Inda-Gro 400W + Aeroflo2 30

bibbles

Active Member
How boring would it be if no one left comments/questions/feedback? Please do! :)

Alrighty, well, my last grow journal fell apart along with my life... not really, I was just far too busy to keep on top of it. Hopefully that will not be the case this time! :)

So, to start with, I'm running an Aeroflo2 30, a 400W Inda-Gro induction light (replacing 2x 400W HPS), GH nutrients, and the strain is Pre '91 Chemdawg. I just put the clones in the system today, and I'm planning on a single week of veg before going into flower.

With the 400W HPS I experienced a HUGE amount of stretching after giving the same genetics two weeks of veg, so that's why I'm looking at one week this time. The clones I took are shorter, and given that the night/day temp difference is going to influence stretch the most, hopefully these cooler running lights will help with that. The Inda-Gro light is suppose to be equal to 750W HPS, though I was told it takes a little time to burn in, and I should expect ~75% on the first grow. That might sound like an excuse, but with a 10 year warranty, it's probably legitimate. 75% would still be ~560W, and two 400W lights only makes for more even light, not more of it - this light is almost 4 feet long, so it's covering the same area those two bulbs were.

PROBLEMS: My whole grow was just treated like a pretty boy in prison by spider mites, spider mites that pretty much just shrugged off Hot Shot No Pest Strips... There should be a bunch of neem in the mail, so I'll be going that rout to avoid a repeat. Luckily I took these clones before the mothers got hit, and they seem fine, however I had to trash the mothers, as, again... super mites.

I'll get into the fiddly bits and add pictures either later tonight or tomorrow.
 

xyzxyz

Member
With the 400W HPS I experienced a HUGE amount of stretching after giving the same genetics two weeks of veg, so that's why I'm looking at one week this time.
Hey, in my humble opinion you should run the two weeks so you can document and compare the difference between the 400w HPS and 400w induction. Might play out different. At least that way you would know.

After watching the other induction grow, Ill be watching this and hope you get the results you are after.

Thanks for taking the plunge.
 

bibbles

Active Member
Hey, in my humble opinion you should run the two weeks so you can document and compare the difference between the 400w HPS and 400w induction. Might play out different. At least that way you would know.

After watching the other induction grow, Ill be watching this and hope you get the results you are after.

Thanks for taking the plunge.
Sorry, I meant to reply to this before, but... I forgot, haha.

I'll see where things are on Wednesday, might go for another week, we'll have to see, just neemed the crap out of everything... not really a spidermite issue at the moment, but there was last grow, so I'm taking proactive measures, rather than waiting and having to be reactive.

Neem smells like food to me, I'm not really sure why people complain, unless they dislike Asian food (savory candy, to be specific... or bagels).

So far the plants seem to be loving the light, I've seen more, healthier growth in the past few days than I saw with the HPS lights. Internodes are tight, however I feel like the stems thickened more quickly last time, but then my clones were taller then as well. The ones directly under the light were doing awesome, the six (three at each end) not directly under it are growing a little less vogorusly, however I just switched them to the center. I'll probably try to keep them rotating for a bit until the roots prevent removal of the net pots.

EDIT: That other thread is the reason I got this light. :D
 

bibbles

Active Member
Good stuff. Keep us posted and throw up some pics. Im sure others will turn up late to the party.
I'm like a pizza boy, YO DELIVERY!

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First off, for those of you wondering how to disguise a grow tent - obviously this will only work if everything is turned off and those looking aren't looking FOR anything... Mostly it's just there to make me smile, but my landlord has been telling me their going to redo the windows in my place next week... for six weeks now. :|

The guy doing the work is cool, I've hung out with him before, he'll be doing it alone, this is a legal grow, and I have pre-law friends who put together a NDA, just in case. I know tearing it down and putting it in my closet is much safer, but ya know what, SIX WEEKS.

Anyway, here's a wide shot.

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The fans are currently on low, and I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to raise them up higher as things grow, probably use a piece of PVC to extend the poles they sit on.

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New extraction fan/filter, and the wires I'm going to be making prettier/safer/more secure today. Everything needs to come in on one or two plugs because MY ENTIRE PLACE is wired onto ONE fuse... except like... single outlets which are inconveniently located which have their own fuses. Luckily Home Depot day labor can be circumvented with extension cords - and I have cables running everywhere for other reasons, so they don't stand out.

