New Grower My third attempt at hydroponics and first grow journal

[Mañ'O'Green]

Keep an eye on your humidity as AC can dry out the air too much. It is a real balancing act to keep temperature and humidity in range. It just takes time and practice to learn your setup. Get the CFL closer if you can although you may not need it at all with those panels? Do you have a link to the spectrum or what brand and model are they?

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Here is a simple humidity chart keep it in the gold. If you really want to get into it research VPD vapor pressure deficit.

 

[Tumbleweed59]

Once I turned on the LEDs I found that the temperature went up by 10° so now I am running 88°on average inside my tent. I also found thanks to Man O Green that my humidity went down even more than what it was before so I was running in the high 30% range. I have now disconnected my air conditioning vent cooler and I’m now just running my tent with the vent flaps open. My humidity crept up to the mid 40s. But still not high enough for the girls. So I think I will be adding a humidifier to take care of this. I did receive my Hydroguard yesterday and added it to my tanks. I do appreciate the humidity/temp chart Man O Green I’m sure I will definitely use this to guide me until I get it right. Fortunately the girls are still thriving really well. Here are the specifics of the LEDs that I got from Amazon and as it turns out the price dropped which is good. They are made by Kingbo.

• New Upgrade 45W Grow Panel: Design with 225pcs super bright LEDs, 60 degree reflector, only 0.4" ultra-thin aluminum casing design, is ideal for all kinds of indoor plants seeding growing and flowering at all growth stages.
• Full Spectrum 6-Band: 380nm~740nm full spectrum includ red/blue/white/UV/IR provide plants Veg and Flower all stages with everything they desire in the natural sunlight.
• High Efficiency: 100W HPS/MH replacement while consuming only 35W! more higher actual power/lumen/PAR than other 45w led grow light panel. no fan no noise and new upgraded aluminum cooling heat sinks.
• Easy to Used: Buit with 1/8" aluminum hanger +12.6" steel wire hanging,the hanging system is removable, 5ft US stand AC power cord with on/off switch, more convenient and safe than the other older products.
• Worry-Free Warranty: 12 months warranty plus 60 days satisfaction or return guarantee, 100% money back.

Product information

 

[LedGuy74]

Walmart sells cheap 20$ cool mist humidifiers. Would probably bump the humidity up 15-25% for cheap maybe more maybe not I’m unsure but they are tiny and would fit on the floor.


Your plants will grow in 30-40% humidity just fine they just won’t thrive quiet as much. I’ve veg’d plants in 10-20% humidity in soil... I had to water a lot more often and they grew a tad slower but no deal breaker because I would always make sure my conditions were solid before flowering.

 

[LedGuy74]

Also a 35W grow panel isn’t much wattage but it’s better then not having it lol) the smallest lights I’d consider running (and do run) are QB120’s neat little 60W lights that can yield up to 2 grams per watt in the right hands. Definitely good lights considering they can be assembled for under a dollar a watt even though it’s more up to date tech it’s also white light not purple and comes in different spectrums.

Also for the QB’s if you DIY (which I always recommended) you can research and get cooler running drivers as all drivers are not equal.. I have a 60W driver that gets significantly hot and another 60W driver running an identical light that doesn’t get warm at all really... plus the drivers can be mounted outside to grow area and the panels themselves stay cool to the touch... my plants have grown into my lights with zero issues. I like having a mix though... I’m also a fan of mars hydros lights especially the newer ones as they done a good job with them in my opinion. I run a couple mars hydro 300’s (135w) and they work well for relatively old lights but I bought a mars hydro eco49 (100w) and even though it’s 35 less watts it’s a nice light much deeper reds overall and in my opinion better for bloom. It also stays much cooler and the fans are quieter by far compared to the more outdated mars 300/600. Overall the eco models are more or less the budget light replacements for the 300 and 600 (older models they only sell on third party platforms). They are square instead of rectangular cooler to the touch and different materials make it lighter overall with a more quality feel to it.


I’ve yet to use any of the more expensive mars hydro lights but I’ve heard great things about some of them especially the cob light. It’s a 100W light with what I’ve been told is a great spread and can yield 2+ grams per watt in the right hands. I want to buy one someday but for now cobs are just to expensive for me. 200$ for a 100w light that can yield 2 grams per watt isn’t bad though if said grower isn’t on a budget like me lol. Plus to be fair mars hydro used quality parts in the cob and they can’t lower the price much without sacrificing profits.


By the way if you ever look into quantum boards there are more then just the QB120’s there are all different types of boards I just prefer the lower wattage boards because they require no heat sink and the LED’s are spread so far apart the overall spread is great for the wattage and very cool running.


I’m not trying to sale you on any specific lights btw just informing you of the lights I personally use and enjoy using.

If I’m going to buy a budget LED from amazon or eBay I’d personally go with a company that is active on forums and will answer questions that’s why I personally went with mars versus some other budget brands that advertise on amazon ect. I’ve been running my mars hydro 300’s for a couple years now with zero issues even in extreme temps and humidity. They are also easy to take apart and clean. I’ve yet to take apart my eco model yet though so idk if they are more difficult to disassemble or not. Plus when and if I do have diodes die out on me I’m confident mars hydro would send me replacement diodes to repair the light myself (easy to repair these lights with little to no knowledge it’s typically a driver or diodes... either way no biggie).

