Lespaulde 2019 Season

lespaulde · Mar 7, 2019

Thanks both, indeed it's pretty amazing how many roots these small plants put out, they must really love the juice. It's just the plain Plagron Hydro A & B nutrients, now almost at full strength. At 30EUR for 5L each, it's really quite a bargain I think. The plants now got a little haircut, to help the early branching and to try and make them a bit more bushy in the long run.

And I think you're right Paul, probably since the tent hadn't been opened much during my absence (what do you mean I check on them too often and over-baby them?

), it was definitely very humid in there. I will make sure not to overwater them, and to try and keep the humidity down with the flap slightly open. I'm planning to build a little RasPi-based control unit to set up a small exhaust fan to try and keep a more constant humidity and temperature in the tent, as right now I'm purely relying on passive exhaust...

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CaneDog · Mar 7, 2019

Too late to jump in and add my "wow" to the others about the roots on the Ajis? Shoot, I'll add another for the color and size of their leaves. Looking awesome! May be that you can't always be sure specifically what canoed leaves, but if a pot-up and a bit more margin from the light doesn't cure it I can't imagine would would.

Good stuff LPDE. I'm sure that was nice to come home to.

lespaulde · Mar 7, 2019

Thanks CD, those roots for sure made me go "wow" when I got home, insane what ~2 weeks can do to a plant! One of the best things of the day, looking inside the tent to see what happened overnight.

And I'm glad to hear people are hopeful about the plants with the leaf issue - no need to panic then. I'm also leaving the flap open a little now to keep humidity more around 60%, rather than the 80-90% I was having lately. Let's see what happens next, and I'm hoping I can pot up all the rockwool seedlings next week.

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PaulG · Mar 7, 2019

Sounds like you are on the right track, Erv. Not
doing anything too drastic is a good strategy.

Walchit · Mar 8, 2019

lespaulde said:
3 days later and we have real life occurring in the mini greenhouse! The jalapenos were the first to pop out, and I can see movement in the other c. annuums and baccatums too, except for the Growdown one. But let's see how much more we can get coming out this week, as its very exciting seeing how much happens in just a few days. One of the Aji Mangoes has a helmet head, but I'm hopeful the high humidity will help the seedling get rid of it, and otherwise I will have to give Master Surgeon PaulG's approach a try...

As for the tent setup, the first plants have migrated now, with the LED grow light running at ~50% to start getting them used to it. Estimated at 10k lumen, with 20k being the actual max capacity. Running them at approx 40cm distance, so let's see how they like it.

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Sorry if you already posted and I missed it, but what strips did you use on your rig? Heatsinks? I wanna build one, probably don't have time. I need to start tomatoes soon

lespaulde · Mar 9, 2019

Walchit said:
Sorry if you already posted and I missed it, but what strips did you use on your rig? Heatsinks? I wanna build one, probably don't have time. I need to start tomatoes soon

No worries, as it was hidden in my last year's glog...

I'm using Samsung's F series strips, 2 feet length, and 2 strips each of 4000k and 5000k colour temp. Running at ~5A current / 24V for a consumption of ~130W, with 288 diodes in total. Total lms count is estimated at ~20k, running the strips at roughly 70% of max. Heatsinks are simple aluminium U-profile, and without a fan on them I'm reaching ~40C / 104F, with a fan pointed on them they are barely even warm to the touch. The driver I used could handle 2 more strips, but figured this was a good starting point, especially for my relatively small 2x3 tent. I've attached a few pics below to show the build:

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Devv · Mar 9, 2019

CaneDog said:
Looking like a healthy bunch and they seem to be picking up speed now! Good the Foodarama finally popped. Any word on the BOC Sweetbite? Do you have backup seeds on that if needed?

Devv, the LP looks great and I bet it sounds even better! Was looking for the "extra-likes" button to drop a few more on your post, but couldn't fine one. It's the body of the SG that threw me off with the thinness, rather than the neck. If I remember right, Les Paul refused to put his name on it because he didn't think it had the feel of quality and heft to it. Never owned one, but sure felt playable the few times I've picked one up.

Thanks for the kudos on my first try

You are correct LP didn't like it. I loved the sound it produced and copied it with some tweaking to a basic LP. I sold the SG to my brother, what he wanted was the wider spacing at the nut. I would never have gotten rid of it otherwise as it was the LP anniversary edition. Only to my brother

Devv · Mar 9, 2019

I've caught up! I continue to struggle with all the wonderful glogs this year, and tend to ignore my own...hmmm never started a new one just tagged on last years :shh:

Great progress on your babies! My take on the curled leaves is they tend to straighten out once they find their permanent home.

