LED grow testing the Pro-Grow 260.

[silent leprechaun]

The original Can-Filters is written on the side. Its a Can-9000.

Im guessing this is it: http://www.amazon.com/Can-Carbon-Fil.../dp/B00557SY4M

Its doing a fantastic job anyway...I never have to open a window..
Ill be putting up an update in about a week to show the start of flowering.
Its looking good so far I cut down 2 plants as they were male. But the rest are looking very sexy I must say

[silent leprechaun]

So here we are after exactly 28 days of 12/12. Of the 9 plants I had in the room 7 turned out to be female. I would have preferred to have just 6 plants in the room as it is a bit crowded. I took some cuttings from the short plant in the middle and from 2 of the strong tall plants.

I will be growing 9 plants again from the cuttings During the veg cycle next time I will grow 3 nice mothers in with the new cuttings. It will be good to have the mothers under the Pro-Grow 260 for a while. I have only 4 x 2 foot tubes and they only have 4200k. I know this is not the optimum light for veg but I can’t seem to find ‘daylight’ tubes… Everywhere I go I see white (4200k) or warm white (2700k). I will keep looking for the 6500k. A few weeks under the led and I’ll have 3 fine mothers to keep in the veg room. I think I will invest in two of the 50w plasma lights from HydroponicsHut.com after this grow. I think the veg room will enjoy a couple of them in the coming future. I received my electricity bill today.The charges for 2 months was €120.00. I think that is quite reasonable as there is 2 of us living in the flat and the electric heating has been turned on quite a bit. That works out at just €2.00 per day to keep everything running. TV, laptop, electric heater, fridge, Pro-Grow 260, 4 x 20w CFLs, extractor and fan.

A couple of the plants have grown much too tall and I will need to do some low stress training (LST). I will simply be tying the plants down to stop them growing over the LED light. It will be different when I begin the SOG growing. The plants will be bloomed sooner and will be naturally shorter as they are cuttings.

In the point of odour. I had to invest in a proper carbon filter. The Odorsok carbon filter just wasn’t doing a good job and I would not recommend them. Some people have had a good experience with them but unfortunately not me. The new carbon filter is doing a fantastic job. What a difference. It’s a ‘Can 9000′ and about 70cm long and 15- 20cm in diameter. I don't think I’ll have any trouble with odour in the future. Thanks for the tip Bigsby. Odour control is vital where I live.

I have been feeding the plants the same stuff since I started them. Seaweed soil conditioner, seaweed and tomato fertiliser and bat guano. I have seen no deficiencies since starting this grow which is great. Hopefully it will stay this way. A few of the leaves are a little burned by the CFL’s but they are fine.

Ill put up much clearer pictures next time. I took these pictures on my new iPhone and the auto focus was very annoying. I’ll have to figure it out. The pistils are really starting to show up now so I'll take much more pics in about a week. I'll be sure they are all clear.

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[silent leprechaun]

Hey everyone. Things are starting to get exciting now after 35 days of 12/12… It took the plants nearly 2 to 3 weeks to show signs of their sexes after switching the light cycle. A comment came in from Grow Medical 420 (see link on home page) which reminded me to start the bloom cycle when the pistils are visible, and not when the light cycle is changed. This makes sense as the plants need some time to react to the cycle. So technically they are in week 2 of flowering, depending on which plant we are taking about. The plants are beginning to produce a lot of pistils and 3 plants have had a spurt of growth.

The feedings are still the same 50ml seaweed and tomato fertiliser, 50ml seaweed soil conditioner and a couple of spoons of bat guano mixed into a 3 gallon bucket. The seaweed is concentrated so I am just following the directions on the bottle to be honest. I’m feeding them about every 4 to 5 days now with about 2 litres per plant. If the plants get a little too much water I drain the collection trays under the pots with a 200ml plastic syringe. This will prevent root rot and other issues such as drowning the plants as the soil isn’t airy, lack of oxygen to the roots will kill them too. I reuse the water I collect from the trays so the plant food will not go to waste. The plant in the picture below is looking a little different to the other. I am curious to know if it is a hermaphrodite. It took until a week ago to show its sex properly. The bud in the picture doesn’t look as pistil-full as the other plants either. I am keeping a close eye for any male pollen sacks hidden in there.

