First Grow In 6 Years - Chemdog, Berry Ryder, Northern Lights

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Yes and no, it's a little confusing with these. The 315w Elite Agro CMH bulb is unique. Philips makes some others in a series called All-Start which come in 330w, they also make an 860w. Both of those (330/860) will run on pretty well any HPS/MH ballast. The 315w/3100k (they also have a 4200k) Elite Agro is supported only by a Philips ballast and Ceramatek now supports a 315w ballast with these bulbs @120v, they also have a 375w ballast but it's only supported at 220/240v. Haven't looked at the model inside these Sun Systems but pretty sure they're Philips ballasts. There are probably more options but I haven't looked into them as I've been buying the kits with reflectors, they include a 120v step-down converter in the box. I think you'd have more options running them @220/240v. A couple of guys following my grow have talked to and bought ballasts/bulbs/adaptors from advancedtechlighting.com, apparently the guy knows these well and very helpful, this link takes you to the 315w/CMH information page which has some more details on ballast support.

The efficiency and intensity of these bulbs are supposed to match coverage/output of a 600w hps, I think they're close. But they only pull 315w + overhead of about 25-30w @220/240v and 60-70W @120v. imo two of these could keep up with 1000w hps. My son is is an hps die-hard for flowering, after seeing this CMH in action, he's going to be replacing 2x 1000w hps with 6x of the 315w CMH, we expect he'll get 1.5x + yields from that setup and pay back the investment in the first crop. Told him he has to let me get a pic of that setup running... and a cut of his first crop for turning him onto it ;) Besides the efficiency gains and budding capabilities, they knocked almost a week (6 days) off my last cycle compared to a previous LED run with JTR.
 

polo the don

Well-Known Member
Yes and no, it's a little confusing with these. The 315w Elite Agro CMH bulb is unique. Philips makes some others in a series called All-Start which come in 330w, they also make an 860w. Both of those (330/860) will run on pretty well any HPS/MH ballast. The 315w/3100k (they also have a 4200k) Elite Agro is supported only by a Philips ballast and Ceramatek now supports a 315w ballast with these bulbs @120v, they also have a 375w ballast but it's only supported at 220/240v. Haven't looked at the model inside these Sun Systems but pretty sure they're Philips ballasts. There are probably more options but I haven't looked into them as I've been buying the kits with reflectors, they include a 120v step-down converter in the box. I think you'd have more options running them @220/240v. A couple of guys following my grow have talked to and bought ballasts/bulbs/adaptors from advancedtechlighting.com, apparently the guy knows these well and very helpful, this link takes you to the 315w/CMH information page which has some more details on ballast support.

The efficiency and intensity of these bulbs are supposed to match coverage/output of a 600w hps, I think they're close. But they only pull 315w + overhead of about 25-30w @220/240v and 60-70W @120v. imo two of these could keep up with 1000w hps. My son is is an hps die-hard for flowering, after seeing this CMH in action, he's going to be replacing 2x 1000w hps with 6x of the 315w CMH, we expect he'll get 1.5x + yields from that setup and pay back the investment in the first crop. Told him he has to let me get a pic of that setup running... and a cut of his first crop for turning him onto it ;) Besides the efficiency gains and budding capabilities, they knocked almost a week (6 days) off my last cycle compared to a previous LED run with JTR.
Ok I see thanks. So basically the 315/330 can do what my 600's are doing plus more with around half the power consumption. That pretty much answers my question about heat output too. Gonna check out that link and get to talking with those folks you referenced. Im probably gonna redo my whole game after the 1st of the year, I need a change and a change for the better is always welcome. Thanks for the info man.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
No problem, your timeline will allow you to see some grows with these, there are a couple of guys in the process of buying/setting up the 315's and will likely be posting their grows here. What would you expect/average from your 600? Generally/average of course, strains can make a huge difference. I'm thinking these 315's can easily pull 12 oz, 14-16 with a full footprint and decent producing strain in soil. I'd like to see 14 (392g) from this current round with JTR mixed in there. That would be pretty efficient gpw on the 315w, for any technology.
 

polo the don

Well-Known Member
No problem, your timeline will allow you to see some grows with these, there are a couple of guys in the process of buying/setting up the 315's and will likely be posting their grows here. What would you expect/average from your 600? Generally/average of course, strains can make a huge difference. I'm thinking these 315's can easily pull 12 oz, 14-16 with a full footprint and decent producing strain in soil. I'd like to see 14 (392g) from this current round with JTR mixed in there. That would be pretty efficient gpw on the 315w, for any technology.
I'll have to keep an eye out for those grows.

