Thanks GWE! My 4th indoor grow.

[Soilscience]

I want to start with a great big giant Thank You to the GWE Community, and especially NebulaHaze
The information, the friendliness, awesome, just awesome...

So this is what I'm doing now. Started back in April. Will put up several posts in the coming days to bring it up to current.

2x4x7 cheapo Amazon tent
used potting soil amended with:
Composted wood chips(3 years old)
Backyard compost (weeds, sod, kitchen waste)
Espoma Plant-tone (chicken feathers, manure, etc), and Espoma Soil Acidifier (sulfur, gypsum)

Homemade fabric pots 12x12x14 (landscape fabric) over 5 gal.
Distilled water from dehumidifier

Occasional supplement with Botanicare Pure Blend Pro (fish meal, guano, etc)
Flowering supplement: Better Grow -Orchid Better Bloom, (not organic! 11-35-15)
Black strap molasses

Seeds: photo fem
Nirvana Pure Power Plant
Barney's Tangerine Dream
2 each, 4 total

Lighting: Home-made COB LED with photo-red supplement
This is a test light, with the red on only one end. I'll post pictures to follow in another post in this series.

Goals​: test difference of growth, yield with red light supplement
And see how much yield can come out of a 2x4 tent using a soil based system.
Have as much fun as possible!

Training by modified manifold (see GWE)
​​​​​​​Late defoliation akin to Green75 but only during flowering. I wanted to test the penetration ability of these lights, so held off.

​​​​​​​First set of pictures are month of May. New lights were finished and installed May 1st. Plants still in 7in pots. 5th picture 4 weeks later.

 

[D.A.A.S.69]

Hello SS. Looks like you've been doing a great job. This is going to be fun following. Good Luck.

 

[Soilscience]

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A note about the lights.
COB lighting has gotten very efficient. At least the big name brands. Cree and Bridgelux.
The light I am using now only draws 317watts at the wall, and it produces more light than my plants can use. Optimal growth in flower seems to be around 60 to 75 percent. During veg I never ran them over 150 watts. So really cheap to run.
This lamp is 3 Bridgelux "C" type 3000k (I now recommend 3500k) arrays driven by a Mean Well HLG 320 dimmable.
The heads are about 16in apart.
Attached to the frame on the left side are 2 rows of 5, 3w photo red LEDs. The photo red LEDs actually draw only about 1.5 watts each the way I have it set up, so only 15 watts of the red. And it seems to be too much, but the proof is still several weeks away.
These COBs produce light through out the spectrum. Blue, green, yellow, orange, red. The plants love it. The greens really seem to bulk up the leaves in veg. Heavy petioles and veins, crazy root growth. There's some concern that there's not enough dark red for good flower production, that's the reason for the test.
3 pics. One shows the bottom of the lamp. One shows it in the tent. The third is with the COBs dimmed out and only the red on. Brighter on the left.

 

[NebulaHaze]

Looking good!

 

[Soilscience]

Thanks!

 

[D.A.A.S.69]

I've heard an read a little about those lights. Are they very expensive? And are they easy to build?

 

[Papajeff]

Very cool setup. Don't mind me I'm taking notes 🤓

 

[Soilscience]

I've built 5 so far. The first one took a week, the last one a few hours. The one I'm using now cost about $350us. It's over built for a 2x4 tent. There's a lot of cheaper components available. But the efficiency of this thing is incredible.
The dimmer is the key.
Watch some diy videos, then contact me if you want some details. Finding sources for the top quality stuff can eat up some time.

 

[Soilscience]

Thanks. Couldn't have done it without your help. Best hobby ever.

 

[Soilscience]

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I started 12/12 on May 28.
Once they started to bolt or, stretch, it was time to start cleaning out all those excess leaves. These pics are from day 10 into flower.

 

[Soilscience]

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The next step of the cleanup is inspired by Green75
My first focus was to expose every bud. Day 16 was the first big defoliation in the canopy. I immediately felt good about this. Now I wish I had started cutting at the beginning.

 

[Green75]

They look great..good job man..really nice

 

[Soilscience]

Thanks. I'm​ pretty sure I wouldn't have tried the heavy handed trim if you hadn't lead the way. But I'm seeing a lot of bud sites swell that would have gone in the kif bin otherwise. Will post current pic later today after 3rd canopy raid.

 

[Soilscience]

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Day 22, trimmed a bit more. Making sure every little buddy is getting light.
Very interesting observation. The plants are flowering at very different speeds. The plants farther from the red light are farthest along. At least one week ahead. The plant directly under the red light has shorter internodes, lighter green leaves, and is much slower to form flowers.

Both the fastest to flower, and the slowest to flower are Tangerine Dream. But seeds vary. Will have to do this with clones next time.

 

[Papajeff]

Beautiful plant, looking forward to follow up pics.👍

 

[Soilscience]

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Day 30 of flower. How much will come out of this 2x4 tent? I can't wait to find out!

 

[D.A.A.S.69]

Can't wait to find out myself, excellent job soilscience, pretty damn good haul I bet.

 

[Soilscience]

Thanks. I still don't know how to predict. But it will be more than I've ever had before.

 

[redbeard]

He soil beautiful girls. Super nice setup been thinking about building a cob for a 5x5 . How many would u recommend.

 

[Soilscience]

Just put 650 watts into a friend's 4x4. Plenty of light. Built in 2 parts. The deal is that he pay for the parts only, but I get to experiment. Simple joys.
So one unit is very similar to mine. 3 7th gen Vero29s "C" type COBs running off a Mean Well HLG 320H C1400B (the final B is important, analog dimmable with a potentiometer). I use Megatronix IceLED active heatsinks run off a Mean Well RS-15-12, which is adjustable to lower the fan speed.
The second one is similar, but uses 4 "B" type COBs instead. Basically the same wattage and light output, but spread over 4 sources for more even coverage.
I also put 20 3 watt photo-red LED on the first one to test what that will do.
The picture shows where the red beads are. I wish I had better pics, but if want to build one I will help any way I can.
​​​​​​​I'm pretty sure I will be modifying and replace some of the red LEDs with far-reds. I'm seeing the excess red delay flowering. I've gone to 11/13 light schedule to make up for it. Mixing in some far-reds should remedy that.