LED Grow - what a difference 7 weeks makes :)

Growing 4 plants in a 1m2 tent (2m in height)
Back of tent (left) - Strawberry Shortcake (Juliet x Strawberry Diesel - Dark Horse genetics) *Clone*
Back of tent (right) - Cheese cake (Chronic x Cheese x White Widow - Heavy Weight Seeds) *Clone*
Front of tent (left) - Goldmine (Mazar x AK49 - Heavy Weight Seeds) *from seed*
Front of tent (right) - Cheese cake (Chronic x Cheese x White Widow - Heavy Weight Seeds) *from seed*

2 dimmable Quantum boards (currently running full tilt at 240 Watts each light -lights are 3000K-) - previous grows: I broke the 1 Watt 1 Gram 'wall' with these lights ..pretty easily
12 litre square pots, Soil/perlite medium.
Plant Magic granules (used when transplanting to final pot).
Shogun Bloom nutes (all-in-one bloom nute feed).
I 'shaped' all plants apart from the cloned Cheese cake plant (I left it 'el natural' as it was a little small compared to the other plants).
No deficiencies, the grow has been stress free. Water every other day (these indices are soooo greedy, compared to my usual Sativas).

First picture is a week before I flipped! *note the plant sizes*
I'm now 46 days into flower (approx. 6 weeks). Considering the size difference of the plants at the back and the front ..amazing they are all roughly the same size now Those clones sure know how to grow fast!
fyi - I might have light damaged the Cheese cake a little*start of foxtailing* (they don't seem to like the intense light as much as the other strains).

Enjoy the budz.

missed the last pic. Strawberry Shortcake bud *attached*

Thought I'd post an update at day 63 (9 weeks exactly). Been giving them straight water for nearly 14 days now

So the fox tailing on the Cheese cake plants went ahead as expected. Not much I could do (given height, spacing). So I thought I'd see what happened. Under two 240 watt QB they needed at least 18 inches between the light and top buds (to see no foxtailing with the cheese cake plants). The other two plant strains (GM+SS) happily grew at 16 inches from the lights with no foxing.
The light penetration has really surprised me. With a little pruning (of major stem fan leaves) the buds extend all the way down the plant/branches (the plants are between 27 - 31 inches in height)*pics attached*

Apart from that, no grow issues whatsoever. All I added (on top of what I stated in my first post) was a 'homemade' Terminator brew (using soluble Sulphate of Potash, Epsom salt and brown sugar) from flower weeks 2 to 7.

I could pull the Cheese cake plants now (they have 'that' smell) ..but, really wanted to pull all four plants together (so I can use the grow space as the drying room). Will wait another week+ and see how things look. The yield looks to be average with this cheese strain (fox tailing probably didn't help), but its hard to say (as the branches are quite long).

The Goldmine plant (Heavyweight Seeds) smells amazedly spicy and aromatic (plus, has really bulked up). A heavy yielder for sure.

The Strawberry Shortcake (Dark Horse Genetics) has the biggest 'rocket' shaped buds (its more Sativa), but from my experience these will shrink more in drying (compared to their 'denser' indica sister buds). The strain really pumps out the trichomes, by far the strain with the most frosting (in my collection). I see why it is used for extracts All in all a great yielding and tasting strain.

Enjoy the pics

and the last of the pics. Some close-up bud fun.

@Puff_Dragon mind hitting me with a link for the lights you used? I'm currently in the process of building my setup and trying to see the difference LED boards peeps are using. Beautiful grow, they look very healthy

I bought these from an ebayer seller (an electrician that builds the boards to your spec). His prices have gone up very slightly, but they are still good and his range of options has increased too (although I don't care at the moment for far reds or larger wattage QBs). I've had no issues with the lights, I would recommend having the Driver separate from the light fitting itself (so you can place it outside a tent to keep the heat down, or leave it in during winter).
These are qb288 boards (various Kelvin), v2 301b chips (with Epistar 660mn far reds) and Samsung lm561c (s6 binning) cob leds. I think he also does cheaper QBs (using the previous generation of Samsung led too).

Not sure if I can post a link, I'll message you.

