Chocolate Diesel S1 & Ak-47 F1

[JWM2]

Cookies n Cream #3 just finally showed its sex today. Took long enough. It’s a girl! Her clone has also rooted so this one is all set to begin flowering. Here we go!

 

[JWM2]

Couple minor upgrades made today. The first is a far red led light that comes on a few hours before the lights shut off and stays on for 15 minutes after the lights shut off. It’s on a WiFi smart plug switch so I can turn it on and off from anywhere in the world. Anyhow this is for the Emerson effect.

The next upgrade I did earlier this week. It’s wifi hygrometers for the flower and veg chambers. They also display the temp and humidity right on the front of the unit. They were $55/ea on sale. They log and keep track of all the data and I can export it to file if needed. They are also water resistant so a little foliar spray won’t hurt them. Now I can see what the temps are anytime day or night without going into my grow rack to check.

Now I’ve got the ultimate grow space setup that money can buy and fit in a small space. I can’t think of a single thing that would make it any better except just some great genetics to grow.

I’m testing out several strains and hope to find a few keepers. I got AK47, Chocolate Diesel, Cookies n Cream and Cali-O going right now and a bunch of clones and more cuts rooting.

I’ve got 2 AK47s, 2 Chocolate Diesel and 1 Cookies n Cream flowering out now. The AKs are about 2.5 weeks into flowering and the rest are just a couple days into their journey. It’s going to be a fun ride and of course I’ll bring you all with me ;-)

 

[UncleRomulus]

Man I gotta get me one of those hydrometers. My old school unit isn’t accurate anymore. Have you considered brewing a batch of seeds? I’d pay handsomely for some hypothetically. I’m sure I’m not the only one. Nice little setup. Space is valuable in my lil cabin. I’m sure folks in apartment buildings etc would love the rack

 

[SmithsJunk]

So, what's the difference between the qb288 and the qb304? Is it just the number of lights? I wondered if one was an older model. I've seen mostly 304s on Amazon and eBay, and usually the outdated models are more prevalent.

 

[JWM2]

So, what's the difference between the qb288 and the qb304? Is it just the number of lights? I wondered if one was an older model. I've seen mostly 304s on Amazon and eBay, and usually the outdated models are more prevalent.

The qb288 uses a newer Samsung LED. It’s suppose to be a little better. At least that’s what I’ve gathered from what I’ve read so far and side by side comparisons.

 

[JWM2]

Man I gotta get me one of those hydrometers. My old school unit isn’t accurate anymore. Have you considered brewing a batch of seeds? I’d pay handsomely for some hypothetically. I’m sure I’m not the only one. Nice little setup. Space is valuable in my lil cabin. I’m sure folks in apartment buildings etc would love the rack

Yeah im flowering out a male cookies n cream now. Should have some pollen in a day or two. I’ll make beans but I’m not going to sell any of them. It’s just a hobby. I’ll spread some around though. I’ve got some crosses in mind. But you never know how they’ll turn out until you grow them out.

 

[JWM2]

Cookies n Cream Male about to drop pollen. The last image was submitted to the Nov POTM contest.

 

[JWM2]

Few more pics of the flowering plants. The AKs on the ends are about 3 weeks into flowering. The other three haven’t really started producing buds or pistils yet but should be any day now. I’m expecting the Choco D and Cookies n Cream to go a few weeks longer than the AKs. AK has always been a quick finishing strain.

 

[JWM2]

View attachment 56381213388__3B94C510-7987-4F29-B141-84EC8C926A65.MOV

Quick 30 second video of the flowering chamber.

 

[UncleRomulus]

View attachment 840967 View attachment 840964 View attachment 840965 View attachment 840966

Cookies n Cream Male about to drop pollen. The last image was submitted to the Nov POTM contest.

Damn! Look at them testicles lol. I’m jealous

 

[SmithsJunk]

The qb288 uses a newer Samsung LED. It’s suppose to be a little better. At least that’s what I’ve gathered from what I’ve read so far and side by side comparisons.

