First time grower. LED + Hps grow in 4x4 tent

growin-Jables

Well-Known Member
Just wanted to show an example of grow consisting of using a mixture of LED+Hps. I'm in my first week of flowering so i will post pics and info from the previous weeks leading up to today and will continue to update weekly best I can. First off a little info regarding set up.

4x4x8 tent
400 watt switchable Mh/hps
450 watt vipar spectra LED
Using fox farms OF with extra worm castings and perlite.
7 gallon pots
4 inch inline fan with 3- 6 inch clip fans
AVG Temps - 75-80 degrees
Avg Humidity - 45 - 60 %
4 seperate strains: Gorilla Glue #4. OF GHOST train haze. Grape ape. Quicksand kush. All strains were purchased as cuts about 5 inches tall from dispensary here in portland, or.

I had the cuts about one week before taking these pics!
 

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growin-Jables

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After about a week or two they seem to be growing at a decent rate. Started off only using the 400 watt MH. I added the led light about 2 weeks into veg once I realized my HID light just wasn't going to be enough....Yes yes I know its a cheaper " BLURPLE" LED but the reviews on it were decent and I couldn't sacrifice extra heat with another HID light. LED was only $120 shipped. Definetly Noticed a difference in the speed of growth over the next week! These pictures were taken at the end of the third week of veg. Not using any extra nutes till first week of flowering!
 

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growin-Jables

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In my last week of veg and my oh my have they been getting bushy! The grape ape is definetly the slowest growing. Quicksand kush if by far the fastest. the previous week I forgot to mention that I had started to tie down the taller branches and allow the middle to bush up more. Preparing to also attempt my first scrog! I purchased some trellis netting and secured all four corners to the posts of my tent. Wish me luck! please anybody reviewing this, feel free to throw me any advice or criticism!
 

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growin-Jables

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The time has come ! Decided to flip the girls over to 12/12 on August 3rd. These next pix were taken 5 days after the ones I posted above! The entire canopy is almost completely filled. May need to consider a 2 tier scrog and add my t5 4ft 8bulb as side lighting if they continue to grow in height. Since I have no idea what to expect over the next 8 weeks or so, im wondering just how tall these girls are going to get. Also have the option to drop in a few 6500k and 4200k 23w ( 100 watt equiv) cfls during end of flowering. That's all the updates I have for now. I will post more once I get through week 2 of flower! Wish me luck on my first ever Grow guys! Feel free to offer any advice !
 

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growin-Jables

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20170811_001304.jpg 20170811_001213.jpg 20170811_001219.jpg 20170811_001213.jpg 20170811_001213.jpg 20170811_001219.jpg 20170811_001157.jpg 20170811_001141.jpg 20170811_001238.jpg After the first week of flowering, I have to say there getting pretty bushy. And I know the quicksand kush creates new foilage at a incredibly quick rate. I decided that if I was going to do any foilage removing I should do it as early on in the flowering stage. I didn't go crazy but just removed a majority of the large sized leaves on top of the canopy creating the most shade. After just the first week i am noticed first signs of flowering! I also made sure to lollipop all 4 about 3 days ago to ensure all the energy is used on the parts of the plants getting the most light exposure .
 
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growin-Jables

Well-Known Member
Just a quick update. everything is going pretty good so far. I decided to utilize a few of my cfl reflectors to add some extra corner lighting to the tent. I have 4 6500k 23w cfls and 4 4200k 23w cfls. Using one of each per reflector. total of 4 reflectors. I am hanging them in each corner of my tent where the light strength is the weakest. So now this is going to be an HPS + LED + CFL grow!

400 watt HPS
450 watt Viparspecrta LED ( 200 actual draw)
184 watts
Total actual draw 784 watts. Will post more pics at the end of 2nd week of flower!
 

growin-Jables

Well-Known Member
20170812_232539.jpg 20170812_232530.jpg 20170812_232506.jpg Just wanted to post a quick pucture. Only day 10 of flower and clearly budsites are beginning to really show on the quicksand kush. The other 3 are just now getting the groupings of pistils .
 

