Pro Grow LED Run #1, Super Cali Haze, Onyx, Blackbriar, and Blue Diesel

good shit brah, anxious to c the pix..
in you ropinion, what makes the nug better?
appearance or smoke?

Its all about the taste and getting that grab on the front of my brain that comes from homegrown. The onyx is the pictures that only show a single nug. It yielded 20.5g most of which was gifted to friends and fam. The smoke was tops even though the yield kinda sucked, very spicy. See pic of the onyx bowl I smoked before I wrote this.

Black Briar pics are the hanging buds. I managed to bleach the top of the top nug cause I had her too close to the leds, but other than that it turned out (haven't smoked it going by looks) almost equal in avg hid yield but the buds were way frostier than usual. Pistils also grew out further before retreating back into the buds.

Next crop will be much improved not that I've more or less figured out how to run these leds. The nute uptake is a bit slower. Don't know of thats because they don't run hot like hid or if it has anything to do with spectrums. Bought grow bags at my local hydro shop and was also given a free sample of gravity nutes which will be added to the next crop. Grow bags are better for led than the pots I'm using now, smaller in diameter but same capacity allowing to better use the directional nature of the lights.

Also, even though I've defended and advocated its use before - fuck some miracle grow. I picked up some Fox Farms Ocean while I was getting the pots.

MI-5, Sweet Carmel Cream, Santa, & Smurf Berry will be the next four autos I grow. I wish I knew how to make fem seeds of the auto I bred, just hate growing male plants when I only have a small garden.

We'll see about the super cali haze. I've got the house to myself this weekend and can finally get around to transplanting. It hasn't responded to what I suspected would be appropriate nutes and flushing.

nice nugs! anxious to c what those pro-grows do starting in the veg stage and all the way through.
I've fallen in favor of the auto's, but that's probably plays a big part in why the yields are around the ounce mark. But being that its all personal use, it shouldn't matter.
It looks amazing brah i'd rep ya again for it if i could.. You starting another journal?

this will be a perpetual journal. Thanks again for checkin it. Once the seeds pop on the new round I'm going to start it all over again. This was a learning experience with new lighting and I know it can and will be done better in the future.

Hey hoss,

I've been thinking about getting a LED panel for my speaker stealth grow.. its 28"H/15.5"W/11.5"D. I was wondering if the 180w panel you got from hydroponicshut.com will fit there.. could you tell me what's the size of the panel? couldn't find the measures in their site..

I'm still not sure if this panel is a bit overkill for the space i have.. what do you think?

cheers

The 180w is 16 in by 8 1/4 inch and is 2 inches deep so it will fit and makes sense, I'm assuming you're growing autos right?

From my experience the 180w Pro-Grow will do 3 autos to full term with little issue, but for max results you should probably dedicate 2 plants to one 180w unit. This is just my experience from using soil as the physical size of the grow bags does make it a bit crowded under the light especially during late flowering. Hope this helps. If you're not planning on growing autos you should think about it given your space. Even with dwarf plants you may get a phenotype that grows tall and could exceed the 28 inches you have allocated.

Also check ebay that's where I got all mine. I was able to score significant discounts compared to the prices on the site (saved at least $200 with the three units I bought). I was screwing around on ebay yesterday and I think there are some 180 Pro-Grows on there.

Thanks for the quick response!

Actually I'm growing just 1 photoperiod plant with LST so i'm not too worried about height.. my first grow was in a 17" PC case and i managed to get a decent amount of bud.
If it's 16" then it wont work since I only got 15.5". guess i'll have to look for some other panel that will fit.. the biggest contender right now is the blackstar 180w which is 12"x8.5". I know some people say its not the best panel out there, I still need to research more about it. anyway, right now its the best option cause it fits.

btw, how far from the colas do you keep the light so it wont bleach them?

first I'm not gonna talk bad about blackstar but I've read some disturbing things that others have written - that they don't pull the advertised wattage, are made in china, and advertise cree leds when they don't actually use them. That being said I don't own one and can't give a first hand so take it for what you will. After researching their company and comparing price, where the unit was made and backed by the warrant, and especially a 1 vs 3 year warrant I opted to spend a bit more on the pro-grows. I just wanted to make sure the hundreds of dollars spent were gonna cover my lighting needs for at least 3 years to justify the switch from HPS (you have to replace hps bulbs to maintain efficacy every 6-8 mo and hortilux bubs are expensive).

I've seen some kick ass blackstar grows and I'm sure that will work for you if you opt for that model.

