Hi all first thread, was sent here by a member so ive copied my post there, made some edits and brought it here, hope to learn lots!
Stumbled onto AFN around the first week of September and in the DIY LED lighting forum read a thread about off the shelf LEDs, then happened to grab 5 Crop King autoflower cbd cheese seeds that day on impulse.
Did a bit more reading and at that time 6 pack boxes of Phillips screw in LEDs went on sale for like 8$ CAD at my local hardware store so i bought 3 boxes(60w replacement 8w not dimmable leds, 2 boxes of 5000k 800lumen, 1 box of 2700k 800lumen)
Ive got a big mostly unfinished concrete basement and no neighbors so just set aside a corner and on Sept 10th planted all 5 shoots, in healthy local soil(some relatively fresh compost), unknown PH, 2 in big planters, 2 in medium planters and 1 in a pretty small like one.
Then made a couple lights:
The first with just simple 1.50$ plastic white light fixture bases and some old house wiring, attached them to a 1x6 about 6" apart, initially I built 6 and since then have added two more.
Second I took an old extension cord and 6 little waterproof rubber screw in pigtail fixtures, added them in a way that an electrician would probably frown at by just cutting the insulation from the black and white wires every 12" and very securely and carefully wrapped and soldered them in parallel and re-insulated them with a ton of electrical tape.
Then hung the 1x6 from the ceiling with little chains and draped the extension cord light over so that it crisscrossed somewhat symmetrically.
Plugged both lights into a powerbar with a 3$ timer and hung all the wiring from the ceiling tidily.
Its now the end of week 11 and they are all looking good i think, ill get some pictures asap but ive just gone to 12on, 12 off.
Ive been pretty aggressive with training them to grow outwards and out without a super thick lower canopy and it seems to be working with the low wattage led setup, Ive now got the lights as high as they can go which is about 32" from the tops of the plants and they are loving it.(could move the plants down but it would put them nearer the cold concrete.)
Have added two 2700k 9.5w dim-ables that i snagged for like 5$ they seem to be a bit better overall.
Its getting colder outside and Im struggling to keep the basement above 65 degrees now(I live in BC) so next time ill be scaling up to make the electric heat more worth it.
For nutes ive added some organic stuff a buddy gave me with an 8-4-5 rating that smells like fish with 5 waterings and a bit of epsom salt with two waterings as well as a few days ago some molasses, waiting for the soil to go dry and will be testing the PH with the runoff method for the first time then hopefully adding another round of the 8-4-5 for the start of flowering.
Also 11 weeks may seem long but Ive read these Crop King auto cbd cheese are usually slow to flower and need to be forced, im not in a rush so waited this long, have been pretty heavily LSTing and defoliating fan leaves that block new growth or low growth that didnt get much light and it seems to have worked well, havnt done any of that for a few days.
Also have had some issues with mites and think theyre all dead now.
Ive posted this thread mainly because in the last few days ive noticed some chlorosis/yellow splotchiness and tip clawing, going to let the soil dry out a bit and check PH because ive never done so(dummy)
Thanks for reading all that, here are some pics!
Stumbled onto AFN around the first week of September and in the DIY LED lighting forum read a thread about off the shelf LEDs, then happened to grab 5 Crop King autoflower cbd cheese seeds that day on impulse.
Did a bit more reading and at that time 6 pack boxes of Phillips screw in LEDs went on sale for like 8$ CAD at my local hardware store so i bought 3 boxes(60w replacement 8w not dimmable leds, 2 boxes of 5000k 800lumen, 1 box of 2700k 800lumen)
Ive got a big mostly unfinished concrete basement and no neighbors so just set aside a corner and on Sept 10th planted all 5 shoots, in healthy local soil(some relatively fresh compost), unknown PH, 2 in big planters, 2 in medium planters and 1 in a pretty small like one.
Then made a couple lights:
The first with just simple 1.50$ plastic white light fixture bases and some old house wiring, attached them to a 1x6 about 6" apart, initially I built 6 and since then have added two more.
Second I took an old extension cord and 6 little waterproof rubber screw in pigtail fixtures, added them in a way that an electrician would probably frown at by just cutting the insulation from the black and white wires every 12" and very securely and carefully wrapped and soldered them in parallel and re-insulated them with a ton of electrical tape.
Then hung the 1x6 from the ceiling with little chains and draped the extension cord light over so that it crisscrossed somewhat symmetrically.
Plugged both lights into a powerbar with a 3$ timer and hung all the wiring from the ceiling tidily.
Its now the end of week 11 and they are all looking good i think, ill get some pictures asap but ive just gone to 12on, 12 off.
Ive been pretty aggressive with training them to grow outwards and out without a super thick lower canopy and it seems to be working with the low wattage led setup, Ive now got the lights as high as they can go which is about 32" from the tops of the plants and they are loving it.(could move the plants down but it would put them nearer the cold concrete.)
Have added two 2700k 9.5w dim-ables that i snagged for like 5$ they seem to be a bit better overall.
Its getting colder outside and Im struggling to keep the basement above 65 degrees now(I live in BC) so next time ill be scaling up to make the electric heat more worth it.
For nutes ive added some organic stuff a buddy gave me with an 8-4-5 rating that smells like fish with 5 waterings and a bit of epsom salt with two waterings as well as a few days ago some molasses, waiting for the soil to go dry and will be testing the PH with the runoff method for the first time then hopefully adding another round of the 8-4-5 for the start of flowering.
Also 11 weeks may seem long but Ive read these Crop King auto cbd cheese are usually slow to flower and need to be forced, im not in a rush so waited this long, have been pretty heavily LSTing and defoliating fan leaves that block new growth or low growth that didnt get much light and it seems to have worked well, havnt done any of that for a few days.
Also have had some issues with mites and think theyre all dead now.
Ive posted this thread mainly because in the last few days ive noticed some chlorosis/yellow splotchiness and tip clawing, going to let the soil dry out a bit and check PH because ive never done so(dummy)
Thanks for reading all that, here are some pics!
