Nirvana AK48 - 210W CFL Grow

Haha ok Evil Ill chill... assit: There got that outta the way.


Mrgreenjeans: Thanks I didnt realise that!


Okay folks I decided to update a day early because I went ahead and chopped a few of the lowest branches that werent getting as much light as they should be. I now know how much work trimming is... Well worth it though! Okay time for pictures.





Plant 1





Plant 2





Plant 3


And a couple budshots....








And a couple trys at macros...








Well there you go folks. Plant 2 has alot of buds but they are alot smaller and nowhere near as dense but I bet they smoke great just the same! The other plants buds are nice and dense and alot bigger. I did LST on number 2 and allowed it to get too big for my lighting. For some reason I cant seem to take a picture of my two largest buds that do them any justice. But the two main colas on number 1 and 4 are at least 6 inches tall and 3 or 4 inches in diameter. Thanks for watching! Peace out.

 

Couple harvest shots


Thought I would throw up a couple of pictures of the branches I trimmed up last night. Dont laugh these were the smallest buds and were receiving the least light. How do you like that elite speaker box with DIY carbon filter? I have 52 watts of CFLS in the other one vegging a few clones of AK48.








If the test bud I cut a week ago is a sign of the smoke to come then I'm completely satisfied. No cure on that bud, but a good slow dry, and it smokes way smoother than anything I buy around here. Two puffs off a joint Im smiling for hours. Cant wait to chop all these girls up! Peace


Edit: I got a pretty good plate full of super sticky sugar trim. Time for me to build a box and screen and have a go at making some hash. I might not get much but at the same time Ive never smoked any either. So it will be well worth it either way.





Now thats what I'm talking about! This one scrawny little bud looks better than anything I have every bought before!

 

it is sweet init!!!!!


well we shall see how my cfl goes only 170 watt but i did add 4 50 watt led panels for side lighting red led panels at that.


if i can get results like you`ve done using cfls the hid is gone even if i have to use 10 of those 85 watters to replace my 1000 watt hps i would, heat just ceases to be an issue.


hmmmm.... lets see that would be 850 watt draw and 3,500 watt equiv. wonder what that would do in my big flower box? 4x4x8......interesting thought it would still save electric at that did i mention the heat? LOL

 

You spread those bad boys out right and use a SCROG and I'm sure you could do awesome. I cant believe im hearing an HPS user wanting to switch to CFLs though. Interesting. I will say this though. Anything below the actual canopy will be nothing but popcorn buds. Although those LEDs might make all the difference in the world. Good luck with it either way, ill definately follow along for the show. Peace

 

Even with 10 85w cfl that box is TOO big to flower anything decent. You would have to keep the plants very short. The light from cfl doesnt travel very far. If the plants got much over a foot and a half you would end up with extremely fluffy light weed. The 1000 might give off a lot of heat but ill flower 6 foot tree no problem.


PS congrats on the harvest!

 

well maybe i will leave the big box alone and just keep my cfl games to my small flower box the plants never get 2 foot tall in there.


so to clarify you are say`in that i wont get the penetration from the cfl`s even if i use say 20 of the 85 watter`s i could get a good deal on a case of them.


that would be 7000 watt`s of light.


i guess i am not app the inverse square properly??????


i assumed the math would be the same are you saying that an hps light travels further with less loss than an equal intensity flourescent or are you speaking of par value based on the spectrum of usable light?

 

I dont think you would ever be satisfied using CFL's in that large of an area. CFL's lack the intensity to penetrate very deep at all. I would guess they dont penetrate the canopy more than 6". Yes the HID has the intensity to travel MUCH farther than the CFLS. Your 4x4 cab is 16 square feet. That would require at least 1120 watts of light to equal the amount in my box at 70WPSF. So that would be 14 of those 85W bulbs. And again like I said, only about the top 6 to maybe 10" are receiving close to adequate lighting. So SCROG is definately the method of choice growing with CFLs, or a very nice LST job, anything to keep the canopy even and pack as many buds as you can next those bulbs. Now if you used 20 of those 85 watters in that box you could get a descent yeild, but not nearly what you can get with your 1000W HPS. And Ive said it before, dont kid yourself, CFLs do put out alot of heat. Im not sure 1000W of CFLs would run that much cooler than a 1000W HPS. I might be wrong there because I have no experience with HID lighting yet. I figure if your willing to shell out the money for 1000+ plus watts of CFLs, if it were me I would invest that money into whatever it takes to keep that 1000W HPS cool and go that route but thats just my opinion. Peace