I had the tops too close last run, about 2-3 inches from the top. This will be decreased to about 7-8 inches to test on the next run. Since this was my first led experiment I'm sure I'll keep learning as I grow. Good luck with yours and please post some pics. I'd love to see what the 180 blackstar looks like compared to the hydro hut.

well, I might just stay with CFL lights since wasting 7-8 inches of the height i have in that speaker is not very effective... but my LED dream is not dead! I guess I will build some kind of cabinet in the next few months with more space - something like 4'x4'x1.5' and then i'll get a nice led panel to go with it. my speaker will be the veg space, that way i could move one plant to the flower cab every 4-6 weeks.

Thanks for your help and cheers on your grow. i will stick around and follow your thread.

Thanks man, good luck with yours too. I used to use the 105w clfs and was happy with the output. Last time I checked there were several brands on 1000bulbs.com in the 20ish USD range.

If you're happy with the plants you have rock 'em, but if you've ever had the itch female auto seeds are perfect for micro grow personal users. You'll get about an oz off each in 7-8 weeks if done right. If you're only growing two at a time you could stagger them and have an oz every four weeks, not too bad. They only cost on average about 10 bucks a seed and I usually get about an 80% germ rate and so far a %100 female rate on all the fem seeds I've ordered.

Buzz Lightyear and Rex rocking it out with the Black Briar below. Some baby pics of Sweet Carmel Cream, MI-5, & Smurfberry attached. Got 'em under the veg spectrum for the next two weeks, except for the 250w pro grow which will be running at full capacity. The 180s I have are the 2011 models with full 3w chipsets. The 250 I got on ebay as a factory refurb model. It is much more tuned to flower and has a 3w chipset in reds and a 1w chipset in blues. Pics below attempting to illustrate the difference between 1 and 3w chipsets on the veg spectrum and the reason I wanted the 250 - the 3w flowering set. As always your thoughts and musing are welcome and will be taken into consideration.

actually i'm growing an auto right now in my pc until i get the speaker ready to rock.. easyrider (lowryder 2 + ak47). its 25 days old, but still pretty small. that's the main reason why i bought photoperiod seeds for the next grow - you cant really control the size of autos.. if you get a midget then you're stuck with a plant that will produce 10-15 grams if you're lucky, and way less if you're not.

Good points made, I have had autos that yielded at the worst 13 g dried, but at the best a tad over 80. I've found that trimming the fan leaves that are blocking light to the colas once the colas are well established is a good route for increasing cola's size & overall yield. No matter what you do, sometimes they just don't get up like you would want them to. I was just never a fan of keeping mothers, cloning, and having to stick to a 12/12 light cycle. To each his own brother. feel free to share pics in my journal or link to yours. Would love to see what you've got cookin.

Just wondering how your super cali haze is doing. I've got one that's getting close to being finished. Haven't seen too much about them on this site.

I killed it. It was taking forever to grow and was burnt so badly from the nutrient accident that any smoke achieved would have been really crappy. The way I saw it was I had at least another 50-60 days left on it before it was going to be close to finishing and was unsure about the quality of the finished product. In order to keep within my state's small farm laws I cannot have more than four plants going at once. I had four different strains of kick ass fem auto seeds lying around and wanted to have a nice uniform grow on four plants at a time. She was mulched and put into hash bags which did produce some decent bubble hash so my efforts were not totally wasted on that plant.

New babies. Sweet Caramel Cream, Smurfberry, MI-5, & Santa. The sweet caramel is the largest having popped about a week before the others. Veg only spectrum on the two 180s at the ends, I'm leaving the 250 on full illumination, and as you can see the flowering spectrum is far more powerful (1 vs. 3 diodes) than the veg spectrum on this older model.

Everything's moving along well.

Hello hoss12781,
I just stumbled upon your thread. I too use Hydroponics Hut Progrow 180's. I'm currently about two weeks out from harvest on some photo period fem Northern Lights and Blue Mystic from Nirvana. I started my grow with two 180's and just last week added two more. I like them too. I'm very pleased so far. I've got a question for you. I noticed in your pics (the one showing the top of your lights) that your lights are constructed slightly differently from each other just like mine. The first two that I received have the plug sockets faced a certain way on the case and the switches are far apart. The second two that I received have the plugs turned a different way on the case and the switches are closer together. Normally, I wouldn't care, but the lights look completely different when on as well (the color I mean). One type has more blue light it looks like and one has more red and white. I'm speaking of both pairs of lights with both spectrums turned on. I definitely see a significant difference. All are 2011 Progrow 180's. So, the question. Do you notice any difference between your 180's? I still like them very much. Not really complaining. Just wondering why they are different. Sorry for the odball question. Don't mean to take away from your journal.