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I read ozone can help control mites, and this air purifier makes a crap-load, so it's chilling in here for now, or at least till I get new filters for it. It's running filterless right now, just killing bacteria with some ion thing, and producing ozone.

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These are a couple that were on the far ends of the system, they did not take off as quickly as those in the middle, so I've switched them to the middle where they can get more direct light, at least until their leaves are numerous and large enough to catch the light without being directly under them.

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These are a couple which started out dead center, it's been four days, and they were about where the previous two are now four days ago when they went in.

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A GDP clone my friend brought while visiting from the Bay, not quite sure what to do with it just yet, but it's doing great, even WAY off to the side like it is. I was "watering" it, thus it's location, normally the rockwool is wrapped in plastic, and it's on top of the cover which goes there. I have a two plant DWC thing I'll probably throw it into, it looks like a very nice plant, and it's growing well, but I greatly dislike purple strains... perhaps that's why I left the Bay? I've been wanting to play with bringing out coloration, so it'll be a fun project, the DWC holds two plants, so I'll probably grab another clone in the next couple days and do that.

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Ever have a friend who desperately wants clones for an AWESOME guerrilla grow, man! Last time, they were rooted and ready to go TWO MONTHS ago... I have space to put them in some pots, but I dislike growing things in dirt, so I may just throw them in a brown bag and leave them at a skatepark for someone else. They've gotten pretty awful... so... I've decided that anyone that regularly ends their sentences with "man" should be slapped and ignored.


Additional question~!

This strain hasn't been a huge winner for SoG (far too much branching, etc), and as next time around the placement will be slightly closer, I have to ask if anyone has any strain suggestions for my next set of mothers? The last ones received a healthy dose of ruination, as I mentioned, so I'm going to be setting up new ones throughout this grow.

Probably a Waterfarm type thing for each, and a 125W CFL for each, at least for now as I already have two, and I'd like three mothers.
 

bibbles

Active Member
It looks clean. I like it.
Spider mites can give anyone OCD on their next grow, haha.

EDIT: Oh, the clone tray just has some extra clones which weren't as nice as the ones which went in the system, a couple which hadn't rooted, and then six more I took off the mothers while throwing them away, just in case I decided to stick with these genetics - chances are I'm not though.
 

bibbles

Active Member
what size is that tent?
It's a Grow Lab 120L, so 3'11" x 7'11" x 6'7" according to Greners.

Also, FUCK HOT SHOT PEST STRIPS!!! Seriously, three couldn't do what a single application of neem oil did, and I'd been feeling some odd things since putting them up, though I almost never entered the grow while they were up, and now I feel fine. Also note, I was the only one of my friends who didn't comment on the smell, etc... so I wasn't just being paranoid as I thought those who posted about the smell were.

EDIT: The room is much larger than the system, it fit comfortably in my closet, which was 2'x7'4"x6' - I had heat problems in there, and enough room for the tent, so I just moved it to make things easier. I was using HPS at the time, I'm confident the induction light would be totally fine in that space without heat problems.
 

MrEDuck

Well-Known Member
I can't wait to see how this turns out. The induction lights look great on paper. Hopefully it's not all hype. And hopefully the prices will drop a fair amount over the next year or two
 

bibbles

Active Member
I can't wait to see how this turns out. The induction lights look great on paper. Hopefully it's not all hype. And hopefully the prices will drop a fair amount over the next year or two
Honestly, looking at how often my other equipment is running, the price of the induction light will be made up in at most two grow cycles. My A/C has to run so little I keep checking to see if it's working (always has been), the dehumidifier hasn't even come on yet, but as the plants grow I expect the humidity to rise... still... growth is more even than with the two 400W lights, and the exhaust fan just chills at idol, where as before it would be running hard all the time, and still too hot within the grow.

Of note: I do not exhaust outside, I exhaust into the room the tent is in, and use a window A/C to exchange heat. There is no cool source of air available, so if I were exhausting outside, the grow would just suck in the 90°F air from outside - hooray SoCal. I'm looking into getting a window mounted water chiller as an option.