 

When I was using cfls i was jogging my plants so all the tops were the same height and I was vegging for two months and trimming allot so all tops were the same height when I would put them into flower. allot more work to try and get good results. You will get better results using HPS bulbs. I currently use a 600 watt system with much better results.:thumbsup:

 

Agreed. I measured the height of the plants today and from the top of the container to the top of the biggest bud is 18". Everything below the canopy is popcorn. Plant 2 is the oldest and has lots of smaller buds and is the frostiest, I used LST on that plant. I did nothing to 1 and 3 other than pinch and bend over the main cola when I got scared of running out of headroom. Plants 1 and 3 are my favorite. All of the branches made it to the canopy on their own and each have 6-8 nice sized buds. I dont have enough growing experience to know if its normal for all the lower branches to stretch up enough to make the canopy or not. Im going to assume they stretched that much because of inadequate lighting below the canopy. If that was the case it worked out perfect :thumbsup:

 

here is what ed has to say


In the new Skunk Magazine there was a question in the "Ask Ed" section that just made my night last night when reading it...


The question was...


Tiny Grow Space


I intend to grow a single cannabis plant in a space 1' x 2'. What light would you recommend? I was think of using four 30-watt compact fluorescent lamps. Will this be enough? Cost isn't an issue but I am deterred from getting a high pressure sodium [light] because of the amount of heat the bulb produces.


Barry, Internet


As you mentioned, you have several lighting systems to choose from, including compact fluorescents and high pressure sodium (HPS) lamps. Among HPS lamps you have a choice between a single 100-watt lamp which uses a total of about 120-watts and emits about 8,800 lumens(73 lumens per watt) or a 150-watt lamp, which uses about 180 watts and emits almost double that-15,800 lumens (87 lumens per watt).


A 42-watt compact fluorescent (CFL) emits about 2700 lumens(64 lumens per watt). Four CFLs use 168 watts and emit 10,800 lumens. Other size CFLs have a similar efficiency.


However, that is only part of the story. Plants use mostly red and blue light. Yellow and green light is of little use to them, so light that is emitted in these spectrums is wasted energy. Most of the light emitted by HPS lamps is in the yellow spectrum. Only a small amount of the emitted light is is in the orange or red spectrums, which plants use efficiently. Warm white fluorescents (2700 Kelvin) emit a greater portion in the red and orange sectors.


Although fluorescents produce only about 75% of the light per watt that the HPS does, the amount of light usable by the plant is equal or probably higher with the fluorescents. You may wish to experiment to see if adding a single cool white CFL to replace one warm white results in shorter, stouter stems and more vigorous growth. The reasoning is that warm whites don't emit much blue light, which the plants use for photosynthesis and to regulate their growth. The cool white bulb supplies the blue light.


My call for your unit would be to use several (three to five) CFLs with a total input of between 120-160 watts. Although the 150 watt HPS is a bit more efficient that the CFLs in total output, watt for watt the fluorescents provide as much useful light as the HPS lamp. Heat is another consideration. The HPS runs much hotter and emits more heat than the fluoescents.


Make sure to use reflective material around the garden so that any light escaping the garden is reflected back to the plants. Any light that doesn't get to the plant leaves is wasted.


Just like everything else, available grow lights are evolving. Remember how the sun produces 10,000 lumens per square foot in the mid-summer. Well, today there are CFLs that can actually duplicate those lumens. If you can not grow under the sun, then bring the sun inside. Yes, you can have 20,000 lumens covering the entire grow space with the new 105 watt per bulb CFLs. Three of these bulbs in the proper reflector actually yields 20,000 lumens.

 

Ill agree with all of that. The question at hand though is still intensity of the light emitted. My grow and countless others, proves CFLs will grow some killer bud. I think a nice DWC or SWC grow with a SCROG could produce plenty of bud. As far as I can tell the only benefits to HID is that not only will the canopy have nice bud, but the light is able to penetrate ALOT deeper resulting in far more dense and more bountiful bud under the canopy, and most importantly EFFICIENCY. Your just not going to harvest anything but popcorn below the canopy with CFL's.


