Another Noob grow. Mag 357 LED in use.

[carBon.14]

cool led grow dude, your plants are freakin bushy for their size! love those macro shots!!

stumped on the yellowing though...

 

[Medijuana]

Harvest is drawing near. I'm keeping a close eye on the trichome color. At the first sign of amber, I'm chopping (I enjoy the head high, which is why I wanted to start with a sativa dominant strain).

I'd say I'm pretty damn happy with the quality, at least based on the looks. I do have to admit, I can take some gorgeous bud shots. :D

 

[outwest]

Very Nice!

outwest

 

[Medijuana]

cool led grow dude, your plants are freakin bushy for their size! love those macro shots!!

stumped on the yellowing though...

Yeah, they may have gotten a bit too bushy. I'm definitely going to be more aggressive with the shoot pruning during the veg cycle for my next grow and try to leave them the hell alone after flipping. I pissed one girl off by pruning shoots about 1.5 weeks into flower. Thanks for the props on the photos. I'm very happy with them too!

Very Nice!

outwest

Thanks Outwest. I'll be sure to give a report on the medicinal qualities here too. Hopefully they aren't just pretty.

Oh, and I may be harvesting sooner than I thought. I do see some amber trichs in that first pic on the bottom sugar leaves. I'll take a closer look later today.

 

[K11NG]

great shots man, keep the leds pumpin out that good shit!

 

[Medijuana]

great shots man, keep the leds pumpin out that good shit!

Thanks K11ng. Glad you enjoy the pics. I just noticed something about the first pic (the one in landscape orientation). Those bokeh light points are actually the glands of the buds in the background shining back into the lens. These ladies are decked out for a formal engagement! :cool:

 

[Medijuana]

Well, I'm down to two plants. The two I harvested today already had about 10-15% amber trichomes, and I wanted some of my harvest being the heady-type of medication. The other two plants I'm continuing to flower until about 50% of the trichs are amber.

Even though I'm not quite finished, I have to say I am VERY happy with the performance of this LED unit. These buds look great, they smell great, and they're covered in trichs (did I mention this was my virgin grow :p ) . I'll definitely post a smoke report here when the cure is done. My next round I'm going to try out a indica-dominant strain from seed and go for some higher weights, but I am very happy with the amount I've harvested so far off this sativa-dominant strain.

Another thing to point out, and this is something that has been noted by other LED growers, is the rapid maturation of the buds under LEDs. I am only 6.5 weeks since I flipped to 12-12, and I figured I'd be at least 8 weeks in before I started noticing amber glands. 6.5 weeks is early for an indica, and this is a sativa. Crazy! That may be one perk to consider for those thinking about taking the LED plunge - faster maturation.

Enjoy the pics of some of the buds I harvested today:

 

[psilobuds]

impressed that you grew them under leds. always been dubious of led lights, but this shows me there are some decent ones out there.

how much power do they pull? do they get hot?

 

[Medijuana]

impressed that you grew them under leds. always been dubious of led lights, but this shows me there are some decent ones out there.

how much power do they pull? do they get hot?

The manufacturer says 180 watts, and I have seen these same numbers from others. I don't have a watt meter myself, so I won't testify to this (I may get one soon . They do produce a bit of heat, but the normal tent venting takes care of it; there's no need for separate heat management for the light.

There are good LEDs out there now that are capable of producing quality meds (this wasn't the case a couple years ago), and based on my personal experience and what I've seen from others, the Magnum lights are one of the nicer ones. I've also seen and heard good things about Blackstars, but again, I don't have personal experience with them.

I would recommend two 357Mag's for full coverage of a 4x4 growing/flowering area. You could probably get by with 1 357Mag on a light mover though.

 

[psilobuds]

i wonder though, do they do better than hid watt for watt? would be good to see some grows which test that out.

how much did the 357mag set you back mate?

 

[Medijuana]

i wonder though, do they do better than hid watt for watt? would be good to see some grows which test that out.

how much did the 357mag set you back mate?