Then there are also others that hate mars hydro with a vengeance and that’s fine too im just sharing my experiences for when you look into more lights down the road. I mean really in the end most lights will pay for themselves tenfold after the first harvest regardless. Minus CFL’s lol




Also one more thing I wanted to mention while most blurple lights run best at around 45-50 Watts per square foot quantum boards run best at 30-35w per square foot because they are more efficient compared to the more outdated blurple lights.




I know this post is all over the place and seems more like a rant and well it’s because I’m high lmao... If you have any questions feel free to ask and I’ll help you out. I definitely would recommend asking for recommendations and feedback on specific lights from multiple people before purchasing them though as some sellers can be rather shady on the details so getting a few different thoughts and opinions would be wise.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Ok so right now you have 140 w x 1.5 gram per watt = 210g = ~ 7.5 oz. With DWC this is doable. If you can afford it or save up to get a couple of @BigSm0 cob lights you could triple that potential. Not everybody can or should build their own lights. If I was going to upgrade (using my existing DIY system as much as possible I would go with the pucks on ChilLed

 

[Tumbleweed59]

What’s happening all? I’ve been out for a bit having to have a couple of surgeries taken care of one that kept me in bed for a while. All is well with me and I should be up and moving around by Monday. My wife, bless her heart, was good enough to take a couple of photos of the girls when they turned three weeks old. I appreciate all of the information on the lighting and humidity from Man O Green and LedGuy74.

I’m all about saving money and doing as much of the building myself as I can as I am somewhat of a MacGyver type of guy. All the new LEDs that are out are a bit confusing and since I do like saving money the ones that I got seems like a pretty good deal for the price. I would like to upgrade later on to something a little bit more productive. But I’ll have to wait until the time comes. But I would definitely like to build a nice COB light.

Anyway, my meds are working on me and I need to get some shut eye. Let me know what you think of my girls. The first one is Northern Lights/Big Bud, And the next one is the American Pie.

 

[Tumbleweed59]

Hey fellow growers! It is now week five for the girls and I have done some things that I hope help with their growth. Please comment with advice or constructive criticism if you like, all will be welcomed. I read A Train’s tutorial on LST and found it very useful. I did not know about LST on my previous grows. I can definitely see how this is beneficial to the overall yield of each plant. My plants look really weird now with all the bending and openness of them. I also read about the yeast and sugar water method for producing CO2 which I also did not know about in my previous grows. After one week of doing this I have noticed a positive difference in the growth of my girls. Also, I found that by turning down the speed of my exhaust fan it did not increase the temperature in my tent but did increase the humidity by almost 20%. Go figure, huh! anyway, here are pictures from the before and after LSAT and CO2.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

What’s happening all? I’ve been out for a bit having to have a couple of surgeries taken care of one that kept me in bed for a while. All is well with me and I should be up and moving around by Monday. My wife, bless her heart, was good enough to take a couple of photos of the girls when they turned three weeks old. I appreciate all of the information on the lighting and humidity from Man O Green and LedGuy74.

I’m all about saving money and doing as much of the building myself as I can as I am somewhat of a MacGyver type of guy. All the new LEDs that are out are a bit confusing and since I do like saving money the ones that I got seems like a pretty good deal for the price. I would like to upgrade later on to something a little bit more productive. But I’ll have to wait until the time comes. But I would definitely like to build a nice COB light.

Anyway, my meds are working on me and I need to get some shut eye. Let me know what you think of my girls. The first one is Northern Lights/Big Bud, And the next one is the American Pie.

Your plants look good. When you go to cobs you should put something white like Orca Grow film around the tops of your reservoirs; that foil can reflect focused hotspots like a concave mirror and burn plants from underneath. If I were to build a new light I would be looking at Growmau5 pucks on Chilledlights website. I am running Citizen 1212 3500K 90cri COBs and their spectrum is already close to them. So I have no real need to upgrade. I would really like to get their totally enclosed light fixture so I could pump all of the heat out of a closed space. I could run co2 effectively then. As it is now I have to cycle the exhaust fan to keep it cool and it just does not work as intended.

 

[Tumbleweed59]

The COB’s sound like the way to go Man O Green. Checked out the chilled grow lights website and seeing that they had some interesting items there but as of right now a bit out of my budget range. Doesn’t mean I won’t be setting up a goal for them just not at this time unfortunately. I also checked out the orca grow film and I couldn’t believe the price for a 54“ x 25‘ roll at $50 on Amazon. I’m thinking that using a couple of white trash bags would be just as effective in reflecting the light underneath as the orca grow would be. What do you think?

So I started another grow with a single Jack Herer. I’m using an old file cabinet I used for my first grow in soil. The light fixture I’m using I made with five 5W x 12 LED bulbs with heat sinks for a total of 300 watts. Using a 5 gal bucket with a 6” net pot lid connected by a 1 1/2” ABS pipe to another 5 gal bucket for a reservoir for easier H2O and nute changes. I’ll be using GH Flora Nova grow and Flora Nova bloom for the nutes. I have four 140 mm fans in the cabinet. One for ventilation and three for exhaust. I’ll post pictures with my next post update so that anyone who wants to comment with advice may most certainly do so. Until then, keep on growing!