Im all for your CFL grow man and think you should do it. But the point I'm trying to make is when it comes to efficiency HPS is going to win out everytime. And thats because its going to take alot of CFLs to achieve the same number of lumens as HPS. For instance, 400W HPS = 48,000 lumens, to achieve that with CFL's its going to take 17 42W CFLs. 17 x 42W = 714 watts of CFLs to equal a 400W HPS.


Im also fairly confident that 17 42W CFLs is going to produce as much heat as if not more than a single HPS but I could be wrong there.


Peace

 

I would like to also point out a couple of things. First about CFLs, if you have a 125watt cfl and lets say the most effective light reaches about 2ft down, now let say you add another 125 watt cfl, now you only have two bulbs that still only are effective to 2 ft. If you say use a 125 watt hps bulb, now you have more concentrated light can can reach lets say 4 feet. your still going to keep the hps bulb about 12 to 18 inches from the tops of the plants, but you will have allot more light reaching the lower limbs like Virogo pointed out. This means larger buds and denser buds. The point is that HPS bulbs will flower better buds because of how much more light there is


So if you are growing with 4 of the 125 watt CFL's like I did. I vegged for two months and kept the plant at 1 ft in height and than I put them into flower and they grew an extra 13 inches. I kept the CFL,s about 6 inches from the tops with a fan blowing air between the lights and tops of plants. Yes I ended up with some large colas but part of that is genetics and that plant was some bag seed that I got lucky with.

 

Well I found out today was the last day for calendar entries so I just had to play with my camera! So heres some more pics.














Haha I hope you guys enjoy this one it wasnt easy. Someday Ill be able to take sweet pics of the trichomes.





Peace

 

w00t! First branches to be harvested are dry and now in a jar to cure! Man it smells sooooo good. I have yet to really smoke an actual bud yet and dont plan to until I have a good cure. The full harvest is nearing! Peace

 

Sweet Virago420...


TOP job Virago420 my good man/friend..:thumbsup:


I personally love this AK48, its a STINKY 1 Especially through FLOWER eh!? lol lol


But what a Smoke and High from this NIRVANA loved Plant, alot of people are starting to grow this one out ALOT now, and i sure hope it keeps going, as youve did i wonderfull JOB on the growing n Production part of everything on this 1 VIRAGO420 , well done my friend


Looking real nice, and the lil TRICHOME pics look well nice, and i know it aint EASY to get those shots, so nice job, and lovely FROSTY numbers ya got yourself there V420 :jj:


Keep up the nice work,


UBB.......... otleaf: :jj: :thumbsup:

 

Piggybacking on the above discussion...


Would it prove beneficial to supplement the HPS with a few 42w CFL's to make up for the lack of color spectrums? If properly placed, it seems like it would help quite a bit IMO.

 

Personally, i dont think you would see any difference.

 

Im going to agree with EvilSkuzzi. Im all for mixing spectrums but CFLs lack the intensity to help. If you want to do it go for it. Worst case scenario you spend a couple bucks more in electricity and gain nothing. Peace

 

Harvest Saturday


Sup folks. Dried weight on the buds I chopped last week was 6 grams. I smoked out the wife and two friends today and was very satisfied with everyones opinions. They are a week farther along now and the amber trichs are starting to pile up so I think its time. Everyone who smoked it wanted to know where they could buy some . So needless to say Im happy with the AK48. No cure, 5 days to dry (mind you these buds were really small) and the taste is great and a very smooth hit. Cant wait to try some after the cure. The wife usually sits down and smokes a whole joint at a time but she couldnt even finish a half joint of this stuff :thumbsup:. Either the AK is some badass shit or we are just used to smoking completely junk stuff. And the smell is amazing, kinda like a fruity skunk, very strong smelling stuff. When I open the jar you can smell it from 20' away after a few seconds. I want to thank everyone who has helped me out along the way here on GK. This grow would have been nothing without the advice from you folks. So heres to you GrowKind, assit:. Ill post up some pre-harvest and post harvest pics this saturday or sunday, as well as a total dry weight when the time comes. Peace out.