Omnibuddy Custom LED Grow

Hi everybody! I greatly appreciate your stopping by to enjoy my grow log!

Everything in this log is fictional and meant just for fun! All photos are from the internet! I just like roll playing and such. Oh the fun we will all have together!

Lights:
Flower
(3) Tri-Band Custom Built 120w Flowering LEDs
(6) UVB Reptile Lights

Veg
(1) Tri-Band Custom Built 120w Vegitative LED
(2) Ballasts With (2) 20w 6500k Bulbs in Each

Nursery
(1) Tri-Band Custom Built 90w Vegitative LED

Air:
12 inch Vortex inline fan on a two foot carbon filter

Water:
Stealth RO 100 by HydroLogic
50 gallon tub
1/2hp sump pump with hose and sprayer

Medium:
Soiless Mix in 3 gallon and 5 gallon pots

Nutes:
GHFlora Duo Nutes

Other:
Hanna HI 98129 pH ppm EC meter
Turbo Temp and Humidity meter
Carbon Monoxide Alarm
Fire Extinguisher
Clone Container
Spray Bottles
Hydrofarm Digital Heat Mat Thermometer
TotalPond Pond Liner
Panda Plastic
White Duct Tape
Flexible Ducting
A Door
AF100 ShurTape
iPhone 3GS and Pandora for 24/7 Music
Ties etc... for bending
A nice pair of scissors
rock wool for the little ones
timers
12 gague extension cords
Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor to load balance
- power balanced on three breakers
sound proofing

I want to post a picture of my Seedlings, but cant figure out how... Any suggestions? I put one into my Cannabis.com albums but don't know how to link it to here now... :(

Planted 1/31/2011; not separately germinated. Instead I just let them grow in the rock wool. Temperature is about 80 degrees; as low as 78 and high as 85.

10 of 12 germinated. Some Extra Effort was required for several of them in that I carefully assisted the plant in shedding their seed shell on a couple that were not able to break off the shell entirely.

I applied clone rooting mix to the base of the small plants to encourage root growth. I also fed them clone nutes.

:thumbsup:

Well here is a link for now...

Photo :: My Little Seedlings

Since this is my first grow using my new system I wanted to make sure that I got a head start with one plant. I figured this would give me a chance to work out the kinks and to finish up construction.

This is OG Larry. She is a wonderful little plant I got from a local Medical Dispensary. Sadly all of the clones, etc... suck balls around here... But OG Larry has been babied!

This is a series of photos showing her progression from a sparse little twig into a bushy goddess! Notice how I used bending in order to shape her into a short plant with lots of density.

I carefully tied, wrapped and even wove branches and leaves into directions I felt were optimal for the plant. You might also be able to notice one or more of my FIMs. There are three in total on this plan; however they do not make up the majority of the plant mass.

I FIMed three lower branches to try and bush out the plant towards the less dense side.

I have also been using all of my lights since they are not otherwise occupied. That means Larry has been under 480 watts of LED and 80 watts of 6500k. Now I am growing her upwards so I have set (1) 120w veg and (1) 120 flower above, removed the other two LED, and set the 6500k lights on the sides.

I hear the 6500k lights encourage root growth?

Enjoy the pics. Please let me know if you can tell me how to put them on my page directly with thumbnails and such! (Thanks!)

Baby OG Larry 01

Baby OG Larry 02

Baby OG Larry 03

Baby OG Larry 04

Baby OG Larry 05

Unfortunately Cannabis.com has a fun little code glitch on their gallery that made all my links the same... IT also wont let me edit my post even though I just posted... I suppose since it took me more than 10 minutes to input it? <sigh>

Not off to a great start here.

Here is another pass at linking Larry's Pics.

OG Larry 01

OG Larry 02

OG Larry 03

OG Larry 04

OG Larry 05

Welcome and thanks for putting up the effort to post a log. I'm sure it's going to be good. It seems that new members have to post a certain number of posts and then the photo tools work. Meanwhile you can put the photos in an album and somehow get them onto the grow log thread. :jointsmile:

Shov

You need 20 posts b/f your can post pics and you can only edit within 10 minutes of posting the original. Mods should make it 24 hours if they have to limit it at all...