On a different note, I'm glad I found this thread. I plan on following your journal. I grow small for personal use too. Just started in fact. My first grow. I have a journal going on another forum. Thinking of trying autos. You are inspiring me. Thanks for that. Peace.

Happy to answer your questions taste. You probably have two 140s and two 180s. From what I gather from conversations with Ben and what I could find on the net before the 180 there was the 140, before the 260 the 250. The difference is the veg spectrums on the older models. I'm pretty sure the 180 was a more recent addition with the 140s still being sold into 2011. The veg on the 140 and 250 models (the one in the middle on my pics is a 2010 250 model) are only 1 watt veg diodes with 3w flowering diodes. The newer models have full 3w chipsets. Due to this I will not be using the veg only spectrum on the 250 but have found it works wonderfully on the 180s. Here is a link to a journal where someone upgraded from a 140 to a 180. If it looks like anything in these pics then that is probably what you have going on in your garden. If all else fails, email Ben and hydro hut. He'll answer your questions. Thanks for checkin my journal. I'll have some more pics up this weekend.

http://forum.grasscity.com/hydroponic-grow-journals/705349-1st-hydro-grow-blue-mystic-autos.html

Thanks hoss12781. I appreciate the info. Im pleased with my 180's either way. I got them all on eBay for a very good price and they work well. I'll coninue this discussion with Hydroponics hut. Don't want to detract from your journal any further. I will be following along. I'm very interested to see how your progrows work out for you. I'll be done with my grow in about two weeks or so. I'll let you know how mine worked for me if you like. Thanks again for your help.

Please feel free to post up your pics in my journal. My only request is to keep conversations civil which it would appear you're able to do. I've had to get mods to kick out two different led haters so far who obviously don't have first hand experience with this tech but wanted to drop in a friendly f-you for some reason or another. I got mine on the ebay as well, scored some fairly scandalous deals compared to retail. Happy harvest!

On a separate note I think I'll be purchasing some leds for side lighting. This makes sense since I always used cfls to back up my hid grows. Found some 50w units that are 18 inches long claiming to produce 4400 lumens - not too shabby. Figure I can hang them horizontally when they are babies then move to a vertical hang when they get older. Here's the site, will probably order one just to test the waters. There are many obvious spelling errors on this guys site but from his youtube vids he seems to know what he's talking about and abiding my my golden rule for purchasing leds he does offer a 3 year warranty. Since this is purely for side lighting purposes I don't want to drop more than $100 bucks on each light.

http://www.growlightpro.com/apps/webstore/products/show/2520243

Edit - nevermind, found a GLH spectra 100w (45 3w epistar chipset driven to about 2.1w each 2011 clearance sale) for $120 free shipping. They retailed for a couple months back for $280 according to this post. That price, with a 5 year warranty is a big bowl of fuck yeah.

http://forum.bubbleponics.com/forum/showthread.php?4755-Amethyst-E%E4rendil-Starring-2-(two)-GrowLEDHydro-Spectra-LED-100w-UFO-s

GLH Spectras were on my short list of lights I originally wanted to purchase for top lighting (in no particular order, based on my research I was down to five difference providers - GLH, Advanced, Hydro Hut, Stealth, and Pro Source) but was able to find my Pro-Grows (which I am still super happy with) on ebay for a fantasticalicious price. I have little doubt this will kick much ass as side lighting. So the total count of true led wattage once the 100w arrives will be 590w of blinding led funk (180 PG pulls 130w each, the 2010 PG 250 I think pulls around 150, the spectra pulls 100, and my pos chinese 90w ufo pulls 80). The led wholesalers 90w ufo will be used for side lighting along with the spectra 100 with the Pro-Grows dedicated to the top. One plant under each 180, 2 under the 250. I may still pick up the 18in 50w panel just to test it out, and keep true to the design of my original hid/cfl set up which employed many 105w cfls as side lighting. I've always been a fan of overkill when it comes to lighting, but I think I may be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to purchasing more led grow lights. If I do wind up getting another smaller wattage led to add as side lighting it will be more than enough to blast the hell out of four plants which is all I can grow where I live.

Ebay is good for finding deals on LED lights folks, you just have to research research research before you pull the trigger on any company.

Looks like this should be good Im subbed up.