Adding vertical light

Hi Prawn,
You've taken a difficult task and made it look easy. Not a bad haul...that should keep you going for awhile.

A couple of thoughts. You could replace that flouro you had in the center with a bulb with more UV output. I was thinking a 200w cmh, but lots of other possibilities.

The other idea is one that's caught my interest...that is Malawi cob style sweat curing. It takes a nice sativa bud and makes it even trippier. Faster then normal curing too. Considered that?

Anyway, congrats on the harvest,
JD

Hey mate, the CFL was a temporary measure to make up for the different heights and because it only cost $28. It only added 130W to the tent and was a bit kinder to the plants as they got taller and grew into it. No doubt CMH is the better lamp, but the CFL is out of there now and I'm back to my usual 400W strip LED grow. The UV made a little bit of difference, but there's no room for a vertical light at the moment. I'm not sure I want to invest in a CMH for occasional use. At least, not until I have a bit more room to play with.

One of the plants was hit by mold - Ive got lots of airflow, but the buds were pretty dense - so I try to avoid any humidity style curing when there are mold spores around. I tend to dry as quickly as I can and then jar the buds while there is still moisture in the stems, which slow-cures them.

If this is what you were suggesting, then I probably don't have the time or patience, lol! I don't have a vacuum sealer, either. But maybe I should get one . . .

https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/tangwenas-malawi-style-cob-cure-fermented-cannabis.443405/

Prawn,
I understand regarding your light situation. I always go big, at least for hobby grows. I'm a recent convert to the cmh bulbs and have two of them for White, blue and UV. Plus the main LED that's loaded in red.

Yes, the Tangwena thread was what I was talking about. It'll take a little fliddling at first but it seems later it would by easier and faster then normal curing. It actually changes the whole nature leaving a solid mass of brown edible smokable stuff. Smoother and stronger. You should read the thread. Interesting concept and was developed by Malawi locals to store and preserve annual harvest

Though having a high apore count could increase the nold rate...which is very low anyway.
Cheers,
JD

I have an old phototron of my dads. He got back when they came out. I wanna revamp it with leds and see what I can get out of it. But instead of buying cheap flexible strips. I'm gonna use some Samsung strips 2ft on the sides. And then across the top with 1 footers to make the U shape just like the old flouros that are in it.

JohnDee said:

Prawn,
I understand regarding your light situation. I always go big, at least for hobby grows. I'm a recent convert to the cmh bulbs and have two of them for White, blue and UV. Plus the main LED that's loaded in red.

Yes, the Tangwena thread was what I was talking about. It'll take a little fliddling at first but it seems later it would by easier and faster then normal curing. It actually changes the whole nature leaving a solid mass of brown edible smokable stuff. Smoother and stronger. You should read the thread. Interesting concept and was developed by Malawi locals to store and preserve annual harvest

Though having a high apore count could increase the nold rate...which is very low anyway.
Cheers,
JD

Click to expand...

If I had a bit more space, I might be running inline vertical CMH bulbs in a 4x4 cabinet right now - much like my old HPS setup. But it was space limitations at my new place (attic grow - lots of beams in the roof) that led me to LEDs. I could only fit a 4x2 in, so that pretty much meant a horizontal grow. And if I was going to go that route, then I decided LEDs were at the stage where I thought they could compete with a horizontal HID.

I was wrong, of course. LEDs were at the stage where they could conclusively beat a horizontal HPS, or equal it with around 2/3 the power. And they are only getting more efficient. I don't know if there are more efficiencies to be gained from HIDs. Plasma could be the next big thing . . .

As for the cure, I'm so slack I have a couple of pounds of really good trim sitting in a bag waiting to be turned into butter or oil. And I just never seem to get around to it, LOL! I like jar curing because I don't have to do much - haha! And don't even talk to me about trimming - it's the thing I hate most in the world. I'd rather go to the dentist.

whytewidow said:

I have an old phototron of my dads. He got back when they came out. I wanna revamp it with leds and see what I can get out of it. But instead of buying cheap flexible strips. I'm gonna use some Samsung strips 2ft on the sides. And then across the top with 1 footers to make the U shape just like the old flouros that are in it.