It really isn't very feasible comparing watt to watt for HID vs LED; it really is an apples to oranges comparison. The reason is that a lot of energy is wasted as heat and other non-usable spectrum in an HID, while very little is wasted in an LED unit, as the spectrums are more finely tuned into what 'they' call PAR (photosynthetically active radiation). Now, there's always going to be a debate about what the optimal PAR is for MMJ, but what can't really be argued is that LED is the only lighting technology out right now that can be fine-tuned to the optimal PAR (if it is ever found) and not waste a lot of energy as heat at the same time (except maybe plasma, but this technology is primarily touted as being the closest to sunlight than anything else). Another thing you must factor in a watt to watt comparison with HID and LED is the energy spent on heat management, as those fans still consume energy. I do not have any sort of heat management, as I don't need it. This can't be said for HID.

So, in my educated opinion, I'd have to say that LEDs will always win in overall energy consumption. But don't make the mistake of trying to compare watts to watts when speaking strictly of light output, as this just isn't a practical question.

I got mine for $699, but they have raised the prices since then. I'd still buy it in a heartbeat though. Actually, I am going to buy another for my next grow.

 

[Medijuana]

Any ever see purple stalks on the trichome glands before?

I'm waiting for the last two plants to mature to at least 50% amber trichs, and I've been inspecting them via my macro shots. While looking at the bud shots today, I noticed one of the buds' trichome stalks are turning purple. Looks pretty cool, like a lava lamp or something:

Here's the original pic. The one above is a crop from this pic:

Anyone ever see this before?


Oh, and the first half of the harvest made it into the curing jars today. Smells dank as hell already, so I can't wait to enjoy the post-cure odors.

 

[outwest]

My juicy fruit has some serious pink/purple accents, and the tric stalk were purple just like yours. Very nice.

Are you maintaining 2 threads on the same grow? Awesome!

outwest

 

[Thoth]

Interesting way to construct a ScrOG screen. Did you come up with it yourself? It's a neat setup.

 

[BigBang Bones]

o_O I got lost into that bud! :cool: lolz

keep up the good works!

 

[outwest]

o_O I got lost into that bud! :cool: lolz

keep up the good works!

Isn't that an Air Supply song?!

outwest

Lost in buds and I don't know much
Was I thinking aloud and high out of touch?
But I'm back on my feet
And eager to be baked off my ass

 

[BigBang Bones]

wtf of a camp band?! *insert smilie with a paperbag on head here*

I think yer version is better...:D

 

[Medijuana]

My juicy fruit has some serious pink/purple accents, and the tric stalk were purple just like yours. Very nice.

Are you maintaining 2 threads on the same grow? Awesome!

outwest

Yeah, I like to try to get the focused feedback from the LED growers and I seem to have a better luck over there. I have the grow posted here because I feel that LED units deserve another look by those that have grown to doubt them over the years. I understand that a few years ago they were pretty shitty, but I don't feel like that's the case anymore. Plus I don't see nearly as much traffic as you get on your threads :p

Interesting way to construct a ScrOG screen. Did you come up with it yourself? It's a neat setup.

Thanks, it really worked out and I'll definitely get quite a few years out of it. I got the general idea in my head of what I wanted and then ran over to the hardware store. I stared at the plumbing parts for about 10 minutes before things came together in my head and I managed to get it built that night.

o_O I got lost into that bud! :cool: lolz

keep up the good works!

Trust me, it happens to me with every pic I inspect. Especially with the loupe tool on my photo software.

 

[carBon.14]

those purple trichomes are pretty :)

 

[psilobuds]

It really isn't very feasible comparing watt to watt for HID vs LED; it really is an apples to oranges comparison. The reason is that a lot of energy is wasted as heat and other non-usable spectrum in an HID, while very little is wasted in an LED unit, as the spectrums are more finely tuned into what 'they' call PAR (photosynthetically active radiation). Now, there's always going to be a debate about what the optimal PAR is for MMJ, but what can't really be argued is that LED is the only lighting technology out right now that can be fine-tuned to the optimal PAR (if it is ever found) and not waste a lot of energy as heat at the same time (except maybe plasma, but this technology is primarily touted as being the closest to sunlight than anything else). Another thing you must factor in a watt to watt comparison with HID and LED is the energy spent on heat management, as those fans still consume energy. I do not have any sort of heat management, as I don't need it. This can't be said for HID.

So, in my educated opinion, I'd have to say that LEDs will always win in overall energy consumption. But don't make the mistake of trying to compare watts to watts when speaking strictly of light output, as this just isn't a practical question.

I got mine for $699, but they have raised the prices since then. I'd still buy it in a heartbeat though. Actually, I am going to buy another for my next grow.

yeah good points mate, good points.

surprised at how exy those lights are. why have the prices gone up?