Walchit · Mar 9, 2019

lespaulde said:
No worries, as it was hidden in my last year's glog... I'm using Samsung's F series strips, 2 feet length, and 2 strips each of 4000k and 5000k colour temp. Running at ~5A current / 24V for a consumption of ~130W, with 288 diodes in total. Total lms count is estimated at ~20k, running the strips at roughly 70% of max. Heatsinks are simple aluminium U-profile, and without a fan on them I'm reaching ~40C / 104F, with a fan pointed on them they are barely even warm to the touch. The driver I used could handle 2 more strips, but figured this was a good starting point, especially for my relatively small 2x3 tent. I've attached a few pics below to show the build:

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Very nice! The aluminum channel makes it look super clean too.

I am thinking about 4 foot strips, maybe 2 of them, or 4 ran softer. I wanna cover a 3x5 area with it.

I have seen a couple people use bridgelux strips without heatsink and use more strips.

Having a hard time pulling the trigger. I bought Wal-Mart shoplights this year, they seem to do alright, but I have them on the bottom level and its about 10°F colder down there.

lespaulde · Mar 10, 2019

Walchit said:
Very nice! The aluminum channel makes it look super clean too.

I am thinking about 4 foot strips, maybe 2 of them, or 4 ran softer. I wanna cover a 3x5 area with it.

I have seen a couple people use bridgelux strips without heatsink and use more strips.

Having a hard time pulling the trigger. I bought Wal-Mart shoplights this year, they seem to do alright, but I have them on the bottom level and its about 10°F colder down there.

Thanks! It seems the people growing the other green stuff do really know what they're doing, as they were the first to transfer over to these strips I'd say.

I like your idea of using the longer strips, and especially if you get the ones with dual rows of diodes, the light output per strip must get simply insane. And you guys are lucky across the pond, as you have https://www.heatsinkusa.com. The only reason I couldn't get actual heatsinks was due to prohibitive shipping costs to Europe, but with those, sky is the limit.

Bridgelux I also heard good things about, and it may be different now, half a year later, but the PAR p. Watts was always better with Samsung. Another reason I went with them was due to the Quantum boards using the exact same diodes, and those results speak for themselves.

Whether they are any better overall than your shop lights I dunno, I was definitely impressed with your ingenuity and their low power consumption. These LEDs will probably raise the temperature a bit down there, which may benefit early growth.

Keep us posted though if you do decide to pull the trigger; for me it was easier as I needed something and don't have so much choice here in Northern Europe...

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lespaulde · Mar 10, 2019

Devv said:
I've caught up! I continue to struggle with all the wonderful glogs this year, and tend to ignore my own...hmmm never started a new one just tagged on last years

Great progress on your babies! My take on the curled leaves is they tend to straighten out once they find their permanent home.

I know what you mean, both the standard and activity level is high this year and I'm also struggling to keep up to date. Luxury problems of course, and very inspirational as always!

Thanks for the calming words, I removed a few of the leafs in my haste, but as I'm probably potting up the annuums this coming week, I'll leave the rest be for now.

I also saw another few threads showing some purpling on the leafs, and my Lemon Starrburst showed this too, so it probably was at least partially due to the light intensity. Those have been raised now so it should sort itself out.

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PaulG · Mar 10, 2019

lespaulde said:
I know what you mean, both the standard and activity level is high this year and I'm also struggling to keep up to date. Luxury problems of course, and very inspirational as always!

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I agree, the traffic in the grow log forum is crazy.
I don't know if I've seen them turn over so fast
in the six years I've been on the forum. If you
don't put in an entry every day, your grow log
winds up in the middle of page 2 of the index :lol:

lespaulde · Mar 12, 2019

Lol, yeah, you gotta work extremely hard to stay at least relatively at the top in the glog list - keeps us on our toes I suppose... [emoji23]

Had my first "oh crap" moment yesterday when I opened the tent, as my latest Lemon Starrburst (backup/additional - this really is a disease!) seedlings almost dried out over the weekend:

Luckily a bit of nutrient solution kicked them back on their feet after a couple of hours though:

The curly leafed plants indeed straightened out nicely, so in the future, as everybody said, no worries whatsoever:

These are even budding up now, and since they are extra plants, I might actually just let them go and see if I can get some early pods before giving them away... [emoji2]

Also potted up a few plants into their autopots, and am 2 months earlier than last year, so hopefully that means I will also start harvesting much earlier. In the future, I will plant c. annuum seeds later though, as they grow so immensely fast.