That's exactly what I was thinkin. Makes sense from an efficiency standpoint.

 

[JWM2]

Quick update. The new 200w LED fixture I got as a free sample to test out in my veg chamber is just way too powerful for small plants. When I swapped it for my old T-5 I could tell it was way brighter. Anyhow the plants hated it. They started getting bleached tops and showing signs of deficiencies when in reality it was just light burn.

The temps were not an issue at all but the intensity was.

So I went back to my old T-5 until I get a 100k potentiometer and modify the fixture.

The driver has two leads for dimming with a 100k pot so the install should be quick and painless. I’ll dial it down to about 40-50% and check it with a kill a watt before reinstalling it back into the veg chamber.

The pot should be here tomorrow so tomorrow night I’ll do the modification and hopefully put it back to good use.

I just hate how much heat the T-5 puts out and how inefficient it is.

 

[JWM2]

I finally sat down and did some math. With the high efficiency LED lights, fans, oxy cloner and in-line ventilation fan I’m using about 320w of electricity for the entire rack. Measured using a kill-a-watt. That’s a cost of $20 a month to run in electricity.

Add in Primordial Solutions nutrients, soil mixes and water and it costs roughly $36/month in consumable supplies. So that’s almost $60/month total to grow in a self contained grow rack. I estimate I’ll be able to harvest or pull about 8-10 oz per month from 6-8 flowering plants at a time. So roughly the cost to grow is $6-10/oz.

Of course things like pots and various other supplies raises the cost of entry but by the time you get to the 3rd or 4th month of growing it’s already paid for itself including the cost of those supplies and the cost of hlg quantum led boards for lighting. So from the 5th month on I’m paying literally $6-10 per ounce of cannabis grown organically using some of the best technology available. Even if it were double the cost it’s still $12-20/oz! That’s 1/10th to 1/20th the cost of buying someone else’s.

With that being said, why would anyone NOT grow their own? It takes 10-15 minutes a day to tend to the garden and the payoff is massive compared to what you’d pay at the dispensary or on the black market. And the quality difference is like comparing a Ferrari to rollerblades.

 

[JWM2]

Sorry I was wrong. With everything going for 11 hours a day it uses 285 watts. With the quantum lights off it uses 186 watts for 13 hours per day. For an average of 235 watts per hour. That’s .56/kw a day or 16.8kw per month.

 

[JWM2]

And there’s the new dimmer. It was using 185 watts before and I was getting light burn on my vegging plants. I’ve got it turned down to about 80 watts now so we’ll see how this does. I can turn it down to about 60 watts so if needed we can save a little more electricity.

 

[JWM2]

Now the only problem is the veg chamber might be too cool. It runs at 72 degrees now vs 83 when I had the T-5s running. Should be ok.

 

[mud bone]

I can only say "Outstanding!!!" great work.

 

[JWM2]

I can only say "Outstanding!!!" great work.

Thanks. I was curious as I was assuming it was using a lot more power than it actually is. I was rather shocked when I started adding up the costs just how inexpensive it is to grow your own now compared to 15 years ago when I was running HPS / MH and Compact Flouros.

 

[SmithsJunk]

Thanks. I was curious as I was assuming it was using a lot more power than it actually is. I was rather shocked when I started adding up the costs just how inexpensive it is to grow your own now compared to 15 years ago when I was running HPS / MH and Compact Flouros.

I know, isn't it crazy. That's the only reason I'm doing indoor now. Twenty years ago I didn't even see it as an option. The only prople who could afford to grow indoors were rich or dealers.

 

[JWM2]

Shot of the flowering chamber. Took one AK47 out to spot pollinate a branch with some Cookies N Cream pollen I collected earlier this week.

Cookies N Cream #3 and AK47 #4 clones are starting to grow nicely into their new containers.

AK47 #4 about 3 weeks into flowering. Starting to fill out nicely. Hard to take good shots of the whole plant. I’ll upload some closer pics here in a minute.