Rollinituptoo

Well-Known Member
Turn off the lights and turn on the camera flash!! Your babies look wonderful, but it's like watching a fucked up tv looking at the pictures :p happy grow
 

growin-Jables

Well-Known Member
20170812_232434.jpg
Turn off the lights and turn on the camera flash!! Your babies look wonderful, but it's like watching a fucked up tv looking at the pictures :p happy grow

HAHA My apologies! I will remember that the next time I take pictures! I was actually considering this the last time I took pictures because its really hard to see the specific details and characteristics of the plants. Last night I spent a little more time adding CFL's to each corner of the tent. I removed all the 4200k cfls which I had originally collected from around my house. I went and purchased a 4 pack of the 23w 2700k cfls. In two corners of the tent, I have dual CFL's with reflectors. One 6500k. One 2700k. In the other two corners I have triple CFL fixtures with no reflector. Consisting of two 6500k CFL and one 2700k CFL. Currently temperature is sitting anywhere between 75-80 degrees. RH is about 50-60%. Both during lights and lights off. I know its possible but probably more rare, to have to much lighting in a tent. But I figure there are guys running 1000watt hps if not more in similar sized tents so it should be a concern.
 

BlueBlazer00

Well-Known Member
with the monthly cost to run those extra cfl's you can just invest in a better grow light . you should be able to grab a 600w hps or maybe a second 400w for not much $$
 

growin-Jables

Well-Known Member
with the monthly cost to run those extra cfl's you can just invest in a better grow light . you should be able to grab a 600w hps or maybe a second 400w for not much $$
I purchased a kwh monitor to get an idea of my monthly cost of running my hps + led + cfl's. The 230 watts of cfls I have in there draw about 210 watts of power from the wall. My 400 watt HPS is pulling nearly 460 watts from the wall. The LED is the only light pulling the exact wattage it was rated for. 200 watts. 2 400 watt ballast would pull around 920 watts from the wall. plus the 200 watt from the led. I would be pulling 1120 watts in lights alone. Would also need to upgrade my inline fan to a larger one to control extra heat ( theres an extra 75 watts) , which again...more electricity and money to buy the fan. On top of that, paying the $200 for another 400 watt setup. Right now my temps cant afford to be any higher. The CFLs also add better spectrum of blues and reds vs 2 red hps bulbs. Its hard to justify spending almost $350 on lights and cooling equipment, just to raise my monthly electricity costs by nearly 20%

Im pulling a total of 870 watts with my cfl + led + hps grow. vs. 1120 watts + 75 watts for bigger inline fan. which totals almost 1200 watts. yes I may be missing out on extra lumens. But lumens aren't the only factor when it comes to " efficiency" IMO. I have a very well lit tent, drawing less 900 watts. That provides much better spectrum of colors then 2 400 watt hps would provide.
 

Rollinituptoo

Well-Known Member
My light is a 450w led for mehizhi, actual draw around 170w, my hyper fan at 33% draws less than 10 watts, with that and the small fan I have on (around 15 watts) I'm only drawing about 200 watts during lights on and about 30 watts during lights off. My lights on flower cycle also syncs with the Lowest hydro rates (7pm-7am). . Food for thought, my light only cost 200$ Canadian with all taxes and shipping
 

growin-Jables

Well-Known Member
My light is a 450w led for mehizhi, actual draw around 170w, my hyper fan at 33% draws less than 10 watts, with that and the small fan I have on (around 15 watts) I'm only drawing about 200 watts during lights on and about 30 watts during lights off. My lights on flower cycle also syncs with the Lowest hydro rates (7pm-7am). . Food for thought, my light only cost 200$ Canadian with all taxes and shipping
Your led draw is pretty close to my viparspectra ! It's a 450w led that draws 200. Paid $140 free shippingg off amazon.
This kwh monitor is badass. It's very comvient knowing which lights pull more or less than what thete rated for!
 
