Full Apache Tech Garden...8x12...1900w

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tags420

tags420

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What's up guys

This has been my project in planning for a while now but kept getting delayed for one reason or another. I am finally ready to get this grow on the road. I am using Apache Tech AT120's. I have a few different spectrum units, but mostly the 3:2WR. The plan is to veg 28 BBS (Black cherry soda(tga) x Blackberry Kush) clones to about 24" then flip. I have a 8x12 flowering room that will have 12 Apache's in it. My goal is to replace my previous setup of (6) 600w HPS's with no sacrifice in yield plus the added bonus of running only about 50% of the electricity.

They will be in the veg room for at least 3-4 weeks. Plenty of time for me to finish the last touches on the flower room...actually mostly getting rid/altering of venting and ducts from the old hps. Just new hook arrangements for the LED's.

They are vegging in 1gals with FF ocean forest. Then into 5gals with super soil for the last week of veg and all flower.

I am going to be updating with both pics and quick videos. The process will be thoroughly documented and the final flowers will be analyzed for potency.

Here is the first update to show where it's at. Just veg for a while but stay around and keep checking in.
 
tags420

tags420

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I wanted to get this thread up and never got around to doing here...so updates one and two are back to back.
Now this tread is up to speed.
 
Killacat

Killacat

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Where is your proof that your lights increase the potency of cannabis? Your plants look droopy, and the fan leaves spreading out fingers. That's not a good thing.
 
tags420

tags420

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Quest for the best led canada...look it up. It was an apache vs hps side by side grow a while back. I have worked with the guy who did that. It's a good side by side, they tested 3 different plants from each side and sample from multiple levels on the plants. THe averaged 2+%higher. Not that it means all LED will do that but these ones that I am growing with showed that. It wasn't my deciding factor to do this. I think if at the end of this grow, if the plants have 20+%thc that will be great...this isn't a side by side so I can't really show what hps would have done.

The clones were not in great condition to start with and since have recover into nice beautiful plants now
 
Shamus

Shamus

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how many lights do u normally run and whats the wattage per?
that seems like and awesome foot print for an LED (what seems optimal?)..do you lower the footprint and increae wattage come flower?
im interested in seeing how these lights turn out and i commend folks like yourself testing things like this for growers like myself.. and lights aside sounds like some danky beans.. subd up
sorry if its been answered in the first videos i watched part of the second to last then the last
 
tags420

tags420

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It's in the video's but I'm always willing to explain
The original plan was to run 12-14 At120's in my 8x12 room. But due to plants not making the cut, my count was down and I decide to use the 4x12 room to flower out in.
In this room(4x12) I was going to do 8 lights(1256w)...but since I have all the lights I was thinking of going bigger...10, or maybe all 12. I am leaning towards 10 though.
I am surprised at how great only 2 AT's did at vegging all the plants...I kept waiting to put another in but never had to. I had/have them pretty high(32") too. Makes me feel better about what a lot can do once dropped down low for flower.
 
tags420

tags420

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I'm just going to use half of my bigger room so I have space to move and work. It is only going to take 7 lights to fully cover the girls so that is a plus for my bill. I might have to add 1 once they stretch and take up some more room, but 8 total tops.
Here they are...looks gnarly now.
 
IMG 1869
IMG 1871
ttystikk

ttystikk

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If you haven't flipped your ladies yet, I have ways to get the rest of those panels into play, if you're interested.
 
tags420

tags420

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ttystikk said:
If you haven't flipped your ladies yet, I have ways to get the rest of those panels into play, if you're interested.
Click to expand...
I have the rest up... flipping soon
You sound like you got some cool secret though and makes interested what you're talking about.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

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tags420 said:
I have the rest up... flipping soon
You sound like you got some cool secret though and makes interested what you're talking about.
Click to expand...

I claim no special access to the secrets of the universe! I've been playing with the idea of vertical growing environments lately and I figured I wild suggest hanging a few of those panels vertically, down low to light the plantsfrom the sides.

I have no idea what the issues might be with LED panels and such lighting may be, but if you have the panels. ..

I have some first generation UFO style LED units, and the quality is spotty. I have a 130w made with 3 watt chips, that's covering much of my veg.

Fwiw, I'm still a fan of the brute force of 1000w hps. I just think there has to be a better way to use them than in the usual overhead reflector setup pushed by the hydro stores.
 
jfizzle2cmu

jfizzle2cmu

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I have to agree w ttystikk. If u can swing it w the bill u should definitely consider hanging those extras in there vertically. If u think about it u only get about 12" give or take of optimal growspace w a traditional 1000w factoring in safe distance heatwise and w the loss of lumens the further away u get. And I'm not up to speed completely on the led universe but from what I hear u lose quite a bit more lumens than a 1000w. Also I may I have missed it but is the 1900w in led or the traditional sens (they r different aren't they)? Either way, I think using the extra bulbs especially vertically would b anything but redundant. Looks good though! Keep it up.
 
tags420

tags420

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jfizzle2cmu said:
I have to agree w ttystikk. If u can swing it w the bill u should definitely consider hanging those extras in there vertically. If u think about it u only get about 12" give or take of optimal growspace w a traditional 1000w factoring in safe distance heatwise and w the loss of lumens the further away u get. And I'm not up to speed completely on the led universe but from what I hear u lose quite a bit more lumens than a 1000w. Also I may I have missed it but is the 1900w in led or the traditional sens (they r different aren't they)? Either way, I think using the extra bulbs especially vertically would b anything but redundant. Looks good though! Keep it up.
Click to expand...

Lumens are useless for plant growth...learn about PAR light. Light is the same wheather it is HPS, LED, Plasma, PAR, or Lumens. It all obeys the inverse square law...meaning that the source has a fixed number of maximum light availible and as you get farther away it has to get spread out over the area. 2X the distance away =1/4 the power/penetration/intensity. These AT lights have more par than a 600HPS and I don't see anyone putting hps up on the walls of there grow...cause it is not necessary with good lights...just cheap/low penetration Chinese crap. So long story short, I am not loosing more light than hps...I have more to begin, then it gets lost the same rate.

I talk in actual wattage drawn from the wall. Some companies drive 3w led's @ 50% and still call them 3w...but not me. This grow was supossed to take up the whole room(12x8) and needed 1884w of actual power draw. Due to a smaller plant count, I changed it to only half the room(12x4). I'm using 7 AT(1099w) lights now...probably 8AT(1256w) by end of flower. Each LED unit has (120) 1watt diodes driven @ 100% and the whole unit pulls a total of 157w(120LED+fans+drivers).

If I was going to do anything to improve light distribution, it would be to put a light mover up to move each row about 12"-15".
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

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Lumens or PAR, more is still more.

Because most LED fixtures use lenses to concentrate and direct the light from the chips, they do NOT follow the inverse square law of light attenuation, rather their graphed curve of light reduction looks a lot like the inverse square law- only counting from a foot or two behind the fixture.

This design feature of LED lighting makes them much less usable in close quarters, and makes them a very poor candidate light source for movers since the light is so sharply directed.

Finally, if you haven't seen anyone hanging hps lights vertically down by their plants on this website, it's only because you haven't looked very hard! You ever heard of a 'tree grow', buddy? LOL
 
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