Homesteaders Organic 660nm LED Grow

Soil mix has been improved on over the past few years to decrease the price and discard anything unnecessary. I start with a 5 gallon bucket each of hydrated peat, coco coir and add another 5 gallon bucket of rice hull and this is my soil mix base.


From that base I add:


1 cup of crabshell

1 cup woodash from my fireplace or lime

1 cup of menafee humates (carbon/humic acid)

2 cups bone char

2 cups gypsum

3-4 cups of soybean meal



I mix my soil with a grout paddle mixer on a drill in a kiddie pool then I fill the soil bags full with leaves and sticks from my woodlot (Oak, beech, maple, fir) and then compact it down with the soil mix. The mix is moistened then left for about a month to break down. I think I am paying gross around $10-15 per bag (25 gallon) for soil plus the extra work with raking. I also get my kids to round me up some worms for me and I get about a handful of them per bag sometimes I have to pay them out of necessity (worms get much less exciting as summer wears on for my kids). Most of the worms my kids collect are the nightcrawlers so I also throw a few wrigglers in as well. The wrigglers will compost near the surface and in the leaves at the bottom while the crawlers provide channels for water and air, as well as shit. The crawlers won’t process waste like the wrigglers will but they are a benefit for the roots.

I don’t worry about bugs really. I use BTi in a few waterings early on in the grow and don’t seem to have the fungus gnat issue I had when I used the store bought EWC.



Lights are my own builds. I’m starting a small business and hope to get it off the ground this summer (although I guess this kicks it off as well) by getting my design certified and a few lights being tested and sold. Homestead LEDs are going to be using a simplistic and cost effective design with Osram high powered SSL diodes on sinkpad boards with US made aluminum and Polycase junctions (in other words great quality parts and no whistles or bells). I am trying to provide the highest quality LED grow lights for a reasonable price using science and not bullshit marketing. My emitters were reflowed for me in California from AduraLED and I am very pleased with their quality. The rest is assembled by me for now in Maine.


66% of the diodes are 3000k whites and 33% of the emitters are 660nm reds. Both emitters are the highest quality and newest tech in Osrams high powered Oslon SSL line. I believe driving these diodes at 1400mA is the sweet spot and using I believe using heavy in the color 660nm allows the light produced to be more effective at what we need it to do.




The first prototypes had some design flaws but the kinks are slowly becoming less and the builds are coming together (actually being taken apart and put back together). I am doing most of the work on these myself to cut out the middleman and bring down on the cost. The last step now is working with getting my acrylic cover made now that the Ledil lenses they make for these boards have been scraped for now.


Strains for this first run will be GG#4, Blue Dream/Holy Grail Kush, and 2 Larry OG.

The first two prototype engines are hanging. 170 watts per after ramp up. Getting around 400 u/mol in the center between the two at 18" and 250 near the edges.
750u/mol at 12" center 800 u/mol directly under the boards in the hotter spots.

Still working on getting the hangers correct and get the light to balance out flat as just a single unit but it wont be with these two. They will get one more added to this rack to total 510 watts.









Clones are rooted and in 25 gallon bags that the night crawlers are happily working and aerating.

I feed fish hydrolysate and kelp directly to the roots when the plant is changing over to flower. About 2 tablespoons for each plant of the fish maybe a bit more on the kelp then water in slowly.

Because I use the leaves and sticks, I inevitably will get thrips, so I need to spray a light concentration of neem oil early in the life cycle. I follow this up a day or two later with mild soap and warm water to remove it.
Fungus gnats are not the problem they were when I used bagged worm shit, but I use BTi early just in case.


I decided on just using two of the lamps for now and going with 340 watts and see how they do. My thinking on the lights was two plants under each lamp, so this sticks with the original plan. Each clone is getting about 250 u/mol and my thinking behind the color is to create a heavy red 660nm base and use the red colored 3000k. I added a handful of wrigglers this past weekend and planted radish seed and buried some chocolate mint shoots in the bag. I will topdress the remaining bag with rice hull as the plants grow.

This room is attached to my other room and both are sealed together using the same CO2 although only one is monitored. It is nothing high tech but it is light proof. My air is pushed back and fourth between the two. I can control the air with temp but I have found its easier to just let it run 24 hr most of the cycle.
This room is a little cramped but it will do for this run. I will be adding a oscillating fan in the next few weeks.

I put in two Larry OG clones with slightly different soil mixes. One with 2 cups of soy and one with 4 cups is the only difference and just a way for me to test for the future.

Organic and home made lights, count me in brother. Looks awesome! I just harvested a GG#4 a few weeks ago and it's pretty dank. Blessings

Well I'm subbed. Nice work.

Gave the starts a trim at the bottom to cut off lower branches and put on more rice hull as a top dress. I switched rooms to give myself more space and added a 700ma HLG-185 light bar in the middle with 5 lights on it. Getting 650 u/mol at 18" now (950 u/mol at 12"). This is my first full run using rice hull as a topdress but I am very happy with how it absorbs the water as well as reflects light. Radishes have popped up, although they have since been buried in rice hull. I will start giving them 1000 ppm of CO2 in the morning. Gave BTi and neem and will rinse and repeat tomorrow.