Click to expand...

I love that idea. The phototron was advertised in High Times magazibe. Always wondered if anyone had any luck with them.

@prawnconnery
Indeed sometimes efficiency is't the best criteria to choose a lamp. I rely on heat from the lights to partially heat my bloom room (cool climate) So the heat from cmhs was no problem. An attic is another story though...
JD

Last plant hit the scales at 229g, or just over 8oz dried and trimmed. So that's 22oz from the four haze crosses.

The four Mental Floss girls sharing the tent are flowering nicely and will be ready in a couple of weeks. Then I've got four Wappa behind them that will be ready in four weeks after that. The perpetual harvest continues.

Hi Prawn ,

Congrats on the recent harvest. Thats 22oz out of half of Your space ?

On the vertical note.Have You seen Sedan's grow room ?
He recently switched to LEDs in it. Might give You some ideas for vertical LED in small spaces, although it looks like a very time consuming operarion.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/vert-600-400-5-plant-from-ukraine-with-love.938560/

Hi mate, yes that was 22oz from half the space. I have cut down three of the remaining four plants, and they only averaged 2oz each for a total of 6oz. So far, that's 28oz. The last plant that is in there will likely only yield 2-3oz, so about 30oz from 525W (400W LED and 125W CFL). Of course, the tall sativas flowered for about 10 weeks, so not your typcal comparison with 8-week strains (though the Mental Floss do go for 8 weeks).

The CFL is no longer hanging up now, so I am back to pure LED again.

Thanks for the link to the vertical grow. What he's done is similar to what I was thinking (in terms of vertical LED), although I would have used Samsung strips, which are much more powerful. It's interesting to see people growing vertically very similar to how I started it 15 years ago.

Prawn Connery said:

The sativas were getting a bit unruly so I made an executive decision to hang a 130W CFL in the tent. The LEDs were forming nice buds on the top, but the new generation of Mental Floss at the bottom were having to stretch. A little bit of stretch isn't a bad thing if you've got the height, but managing a perpetual grow with different strains sometimes requires a creative solution.

The CFL is 2700K and only went in tonight. It's perhaps not the most efficient use of light, but CFLs do put out a bit of UVA/B, so I'm hoping it will have other benefits besides supplemental lighting for the indicas and lower sativa growth.

The Mental Floss are keeper clones, while the sativas are a Haze/Schnazzleberry cross using my old Stinky Catpiss Haze mother. Schnazzleberry is 3/4 Blueberry (1/4 Skunk) and one of the plants on the left is showing real Blueberry expression, whilst the others are on the Haze side. One of the plants is an original Atomical Haze, which is the same seed stock as the Stinky Catpiss mother came from. There's some nice genetics in there.

View attachment 4243996
View attachment 4243998

View attachment 4243999

View attachment 4244000

Click to expand...

Cfl isn't terribly efficient but often times the plants appreciate the heat.

2700K works nicely for both bud size and frost.

It was cheap and cheerful and I was mainly interested in the UV.

You can see where the CFL fills in a few holes compared to 3000K LED (Samsung F Series strips) in the UV, violet, deep blue and cyan spectra here. Apart from the CFL green spike, they compliment each other.

Prawn Connery said:

The CFL is no longer hanging up now,

Click to expand...

You finally realized it was noobish?

No. What's noobish is while I was pulling over 3.5lb of haze from my vertical HPS system above in 2013, you were screaming for help during your first grow here: https://www.rollitup.org/t/first-timer-problems-calmag.654052/

In 2015, you were denying the existence of pythium: https://www.rollitup.org/t/i-finally-got-root-rot.868190/

A quick search of your history proves conclusively who the "noob" is. Hint - it's not me.