TEST GROW 126w LED Urkle x White SCROG

[Tobor the 8th Man]

I have been given a chance by LEDGIRL to test a brand new Hydro Grow 126w LED grow light. I would like to thank her and Hydro grow for the opportunity. They gave me a roughly $500 LED light and have trusted that I would complete a test grow. Not only complete it but do so with an effort aimed at success. They are counting on me to try and do a good job.

The light arrived in an unmarked, brown cardboard box that raised no LEO or postal workers alarms. It was extremely well packed. It was packed as well as all the Apple Computer products I have bought. If you know how Apple boxes stuffs than you know it was a top notch job. No way anything was getting damaged.

This light is so solid and well built it would have taken some severe mishandling to get damaged. I was impressed with the build every bit as much as my Apple Mac Book with aluminum case and a Mac Book is very impressive with it's fit and finish. Seriously Hydro Grow has done an outstanding job producing this light.

It has some weight to it. It feels heavier than it is because it is so solid. The way the fans are mounted and the air intakes surround the whole light. I was wowed when I took it out of the box.

It even comes with hanging wires and clips and is ready to hang. It is PLUG & PLAY.

Since this is a test grow there is one phase of the test already complete. Here are the grades based on a scale of 10 with 10 being the highest.

Shipping.. this includes communication, speed of order processing, stealth package and packing: 10

Build and engineering: 10

First impressions: 10

Here are some pics of the light.

 

[Tobor the 8th Man]

I am going to do a scrog type grow using Purple Urkel x The White by OG Raskal Seeds. I thought it would add some excitement using some of the latest, most sought after genetics around.

I have done a dozen or so 250w HPS scrogs and I think I am real good at them. In fact I once claimed I was going to scrog 1 pound of The White under my good ol' 250w Lumitek digi in a cool tube. I almost pulled it off too when I hit a little over 14 ounces ... FROM 1 plant. That was done in a Power Grower dripper pot (bigger WaterFarm).

I vegged that plant for 8 weeks. Tying and scrogging the whole way. It was vegged under a T5 eight 2ft bulb New Wave light. Then it was flowered under the 250w HPS Lumitek but I used the 270w premium bulb.

I am not doing a side by side. I have done enough 250w grows to know what to expect. My best single plant scrog harvest I have had in SOIL in a 3 gallon pot was 7 ounces.

So I am using a 3 gallon pot and doing a soil grow. The soil is my own mix of ProMix, extra perlite, composted cow manure, bat guano, worm castings, kelp meal and lime. I use Fish Emulsion, Liquid Karma, Cal-Mag and Root Excelurator during veg and after transplanting and right before the flip. I also will be using organic fertilizer spikes in the soil. It is almost a total organic grow except for a little liquid karma and Cal-Mag.


So it isn't a side by side. I also didn't do the vegging under the LED. Nobody is questioning the veg capabilities of these lights. We want to see bud formation. Beside that all my other scrogs I did all the vegging under a T5 light rack or four 4ft shop light florescent tubes.

I wanted to start flowering pronto. So I selected a Purple Urkel x The White female that I had vegged 8 weeks under four 4ft tubes. It was going outside in the ground but now it has a scrog home inside.

I made the basic bamboo stick scrog screen right inside the pot as you can see by the pics. Then I transplanted my intended UrkleWhite scrog victim.

You can see it is pretty nice for a 1 gallon pot veg.

 

[Tobor the 8th Man]

I like the long veg, one plant scrog style grow. There is a definite place for this type of grow. First off your plant count is one plant. That is as low as it can get. Then you only need to tend 1 plant. Plus you can get a good yield off 1 plant. If you had 3 of these set up you could perpetual harvest 6 ounces or more a month of a 250w HPS. I know because I do.

Most times I tie the plant down as it vegetates. I don't tuck. I tie the branches down to the top of the scrog screen. I like it better this way. Sometimes I veg a tall plant like this and then tie it down. I supercrop the taller thicker branches so they lay down on the screen. Then the many shorter bendable ones I just bend them over in different directions to fill the screen even.

It will still grow and stretch some with the flip and in the next week while it is still under veg light schedule of 18-6. I will just keep tying it down for the 1st 2 weeks of 12/12 after which it will have stopped any further stretch.

Here it is all tied down and how I did it. Shockingly brutal isn't it?

 

[Tobor the 8th Man]

I think if this style grow is a super easy method for a beginner or someone that doesn't want the hassle of big fans, fancy rooms and big lights. All you need is a freakin closet. Nothing else. Look here is a crappy closet. I am doing it in my friends house. He never grew before. He has no equipment except this light and a small dollar store fan. He is a total slob. LOL! He was mad because I made him vacuum the closet floor.

So all you have to do is get a female clone. Veg it for 8 weeks under ordinary shoplights. Then stick it in a closet. Hang the light safely from chains. Use a timer and a power strip. Make a circle with some recycled reflextic from Lowes or Home Depot and grow some weed.

Looks real ghetto doesn't it? It's a step lower. It's hillbilly style. I am gonna help my friend scrog 8 ounces and break my soil scrog personal record.