The trick to the autopot system is to have a layer of leca pebbles in the bottom, to ensure the roots keep getting air even when submerged in water:

For the rest I just used coco with 30% leca pebbles, and filled her up with the new seedlings:

That biker bill's really got some nice branching going on, perhaps thanks to the FIMing:

And the tent is looking different now, as I've moved most of the c. annuums out to slow their growth a little bit, and to maximize the growth on the c. chinense and baccatums:

Next up is to move the Kratky's to a bigger pot, but I need to get a holesaw first to make sure everything is done neatly - stay tuned! [emoji6]

Finally, as the spider mites seem to have returned to my OW Numex Orange Spice, I have planted 2 new seeds just in case. I will treat the plant with Neem for the next 3 weeks, and have put a fan on them, on a timer, which will hopefully get rid of the basterds. Thing is that it finally started showing some new growth, so I'd really like to save it if possible, hoping it will reward me for the efforts.

Finally, as mentioned on CaneDog's glog, I threw in the towel on the BOC Sweetbite, as 10 seeds, tried for about 5 weeks total, didn't show any signs of life. So yeah, crossing annuums with chinense really is a challenge. Let's see what we can do this year....

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internationalfish · Mar 12, 2019

Cool! Those autopots sure occupy a lot of space; I guess you're planning on some monster plants out of those? Either way, it's a really cool gadget.

CaneDog · Mar 12, 2019

Looks like things are moving right along - and hopefully the mites go quietly. Good save on the starrburst! I cut up a big grodan into little cubes once for sprouting and without the covers on them they dried out so fast I almost lost the seedlings several times. I'm amazed how well you're doing with yours.

Bummer about the sweetbite. Hope you can come up with another cool idea and succeed with that one.

lespaulde · Mar 12, 2019

internationalfish said:
Cool! Those autopots sure occupy a lot of space; I guess you're planning on some monster plants out of those? Either way, it's a really cool gadget.

Yeah, in the tent they are for sure some big pots, but the plants can really grow some massive roots, and subsequently, trunks in those pots. I only tried the 8.5L pots (as shown) thus far, but have obtained one set with 2x 15L pots so I'm curious to see the difference. I don't want to sound like a commercial, but the autopot system really makes it set and forget, which is great for people like me. Last year was a trial, but it convinced me to buy extra this year... [emoji28]

CaneDog said:
Looks like things are moving right along - and hopefully the mites go quietly. Good save on the starrburst! I cut up a big grodan into little cubes once for sprouting and without the covers on them they dried out so fast I almost lost the seedlings several times. I'm amazed how well you're doing with yours.

Bummer about the sweetbite. Hope you can come up with another cool idea and succeed with that one.

Thanks CD, you're probably absolutely right that it was also due to the missing cover on the side why they dried out so much more. Overall I've been lucky with them, and am hoping I can get the last seedlings potted over by the end of the week as the room for error is much bigger at that point.

Yeah, I'm also pretty bummed about the Sweetbite, but gives me more motivation to try again this year as I was actually getting quite excited. [emoji1]

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PaulG · Mar 12, 2019

Nice save on the Lemon Starrburst!

Ghost Pepper Revolution · Mar 12, 2019

lespaulde said:
No worries, as it was hidden in my last year's glog... I'm using Samsung's F series strips, 2 feet length, and 2 strips each of 4000k and 5000k colour temp. Running at ~5A current / 24V for a consumption of ~130W, with 288 diodes in total. Total lms count is estimated at ~20k, running the strips at roughly 70% of max. Heatsinks are simple aluminium U-profile, and without a fan on them I'm reaching ~40C / 104F, with a fan pointed on them they are barely even warm to the touch. The driver I used could handle 2 more strips, but figured this was a good starting point, especially for my relatively small 2x3 tent. I've attached a few pics below to show the build:

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This one is looking sexy nice growth and peppers, didnt catch the name of it

lespaulde · Mar 13, 2019

Thanks Paul!

The plant under the light is a Bhut Jolokia Purple that's been overwintered and will hopefully start taking off again soon. It was more a showcase plant at the time, but the pods are tasty!

Small update, as 2 of the Kratkies have now been converted to DWC:

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internationalfish · Mar 13, 2019

Small update, big buckets.