon density. It just isn't worth it. Very few plants have chlorophyll on top and underside of the leaf (Jade plants are one example) and those plants are the only ones that would truly benefit from under-lighting.

You want as much direct exposure as possible.

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Sorry though I mentioned under plant lighting, I was thinking more about under plant reflectors, while keeping the lights up top in their normal position. I know one of the banes of LED lighting for growing especially with "lesser powered" setups is penetration to the lower canopies. So I figure anything you do that increases ambient light would help penetration.

I would think that bouncing it off the ceiling in addition to normal lighting up top in it's normal position, would increase overall photo density if anything.

Weez: I appreciate you giving this a trial with your meter, I don't have one at the moment that I think is accurate enough and I don't have a setup at all at the moment to try it :-) Like you said, I think any gain is a gain worth having if all you're investing is a few extra dollars in extra mylar or foil or paint or paper!

Also, I'm planning to supplement power for this upcoming setup with wind and solar, so any efficency I can pick up allowing for lower wattage lights will make this closer to a truly "green" indoor grow.

"I would think that bouncing it off the ceiling in addition to normal lighting up top in it's normal position, would increase overall photo density if anything.

Weez: I appreciate you giving this a trial with your meter, I don't have one at the moment that I think is accurate enough and I don't have a setup at all at the moment to try it :-) Like you said, I think any gain is a gain worth having if all you're investing is a few extra dollars in extra mylar or foil or paint or paper!"

So much for wetware!
I was fuzzily remembering some Inverse square law measurements from last year.:stoned:
I was happily wrong about reflection stats.:)

Huge difference!

Started with a white bucket and a yellow bucket.
[attachment=o252039]
I reasoned that the white would reflect the red and the blue well enough.
[attachment=o252040]
And, that the yellow bucket would reflect quite a bit less of each since they are narrow bandwidth sources.
[attachment=o252041]

Now for the numbers;
White bucket started at;
[attachment=o252042]
and dropped to 1570 LUX as the leds heated up a little.

The yellow bucket was 1030 after warmup.
Dang!

Got curious and stuffed a black, plastic bag into da white bucket.
It dropped to;
[attachment=o252043]

A photon absorbed, is a photon lost.:(


Hmm, I says, what about tech reflect?
I put 3 4" squares of relectix at a 30 degree angle in the bottom of the white bucket surrounding the photodetector, (kind of a triangular funnel);
got 1640!
Woohoo! Now I knows what to do.:thumbsup:

Next time I buy a roll of reflectix, I'll line the whole bucket and take a reading. I'll bet a penny that it tops 1700.:cool:

Thanks for gettin' me rollin' on dis.

Aloha and mahalo,
Weezard