It's kinda hard to say what I pull per light because I run perpetual with 6 600's in my flower room so it's not really a "per light" setup. All the lights overlap each other.

I have a just for me tent with 1 600 in it, 3 different strains and one don't yield well at all but I don't even weigh it anymore. It just for me so why bother. My wife a 600 in her tent but she don't weigh either.

Those GPW numbers your talking about are insain.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Yeah, running 6 of those, if these things prove out that kind of efficiency, it'd be worth looking at, could save a ton on operations or produce more with the same power, like running 12 of them, wholly shit ;)
 

ayr0n

Well-Known Member
Alright guys I'm back. Took a little break from growing to get my weight down (don't want to be sitting on pounds) but I dropped a couple seeds down last night. The plan is to take cuttings early to sex the plants, kill off any males n pick out the most vigorous female to get a mother established (using Gage Green Bastard Series seeds), then use cuttings from the mother to fill my vegging tent until they're matured n throw em in the flowering tent. This will be my first photo grow so there'll be some new aspects to it. I'll start a separate journal for this grow and post the link here when things start moving along. Pe@ce
 

ayr0n

Well-Known Member
It's good to see you.
Glad to see you're back and tackling some photos this time, I've seen/read some good things from gage green genetics, should be good! Good luck on this run :)
Have you guys noticed photos taking longer to sprout than autos? On the autos I had 100% germ rate, but not 1 of these photos has broke the soil yet (been ~3-4 days). I dug around and found one of the seeds did have a taproot coming out so I think it'll be all good - just a little longer maybe... We'll see lol
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Genetics and viability/quality of the seeds affect it more than anything. I've had some pop in 36 hours and some taken close to a week or not at all, using the exact the same process/environment... My recent luck(?) has been 100%, so good I have too many plants going if there is such a thing. Then again, I tried to start 4 for the party cup comp a few weeks back and popped 2 weaklings that died within days, go figure.
 

ayr0n

Well-Known Member
How we doing over there after a lil cure time?
Have you shared any with friends yet? I remember how good I felt about myself after getting a friend super high with something I grew.
Doing real good lol. Everyone's seemed to like it so far. Even got my mom wrecked w/ some cookies we made out of the trim haha. Seems to taste, smell and smoke better than anything I've had in the past but I'm sure the freshness factor plays a role. For some reason the potency appears to be getting stronger the longer it cures but maybe that's just placebo. I really gotta work on not over-endulging - I know a lot of guys tht are fully functioning stoners but I'm one of those ppl that doesn't do shit when they're high...Probably has something to do w/ my tolerance being so low prior to this harvest. Now that I've been smoking regularly again I'm starting to be more productive while high but still gotta kinda push myself to get anything done after a blizzle. Gotta get it in my head tht just cuz I have all these trees doesn't mean I have to smoke it all right now :X
 

