Photoperiod Hoping to go loco smoking Acapulco

[Banjacked]

Ok, after rabbiting on in my Project Cheapo LED thread, I've decided to start a journal here. Don't expect much.

So, as you see below, here is my little sprout, a photo Acapulco Gold. She's in a 4.5l pot which comes premixed with compost and perlite, gets watered from the bottom, and is, now, 19cm, 7.5", at her widest with not much vertical growth at all from yesterday (still around the same 7cm height, just 2cm wider on yesterday). She's under a 100w equivalent de-globed 6500K screw in bulb, about 18" away, on an 18/6 cycle.

There was a hiccup early on, I thought I would use a lower powered LED and, well, "stretch" was not the word and I ended up carefully digging her out and replanting her considerably deeper, as well as changing the lamp, after the first set of full leaves appeared. The change stopped growth for a week or so, then I guess new roots came on stream as the leaf growth has been quite a surprise for me in the 2.5 weeks since the replant at the end of last month. Not so much vertical growth though...

So this is what will eventually be under the bigger mixed blurple/3000K cheapo LED strip panel I will be building when the bits arrive at some point in the next month. Will try to keep things updated as I go along this little escapade of experimentation with "cheap" LED strips (I know how this is going to end, I'm going to end up making a grow box that is LED strip on 5 out of 6 sides, which ain't going to be cheap unless I get lucky with the cost of metal panels), hope you enjoy the ride as much as I will.

 

[Banjacked]

A quick update. The pic says all. Still growing outwards and hardly any vertical growth, maybe 5mm per day.

Should I lift the lamp up?

Edit: Added "side view" pic

 

[Banjacked]

Another quick update, I lifted the lamp, still that single 14.2W 6500K de-globed replacement bulb, and now I see a bit more vertical growth.

Seems to be growing nicely to me, I'm happy.

 

[Banjacked]

A quick update

As you can see, growth is rather noticeable even though it's still under that same single LED lamp which will not be helping so much now, more light is needed. But that should change tomorrow as I now have all the bits needed for my new LED panel and I get the feeling that 5m of SMD5050 blurple and 5m of 5730 3000K white led strip should just be enough for one plant. I already moved her onto 12/12 2 days ago in anticipation of this, wanting to get the shift to flowering started before hitting her with the new panel so we'll see how things go once I get things made tomorrow. Might nip the top off once the new panel is made, am undecided on that though.

 

[Banjacked]

Quick update.

Finally got the new panel up and running and there's a slight difference in light levels when compared to that single LED replacement lamp. You can guess which pic is the "before" and which is the "after". So now it's just keep feeding and watering her and we'll see what happens at, roughly, the end of next month.

Again, just using the lux meter on the phone, I'm now pulling over 6000 lux at the top of the pot and in excess of 25,000 lux at the top of the plant. Obviously height can be adjusted as necessary. I hope that's enough...

 

[Banjacked]

Just done another "lux" test and, well, "OOPS" is the word I'm looking for as I've just realised that the lux meter on the phone maxes out at 32,272 lux and I do hit that so all I know is that the reading is higher than the phone can read when held at the highest set of fan leaves.

A "proper" lux meter that can hit 200k lux, for indication only as I know "Lux" is not a good measurement but I ain't got the money for a PAR meter before anyone starts, has now been ordered...

 

[Banjacked]

A "top view" of the little beastie, now just over 2 weeks into flower, I do like the colour of these leaves and you can see the top flower forming. Now it's time to be VERY careful with the height of the LED panel as the last thing I need is this one being hurt by LED burn.

Oh, height and width roughly 17" each. I have no idea about whether that is good, bad or average. I don't think she's doing too bad, all things considered

 

[Free Flow]

Looks good man. You plan on doing any training like lst or anything? If not on this girl on plants in the future?

 

[Banjacked]

Looks good man. You plan on doing any training like lst or anything? If not on this girl on plants in the future?

In all honesty, I'm too scared to try LST just yet, I want to make sure I have a basic system in place first because I know I will bugger things up if I try too much too quickly.

I ain't sure what the next grow will be, I still have a couple of Acapulco photo seeds, a Caliorange and a couple of Orange Kush bag seeds but am thinking about ordering up some autos from a good seed bank instead of the ones of dubious age, etc, I got in a smartshop in Roosendaal, maybe some good old Northern Lights , I've not decided yet.

 

[Banjacked]

Not much to add. She's grown another couple of inches, flowers are getting bigger, smell increasing. There was one single yellow tip on a leaf I was keeping an eye on "just in case" there was an issue but that has now shrunk back to a tiny spot after I cut back on the feeding a bit. Looks like I was right to trust my gut on that one.