Puff_Dragon said:

Thought I'd post an update at day 63 (9 weeks exactly). Been giving them straight water for nearly 14 days now

So the fox tailing on the Cheese cake plants went ahead as expected. Not much I could do (given height, spacing). So I thought I'd see what happened. Under two 240 watt QB they needed at least 18 inches between the light and top buds (to see no foxtailing with the cheese cake plants). The other two plant strains (GM+SS) happily grew at 16 inches from the lights with no foxing.
The light penetration has really surprised me. With a little pruning (of major stem fan leaves) the buds extend all the way down the plant/branches (the plants are between 27 - 31 inches in height)*pics attached*

Apart from that, no grow issues whatsoever. All I added (on top of what I stated in my first post) was a 'homemade' Terminator brew (using soluble Sulphate of Potash, Epsom salt and brown sugar) from flower weeks 2 to 7.

I could pull the Cheese cake plants now (they have 'that' smell) ..but, really wanted to pull all four plants together (so I can use the grow space as the drying room). Will wait another week+ and see how things look. The yield looks to be average with this cheese strain (fox tailing probably didn't help), but its hard to say (as the branches are quite long).

The Goldmine plant (Heavyweight Seeds) smells amazedly spicy and aromatic (plus, has really bulked up). A heavy yielder for sure.

The Strawberry Shortcake (Dark Horse Genetics) has the biggest 'rocket' shaped buds (its more Sativa), but from my experience these will shrink more in drying (compared to their 'denser' indica sister buds). The strain really pumps out the trichomes, by far the strain with the most frosting (in my collection). I see why it is used for extracts All in all a great yielding and tasting strain.

Enjoy the pics

Click to expand...

Looks really nice ! How long did you veg for ?

Thanks.

While I didn't count exactly this time around, I think I vegged for around 5-6 weeks (for the 'from seed' plants). And 3-4 of weeks for the clones.
The clone of the cheese cake was taken from the seed plant ..it was really quite small when I flipped (it ended up the tallest plant in the end).
The SS clone was about a week older, and I 'shaped' her by simply bending the plant over (once it reached 6-7 nodes), cut the top bud off and let the branches all grow up as main buds (removing a few of the lower nodes on the branches to stop popcorn and unwanted lower growth). Simple shaping that really works well for me (less work+time than other methods and still gets good results.

fyi - normally, I just use clones (from a number of 'dwarfed' mother plants I maintain in a small tent). With these clones, I don't normally veg over 4 weeks (usually anyways). I'd end up with plants that are too big in bloom

Well, they looked about the same on Harvest day, which became Day 67 (for all 4 plants). Thats 74 days since 12/12 flip (I count flowering from first sign of pistils - this works best for me)

The Cheese was 'ready to go', the Goldmine and Strawberry Shortcake 'could' have done another week (or more).
But, as I wanted to harvest all together (so I can use the tent for drying), I took them at the end of the Cheese harvest window (and giving them 24hrs of darkness before chop).

There wasn't much to report in size growth, so here are some random pics after hanging for 3 days (today).
All I did before harvest was remove all major fan leaves.
Either today or tomorrow, I will go in and see if there are any leaves to trim, if any buds are touching too much (risk of mold). If so, I'll bend some branches (to give space between the buds) and maybe remove a few branches and hang them separate from the rest of the plant (to open some space within the plant for air flow).
Drying info:
Keeping Humidity in the 60-70 range while drying (letting it drop into the 50's once or twice a day - when I vent the room 'completely').
In the drying tent I have one 6" intake fan (drawing from outside house), running for 1 minute every hour. Twice a day it runs for 10 minutes (completely vents tent and helps remove any 'stagnate' air trapped around/in the plants)

one side clip fan (aimed at middle point of the tent) and one 4" intake fan (at bottom of tent) both running 24/7. With the tent vents open (at the top of the tent) this creates a very passive airflow (that I can just feel on the back of my hand, when I place it by the tent vents).
Given that summertime is rolling in, I'm looking at about 7 days to dry. Ready for the 'bag to jar ..' step

Can't wait to taste test the Goldmine and Cheese. They both have a fantastic scent, I tried some 'scissor hash' after the harvest (a combination of all plants).
It was, Very Nice!