polo the don

Well-Known Member
Doing real good lol. Everyone's seemed to like it so far. Even got my mom wrecked w/ some cookies we made out of the trim haha. Seems to taste, smell and smoke better than anything I've had in the past but I'm sure the freshness factor plays a role. For some reason the potency appears to be getting stronger the longer it cures but maybe that's just placebo. I really gotta work on not over-endulging - I know a lot of guys tht are fully functioning stoners but I'm one of those ppl that doesn't do shit when they're high...Probably has something to do w/ my tolerance being so low prior to this harvest. Now that I've been smoking regularly again I'm starting to be more productive while high but still gotta kinda push myself to get anything done after a blizzle. Gotta get it in my head tht just cuz I have all these trees doesn't mean I have to smoke it all right now :X
I wish I could send you some clones cause I have some shit that don't allow you to sit down much less be lazy.
How is the pineapple punch high?
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
I never noticed a time difference. I have noticed that if I put a heat mat under my cups/pots or whatever they sprout faster.
Yeah, I've had them all over the place time-wise, but I track them in a log, otherwise it never happened ;) I've been using my router as my heat matt for a while now, it's the only thing that's on 24/7 and doesn't get too hot. Gotta say on the seed germ subject, I've tried 3 Barney's Farm strains over the last 3 months that either didn't pop or popped but I ended up culling they were so crappy, Critical Kush, Acapulco Gold and LSD (I burnt 1 LSD, the other just wilted and died off within days), could be just shit luck but so far I'm not impressed with their quality.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Now that I've been smoking regularly again I'm starting to be more productive while high but still gotta kinda push myself to get anything done after a blizzle. Gotta get it in my head tht just cuz I have all these trees doesn't mean I have to smoke it all right now :X
Funny, I get more shit done stoned than not, it helps me focus, otherwise my mind races and I think too much and get nothing done. When I built my flower room I had a little thing going where I wouldn't start working on it until I burned a pipe or vaped :bigjoint: Sats only though, cloudy, no ambers, most Indica strains I'm on the couch so I typically don't smoke them until just before crashing. And yes, sometimes you have to keep your hands out of the cookie jar! lol
 

polo the don

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I've had them all over the place time-wise, but I track them in a log, otherwise it never happened ;) I've been using my router as my heat matt for a while now, it's the only thing that's on 24/7 and doesn't get too hot. Gotta say on the seed germ subject, I've tried 3 Barney's Farm strains over the last 3 months that either didn't pop or popped but I ended up culling they were so crappy, Critical Kush, Acapulco Gold and LSD (I burnt 1 LSD, the other just wilted and died off within days), could be just shit luck but so far I'm not impressed with their quality.
Yeah, I feel you in that Barney's trash. They won't see anymore of my money. I bought 20 of the critical kush beans, only 15 opened, of those 15 only 2 were worth keeping. The other 13 were pure shit. Most of them were light green, immature. They either barely popped up or if they did most were just so damn sickly looking I had to cull them. The 2 I did keep are some fukin fire though. Great indica buzz with pretty good yeilds. My main flower room is filled with it, but I'm looking to phase it out just haven't decided what to replace it with. I only sell to a few people and they sell it and they say everyone loves it but down here anything indica without seeds is "dat fire dro, nigga!" Dumbasses can't apreciate a good sativa. I could probably just sell poor quality autos that looked and smelled good without seeds and get the same money but I'm better than that.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I'm going to try those Barney seeds I have left at some point and drop them all hoping to get one good one. Not impressive so far though and they won't get any more cash from me until I see some consistency.
 

polo the don

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I'm going to try those Barney seeds I have left at some point and drop them all hoping to get one good one. Not impressive so far though and they won't get any more cash from me until I see some consistency.
I wouldn't get in in any hurry to run their stuff even IF I had room and IF I had them laying around. I'm sure they have something good but I'm just not willing to hunt for it. Ok, I lied, IF I had them just laying around I might try to gorilla them. Good luck, ya never know. Lol.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't get in in any hurry to run their stuff even IF I had room and IF I had them laying around. I'm sure they have something good but I'm just not willing to hunt for it. Ok, I lied, IF I had them just laying around I might try to gorilla them. Good luck, ya never know. Lol.
Yeah, it'll be a while, no priority, I'm literally sitting on hundreds of seeds, my next few rounds I'll be trying some of the crosses I'm pulling seeds from now. Looking for a decent producer with some taste, thinking the PPP x Blueberry, PPP x JTR, or PPP x AoS may have a seed or two with those traits. The PPP x JTR could be interesting if the lemon/pine comes through. I'm running a Platinum Bubba Kush x JTR right now that's smelling like lemon in veg, lemon kush could be interesting :bigjoint:
 
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