Another HUGE awesome about this light? The water in the res was above room temp and needed constant ice bottles to maintain anything acceptable, with these lights I started with the ice bottles and then abandoned them. The res temp stays a good 10°F or so lower than the ambient temp, which rarely goes over 80°F (the temp I set on the fan, the A/C outside the tent comes on at 70°F, and the fan idles till 70°F where it turns off).
 

bibbles

Active Member
looking nice. I just started my first inda gro 400. --- https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/430193-400w-inda-gro-induction-cabinet.html -- I wish i had that space. You should get another 400 and run it parallel with another aeroflo haha some day...
I have plans on expansion, though I'll be moving away from the Aeroflo system, they're just... too hard to light efficiently given their shape... of they require a much larger tent than they should, as they're JUST too large for the tents you want to put them in. Not to mention, it's very hard to check the roots once the plants get going.
 

bibbles

Active Member
you should run the two weeks
Good call, they;re looking great, and the canopy is evening out very nicely - Wednesday marks two weeks, I'll flip it then. I'll gat back with pictures later if I can, smoke break, then more fun with my new GonG BOH tube (I'll probably review that as well later on).
 

bibbles

Active Member
Alright, so flowering started last night, getting in there today to check on everything, trim some leaves providing too much shade, and I found one plant with a few leaves that had dried out very quickly. Just one blade per leaf, and only on a few leaves, but all on one plant... Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's nothing, but if anyone wants to comment on them:

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Any discoloration you might see towards the tip of the larger leaf is just light reflecting.

Anyway, back to it, I'll add more pictures in a bit.
 

bibbles

Active Member
Alrighty, well my camera broke, yay, but I decided to go with an interesting trimming technique that came up in a conversation with a friend. We were talking about lollipopping and stuff, and he mentioned reading about removing any fan leaves not immediately next to new growth. The theory is that the plants will grow more erect because they won't be looking for light, and the plants will get much more even light - good because these lights, presumably, do not have the penetration of HPS. So I trimmed the crap out of stuff yesterday, and the plants didn't look happy with it... but today they look amazing.

I scoffed at this idea, but given the light, the strain being bushy, and growing it is a SoG where last round they would choke each other out by blocking light, it seemed like it was worth trying out.

I know this will effect the comparison between this and my last grow, but last time I ran into a number of issues that would have effected the comparison anyway.
 

bibbles

Active Member
Alrighty, well... they were going to redo my windows last week... Monday... they finished them today. Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs the lights were off in the middle of the on cycle for 6 hours, and then again today. Thrilling right? Everyone else's apartment took less than a day, but I'm the only white person here, so... fuck Mexicans, evidently (not really).

So, that's going to have some serious ill effects on yield I think, the plants are much shorter than they were with HPS, but then, the nodes are closer, but the branches are skinnier. Hit two weeks of flower today, and intended to change nutes, but ran out of one (fucking amateur hour up in here), I figured given all the lights out time I'd just wait till Friday when my order comes, they probably used less nutes as they had less light. I change everything once a week, even if I forget to post (sorry). So I got in there and trimmed again, and there seem to be a LOT of happy bud sites, but we'll see how things go from now. Also Thurs-Teus the light was a good deal higher than I meant it to be as I was out of town, and forgot to lower it after neeming.

I'm sorry to those of you who were looking for a trouble free comparison, but then, my last had issues, so maybe this makes it fair? We'll have to see...

I also lost one plant (which was already looking rough, and I was expecting to pull it) due to the power down wait. Humidity spiked HARD with no AC, and this plant just kind of collapsed under itself... The rest seem to be doing better over all than with HPS though, so...

Oh, and that Dark Room sign? I got lots of compliments on my photography (borrowed from friends) and no one seemed the wiser, though the owner is old and stupid, and the worker probably wouldn't care, we chill from time to time, he lives here as well - neither of them know I even smoke (explicitly at least).

Lights are out, but I'll put some pictures up tomorrow, I just realized that I didn't reset the timer and it was three hours after lights out... fuck my everything... *sigh*
 

solcielo

Active Member
Alrighty, well... they were going to redo my windows last week... Monday... they finished them today. Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs the lights were off in the middle of the on cycle for 6 hours, and then again today. Thrilling right? Everyone else's apartment took less than a day, but I'm the only white person here, so... fuck Mexicans, evidently (not really).

