LED Growers Forum

Although the MH started, it was a fire risk, so I had to make a quick decision, and in went the Helios 6.

It's too early for 600W HPS.

The bulb broke probably because MH bulbs should not be dimmed... either that or a dodgy union between glass and screw on the bulb.

Anyway, for the purposes of this forum...

I'M BACK ON LED !!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 28

I'm not happy... my MH bulb failed this week, so I switched to my trusty Helios 6.
It was a 600W Powerplant retrofit bulb, in a Solis Tek 600W digital ballast, dimmed to 400W.

Reasons for failure:

-aparrently you must not dim MH bulbs
-certain bulbs work best with magnetic ballasts, others with digital - something to do with pulse and non - pulse start...
-poor build quality

I'm not happy with the growth of my plants either... not much has changed over 2 weeks.

Reasons for failure:

-as you cannot dim MH bullbs, perhaps at 36" they have been getting 600W MH instead of 400W, thus stunting their growth?
-the soil may not be providing correct areation.

I watered them 3 days ago at EC0.2 pH6.3 about a litre in the 22L pots and 3/4L in the 11L pots, giving a little dribble of run off.
Today the soil is dry on the surface, but quite damp just below.... I might go 100% Coco next time in conjunction with the Blumat automaic watering system.

Here they are (JH = Jack Herer, NH = Northern Hog, Og = Ogre):

she is the tallest at 6cm, and younger than the rest by 8 days

next tallest at 5cm

4cm high

3cm high

3cm high... the 1st few leaves are fucked (possibly when they got droplets of feed on them) but new growth looks OK

3cm high

Temps have been OK Max 29.5 min 20 over the week, RH in the 40-55% region.

So now I have the Helios on, at 38" and hope that I get a bit of growth in the next few days.
Comments and suggestions welcome as always.

they will get better bro, get Helios down to 26"

cheers Ledbud Bro.... I just had the lights up high to let them recover from the shock of too much MH.... but yeah, they are down to 26" now.

I saw a poll on an autoflowering forum... ahem... for lighting schedules... 18/6, 20/4 or 24/0.... more people went with 20/4. I'm on 18/6... do you reckon it's worth it, LEDs are cheaper to run.

Anyway you've been a bit quiet mate... how are the girls... was hoping to see those purple buds?

Tee mate, get the 600w on asap, the broken envolope is a fire risk,............. it runs at above 1500c at neck,.......... if it falls out by the time it hit the ground it will still be around 800c............. so combution aint a prob with 32c ambiunt !!!...................... asap tee....................... the 600 wont do any harm, the reverse they love photons as much as you can give em !!.......................... 600 is fine...................... but will push more heat..................and you aint at peak summer night temps yet !!...........

AirCon unit might be the only way to get through that peak tee........................ you cant exeed 32-35c............ plus rh might drop to low........... causing dehydration of dames......... = slow down 40-50-60%............ that emp can trigger intersex as well tee................ be warned bruv............

re the serpents.............. set plenty of small rodent raps, and if you see or have seen rats close by, lay poison in rat box trap........... snakes will ingest it too tee.....

get a deceant air pisrtol with chrome tipped 177 or 22 slugs.......... pop em in the back of neck behind the head......... you wont see that one again....... get 500 pellets............... preferably a co2 pistol.......... much more punch for buck........... no rodent near you no snakes tee............ did you find anti venom holders locally ??

dame look a bit light of N tee................. might be the MH shot................ are they light green MH off ??.................. add 0.1 N.. if so..........

nice to have you on a grow again tee...................... that back yard do look nice though man............ such blue and pure light to !!........... will be watchin ya bro................. ATB Autoberry........

cheers AB Bro... as luck would have it, I gave them some N last night!

will post more tonight, gotta go to work!

Tee wrote;

medium is 3 parts low nute potting mix 1 part coco and a handful of lime free sand.

That is some chunky cocco teetee bruv................... looks like quite an acid one......................... nxt time you get run off take Ph tee.................just to check it aint running to low etc...........

