Homesteader’s homegrow diary for '21

[Homesteader]

Hey man, sucks that it broke. The last one looks good. Have you tried / considered making light bar style?

I'm not too worried about the light. Its fixable for the most part.
Haven't really looked into them for myself but they look great and seem perfect for growing. I just have a lot of Osram boards that are unused but I have nothing against them. With diodes its much cheaper to buy in bulk and they come in rolls of 600 diodes so I did that and have enough for probably two more years depending on how much I screw up.

 

[Goblinkiller]

Yes. I am getting a couple ideas as to how those lights could look. Good going ! Its a good thing you can fix things yourself

 

[Homesteader]

I threw together this light last night. Probably could have been made a bit cleaner but I was in a rush to get some more light in my room. Was going to use hooks but decided on just throwing a few brackets from a TV mount that I had left over. Not sure I like the design but the plants are enjoying the extra light now. I did have a little trouble figuring out how to mount the driver but figured it out eventually.

 

[Homesteader]

I remembered why I don't mix my soil indoors. Luckily I had the exhaust working. The stink from the decomposing bean was nasty but it only lasted about 48 hours. Think Ill remember to do that in the greenhouse from here on out though.

 

[Homesteader]

A beautiful maine sunrise this morning.

 

[PipeCarver]

A beautiful maine sunrise this morning.

View attachment 1094624

I don't have any experience with the lights you're building and I'm interested in learning. My big thing now is the cost to convert too led's from hps. My electrical consumption for my grow alone is $120/mth. It would be a fraction of that price without my 1000w & almost 500w in the 7- t5's I'm using for veg.
What would it cost you to build a fixture with equivalent output ( 1000wflower or 500wveg ) using your method. You buy the Aluminum, heat sinks, diodes and drivers separately and then build at home? Do you have a schematic of your plan or are you building from experience? Amazon? or ?

Time to build isn't an issue or cost as consideration hobbies are all I have now for work.

 

[Homesteader]

I would just take some of the builds and piece them together. You wouldn't want to go the route I did. CobKits has a lot of parts you will need and worth checking out. Not the cheapest if you plan on building a lot but a good place to get ideas and part numbers. You can then buy them at digikey or mouser if you prefer. Some products are also found on amazon much cheaper, such as Wago connectors. For wire I use delcity I believe. Aluminum I use heatsinkusa

Products – CobKits.com

cobkits.com

 

[PipeCarver]

I would just take some of the builds and piece them together. You wouldn't want to go the route I did. CobKits has a lot of parts you will need and worth checking out. Not the cheapest if you plan on building a lot but a good place to get ideas and part numbers. You can then buy them at digikey or mouser if you prefer. Some products are also found on amazon much cheaper, such as Wago connectors. For wire I use delcity I believe. Aluminum I use heatsinkusa

Products – CobKits.com

cobkits.com

After looking at the parts and a google search of a cob build I've decided no. Not for me, Too many little things for my little fat fingers and unsteady hands to fk with. I didn't think there were so many piddly little things to do to do it right. I haven't the patients. I was hoping more lights,ballast,tubes plug it in sorta build. I can cut and work with aluminum and electrical components but too much of a learning curve and added costs when In inevitably screw up.

Anyways thanks. I'll have to stay with my hps for now I guess.

 

[Homesteader]

I think they have boards and strips for sale as well, you just have to search the site a bit

 

[Homesteader]

The light had quite a few burned out boards but the repair won't take long. Going to run them at 1400 mA instead of 700 so I won't need 5 boards per driver. I'll run 3 boards per and have several backups in case any burn out again.

 

[Homesteader]

IMO these Osrams when ran at 1400mA are bright AF. I should have been running them this way all along.
You cannot tell the brightness by looking at the picture below.
When hung above the canopy I am hitting 1100 umol and 800 in the corners at 18"
It has been running for over an hour and is warm to the touch but not nearly hot.
My plants are kind of in shock due to the increase in light. My CO2 is not up an running yet in my room so Ill hang the lights at about 30" from the canopy for the time being. Hopefully I will be able to finish the room up over the next week though.

Not the cleanest job but the light is back in the game.

 

[Homesteader]

Upon putting the light up, I immediately noticed a crawling bastard of the thrip type on one of my leaves although I was planning on hitting them with some soap/oil/water mix anyhow.