This thread will roll because i will be updating every few days.

This project is officially under way.

 

[hclip]

edit: message received :smiley_joint:

 

[Tobor the 8th Man]

Thanks guy. That is my safe addy but I deleted it. I am closed down now. This grow is going on at a friends house.

 

[bigkuz68]

ill be watching tobor. scribed

 

[Midnight_son]

I'll be riding with ya tobor. Subscribed.

 

[Tobor the 8th Man]

Welcome aboard guys. Low tech but high expectations.

They were before and after closet cleaned and vacuumed pics. He really went all out. LOL!

He actually has very good houseplant care skills. He knows how to water, feed and care for plants.

 

[moejammin]

i like the scrog job nice!

 

[hclip]

Thanks guy. That is my safe addy but I deleted it. I am closed down now. This grow is going on at a friends house.

No worries, just looking out, as soon as I saw that label I knew where you were at, you never know whos lurking on these boards. Great looking start! I'm always interested in seeing a LED grow.

 

[Tobor the 8th Man]

I will be doing a more involved test later LEDGirl. If the LED makes nice buds than I will do a grow where I veg the plant under the LED. I want to see how that compares to my T5s. So far in my experience nothing vegges quite like a HO T5. The internodal spacing is the tightest I get under any lights I have veg experience with and that includes CFL. floro tubes, 150w, 250w, 400w, 750w and 1000w. The plants are very short until you realize the 6 inch T5 plant has 10 internodes. They just explode under a HPS under 12/12.

This grow is a quick but fair test. I had to do this somewhere else because I closed shop for a bit. I killed 2 birds with 1 stone by setting this up for my friend at his house. It would have been months before I started up again.

Next one will be T5 veg and 250w HPS flower versus LED 126w veg and flower grow. I actually have less confidence that the LED can out veg a T5 than I do it can out flower a 250w.

Hey LEDGirl are you a good, steady toker? If I find out you don't even smoke weed I will snatch you from the streets in my Magic Bus and pillow case bong you Willy Nelson style until you are a pot smoking hippy again.

I have you pictured as a pot smoking, tie-dyed hippy chick. Don't wreck it for me. LOL!

 

[Shady]

Nice work and opening posts Tobor! I love scroggin' with bamboo too... :cool

 

[Tobor the 8th Man]

Welcome Froggy and Shady. I hope it turns out could.

This was set up Sunday night. The Light has been on Sunday and Monday. It just came on tonight when I got the pics. The guy's house where it is at had coined this grow MONSTERS INC because the way the closet glows. I like it. So here are some pics of a monster in a closet. LOL!

It has already responded well to the light and is looking quite happy for being brutally scrogged from a standing plant. I have decided to veg these at least until Sunday the 20th which would give it an additional 2 weeks veg under the LEDs. I bet the screen is nicely filled by then.

For people unfamiliar with scrog you can really see how a scrog works this way. When you start with a small plant and it first grows passed the screen and you tuck the tips under you are always working with the growing tip of the plant. You forget that the first leaf sets you tucked under were the ones that would have been popcorn nothing buds at the base of the plant.

However, bending it over and spreading it out you clearly see that the lower leaf sets and budlets were the popcorn at the base of the plant. Those new leaf sites and small branches now growing center stage were the small branches at the base that many take for clones. You can see how the tiny base leaf sets are now as high than the big growing tips and are growing more. All the potential growing tips are on a level playing field now.

Here are some pics of Monster Inc.

 

[Midnight_son]

Monsters Inc. is looking good tobor!

 

[Shady]

Great job brah! This is gonna be a good show... :cool

 

[wonderinalice]

Love the "ghetto " grow.... my first grow looked kinda the same but i used display boards/hps. Pulled almost a gram n a half per watt in dirt/organic....Best of luck!

ps...The urkle x white ...Very nice!!

 

[Tobor the 8th Man]

I kinda figured you did LEDGirl. I fancy myself a comedian.

The way the light made this plant adjust so quickly to it's new position makes me think it is has a type of light the plant likes and is exerting a real good phototrophic effect.

The temp in the closet with lights on is 75F. So heat isn't an issue. There is only the cheapo fan for some air movement. This grow is going to cost next to nothing.

An unaltered closet, no inline fan, just a circle of recycled reflextic (I don't think you really would need anything) The light goes right down to the plant. It's not like a curved HPS bulb shooting light way out in all directions where you need to reflect it back. There doesn't seem to be any wasted light.

I realize most people need to have total odor control too. Some of us don't. Nobody ever comes over and the upstairs is isolated. In the hall outside the bedroom is an electrolux air and odor filter. There isn't much of a smell.

Bigkuz is putting on a heck of a grow with 2 of these. It really is amazing. But I am still gonna try to kick his freakin ass. LOL!

I am having fun with this project and everyone else's LED grows.

 

[Dubwobble]

Tuned in...

 

[bigkuz68]

game on tobor! lol. im excited to see how the scrog produces. id like to try that myself sometime.

ledgirl: just got the ballast back, clones are rooting, shouldnt be but a few days after i harvest this round.