That helps a lot! I was trying to figure this out and I guess I will have to spend some time soon posting on threads. I will add some more details soon.

Larry is growing very nicely. I unbound her yesterday and things are responding already.

OK, we all know cats are both cute and curious!

Here is my kitten exploring during construction while I was testing the lights.

It's crazy how she looks! lol

She is orange and white.

(=

My Kitty - 001

I was talking to a friend about his plants and he pointed out to me how sturdy and thick his stems were. I had not thought about looking at the stem size for health, but I guess that makes sense.

I measured Larry's stem today.
Photo = Larry's Stem Photo
c = 4.5cm or 1.75in
d = 1.43cm or 0.557in

I guess this is pretty good since it looks a little thicker than his stems were and he seemed pretty happy with them.

(=

always cool to see an LED grow! i'll be checkin in on you...stem is pretty insane there!

:rastasmoke:

LED grow - I'm subscribed for sure :thumbsup:
Watch your kitten around your plants - some of them seem to see it like catnip ;)

Would you please tell us more about your LED build - specs, how they are constructed, etc? There are a number of LED wizards here who will want to know plus quite a few LED growers. We'll all be interested so you'll have a ready made audience.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bigsby

Would you please tell us more about your LED build - specs, how they are constructed, etc? There are a number of LED wizards here who will want to know plus quite a few LED growers. We'll all be interested so you'll have a ready made audience.

---

+1 I think there are more engineers on this forum than any of us would expect...

Hi again,

The LEDs were made to my friend's specs. He is trying to start up a grow LED business. I inquired about the exact frequencies however he understandably explained to me that he couldn't share those specifics.

What I do know after our conversation is:

a proprietary blend of light
1 watt diodes
90 degree viewing angles
american made LEDs

The reason the flowering lights are only duo-band is because they are intended to be used with UVB cfls.

The veg lights use 4 bands of light because they need more of that spectrum in the veg state.

:thumbsup:

So I guess my first note is that I originally thought these were both three band as seen in my first log post so thanks for encouraging me to find out more!

If OG Larry is any indication of how well the rest of my seedlings will do, then I'm *very* impressed. :D

I will post some more pics so you can see the progression.

So I transplanted OG Larry today from a 3 gallon to a 5 gallon. I made the pot out of a standard 5 gallon bucket and some drill holes.

I figured it would be a good idea to drill those holes vertically so that I can see how wet the soil is as I water the plant.

I also did some more bending today, but just a couple of basic ties to increase the amount of light the canopy is taking in.

OG Larry 07 - Portrait

OG Larry 08 - My Bucket

OG Larry 09 - Gotta Make Sure To Wash Off The Dirt!

OG Larry 10 - Current Light Setup

Your Larry is turning into a monster :)

I am amazed at how fast this Algae grew! It literally popped up overnight on me. I did some reading and it sounds like it will not be a problem, but I wanted to kill it anyways. It stinks!

I decided to put a panda paper over the blocks of rockwool and cut holes for the seedling stems to come out. This way the algae cant get light and will die.

Here is a pic:

Seedlings Grow Algae on Rockwool

So some good friends of mine are moving and needed a babysitter. Everything is legit as far as paperwork goes and there are no signs of pests or PM.

There are several varieties here, sorry I can't name them right now. If anyone is particularly interested let me know and I'll ask.

Here are some pics. They like to make little plants and flower them.

Photo of The Plant's Setup

This plant was neat just because it's leaves are so broad. This was was an unknown seed.

Unknown Species - Fat Leaves 1

Unknown Species - Fat Leaves 2

:postexcuseme:

Am I the only one that thinks she is stakin' a claim on my grow room? lol

So I went by the local Nursery and bought myself a Three Way Meter. It is made to provide the PH of the soil, the moisture level of the soil, and the lumens available.

This is a really great little tool! :thumbsup:

It cost me $11 and I probably over-paid?

Three Way Meter

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rattlingdags

Your Larry is turning into a monster :)

---

Thanks! She should be able to triple in size in this 5 gallon. As soon as I am done babysitting in my flowering space I will consider starting to flower. I am going to take some clones too of course.

