My Single 3W LED A-Train Grow

I see so many baby plants vegged under big HID lights or like 5-6 or more 23w or larger CLFs or a 90-120W LED, when that is hardly necessary. And then the same people talk about GPW...

People did not believe the huge plant I vegged with a single 23w CFL, yet this is way more impressive. It is all about not wasting light.

Here is my widdle 8" X 8" A-Train vegged under a single 3w cool white LED. Yes, one 3W light with nothing else. The hull wouldn't come off and it was nearly dead and I was ready to toss it, but it made a full recovery and is a happy camper.

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Think I am exagerrating? A standard CFL radiates in almost a 360 degree radius. This is a 30 degree LED thus the beam is concentrated 12 times and since it has 50% more LPW, that is 18 times the concentration of a comparable CFL.

Will probably flip in one more week. I am going to attempt to flower with an absolute minimum of watts and still get an acceptable harvest to see what is possible. I might have to go as high as 18w.

On a separate note, can anyone tell me if those tiny white dots are powdery mildew? I live in the desert and the humidity is very low.

That's not powdery mildew.
Looks more like mite bites.
Inspect the underside of each leaf with a 10 to 30X magnifying glass.
Also looks a bit like over-spray so if you see no mites you should be alright.

Amazing for the wattage, brah.

Subscribed,
Weezard.

Thanks Weez - and no mites. Yay!

BTW, I received a mix of unlabelled seeds from a friend and was informed that is way more likely to be The H.O.G. as it is a pure indica and not the A-Train which is a hybrid.

3watts??? Whaaaaaaaaaattt??? You've got to finish this thread now that you've started....

Let's see what becomes of this 3-18w grow....

CGI::::::

I picked a 'standard' CFL grow log at random as an example below. (Post your own or a grower you like and we shall examine it.) This grower is using over 30 watts per plant, but notice how only about 3% (I am guessing) of the light is actually hitting the leaves.

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The cone of light on my plant is just slightly larger than the width of the leaves so the utilization is probably close to 75-80%. Again a guess.

Correction: this strain is likely The H.O.G., a pure indica, and not A-Train, a hybrid which grows out of control.

Just switched to flower yesterday and pumped the light up to 5 watts. It is currently 10" wide X 11.5" tall.

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Soil is spent garbage using cheap hydro nutrients. Container size is 2 quarts.

Gotta give you props for this thread. I'm reppin' ya. Will be watching through till harvest. Nice work. Curious about the color of the LED...

Warm white. I have done the red and blue thang, but here are the problems with that:

If the lights are not perfectly color mixed, not on the lamp, but on the leaves, then photosynthesis is not optimized. They need both at the same time and place.

Red and blue LEDs do not have the photonic output of white LEDs even though the spectrum of white LEDs is not designed for horticulture, but there is no problem with color mixing no matter the focal point as with bi-spectrum LEDs. The LEDs I am using for this experiment run 70-80 lumens per watt or somewhere between CFLS and MH, but the concentration is many times higher. Compare that to the normal 30 lumens per watt for most red and blue LEDs.

Now all of us edumucated folks know that lumens are not the way to talk about plant light usage, but it is a general concept until we get a new standard for PAR.

Can you grow a hydro plant under led lighting? Is your plant a clone or from a seed?

We demand updates

Yes please more updates! I for one am really intregued over the growth that you have acheived with these lights. Close good branching like this = good lighting and good response and penetration. ( yes I said that) Anyone else heard anymore about photo response and spectral output of various makers? Comparisons by 3rd parties maybe. That would be cool to know. Very NICE!

I think PrGl that is exactly what I intend to do. Something really simple, DWC, bubbler, had great luck cloneing that way and a good LED set.
Looks like a possability.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 121310

We demand updates

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The plant turned male and I pulled it. I had a 12" female in my flower room part way into flowering. I put her under 15 watts (a 4, 5, & 6w white LED) and harvested about 11 grams. I didn't post because I want to do a journal from start to finish.

I currently have a new seedling vegging for about a week. Perhaps I will chronicle it though it is growing very vigourosly - usually a sign of a male. (Or someone could send me two feminised seeds... *wink*).

Either way, white LED E27 30 degree spotlights are the way to go for early veg for sure - outperforming all other methods for small grows; even my component red and blue LEDs. They are cheap and powerful enough to put one over each plant for up to 3 weeks, though switching to a 5 or 6 watter after week two is recommended. Or one could just start with a 6w as they only cost 50% more than a 3w.

