California Lightworks 400W Solarstorm LED Closet Grow

Got a sweet new LED from California Lightworks for half price if I post a grow journal. Not affiliated with them in any way but just living up to my end of the bargain.

Going to keep this really simple.

Light: California Lightworks 400W Solarstorm LED from start to finish - had VEG and BLOOM and UVB T8's built in.
Tent: 5' x 3' x 2' closet sized
Filter: 4" carbon filter and fan
Water: Tap
Soil: ProMix Potting Soil from start to finish from bag (not mixing in anything) ProMix is PH balanced.
Plants: 5 Bubblegum seeds
Nutrients: None for first couple weeks ... then a really diluted Miracle Grow Tomato Food which has micro nutrients ($5 for a box)

This is my first LED grow so going with the basics only.

- ProMix is not soil. It is Peat Moss (perlite, peat moss, and vermiculate and limestone) so it needs to be presoaked in water and then you don't need to water for days.
- All the seeds germinated within a day of planting (I soaked them for 15 hours in water before hand)
- On day 3 one of the seedlings keeled over because the seed wasn't deep enough so I pulled it out.
- Also on day 3 two of the seedlings still had the seed casings stuck to the leaves so I had to remove them carefully with tweezers. One of the seedlings is stunted as a result and will grow slower.
- I put them closer to the light on day 5 by settings the pots on some milk crates
- Also got some temp and humidity guages in there on day 5
- On day 7 I gave them their first watering!! The ProMix holds water forever.

- I DO NOT have the carbon filter on yet!!! The tent is at 28C to 30C with just passive cooling and air flow (hot air from light flowing out top ducts, cooler air coming in at bottom).
- The LED light itself is warm but you can touch it. Doesn't get overly hot and has built in cooling fans.

hows the grow going im interested in buying this same light.

what happens when you aren't satisfied with the results? are you allowed to trash talk them in the journal? do you get to send the light back for a full refund?

Hey, nice grow you have going. EXTREMELY similar to my setup. Check out my journal and happy growing. https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/562784-solar-closet-400-watt-solarstorm-4.html

It has been exactly 14 days since the seeds were planted !!!

- Light has been on 24 hours the whole time
- Carbon filter fan still not on yet
- The grow tent has been running a little hot with only passive ventilation (80F to 85F average) however with no fans it is absolutely silent!!! Gets down to 75F at night. Been a warm week here weather wise which doesn't help.
- Watering every 4 days now ... as they get bigger watering will become more frequent
- No nutrients yet
- Added a small fan in the grow tent to help strengthen the stems. It runs about 4 hours per day and is doing the job well, however the way I initially positioned it caused the hot air above the light to blow back down to the plant causing plants tol get superheated (caused some heat stress which made the leaves to roll up a bit along the edges).

- They are sprouting their 3rd node now and are only 2 inches tall!!!
- Planning on switching to 12/12 in about a week as don't have room to grow these super tall.

Was originally going to determine which plants were the strongest and remove the others so 1 per pot - however will go with 2 plants in one pot and one plant in the other ..

They offer a full money back guarantee (minus the shipping costs) ... yes if the plants start looking thin and stretchy we can trash talk the light.

- Turned on Carbon Filter as plants starting to smell !!
- Carbon filter has lowered temp and humidity quite a bit. Running at about 78F max now .. and much lower at night.
- Gave plants a dose of Miracle Grow Tomato at 1/4 strength 2 waterings in a row which was a tad too much!! Slight nute burn on a couple leaf tips but nothing serious. Will adjust Nute sched to once per week.
- Watering every 2.5 days now.
- Going to switch to 12/12 in a couple more days.

- Removed one of the plants as the pots getting crowded. Wish it was a bigger tent!!

Is it normal for a very faint smell to escape?

I am venting out into the room itself and there is a very faint "sweet" odour in the room if you sniff for it .. nothing like the smell inside the tent though! So it's like working 95% effective.

Got everything setup correct .. triple checked:
- Negative pressure in tent
- No leaks
- Filter->Fan->Out (everything mounted inside with fan sucking through filter)
- Tent flexes inwards
- I lowered fan speed with a fan speed controller because it was WAY too strong and loud at first but still maintaining negative pressure
- 4" fan and matched filter ...

I mean it's almost imperceptable but I'm paranoid.

Put a small amount of ONA gel in the room which solved the issue. Just wondering if people get 100% effective filters or if it's normal for a faint sweet smell to be there in the air?

Zippy - NICE!!! I'm watching closely.

put a ona mist or Timemist dispenser in the room to cover any small stray odor but those shouldn't have an odor yet. especially if you're running a scrubber.

oh right I was gonna ask you , why two plants in one pot? very Un-VO (inside joke) .

and btw, Broncos WIN! see you @superbowl!

I fixed the carbon filter issue. I guess there was a tiny leak.

I was using some cheap ass thin plastic flex ducting. Replaced it with metal ducting wrapped with insulation and then with plastic. Also wrapped and taped insulation around all the connections between the filter / fan / and ducts and outlet port on tent.

Two improvements:
1. Room that it is exhausting to no longer smells like anything really. Just clean air.
2. The setup got a little bit quieter due to the insulation dampening the airflow reverberation through the ducting. Still louder than I would like though. Wish it was silent

Also got some ONA on standby. It actually worked really well when I was dealing with the stray odor. Nice to have just in case.

Two plants because after removing one from the first pot ... it seemed inhumane and cruel .. couldn't do it again ... I guess the two sharing one pot will grow smaller as a result .. we'll see what happens ...

- Switched to 12 / 12 lights 7 days ago.
- So it's been 31 days since the seeds were planted

- 1 plant in one pot (growing the best), 2 plants in the other (growing pretty good too)
- Pulled one of the plants over with a string which worked great
- Using Miracle Grow Tomato feed once a week .. no probs there
- Easy so far ...

- Plants were looking root bound so I replanted them both in bigger pots!!
- Still have one pot sharing 2 plants .. probably wouldn't do that again as the single plant seems to be growing with more bulk. But interesting experiment on my first grow
- So it's been 41 days since the seeds were planted .. 17 days of 12/12

Plants have been on 12/12 for exactly 3-weeks now.

How are they looking? I stare at them everyday wishing they would grow faster!!

Looking great man! I feel yah on wishing they would grow faster. I do the same with mine lol

Ran into some major troubles around the 4th week of flowering!!!

- Plants were starting to look a little Yellow.
- Then almost overnight all the large Fan Leaves on the bottom turned Yellow and Crispy.
- Then the yellowing started to creep up the plants.

After consulting in this forum (diff thread) was told it is most likely lack of N. That was the overwhelming consensus.

- Checked my nutrient schedule and realized that they had not had nutes for almost 10 days and the last time they were fed nutes it was less than a quarter strength.

- So flushed them both and then give them a huge shot of Nutrients (about 5 days ago). Saturated them.

- The plants are bouncing back big time. Buds have grown more in the past 2 days than the past 2 weeks I think!!

This picture shows the N deficiency about 5 days ago:



These picture show that the plants are back on track and recovering nicely. This is day 60 from seed (5 weeks of 12/12)