You say the girls aint grown much in two weeks...................... you max nigh tem in cab is 32c ??..................... that is the temp the stoma on underside of leaf begin to close to protect the dame from dehydrating to fast............ which slows growth....................... if not it is an acidic cocco.....................which you may need to flush the Ph back upto base line 6.3 teetee............

if run off 5.8,....................... then flush with Ph 7.8 to bring ph back into the range required tee..................... i suspect it is both factors, working togeather !!......... to low a Ph will prevent "N" uptake tee...............................how are they now mate ???.................... have they greened up a bit teetee ??.................atb Autoberry

Hey Geezers,

I got pissed off with the slow growth of my first batch, so I loaded up 3 x 22L airpots with 100% coco, and planted 2x Critical Jack Auto and 1x Chronic Lowryder Auto..... they popped in 2 days. I'm giving them 0.7EC, and 2 days into it, they're as big as the others...



I think the soil mix was wrong for me.... 75% soil and 25% coco was too thick, esp with handful of sand... there was too many variables in it.... how much nute was there in the potting mix.... what pH was the sand like, etc





After some research I found out how to use Coco properly... not easy to find the info... but it's different to soil that's for sure. If I get successful, I will do a guide to Coco on this site... that's a big 'if' though

With the coco, I can water them lightly 4 times a day and up the EC on a gradual basis.... I started my 1st batch on 0.3EC but I dont think they were getting any nutes on that dose... and autos need a good start, mine didn't get off the line.
Aparrently with coco, you have to keep to a minimum of 0.7 - 0.8 EC right from the start or else the buffers and calmag etc that they put in the coco gets washed out, and every week up the EC by 0.1... small but frequent feeds will give them a hydro-esque (like flood and drain) regime, and they should thrive.

During lights on the temps never reach over 28..... it only hits the 30s when lights are off, so I have tried to sort out the air intake to get cooler air from inside the house rather than warm air from outside.... we shall see. I suspect Mrs Tee puts a fan heater on when she gets up for an early morning puff at 5am.....

I knew I'd have a few issues dialling it in, so I'm not that pissed off really.

Finally, Ive got the Helios 6 and both Helios 2s up to give a nice coverage of light inside.


I think I gave the 1st batch 600W of MH which is why they stayed so short... the Quantum LEDs are easier to use, they certainly don't get as hot, and I know where I am with them. I will still do a comparison between MH/HPS and LED someday, but for now, it's gonna have to be the other way round, and I'll do the LED grows 1st. I only bought the MH and HPS cos my stuff was taking ages to arrive by sea, but it's all here now, and I'm back to square 1 with the grow anyway.

I ripped out the dripper system, it was good but with so many pots in there (8) at different ages, it is easier at the moment to go by hand. Once I get finally fed up with the 1st batch I will rip them out, install the Blumat system and do 100% coco runs from now on.

I kinda wish I went DWC to start off, but a water cooler is essential, I went down that route last time, and the noise was immense. I worry about DWC here as the leccy trips if you put too much load on, and what with air pumps, water pumps and coolers, it will be a nightmare if it trips in the night without me knowing...

The Blumat system is passive, no leccy reqd, and fairly cheap at $75 (£35). It uses a simple moisture detector and opens a dripper if the medium gets too dry, thus feeding the plants only when needed. Made in Germany so it must be good!

AB Bro, the snakes have been lying low... last night Mrs Tee screamed as she went into our smoking room, 'there's a fucking massive spider in the ashtray!' I got one of my size 14s and went on the attack, ahh it was only a baby huntsman, about 3 inches legspan. Nice, juicy splat. Then this morning I got woken up by my Daughter in the loo, she was halfway through a dump when she saw another one! What must I have looked like as I jumped out of bed grabbed the trusty size 14 again, and staggered into the bathroom to chase it round the room as it evaded the inevitable. Got it in the end, and revelled in her screams as I showed her the squished mess on the sole of my trainer... I dunno though, I was naked, so she might have been screaming about that instead.

Every time I think of my Wife screaming like that last night I piss myself laughing.... is that wrong?

Anyway, I renamed this thread (again), and hope to get a better result this time.
Wish me luck!

I pulled all of the first batch..... they were taking up space.... well, the pots were, anyway..... the plants were shit, so, time to re-organise and concentrate on the 3 new plants.....

Follow their progress here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=449 let's hope this goes better.

nice one bro, best get good start.