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growin-Jables

Well-Known Member
My light is a 450w led for mehizhi, actual draw around 170w, my hyper fan at 33% draws less than 10 watts, with that and the small fan I have on (around 15 watts) I'm only drawing about 200 watts during lights on and about 30 watts during lights off. My lights on flower cycle also syncs with the Lowest hydro rates (7pm-7am). . Food for thought, my light only cost 200$ Canadian with all taxes and shipping
I think I may have mos worded the whole thing about my led drawing what it says it's rated for. It is a 450w led. But the website said it drew about 200 watts. That's what i was referring too when I said its drawing the exact amount stated
 

growin-Jables

Well-Known Member
with the monthly cost to run those extra cfl's you can just invest in a better grow light . you should be able to grab a 600w hps or maybe a second 400w for not much $$
Also , the cost to purchase 10 23watt cfls and there sockets+splitters was only $35. To Me, being able to add 16,000 lumens, no additional heat, better spectrum, and only adding 210 watts of draw seemed more ideal than spending another few hundred bucks and raising monthly electricity substantially. This is my first grow and I just invested lots of $ to get started. Grow tent, fans , yada yada. Maybe down the road I can opt for a larger tent and get a bigger HID. Granted....if I was going to invest in another hid. I think I would go with 315 LEC CMH due to better spectrum and more power efficient
 

growin-Jables

Well-Known Member
Your led draw is pretty close to my viparspectra ! It's a 450w led that draws 200. Paid $140 free shippingg off amazon.
This kwh monitor is badass. It's very comvient knowing which lights pull more or less than what thete rated for!


Hey rollinuptoo: how does your meizhi perform? Have you gone through a full harvest with it yet? How long have you had it for
 

Rollinituptoo

Well-Known Member
Hey rollinuptoo: how does your meizhi perform? Have you gone through a full harvest with it yet? How long have you had it for
no I have not managed to get through the flower cycle yet. My last crop 4/4 were males..... Last time I buy normal seeds... For veg it ran brilliant, couldn't ask for more for the price. Started week 4 of flower today. Lots of buds, tricomes are forming on schedule... I can report back in 6 weeks ;) currently growing Dark Angel fem seed. Pic's just taken now.
 

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growin-Jables

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20170805_114626.jpg 20170805_114330.jpg Damn those look absolutely gorgeous! Sorry to hear about your male issues lol. That sucks having to spend that much time growing it, them finding out it was a waste of time. Maybe not complete waste. You got to see how your lights performed and test different heights etc. What part of the country you live in? I live in oregon where growing is legal. So I just walk down the street to the dispensary where they sell clones for $20. Picked up 4 different kimds and those are the 4 in my tent currently. I have one outdoor that started as a clone. It was the first strain I purchased back at the end of june. Strain is sunset sherbet. It's fucking gorgeous. Currently 4 ft wide and 3 and half feet tall
 

Rollinituptoo

Well-Known Member
View attachment 3994517 View attachment 3994518 Damn those look absolutely gorgeous! Sorry to hear about your male issues lol. That sucks having to spend that much time growing it, them finding out it was a waste of time. Maybe not complete waste. You got to see how your lights performed and test different heights etc. What part of the country you live in? I live in oregon where growing is legal. So I just walk down the street to the dispensary where they sell clones for $20. Picked up 4 different kimds and those are the 4 in my tent currently. I have one outdoor that started as a clone. It was the first strain I purchased back at the end of june. Strain is sunset sherbet. It's fucking gorgeous. Currently 4 ft wide and 3 and half feet tall
Yeah it helped me during a small learning curve. I have the led around 20" from canopy through out growth. And I live in Canada. My grow is for personal use and I only grow one at a time. At this point I guess I'm technically a criminal until legalization takes affect in 11 months upon which my grow would be well with in legal guidelines..
 

growin-Jables

Well-Known Member
I still can't believe they have legalized still. at least this soon. Oregon is one of the only states you can legally cultivate. We are allowed 4 plants per household. What will the legal guidelines be?
 
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