Hempstar 3 Stage LED Grow

So everyone starts with a plan but good chance I'll adapt it along the way so anything I say can't be used against me if I change my mind

I may have previous experience of about 10 years growing in buckets, flood and drain and dirt and always with HID's although always big on efficient power use so perfected my HID set up to run a three stage system to harvest every month and maximize power use, but I might be dilusional so don't hold me to that

No matter what the reliablility of my previous claims are here's the current scenario. I have an RX for 24 plants and I'm in Western Canada. I am currently a little over on my plant numbers but less than 50 is a summary conviction (non-criminal) as long as its for personal use and I'm gonna thin the herd as soon as they show their true colors so unless I get kicked in the next two weeks I should be good. Famous last words

So this is gonna be an LED GROW.

Comments are welcome but don't tell me what can or can't be done because the whole point of this is to figure that out.

I'd like to only say this ONLY ONCE pertaining to comments;

Within reason I don't give a rats about the higher startup cost of LED's over HID, talk to me in three years when you're on your 6th set of HID bulbs and need to buy another air conditioner

I also don't care if LED only pulls THE EXACT SAME yeild watt for watt as HID. Even though I'm now an RX grower old habits die hard and not having to worry about heat signature or rf transmission minimizes the security risk. Whether it's cops or robbers it makes for a better nights sleep knowing you can't be identified and the door isn't coming in. I also ABSOLUTELY LOVE that I can leave my LED show unattended and not worry about fires, electrical shorts or a host of other concerns that come with having 240 volt wiring and bulbs that have a 1600 degree arc temp. Besides I'm a tech geek and they just look cool

The kids were planted on Oct 31st and off to a bit of a slow start and experiencing some stretch for two reasons.
1-Room temp was too low.
2-Only have one 170W panel so light is too high and coverage is weak and waiting on my other two panels.

That being said the other two panels will be here this week and then we're off to the races. Either way they are healthy as hell and starting to take off.

Medium is a custom blend but easy to duplicate. 60% coco 20% perilite 20% commercial organic compost.

Nutes are gonna be simple. Good old GH with superthrive (said I was old school) and most likely some Monster Bloom at the end.

So we are three weeks in veg and the last pic is actually from the day they were planted

Okay haven't quite got the dowload sorting figured so first pic is day they were planted.

For reference that's a 4x4 flood and drain table they are sitting in, those are 1 gallon pots and they will be transplanted to square 3 gallon pots in another 10-ish days.

Looks badass man. Where did u get your lights at. I was thinking of using some LEDs with my hid.

looks good man, the strain is hempstar? what seed co is that? good luck with the LED's, not that you need it as LED's are simple as hell to use! and cool, and pink!

I got my panel off www.ledgrowlightsdirect.com and buying something that expensive of a web-based company can be alarming but I emailed a bunch of companies and these guys could at least answer my tech questions and didn't just blow sales speak up my ass. Price was good. They use Bridgelux LED's which IMHO are a long standing manufacturer with a great rep in the commercial lighting industry (that I used to work in). Anyway, I didn't order all the panels I needed at once but once I got my panel and knew they were legit I ordered the others. Their customer service has certainly been decent and considering how big an area I'm covering with it, 4' x 4', it is outperforming what my 250MH did and probably close to the performance of my 400MH. Definately once I get two of these panels over that same area they will bury my 400MH for veg but the big issue I'm all over is flower.

For flower I'm looking for a 300-400W panel with all 3W Cree or Bridlelux LED's with 60 degree lens angle on the reds and blues and something with whites, UV's and at least two blue and two red spectrums covered so something about 9+ spectrum. Through my old commercial lighting contacts I've been talking with a tech at Bridelux who's been working with a company that's supposed to be on the verge of jumping into the market and launching what I'm looking for so I hope that happens before I have to bite the bullet. If I have to order the bigger panel off growlightsdirect it won't kill me but I'm kind of pumped if these new guys launch what they're supposed to.

Hempstar...lol guess I'm showing my age. I think it won or placed high in the Cannabis Cup in the late 90's. I think they call it Brainstorm now

Nice looking grow and thanks for the tips on spider mites!

Nice LED choice! Looking forward to see how they crank em out for ya! Subbed

Few update pics. Only one 170W panel on them. Will soon be three

That is still not too bad for 170 watts! Good coverage from that sucker!

yes im impressed ,vegging all those plants with just 170w
good luck with your grow

Thanks! Yeah def impressed with the results so far for only 170W. Big leaves, thick stalks all the right stuff so far

Well looks like I may have found my new flowering panels Details to follow once I confirm

Okay used my good camera with the remote flash so as to get some good quality white light so you can actually see the plants because the LED's light washes everything out.

Can't wait to hear about the flowering panel...Props on the pics btw!

Thanks amigo. The panels are supposed to be released for sale pretty soon and I've got some tech info on them but been asked not to publish it yet and trying to stay on their good side to see if I can get a couple panels comped

Looking good on those plants man. Really good from one 170w. I might pick up one of those to add to my HID or just use it for clones.

growalater said:

Looking good on those plants man. Really good from one 170w. I might pick up one of those to add to my HID or just use it for clones.

Click to expand...

One thing it seems everyone agrees on is that LED's are great for veg so I'd def recommend for seedlings. Just seems like the light is more gentle gentle and the plants are lush and deep green under them.

Looking very good! All with the 1 170W. :> You noted above regarding seedlings and vegetative being great via LED, would you be good with 3 170w's?

I'm flowering (12/12 From Seed) Pineapple express and I am thus far (Just past 5 weeks) impressed with the growth thus far.

Looking forward to seeing the results of your grow!

The plan is actually to have 3 170's for veg and I'm just waiting on the other two to show up. Hoping to flower under 350W Panels and just getting that organized.