COB Nutrient differences.

To the op,i think the one thing i notice growing under cobs is that because the lights perform so well,and because the temps under them dont get out of control,you get a super healthy plant which may require more nutrition in general.happy plants want to eat,and that would include all nutes not just NPK.

Growmau5 said:

biggest issues.
-what to do with all the extra money in my wallet after paying for my electric bill.
-what to do with all the extra bud from my harvests with COBs

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you forgot about the harem of women and how it makes you walk funny

i think the only difference is people underestimating the PAR. going from 40 w/SF of HID to 40 W/SF of LED and wondering why they run into deficiencies

I always ran right at 700tds in veg before I made the switch. I saw some minor yellowing on the switch to cobs and some early cal mag issues.

I now feed at 850 in veg and bumped calmag from 5ml/g to 7ml/g. I don't care about the science behind it, I just know my plants are happier now. Either way, so far I am stoked that I made the switch to cob leds.

So you all are saying you may save a little on electricity with cobs but will spend it on Cal-mag?
Maybe cobs are a big conspiracy put forth by Botanicare

dont get me started on the water company!

OneHitDone said:

So you all are saying you may save a little on electricity with cobs but will spend it on Cal-mag?
Maybe cobs are a big conspiracy put forth by Botanicare

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Fucking 30 bucks a gallon where I live............Close to gone in 2 weeks.......

not sure why its so popular. i used GH+epsom salts for 20 years and am now switching to jacks 321. cant get much more affordable than that

Ive only ever grown under led. When i switched to cobs my dissipated watts/sq ft went way up. While working to dial in my room i found that larger pots and bigger plants gave healthier grows and far better yield. I use 7, 10, 15 gal for the most part.

I have noticed moving to bigger pots has significantly improved the over all health of my plants. Greatly increased rate of over all plant growth, fewer nutrient issues on large plants. I have been incorporating more cal/mag that has helped.

I have had several people attempt to use COBs, not account for the higher PAR watts per square foot. Have plant issues, yellowing and think it is the bad lights. I am thinking it is lights running the plants faster then people are used to.

Maybe need a lower powered light for newbies.

My brother in law is running some of the same lights I have with hydro and he really killed it. I think he was following general hydroponic feeding schedule.

I see most people talking about leds using nute regiments... is there room for organic soil grows.. or is this going to potentially degrade the peek efficiency that is the whole point of leds to a point that the increase in yield is negligible?

wietefras said:

How would you know it's bullshit if you haven't actually tested it properly? You throw a random shit load in there and don't get deficiencies. OMG really?

I was doing fine without extra calcium using HPS and now with the COBs I need to add some. Not much, but some.

Biggest difference is in air treatment though. I had to change things around a little to keep the temperature up and also to keep the humidity low. With HPS it was pretty much the opposite. Always a struggle to cool it enough and to keep the humidity up.

But that will vary with your local climate of course.

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for sure thats the biggest adjustment with LEDs, as some of you may know, I have almost only ever grown with LEDs with some rounds with a 600 watts HPS or MH in the mix but always mostly LEDs or strictly LEDs. One thing I noticed when I first went with LEDs (I did do my very first round with HIDs, using fresh air from outside) but had to stop using air from outside when growing with LEDs, that was like 4 years ago or more. Since then, I use fresh air from my sunroom (which is the coldest room in the house year round since its shaded by trees in the summer.) exhaust in the basement and the warmer air is free to rise back up in the house. No AC units, closed loop system no outside air exchange. Because I use air from my house, I can keep the intake and exhaust fan running 24 - 7 reducing risk of mold , and reducing the RH spikes of turning the exhaust fan off at lights off. sorry for being so wordy tonight.

meangreengrowinmachine said:

I see most people talking about leds using nute regiments... is there room for organic soil grows.. or is this going to potentially degrade the peek efficiency that is the whole point of leds to a point that the increase in yield is negligible?

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organic big pots has always been the best way to go for indoor growing whether LEDs or HIDs... if you want quality.

cal- mag deficiency, ... what!!??? never have to worry about that type of thing.....

GreenSanta said:

organic big pots has always been the best way to go for indoor growing whether LEDs or HIDs... if you want quality.

cal- mag deficiency, ... what!!??? never have to worry about that type of thing.....

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Agree.
Im very close to organic using perlite, peat, castings, a lil compost and a lil minerals.
Ive never used cal-mag but i do reuse soil and test 2x per year.

meangreengrowinmachine said:

I see most people talking about leds using nute regiments... is there room for organic soil grows.. or is this going to potentially degrade the peek efficiency that is the whole point of leds to a point that the increase in yield is negligible?

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Works just fine in my water only ROLs

I have had some deficiencies under LEDs that I never had under hps or cmh and was always suspicious of leaf and soil temps. This slower transpiration and chilly roots make overwatering more likely which only compounds things. COB's can be run close enough to help keep the plants more active with warmer leaves and soil.

Most of the people I have encountered that are running into nutrient issues are using semi hydroponic systems. They use something like coco/perlite, and expect completely provide liquid nutrients with semi flood systems.

Where as I run 10 gal pots with 1/2 ffof, 1/4 perlite, 1/4 sphagnum moss. Plus 1 cup 3-16-0 fish bone meal, 1/2 cup guano 9-3-1. Then feed with a rhizome booster, Soul Synthetic Grow formula, protect and Fox farm line of nutrients. And I water very conservatively, stupid fungus gnats.

I don't think this is a perfect system, I still feel like a massive novice, but I am now tracking all my plants via spread sheets and soon to be video monitoring, pictures every 10 min during lights on.

I think the main bonus to using media like the one I am is it provides a lot more wiggle room, buffers against the plants running faster nutrient availability.

If heat and soil Temps are and issue it would be simple enough to run heated air from the light cooling system down near to the base of the plant/pot to keep the root ball warm, although this would mostly only be effective during lights on. I think I will add it to my list of experiments, particularly when I have more sensors and can track ambient temperate and soil temperatures passively.

This lady is doing great, Sugar Plum, Feel like she is on the edge, if I fed her she might crash.

Warm roots are happy.

In the planted aquarium hobby they found they couldn't run high power lights without stepping up the co2. The plants need multiple inputs. Mainly light, water, co2 and food to keep production at a solid pace. If one of those falls short the others will be limited as well. It was pretty cool to see a dialed in aquarium because you could literally watch the plant leaves produce oxygen bubbles in front of your eyes.

coolbreez1 said:

Most of the people I have encountered that are running into nutrient issues are using semi hydroponic systems.

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Of course, because when you grow on an empty medium (or no medium at all) you will see deficiencies much quicker.

It has benefits too, because if you see a deficiency starting you can quickly add some of the deficient nutrient to correct. Or if all goes wrong and you don't know what deficiency you have, you just replace the water.