NEW GROW:

The following are pictures of Jack at about 3 - 4 weeks. I call it Jack because I planted two seeds and he is giant compared to the other (Jill) and the largest is usually a male. No sex yet, though.The first two are under 12 watts of LED; 2 x 6W warm white LED and 1 X 4W red.

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He was topped once. Added one more 6W white and switched to flowering. He is about 14" * 14". Notice how healthy he is with no fan, no pump, no pH balance, no PPM meter, low humidity, extremely hard tap water - and what others will tell you is too little light. Can I do anything more wrong? I doubt it, but IT'S A FUCKING WEED, PEOPLE!

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Notice the 4 bolts near the top. That is a support for my center bucket (they are tapered). This is to be my first ever three bucket grow just for you guys to see if I can go start to finish. The bottom bucket has a 2 quart pot full or lava rock sitting in a 3" passive pool of generic hydro nutes. The center bucket has the bottom cut out and is just an empty tube lined with Reflectix. The top is the bucket lamp with the 4 LEDs.

He is already getting way too wide for the bucket so that I have to keep unfurling the leaves upward, but we shall see how far we can go. I may use this experiment to design a professional grow cabinet. It will probably be 18" * 18" * 36" as compared to my 11" * 11" * 30" funky bucket grow.

That is runty Jill in the attachment. She is in a 5 gallon DWC and her roots still have yet to hit the reservoir. She is maybe 5" tall. Very weak from birth. Normally I would have pulled her, but this is my last grow of the season so am keeping her alive for now.

Jack is starting to show sex. Should know for sure very soon. Grew 3 more inches in just the last few days.

The buckets are a bit too narrow. I may do a tutorial on a 50 gallon RubberMaid trash can grow as that would be the perfect size for a single plant for those without a dedicated space.

I know it may seem like you are talking to yourself, but you are not. Some of us are silently watching.

So much for my hunch. Jack is henceforth to be know as Jacqueline. :o She might get too big to finish in the triple bucket and may have to go to the normal flower room.

Jill is still too tiny to be put into flower, but finally has feeler roots hitting the rez.

let me no hw that goes it i think um try that i can do that in my computer pc since it will be my first time trying to grow indoor.

I think you will be sorely disappointed for the time involved. A PC cabinet is just too small and the problems are many.

If you are growing in your bedroom and still want stealth, try a modified clothes hamper.

Remember folks - I have a a regular grow room so no laughing at my experimental three bucket system.

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Here is Jill in the DWC looking very healthy, but stunted at only 6" and still in the veg cycle.

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Both of the following pictures of Jackie were taken at the same time. In the first she is just in the bottom bucket. In the second she is shoe-horned into the middle bucket.

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Jackie is now level with the top of the second bucket at 22" and you can see the flowers just starting. She has maybe another 6-7" of headroom, but no room to spread out.


Just a note to readers: I am doing this for you guys! I already know what can be done with minimal lighting and I can get a much better yield by putting her in my regular flower room. So if there is little participation in this thread, I may just go that route. I am not seeking praise, but need to know that this is educating and interesting to people.

Looks a little stuffy.
How do you keep the air moving?

The ventilation is pretty poor, but thus far does not seem to be holding her back. There are holes in the top bucket, an air gap around the bottom two buckets and I usually have the top bucket sitting on 1/2" sticks for another air gap. At night the top bucket comes off. If she starts showing signs of stress, then I will have to kluge up some sort of computer fan. It would have to go on the outside as there is no room left inside. I will take a look to see what I an come up with because it does not yet look ghetto enough. :rastasmoke:

This is the biggest plant I have ever had in here. If I were to do something similar again, I would use a 50 gallon Rubbermaid or similar trash can with two vent fans. This was initially designed just as a convenient way to veg for 1- 4 weeks and /or do lighting experiments and no more.

Jackie has now overgrown the middle bucket by 2-3" still under 22 watts with the the flowers starting to fill out a bit.

I am going to continue this journal, but put her under my 140w DIY LED lamp in the next few days. I will post one final photo in the buckets. I believe that I have shown what is possible with minimal lighting and I would not hesitate to continue flowering her if there was just a little bit more space. I am certain I could get a great GPW yield ratio if I could finish. Hope this has inspired a few of you.

I will get a much better yield under the 140w, but a much lower GPW ratio because the light is spread over a much larger area and will not be contained in the same way.