Round #2 is well under way, be sure to check it out – Click Here »
For the efforts, Round 1 with the new Pro-Grow 400 LED grow light went well. With 2 plants left to dry, cure and weigh, (Blue Mystic “D” and White Widow 3) we are well on our way to a total harvest of 8+ ounces (unofficially) since the start. Better than I thought, but far less than the potential.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5SVhT6Qwbw
A plant’s only goal, is to grow as perfectly as its DNA will allow, therefore if something screws that up, odds are that something is us.
The goal is to seek the best return for the effort and we only did okay. Again, not knowing the nature of the Aurora Indica strain we bloomed, I should have vegged them larger. Early cold temperatures in the seedling stage (mid to low 60′s F) hindered root development & growth. Again, all lessons well learned.
I believe the Pro-Grow 400 did it’s work well – Hydroponics Hut really did their homework with the new chipset & spectra, the rest was up to plant genetics and lastly my decisions. With using the lamp more efficiently and a little improvement on my gardening skills, this is a solid LED grow light as any to give a 600 watt high pressure sodium system a fair run… but at half the power consumption.
When bringing plants out of vegetation (18/6), it is very important to understand the importance of your node spacing. I had a few crops where without realizing it, my seedlings & cuttings nodes were “overstacked” or too close together, growth way to dense to be efficient. This was alleviated by simply raising the Pro-Grow 260 to a minimum of 20″ at full spectrum above the younger plants, causing them to stretch up a bit more, allowing for better light penetration and thus more and better bud growth. The days of having to keep your LED grow lights just inches above your plants are over.
As always, more to come…