Here are some Larry updates.
OG Larry Full View

OG Larry Top Canopy

OG Larry Side Canopy

Edit:

I forgot to mention, I also got a couple of plant bases with wheels. You can see on the first image that the base holds my 5 gallon just fine. It sure makes it easier to move the plant around and work on it! $6 at Big Lots. :D

Still waiting for these sprouts to get out of the germination stage.

Two of them show their third set of leaves; waiting sucks! :mad:

I moved my 90w LED closer to the sprouts. It is now 8 inches above the canopy level. The intensity could still be stronger though. I kind of wish I had bought a 120 instead.

Sprouts 01

Sprouts 02

I am getting closer to decision time about Larry every day. I decided to count up his main branches today to see exactly how Large she is.

OG Larry - Marking Branches

As you can see I just used twist ties to mark all branch tips. The twist tie with two screws on it is the apex, not a branch. In addition to the apex there are 14 distinct main branches. All are large enough to become their own plant via cloning.

I am also trying to decide on a method for growing a mother and grafting on several varieties of bud as a Bonzai Mother. I have to decide if I want to use OG Larry as a mother host or grow a new mother with a better design.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by omnibuddy

Still waiting for these sprouts to get out of the germination stage.

Two of them show their third set of leaves; waiting sucks! :mad:

I moved my 90w LED closer to the sprouts. It is now 8 inches above the canopy level. The intensity could still be stronger though. I kind of wish I had bought a 120 instead.

Sprouts 01

Sprouts 02

---

Just as a heads up, the 90w UFO style panels using 1w diodes can typically be put about 3 inches from the plant canopy. Typical 2000+umol intensity happens around that level, and the plants will love it as long as you keep them cool.

Also, if you ever look into upgrading, there are true single-chip 3w diodes out there now with much higher efficiencies.

Check out those sexy pre-flowers... I didn't want to be rude so I took a picture; it'll last longer. :S2:

OG Larry - Sexy 01

OG Larry - Sexy 02

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by khyberkitsune

Just as a heads up, the 90w UFO style panels using 1w diodes can typically be put about 3 inches from the plant canopy.

---

Thats a good idea. I messed with my light a bit more today and got it another two inches closer. At six inches from canopy I am now reading 800 to 1000 lumens depending on where I test on the canopy level.

All of this light stuff gets pretty detailed. Does anyone know the answers to these types of questions?

Approximately how much more usuable light does 1000 lumens of LED have vs 1000 lumens of wide-spectrum HID?

Approximately how much more usuable light does 1000 lumens of LED have vs 1000 lumens of 6500k?

Is plant stretching affected by total lumens or by total usable lumens?

I wanted to try this technique out. Many people use it as a method of causing a branch or apex to split into two branches.

When I cut the leaves I cut about 1/3 of the leaves off. They were so small at the time it was hard to see. Now in the photo you can see the leaf that was cut when a baby. These are the two tops that resulted.

OG Larry FIM

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by omnibuddy

Thats a good idea. I messed with my light a bit more today and got it another two inches closer. At six inches from canopy I am now reading 800 to 1000 lumens depending on where I test on the canopy level.

All of this light stuff gets pretty detailed. Does anyone know the answers to these types of questions?

Approximately how much more usuable light does 1000 lumens of LED have vs 1000 lumens of wide-spectrum HID?

Approximately how much more usuable light does 1000 lumens of LED have vs 1000 lumens of 6500k?

Is plant stretching affected by total lumens or by total usable lumens?

---

You cannot measure an LED panel by lumens unless it is all white or all green. It's impossible. 1w 40% efficient red diode will show 30+ lumens whereas a 1w green diode at 40% efficiency will register 100+ lumens, assuming all other factors like emission angle and power consumption/conversion are equal. Lumens is weighted at green light, specifically 550-555nm. Trying to measure a panel loaded with red and blue diodes by the lumen is therefore improper, and makes no sense.

What you're looking for intensity-wise is photon flux density, and at the proper wavelength ranges to determine photosynthetic photon flux density.