 

[Homesteader]

The first step was to actually get rid of many of my fan leaves. I find most of the thrips are on the older ones.


Step one. I add a teaspoon of canola oil or any vege oil and some dawn soap to my sprayer along with a gallon of water and spray the plants down. Let them dry for a few minutes and spray again until it's gone.

Step two. Wait ten minutes then spray the plants down with warm water to remove the soap and oil.
I will then use spinosad to finish.

 

[PipeCarver]

The first step was to actually get rid of many of my fan leaves. I find most of the thrips are on the older ones.


Step one. I add a teaspoon of canola oil or any vege oil and some dawn soap to my sprayer along with a gallon of water and spray the plants down. Let them dry for a few minutes and spray again until it's gone.

Step two. Wait ten minutes then spray the plants down with warm water to remove the soap and oil.
I will then use spinosad to finish.

View attachment 1095994


View attachment 1095995

I'm going to try the UV light this year if I get any bugs. I have one we used to use for our water when we sold coffee to purify before brewing. I can modify it so i can expose the light and suspend it in my flower room on a timer. First sign I have anything crawling its going up.

 

[Homesteader]

I'm going to try the UV light this year if I get any bugs. I have one we used to use for our water when we sold coffee to purify before brewing. I can modify it so i can expose the light and suspend it in my flower room on a timer. First sign I have anything crawling its going up.

Not sure that would work without killing your plants in the process but I would be interested in watching. I don't mind these bugs so much. Thrips are the norm for me. As long as they are under control before flower. I use BTi as well so that may help too.

 

[PipeCarver]

Not sure that would work without killing your plants in the process but I would be interested in watching. I don't mind these bugs so much. Thrips are the norm for me. As long as they are under control before flower. I use BTi as well so that may help too.

I'm old I thought in my grey matter ( what's left ) I read here UV lights on timers 15 min on a few times during lights on would kill the fkers without harming plants. I asked ( who ever here ) if doing so was hard on the eyes if in the room they said not for short exposures.

I know they sell glasses for some of the lighting equipment people use already to protect against UV rays.

I no not if there are good UV rays or bad ones for plants or eyes....I just assumed my UV light that kills microbes in water surely it will kill spider mites, if as I read here UV lighting will do the job or at least help . There was nothing about harming the plants.

I guess I'll have to look into this further before I go flipping on a life killing light.

I've not had Thrips...Spider mites.. sure. I get them bad sometimes. I've been spraying the plants down with a hose and fine sprayer with water. Then I use a hand held pressure washer with Neem oil. Last year I had to treat them 3 times to kill them all but I got them, Their grand parents their little children and their oval babies.....Plan is no bugs this year...lol ...Summer growing causes those issues for me....never anything in the 8 months winter,so my rooms get a bit sloppy...then it warms up and the inevitable happens...oops rambling

 

[MIMedGrower]

I'm going to try the UV light this year if I get any bugs. I have one we used to use for our water when we sold coffee to purify before brewing. I can modify it so i can expose the light and suspend it in my flower room on a timer. First sign I have anything crawling its going up.

please reconsider exposing uvc light. Dangerous to plants and you.

 

[PipeCarver]

please reconsider exposing uvc light. Dangerous to plants and you.

Okay now I need to find out who what and where my old grey matter got that faulty info...More than 1 kind of UV light then....I don't want to fry my girls just kill their pests. By next year this time I'll have forgotten this conversation and be looking at my UV light wondering if it's the kind of light that kills bugs on my plants. Side effect of heavy doses of my favorite of medication and age.

 

[MIMedGrower]

Okay now I need to find out who what and where my old grey matter got that faulty info...More than 1 kind of UV light then....I don't want to fry my girls just kill their pests. By next year this time I'll have forgotten this conversation and be looking at my UV light wondering if it's the kind of light that kills bugs on my plants. Side effect of heavy doses of my favorite of medication and age.

uva is safe. Uvb is what causes sunburn and more thc. Uvc is blocked from earth by atmosphere. Deadly and used for sterilization in enclosed systems like hospital instruments.

 

[Homesteader]

Transplanted the new mother GG4. The old one got a broken stalk that began to rot about a month ago so I took several cuttings and will start fresh with this one.
Used about 1/4 cup of myco-apply and soluble humic powder in a well where the roots will contact the new soil then put the rooted clone in.