All COB Users - Lettuce Grow Challenge!!

OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
Alright Alright, I can't take it no more
With all this lettuce growing action I gotta get back in the game indoors. Greenhouse production is at a snail pace this time of year.
So, here we go - dug through my hydro parts grave yard and putting in some nft channels to suck up the "wasted" light above my veg cannabis plants.
Double duty use of light. I have used this trick before and it works very well.

Any of you have tips for successfully producing Cilantro on a consistent basis?

IMG_0857.jpeg
 
muleface

muleface

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
Alright Alright, I can't take it no more
With all this lettuce growing action I gotta get back in the game indoors. Greenhouse production is at a snail pace this time of year.
So, here we go - dug through my hydro parts grave yard and putting in some nft channels to suck up the "wasted" light above my veg cannabis plants.
Double duty use of light. I have used this trick before and it works very well.

Any of you have tips for successfully producing Cilantro on a consistent basis?

View attachment 3867774
Click to expand...
I'd like to think I helped drag you back into the game...the lettuce game :)

I think with cilantro you just need to cut the top of stem when it starts to bolt. Or you could let some bolt and harvest coriander, which tasted nothing like cilantro.

I mentioned my EC and you said it was pretty high, wondering if you could talk about how temperature and EC work. The more I dig into it, the more complicated it is. Temperature effects the EC reading. My lettuce is getting water at about 66 degrees. So according to this chart, the same amount of nutrients in the water read almost a full .2 difference from 77 to 66 degrees (you are suppose to calibrate your meter at 77 degrees.

Im going to dig more into this, but if you have any insight, that would be great.

http://www.reagecon.com/pdf/technicalpapers/Effect_of_Temperature_TSP-07_Issue3.pdf

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PicklesRus

PicklesRus

Well-Known Member
Ok well waiting on my replacement bridgelux strips - I'll have two levels of lettuce production, both will be bridgelux strips but for now these babies are under the Philips greenpower leds

First set of three lettucebabies planted in my 11L Kratky tote

More germinating

image.jpg
 
frica

frica

Well-Known Member
Going to grow pepper again.
Going to test out Osram's Parathom classic 20W.

Only draws 20W for 2452 lumens. (including driver loss) (122 lm/w)
Hopefully Osram doesn't lie about their bulbs power consumption like Volkswagen did about diesel emissions.

Compared to Tastyleds T1-V196 it's very economical.
Assuming the Vero 29 used has a similar LER as the Osram.
The T1 draws 95 watt for 13560 lumen. 142 lm/w. This is including driver losses.
205 dollar. (roughly 200 euro)
5,5 Osram 20W bulbs generate a similar amount of lumen, so let's just say 6 bulbs.
Which is roughly 65 euros.

That seems very economical, the difference in efficiency is pretty small. Probably even smaller once I have removed the diffuser. But the difference in price is tremendous.
Osram's bulbs won't last as long, but they only need to last long enough for the next few generations of bulbs to arrive. The Vero panel's efficiency won't earn itself back because in 2 years there will likely be cheap bulbs that match or beat it on efficiency.
 
OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
muleface said:
I'd like to think I helped drag you back into the game...the lettuce game :)

I think with cilantro you just need to cut the top of stem when it starts to bolt. Or you could let some bolt and harvest coriander, which tasted nothing like cilantro.

I mentioned my EC and you said it was pretty high, wondering if you could talk about how temperature and EC work. The more I dig into it, the more complicated it is. Temperature effects the EC reading. My lettuce is getting water at about 66 degrees. So according to this chart, the same amount of nutrients in the water read almost a full .2 difference from 77 to 66 degrees (you are suppose to calibrate your meter at 77 degrees.

Im going to dig more into this, but if you have any insight, that would be great.

http://www.reagecon.com/pdf/technicalpapers/Effect_of_Temperature_TSP-07_Issue3.pdf

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Click to expand...
Your getting way to technical for our purpose. What nutrients are you running and what is your source water?
 
OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
muleface said:
https://hydro-gardens.com/product/tomato-formula-25lbs-bag-4-18-38/

I am following their instructions. I am using the same resouvior for both my tomatoes and lettuce. My home water is about .5 EC
Click to expand...
I believe you are on the verge of hard water territory
Are you making liquid concentrates or just adding powder to the res as needed?
From memory full strength is 1/2tsp 4-18-38, 1/2tsp Cal-Nitrate, 1/4tsp Epsom Salt
I would cut that in half and see where your EC lands for starters, then increase if needed
A lot of their formulas they run the Base Fert full strength and back down the Cal-N
 
muleface

muleface

Well-Known Member
oh yeah, i'm in hard water territory. I make liquid concentrate first, then add that to the res. I usually try to hit where they say my EC should be, my cal in my tap water is pretty low.
 
muleface

muleface

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
See my oasis cubes above?
That little trick having your oasis or rockwool cubes sitting on some perlite let's the roots grow out of the bottom of the cubes rather than being air-pruned. Then you just separate your cubes, shake the perlite off and drop them right on the bottom of your NFT channels :hump:
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so your idea putting my rockwool cubes on top of perlite (vermiculite) is working out absolutely amazing. My lettuce is starting to root into the vermiculite, and because its so soft, i can lift it out and put it right back to check on it. I am really only using checking one, as to not disrupt more then i need to.

@robincnn
 
OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
It's on fella's - I'm up and running. Those fancy Farmtek NFT channels better watch out cause my vinyl downspouts are on their game lol

This batch is on 2ml Europonic Silica, 15ml Ionic Grow, dash of soluble fulvic - let's see how they do :hump:

IMG_0859.jpeg IMG_0860.jpeg IMG_0861.jpeg IMG_0863.jpeg
 
muleface

muleface

Well-Known Member
it must be a Canadian thing. My lettuce doesn't grow that fast. Its kept at about 68 degrees when its germinating. your setup looks good. Did you say you had some farmtek channels? if so. post some pics.
 
OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
muleface said:
it must be a Canadian thing. My lettuce doesn't grow that fast. Its kept at about 68 degrees when its germinating. your setup looks good. Did you say you had some farmtek channels? if so. post some pics.
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No farmtek channels here. I was being a wise guy in case you didn't catch it lol. My cheapo home brews will give them a run for their $$
The fast growth is the Hortilux Blue Metal Halide. That is what we are trying to accomplish with this thread - an led that will deliver the same growth quantity/quality at a significant energy savings.........Still waiting to see it
 
PicklesRus

PicklesRus

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
No farmtek channels here. I was being a wise guy in case you didn't catch it lol. My cheapo home brews will give them a run for their $$
The fast growth is the Hortilux Blue Metal Halide. That is what we are trying to accomplish with this thread - an led that will deliver the same growth quantity/quality at a significant energy savings.........Still waiting to see it
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Very nice. I'm trying to still figure out my seedling area. I wonder if it should be one solid blue LED bar.

I'm using a 10x20 wth a heatmat and a thermostat that keep the rockwool at 80f. Stuff germinated way faster than in my flood table thats around 72f, but I don't have lighting on the germination tray yet. It doesn't really fit into my rack anywhere so I want to figure out where I can put it.



IMG_2488.PNG IMG_2489.JPG

might buy one of these for the side of my shelf for my seedlings
IMG_2490.JPG
 
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OLD MOTHER SATIVA

OLD MOTHER SATIVA

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
No farmtek channels here. I was being a wise guy in case you didn't catch it lol. My cheapo home brews will give them a run for their $$
The fast growth is the Hortilux Blue Metal Halide. That is what we are trying to accomplish with this thread - an led that will deliver the same growth quantity/quality at a significant energy savings.........Still waiting to see it
Click to expand...
we have a 1kw hps for test light as well as heat for the room...our 160w of leds over4 x4 definitely out perform the 1kw in the wattage dept..the quality is better..the growth is good enough..i dunno about growing head lettuce though ..we have not tried..
we can grow 6 @4 x 4 areas with the same wattage..sure the 1k hps will grow fast ..but only covers a 4x4 plus area
but not that much area
 
PicklesRus

PicklesRus

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
The fast growth is the Hortilux Blue Metal Halide. That is what we are trying to accomplish with this thread - an led that will deliver the same growth quantity/quality at a significant energy savings........
Click to expand...
I'm going to setup side by side testing for some different colours. I haven't decided on how many and which variations yet. Did I miss anything in this list?

- blue
- deep red/blue
- 2700
- 3000
- 3500
- 4000
- 5000
- 5700
- 6500
- far infrared

I definitely want some far infrared on a seperate circuit that I can zap plants with to test the effects.

I found some uber cheap drivers I could use for my little experimentation panels.

https://m.fasttech.com/products/1612/10001414/5288700-90-260v-27w-high-power-constant-current-led-driver


Here's what I'm looking for
http://www.cree.com/LED-Components-and-Modules/Applications/Color/Horticulture

Cree xq-e series.

I'll see if I can build some 1' x 18" fixtures of different combinations.
 
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