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The plants are showing no signs of deficiencies so far. The only problem on the grow room right now is the over crowding. I wonder if it might be a good idea to take out the little short plant in the middle… Maybe stick her in the veg tent as a mother, but perhaps she is too far into a bloom to turn back. But I’m sure I read somewhere that a plant can be reversed at any stage of bloom by changing the light cycle back to 18/6. I would like to free up some space in there. 6 plants from seed would be still pushing it for space, I have 7. A couple of plants have reached up to 4 feet high so I just tied them down to keep them below the light.

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The Room is very crowded as you can see but the Pro-Grow 260 is still keeping the lower leaves alive. The lower leaves are 4 feet away from the LED light ! And there is a lot of foliage in the canopy. I would have thought that they would have withered and died by now, but no.. I am going to do some pruning soon to take away some of the popcorn buds before the plants put more effort into them. I don’t think that super cropping went the way I had planned… The LED light made them recover too quickly and I should have bloomed at 4 weeks or earlier instead of 5. With some pruning at least the light will penetrate further and the plants will get a bit more light each. I cannot fault the Pro-Grow 260 so far. It has more than impressed me through the veg stage and the pictures will speak for themselves through the bloom.

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Here are some shots of a few very young buds. Remember that only 2 weeks ago they showed their sexes. So this is the result of 2 weeks of pistil growth. The picture are not the greatest I have taken but they will give you a good idea of what’s going on. The auto focus and auto detect on the iPhone4 is a bit tricky to control. I must try to learn how to control my new phone. It’s not the phones fault, its mine I’m sure.

The below picture came out quite clear. You can see the beginning of the wonderful crystals forming. I read somewhere, I think 420magazine, that LED can produce much more trichomes than HPS lighting. I won’t be doing any comparison grows as firstly I don’t have the space and secondly I don’t want to have to deal with all that heat. The Pro-Grow 260 runs totally cool. The average temperature in the tent is a comfortable 23 – 26 degrees Celsius. The extractor fan has a speed controller and is set to the lowest possible speed. I leave the extractor fan on continuously to constantly move and replace the air in the tent. The new carbon filter I bought is doing an amazing job. It the Can 9000 if anyone is interested in it. I would recommend it for sure.

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Thanks for stopping by and checking out my grow journal. I hope the information I provide can be useful to other growers out there.

[bigguy1977]

hi silent.how are things looking?? from your last pic all looked good,but are those lights not a bit close??

[silent leprechaun]

Sorry for the late reply on this thread everyone. Here is an update for the 10th of December. Remember you can also follow this grow on Led Logger on wordpress

LED Grow update no.15, December 10th, 2011

Hey everyone. So the plants are looking good and are now 3 weeks into bloom. Plenty of pistils are forming and bud sites are starting to fill out. The feedings are coming about every 4 days still, maybe a little longer.

I trimmed up the bottoms of the plants as they have become so tall and bushy the bottom buds would have been just a waste of energy for the plants. But even those bottom leaves that I took off were still healthy and green, 4 feet away from the Pro-Grow 260. After trimming the bases of the plants, energy will now be focused towards the larger buds.

It’s still a little overcrowded in there and I might have to do some more pruning to let each plant receive an equal amount of light. I really cannot believe how big some of these plants got, and how fast they grew. There is certainly no doubt in my mind on the vegetative power of the Pro-Grow LED light. If it can perform this well in the bloom stage, which I think it can, I will never change the light I am using. I will be keeping everyone posted about every week for the remainder of the bloom stage.

Regarding PH and other soil issues, I have had no issue with the PH or anything else soil related. The plants do not have a single sign of deficiencies and I didn’t use any of the professional fertilisers. Just the Seaweed and tomato fertiliser and the seaweed soil conditioner. I mixed in some bat guano sometimes but that has been the extent to my fertilising. All of these products are 100% organic and the soil will not need to be flushed before harvest. I don’t even believe that it is possible to ‘burn’ the plants with these products.

I will feed the plants just water for the last feeding. It will be a kind of flushing as I’m afraid the weed might taste of seaweed ! Might be interesting ! Who knows…

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[silent leprechaun]

LED Grow update no.16, December 24th, 2011

Hey everyone.

