Yes they're special. . Picked them up in Vietcong army supply isle at Home Depot. Check, I used to use the bamboo tomato stakes but I noticed that they got a bit moldy after a few uses so I'm phasing those out in favor of plastic ones.
Just shy of three weeks of flowering and they’re ready for some defoliation. The last few runs I’ve been backing off extreme defoliation in favor of more of a heavy trimming. Growing in an organic mix I don’t think the plants recover as quickly as they do when grown in hydro or with mineral based ferts. For me the garden is happier when I leave at least a couple of leaves on the branches.
I had the same thought when contemplating this method in my grow. Soil is more forgiving in many ways but it's slower in some ways too. It just works different. Good to know someone else using organic soil has done some trial runs with this...I'll keep your observations in mind when I try this myself.
This is about as far as I go with the defoliation. Any further than this and I’ve noticed a decrease in main cola size as well as drop in production. There were runs early on where I totally stipped then bare and suffered a significant losses. Now I generally defoliate to the point where all of the lower growth gets sufficient light and no further.
Yeah man I’m loving the cobs. I just finished chopping a round that I swapped out two Indus bars for Cob rack 3-4 weeks into flower and it looks to be a bumber crop.
61/2 weeks under their belts and they’re really packing it on like I’ve never seen in my garden before. It’s gotta be the cobs. Seems 38 watts of led / sq.foot is a good number.
Here’s s quickly of the current round in the 5x5 room under 900w of COBs. I flipped them on the 15th of August so they’re closing in on 5 weeks in. Question. For the guys running HID lighting what would it take to cover a 5x5 room corner to corner with usable light? I’m guess two 600s’ over a single 1kw bulb.
Duc, this room is 10x10 and I use two 1kw. I'd try 1 600 if it we're me. Two 600 in a 5x5 equals heat and lots of it.
Ok cool so I'm doing well then with 900 watts of LEDs. I'm convinced that with LEDs total coverage without any dead spots is just as if not more important that overall wattage. After changing out the Indus bars with Cobs I was the wattage of the two racks were very similar however the footprint of the COBS is easily twice that of the Indus bars. I was able to spread the plants out a bit and push the canopy out to fill the space completely. Since that switch the yield from that room has almost doubled. I agree it would take at least two 600's to match the footprint of the cobs but I don't think they'd penetrate as well as the LEDs do- never mind the extra heat & cost to run and maintain. The ladies here have one more week to before harvest. Last round out of this room produced just shy of 2 1/2 pound and didn't look quit this full top to bottom as these. The other room is slightly larger running a combination of COB's and indus bars and this room has been beating it hands down by a good margin since going full COB.
But... if I were on a super tight budget there's no doubt that two 600's would give you the most bang for the buck..
Here’s a quick shot from last night showing the girls at the end of 9wks. The crispy one in the back corner is Dabney Blue. She’s a fickle bitch and seldom does she make to the end without turning on me. Took the first two down last night.
