Junk's Growing Log

SmithsJunk · May 26, 2018

I mentioned mold before and asked how to control it. Just found some fungicide I bought last year that had fallen off the side of my porch. Sh*t, I completely forgot about it. Organic extract of neem. Should go spray the new transplants as well. Leaf hoppers are already going to town on them. Let's see if they like this salad dressing.

SmithsJunk · May 26, 2018

Will be preemptively ordering a new bottle of Azamax as soon as I can afford it.

SmithsJunk · May 26, 2018

I swear these plants are smart. As soon as I took out the others these straight blew up.

I know It's hard too see in the pic but they're waaay bigger than they were just a few hours ago. It's a f^ckin trip.

Monster762 · May 26, 2018

SmithsJunk said:
I mentioned mold before and asked how to control it. Just found some fungicide I bought last year that had fallen off the side of my porch. Sh*t, I completely forgot about it. Organic extract of neem. Should go spray the new transplants as well. Leaf hoppers are already going to town on them. Let's see if they like this salad dressing.

View attachment 802874

Yup I get the concentrate refill at Walmart makes like 10 -15 of those sprayers. Stuff works pretty good so far.

Farmer P · May 26, 2018

What do you think of this light SJ? Seems to have good reviews. Seems like a deal for 107 to me. Maybe change out the chips for better ones and still save a lot?
https://www.amazon.com/LED-Grow-Lig...1527375365&sr=1-5&keywords=cob+led+grow+light

SmithsJunk · May 27, 2018

Farmer P said:
What do you think of this light SJ? Seems to have good reviews. Seems like a deal for 107 to me. Maybe change out the chips for better ones and still save a lot?

https://www.amazon.com/LED-Grow-Lig...1527375365&sr=1-5&keywords=cob+led+grow+light

No good. When shopping for COBs read the reviews. If a lot of people talk about it being very hot, avoid it. We buy COBs for efficiency. If it produces a lot of heat then much of that 450watts is being lost to heat and not coming out in light (It's not even using Cree COBs. It seems like click-bait by using a combination of the words "Cree" and "COB".) If you're going to try COBs either build your own fixture from the ground up or spend the money for a quality prebuilt. Again, heat output is key and a good COB setup should not produce a lot. From the feedback I've been getting recently, if you want a fairly inexpensive COB fixture go with Vero 29 v7 instead of a top bin Cree. I've heard they're like a quarter of the cost and comparable spectrum and efficiency to Cree CXB3590s if run above 50%. With your fabrication skills, building one could save you a lot of money and seems right up your alley. Another name to remember is Mean Well, those are highly desirable drivers for efficiency and reliability (...or if you don't like to start fires, lol).

Here's what I think is a good blog article I've found on the comparison of Cree and Vero COBs. It agrees with what I've heard from others so I have no reason to doubt it's veracity.

https://mattgadient.com/2015/11/28/...led-efficiency-vero-29-vs-cxb3590-vs-cxb3070/

This board is recommended by Toaster79, and I am very intrigued. Maybe my next purchase if I don't do another CF Grow top bin Cree.

https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Boar...ting+Group&dpPl=1&dpID=41VOYCn4AQL&ref=plSrch

Toaster79 seems to know his sh*t. He reccomends these two threads...

https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/diy-led-with-cobs-small-medium-and-large-grows.64252/

...and...

https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/sixstrings-led-cob-builds.85163/

SmithsJunk · May 27, 2018

Farmer P said:
What do you think of this light SJ? Seems to have good reviews. Seems like a deal for 107 to me. Maybe change out the chips for better ones and still save a lot?

https://www.amazon.com/LED-Grow-Lig...1527375365&sr=1-5&keywords=cob+led+grow+light

I don't necessarily recommend this one due to it's high heat output but at least it's made by a good company and, to the best of my knowledge, made with quality components. (The COBs used are Brigelux. I think they make the Vero 29.) for 300 watts, 9 for 600 watts

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01NCODMEU/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8&th=1&psc=1

300w

600w

If your going to buy cheap at least make it well built, quality cheap. Judging by the similarities between this light and mine by the same maker, I'm betting this is also built like a tank. Maybe if you added a dimmer you could cool it down a little.