Sorry for not posting earlier but I had to study for exams and then I became quite ill for the past week or so. The plants are looking great and are still showing no signs of deficiencies. It seems that the seaweed fertiliser is doing its thing very well. So here are some pictures of the plants. I’m sure you will agree that they are in fin condition. The plants have all grown quite tall and are very close to the Pro-Grow right now. I really should have bloomed on week 3 or so. I waited until week 5 as I thought they might need it as they are all grown from seed. Hopefully the cuttings will keep themselves much shorter. So, enjoy the pictures.

Thanks for your concern Bigguy1977, I tied the Pro-Grow 260 to the top of the tent. It certainly was a bit too close. Anything less than 8 inches (20cm) can bleach the leaves and even the buds. I was told that growing with LED can prolong the bloom for 2 weeks, so I would expect to harvest within the next 2 weeks or so. The pistils are looking good and white and the tricomes are all looking clear and not milky. Ill make another update very soon.
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[silent leprechaun]

Actually, no, it wont be in 2 weeks. Technically the plants only went into proper bloom in the last week of November. So that would mean that they are only in week 6.5 or so by now. As the Pro-Grow LED light can prolong a bloom by 2 weeks (think Bigsby told me that) then I could be looking at another few weeks yet. The plants will tell me when they are ready. One or 2 plants have been stunted due to the over crowding in the tent. I have 7 plants in there when the tent is only good for 4 plants. I should get 5 good plants anyway. I'll put in 4 plants for the next run.

[silent leprechaun]

LED Grow update no.17, January 6th, 2011

Hey all,

So things are coming along great at the moment. The only issue I have is the overcrowding in the 90cm x 90cm tent. as I mentioned, I have 7 plants in a tent which is fit for 4 plants. I took on of the plants out as it was being smothered by the others so now Iâ??m down to 6. For my next grows I will never grow more than 4 plants in the 90 x 90 space and I will bloom from seed at week 3, not 5.

This should take care of the height issues I have had. I think I would have had much more of a yield if I had only grown 4 plants as the light would have been better dispersed. I have 6 cuttings left from the last batch and I will keep 2 as mothers and 4 as the next batch. At least I know that all of them are female. I just planted them into larger pots to get ready for the big move into the tent as soon as the current plants are done.

The buds are looking very good so far. They are a nice size as you can see by the AA battery I am holding up beside them as a reference. The buds directly under the LED light are absolutely covered in trichomes. These buds are look really good to me and Iâ??m looking forward to trying them. All the trichomes are still clear even though some of the pistils have begun to brown. I will keep a good eye on the trichomes will harvest when there is 80% amber and 20% milky or transparent. I donâ??t know how long this will take to be honest as I have never grown these strains.

Don't forget that you can follow my grow journal here on LED LOGGER

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[silent leprechaun]

Anyone wanna let me know if they think these buds are looking good after 6 - 7 weeks of bloom under LED ?

:rasta:

[silent leprechaun]

LED Grow update no.18, January 12th, 2011

Hey all,

So over the past 2 days I have noticed one of the plants showing a deficiency, damn it... To me it looks like a magnesium issue. I gave that plant an extra feeding of bat guano and some seaweed and tomato fertiliser. I mixed a heaped tea spoon of bat guano in warm/hot water and mixed it well. However, this extra feeding did not seem to fix the problem.

I did some reading on the subject and I cane to the conclusion that it might be that the magnesium is being locked out. Locked out meaning that the plant roots can no longer access the magnesium in the soil due to other issues. The water in my area is very hard and this can cause issues with magnesium uptake, over time. Possibly the hard water has affected the soil to cause this.

I went to the chemist and I bought some Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) in an attempt to unlock the magnesium from the soil. I mixed one tea spoon with one gallon of water. I haven’t used all the water yet on this plant. I poured 1 litre of the Epsom salt water into the soil. You can see where I got this information on the home page of my blog. On the right hand side, where the links are, look for plants problems/disease. This is a very good link which shows many different plant problems and how to deal with them.

So I hope this will resolve my magnesium issue. It seemed strange that this plant was the only one affected. But then I remembered that this plant has been watered much more than the others as it was positioned under the fan. This extra watering, with hard water, could have caused this reaction. I believe it is the calcium in the drinking water which affects the soil. I will keep you updated on the recovery of this plant.

It could be possible that I will have this issue with all the plants over the next few weeks. On my next grow I will have to get filtered water for the plants.

Enjoy the pics. If anyone has other ideas as to what has happened to this one plant I would like to hear it.

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