PROTIP: ALMOST NO LED MANUFACTURER CAN PROVIDE YOU THAT PHOTON FLUX DENSITY MEASUREMENT. Most of them aren't even aware that a proper measurement for photosynthetic photon flux density even exists.

So if you don't see that measurement, you might not get the results you've been advertised/promised.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by khyberkitsune

1w 40% efficient red diode will show 30+ lumens whereas a 1w green diode at 40% efficiency will register 100+ lumens, assuming all other factors like emission angle and power consumption/conversion are equal.

---

Is this because lumen measurements are based on human visual spectrum?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by omnibuddy

Is this because lumen measurements are based on human visual spectrum?

---

Human visual sensitivity, but yes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by khyberkitsune

PROTIP: ALMOST NO LED MANUFACTURER CAN PROVIDE YOU THAT PHOTON FLUX DENSITY MEASUREMENT. Most of them aren't even aware that a proper measurement for photosynthetic photon flux density even exists.

---

It sounds like I need to get a "Quantum Sensor" or "Quantum Meter". I see they measure Photon Flux in the photosynthetic spectrum.

Does anybody use on of these currently? Are there any recommendations on brand etc... I found them starting at $140 on this site: Apogee Instruments Quantum Sensor - Measuring PPF

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by omnibuddy

It sounds like I need to get a "Quantum Sensor" or "Quantum Meter". I see they measure Photon Flux in the photosynthetic spectrum.

Does anybody use on of these currently? Are there any recommendations on brand etc... I found them starting at $140 on this site: Apogee Instruments Quantum Sensor - Measuring PPF

---

I would prefer the Spectrum Technologies Field Scout (it's what I use in my research facilities,) but yes that is what you need. Focus only on PPFD, ignore ones with additional lux or foot candle readings - you only want/need PPFD.

Can someone point me to a good thread on this forum that will teach me how to make a clone?

If possible I would like to clone it into my soil less mix and i have clonex cloning gel as well as clone and seedling nutrients.


Thanks (=

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by omnibuddy

Can someone point me to a good thread on this forum that will teach me how to make a clone?

If possible I would like to clone it into my soil less mix and i have clonex cloning gel as well as clone and seedling nutrients.


Thanks (=

---

Dont bother with nutes. Take a cutting, cut it off even, stick it under water, cut the end off at a 45 degree angle, dip in rooting gel, dip in wet rockwool cube. Put under gentle light for a couple of weeks and make sure the tray has some water for the rockwool.

It's that simple, my man! :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by khyberkitsune

Dont bother with nutes. Take a cutting, cut it off even, stick it under water, cut the end off at a 45 degree angle, dip in rooting gel, dip in wet rockwool cube. Put under gentle light for a couple of weeks and make sure the tray has some water for the rockwool.

It's that simple, my man! :)

---

Thanks!

I went ahead and took a cutting as suggested with a couple of differences. I cut it and put it into the gel in under a second to avoid a bubble. I planted it with the gel in my soilless mix. I presoaked the soil with a mix of clonex clone nutes, super thrive, and 1 tsp of clonex rooting gel.

I didn't want to try rockwool because my seed cubes grew algae last time.

I will let you know how it goes.

I've noticed that rockwool tends to get algae, even if you use pH'd RO water. I think the stuff is just dormant in the rockwool itself and activates with water.

It's not a problem once they get under the good lights, because they grow so fast the algae gets no light within a couple of weeks.

So my friend needed to top the baby plants I am sitting and was kind enough to give me the tops. I went ahead and did the same process with them. These plants are:

1. Vortex, 1st gen clone (top)
2. OG Larry, 1st gen clone (top), from seed/mom #3
3. Unknown Seed, Nicknamed "Lemongranite", 1st gen clone (top)

Time to get medicated!
:rasta:

Now im down to 9 of 12 original seedlings. Most are doing well, and about three are really starting to grow.

None of the bluetooth made the cut. the seeds were small and i was worried about them. looks like for good reason. ill have to try this strain again another time with my remaining seeds.

Tomorrow through the weekend is going to be busy. I need to start on a new light proofing technique so i can begin flowering larry. once that is set i have to move all of the lights into place, set the timers, and start the big stretch.