Farmer P · May 27, 2018

Thanks for the detailed responses, and advise. I'm not ready to buy yet, and when I am I will most likely fab my own, but I was just looking at the deals. To me it's interesting to see the evolution of the products even just on amazon. It used to be you could hardly find a cob led on amazon, now they're becoming prolific. And the price drops are cool to pay attention to also. Hey you probably already saw it but I did find a pretty good gem on one of the threads you mentioned.

http://cobkits.com/shop/
I'll probably go here when I decide to pull the trigger. He said tell em six string sent you. Looks like great prices. I'm thinking I'd like to build a six chip fixture for my big cabinet and run it at lower current to keep it running close to peak efficiency.

SmithsJunk · May 27, 2018

Farmer P said:
Thanks for the detailed responses, and advise. I'm not ready to buy yet, and when I am I will most likely fab my own, but I was just looking at the deals. To me it's interesting to see the evolution of the products even just on amazon. It used to be you could hardly find a cob led on amazon, now they're becoming prolific. And the price drops are cool to pay attention to also. Hey you probably already saw it but I did find a pretty good gem on one of the threads you mentioned.

http://cobkits.com/shop/
I'll probably go here when I decide to pull the trigger. He said tell em six string sent you. Looks like great prices. I'm thinking I'd like to build a six chip fixture for my big cabinet and run it at lower current to keep it running close to peak efficiency.

Cool man. I'm thinking about buying wholesale on Alibaba. The same rig that cost me $315 is selling there for $199 and they have the new digital controlled units for less than $232 (I don't know the import fees if any yet). They also have the Cree chips for sale. Once you mount the holders, I think it's simple to swap out chips. They're asking $26.50 for min order of 10 but they also have mixed sets like 3500k and 5000k CD bins.

https://pdgrow.m.en.alibaba.com/productgrouplist-803344651/undefined.html?spm=a277m.group-list.0.0

Farmer P · May 27, 2018

SmithsJunk said:
Cool man. I'm thinking about buying wholesale on Alibaba. The same rig that cost me $315 is selling there for $199 and they have the new digital controlled units for less than $232 (I don't know the import fees if any yet). They also have the Cree chips for sale. Once you mount the holders, I think it's simple to swap out chips. They're asking $26.50 for min order of 10 but they also have mixed sets like 3500k and 5000k CD bins.

https://pdgrow.m.en.alibaba.com/productgrouplist-803344651/undefined.html?spm=a277m.group-list.0.0

View attachment 803167

Nice! The digital controlled ones look pretty sharp. With wholesale you might have a minimum order I would guess? Maybe you could sell the extras to friends and on craigslist. Where you live at you could probably just put up a sign and sell them all quick lol.

SmithsJunk · May 27, 2018

Grow Log 5/27/18 Daily

(I'll label and number them next time I post their pics)

SmithsJunk · May 27, 2018

Farmer P said:
Nice! The digital controlled ones look pretty sharp. With wholesale you might have a minimum order I would guess? Maybe you could sell the extras to friends and on craigslist. Where you live at you could probably just put up a sign and sell them all quick lol.

Actually, on most of the fixtures the minimum order is one. Which is pretty f^ckin cool. Especially for well built, top bin Cree COBs, with mean Well driver's, a dimmer, and a digital screen with every function you can think of. I'm totally f^ckin sold. I'll risk it. Alibaba is like international eBay and Panda Grow is a respectable builder.

I like the Cree COBs because they are binned. Other COBs like Vero 29 it's the luck of the draw. Being a computer builder I'm very familiar with binning and happily pay a premium for top bin CPUs.

SmithsJunk · May 27, 2018

Farmer P said:
Nice! The digital controlled ones look pretty sharp. With wholesale you might have a minimum order I would guess? Maybe you could sell the extras to friends and on craigslist. Where you live at you could probably just put up a sign and sell them all quick lol.

Your right. I could easily sell these locally. I may order more just for that reason. I know some shops that will buy from me but I need to renew my old retail license. I'm good friends with two smoke shop owners but they will require a paper trail. I'll stick with the double because it has all the features, is cheap enough, and it can grow a set of plants with no other lights needed.

Great idea. I may be able to make some money again. Grow supplies are making better money than selling the flowers anymore.

Thank you very much for that.