So, that's going to have some serious ill effects on yield I think, the plants are much shorter than they were with HPS, but then, the nodes are closer, but the branches are skinnier. Hit two weeks of flower today, and intended to change nutes, but ran out of one (fucking amateur hour up in here), I figured given all the lights out time I'd just wait till Friday when my order comes, they probably used less nutes as they had less light. I change everything once a week, even if I forget to post (sorry). So I got in there and trimmed again, and there seem to be a LOT of happy bud sites, but we'll see how things go from now. Also Thurs-Teus the light was a good deal higher than I meant it to be as I was out of town, and forgot to lower it after neeming.

I'm sorry to those of you who were looking for a trouble free comparison, but then, my last had issues, so maybe this makes it fair? We'll have to see...

I also lost one plant (which was already looking rough, and I was expecting to pull it) due to the power down wait. Humidity spiked HARD with no AC, and this plant just kind of collapsed under itself... The rest seem to be doing better over all than with HPS though, so...

Oh, and that Dark Room sign? I got lots of compliments on my photography (borrowed from friends) and no one seemed the wiser, though the owner is old and stupid, and the worker probably wouldn't care, we chill from time to time, he lives here as well - neither of them know I even smoke (explicitly at least).

Lights are out, but I'll put some pictures up tomorrow, I just realized that I didn't reset the timer and it was three hours after lights out... fuck my everything... *sigh*
You got super resilient plants there, they can take quite a beating just don't baby them too much :) I had a friend convinced if he removed all fan leaves he would increase production and ended up with an impressively small quantity (like 1.5oz with 4 plants outdoors all summer). Also, careful assuming people don't know something.

But hey man that's a fantastic looking setup. With the plant density being what it is how much veg time were you giving them? I had similar plant density and anything more than 10 days made it pretty hard to manage. Also, with regards to trimming Al B. Fuct has a great thread that talks about that quite a bit but basically take anything that isn't main stem from the first shoot up to about halfway up the remaining shoots.

Looks great, keep taking pictures and keep us updated.
 

bibbles

Active Member
You got super resilient plants there, they can take quite a beating just don't baby them too much :) I had a friend convinced if he removed all fan leaves he would increase production and ended up with an impressively small quantity (like 1.5oz with 4 plants outdoors all summer). Also, careful assuming people don't know something.

But hey man that's a fantastic looking setup. With the plant density being what it is how much veg time were you giving them? I had similar plant density and anything more than 10 days made it pretty hard to manage. Also, with regards to trimming Al B. Fuct has a great thread that talks about that quite a bit but basically take anything that isn't main stem from the first shoot up to about halfway up the remaining shoots.

Looks great, keep taking pictures and keep us updated.
I've been soooo good at keeping on top of nothing... :/

Anyway, they got two weeks veg (a week too long). I figured with less stretching they'd be fine, but neglected to think about how much they would branch. I went in a trimmed the lowest branches which were getting no light - roughly the bottom 1/3.

The idea isn't to remove all the leaves, just the ones not adjacent to new growth - so a fan leaf once that branch has it's own set of leaves, etc. In theory, those leaves are just used for storage, and with nutrients on demand as they are in hydro, it shouldn't make a difference. That said, the first time I saw this it was an indoor dirt grow, so what the fuck do I know?

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This was the plants today, great shade of green, lots of bud sites - most notably, more healthy bud sites than last time, with many fewer trapped in the dark and yellowing. The six edge plants (three at each end) are showing very poor growth, however they are beyond the ends of the lights, so I'm not surprised - the systems I'm going to switch to are the correct size.

I'd have to say that just the clarity of sight you get from these over the orange din of HPS alone might be worth it. I feel must better about my leaf checks under this light, and it takes half as long.

Here's the rest of the new equipment:
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Drying tent so I can get the next crop in the same day I crop the last - works very well too, used it with the last harvest.
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New mother tent sporting two 125W CFLs - probably going to switch to a single 250W.
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Clone tent (going to put it on a small square table), and the soon-to-be-mother-systems.

Currently in week four of flower, though due to a few power downs they'll probably take a few days longer to ripen up. Following the GH KISS Recirculating nutrient schedule, this week boom, next week aggressive bloom; first two weeks of flower were transitional nutes, and week three simply kept the previous week's nutrients going - week two was when the power downs happened.

I'll try to get some better pictures later, but that's it for now! :D
 
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