Farmer P · May 27, 2018

SmithsJunk said:
Actually, on most of the fixtures the minimum order is one. Which is pretty f^ckin cool. Especially for well built, top bin Cree COBs, with mean Well driver's, a dimmer, and a digital screen with every function you can think of. I'm totally f^ckin sold. I'll risk it. Alibaba is like international eBay and Panda Grow is a respectable builder.

I like the Cree COBs because they are binned. Other COBs like Vero 29 it's the luck of the draw. Being a computer builder I'm very familiar with binning and happily pay a premium for top bin CPUs.

So when they say top bin that means that they have been tested and sorted according to how well they performed? I'd like to build my own so I could customize the spread better, but that does look like a stellar deal.

Your plants are looking poised to explode. I can see the nice lighter green showing the new growth. I've been dealing with overcast skies until about 1 to 2 pm here every day. Plants are still looking great, but I've had about enough of it I just want the sun to beam down on them for a couple full days at least. Looks like it may burn off earlier today. :cool:

SmithsJunk · May 27, 2018

Farmer P said:
So when they say top bin that means that they have been tested and sorted according to how well they performed? I'd like to build my own so I could customize the spread better, but that does look like a stellar deal.

Your plants are looking poised to explode. I can see the nice lighter green showing the new growth. I've been dealing with overcast skies until about 1 to 2 pm here every day. Plants are still looking great, but I've had about enough of it I just want the sun to beam down on them for a couple full days at least. Looks like it may burn off earlier today. :cool:

Yes, top bin is tested and set aside as the cream. I buy binned Intel CPUs so I can get the fastest, most stable, overclock. To the best of my understanding, COBs are binned by efficiency and brilliance, maybe spectrum too. I. If you buy a CXB3590, you want the CD designation. I'm inclined to believe Panda Grow is honest with their bins. They've got a good rep. Not so much, other Chinese sellers.

Another cool thing about Cree is they are solder free modular. Once the holder is installed you can swap out COBs. Like switching the 3500k out for 5000k for veg, then something in the 2000k range for flower. (I think I got that right, but definitely verify on the spectral range)

It makes building custom lights easy because you can prebuild the fixture then just plug in the right COBs according to requests. I bet I can offload the digital screen CXB3590x2 for $325 ea (Maybe more) and local retailers can get $400. They can do this even when they sell for less on Amazon because growers don't usually like paper trails and they can pay cash with no wait time. Even if I get less for them I can still undercut Amazon and make a profit.

SmithsJunk · May 28, 2018

I'm so f^ckin sick of the wave of rodents this year. Rat's under the trailer and deer mice chewing on my vehicles. Suprised they haven't f^cked up the weed plants yet.

Caught this b*tch in my van's engine compartment this morning. Been hearing it chewing on my van the last week or so.

So, my reason for posting this. I finally got the deer mouse in my engine compartment that has ignored cheese and peanut butter baited traps. They tend to like the same foods as rats so I'm hopeful this stuff will help me get the last rat under the trailer. If I works then it will be the first effective rat bait I've found and anyone who's struggled with rats/mice in their house or grow knows that's a big deal.

SmithsJunk · May 28, 2018

Grow Log 5/28/18 Daily

Banana Crack
Looks like my first 50/50 is going male. I'll wait a couple days before I cull to make sure.

SmithsJunk · May 28, 2018

I'm still holding out hope for this Banana Crack to be female. I only have two and I really want to try this bud. Plus, it's one of the lushest plants in my grow.

This could be a hair but I can't get a good focus on it.

Farmer P · May 28, 2018

I think it may be a bit early to tell. I've seen some lately that look male kinda, but its really just like a little branch starting instead of a pre-flower. Sometimes they like to be difficult lol. Now I been waiting till I either see hairs or the little bunches of balls. I thought I could spot them early like that but this last grow proved me wrong.

heisen · May 28, 2018

SmithsJunk said:
I'm still holding out hope for this Banana Crack to be female. I only have two and I really want to try this bud. Plus, it's one of the lushest plants in my grow.
View attachment 803499
This could be a hair but I can't get a good focus on it.
View attachment 803500

looks male

Junk's Growing Log

Junk's Growing Log

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SmithsJunk

SmithsJunk

Monster762

Farmer P

SmithsJunk

SmithsJunk

Farmer P

SmithsJunk

Farmer P

SmithsJunk

SmithsJunk

SmithsJunk

Farmer P

SmithsJunk

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SmithsJunk

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Farmer P

heisen

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