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phychotron said:
Are you running just autoflowers? if so I'd run 18/6 the whole time. I've only been able to do 2 auto's and those were both under 12/12 and did not do as well as I hoped. I usually just go directly from 18/6 to 12/12 to trigger flowering.

In nature the plants start to flower long before the light cycle is 12/12, between 13-14 hours of daylight, varying widely depending on strain and location. 12/12 is a universal guarantee to flower every cannabis plant. I tend to just keep it 12/12 as messing around didn't seem worth it in terms of yield.


You'd be surprised at how much better the plants will do next to a highly reflective surface, especially with a cab that small its good to recycle as much light as possible. Foil is one of the best for light blocking, its true. The black/white plastic blocks light completely as well.

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I need to buy the plastic, then stamp it to walls when I next time clear the closet, now it's so much work to move plants(they're packed with Hortipot fibre-pots.) so it's better to change it after I can harvest these.. I am sure I'm going to start new grow asap I harvest these away. Last time I had black-white plastic in use was when I build as big tent as half size of master bedroom. It's very good, also I used matt white paint to certain places and it works better than foil also.

Actually no need to explain me so much of hemp plant, I know it very well and have been growing it about 11years or so.

No. I have only one AF plant (wasn't planned to grow it there anyway) and rest of the plants are good feminized strain seeds.

Anyway, It's better to keep it there and let it grow because it doesn't have any other place atm.. Maybe I can later move it somewhere, if some of my friends can grow autoflower to the end.

Rest of the plants are far away from AF. They are typical indoor medical strains.

I know lots about surface.. I've used to grow in a room size of 6x8feet room with lots of HPS bulbs, also I have seen lots of grow rooms.

Foliage was totally not my plan but at the moment I had nothing else and plants was waiting(I need to hide them before morning) and I just build it with extra strong foil. Good enough! Especially CFL's light would be more benefit then they are now. LED's have so small angle of light (80degrees) so reflection isn't so big part of them. Each 3Wattage "bulb" have their own small reflection at base.

you're right about better reflection will benefit, I've used different materials over the years.. I just build this during day and before next morning I need to get plant hidden and so on..

I build this whole system in 20hours from scratch and fast. I've modified computer-PSU to 5V, 7V or 12V to give current for fans, it's very easy job, just need to connect one wire and PSU gives power, Black=ground, Yellow=12V, Red=5V, Yellow+Red=7V etc and it gives low 12voltage current power out. I had lots of computer fans in storage anyway and modified PSU, for them.

If I have designed this longer, then I totally would use different reflection material than aluminium foil(blurry surface above)

I have grown MJ about 11years anyway, got busted few times, randomly kept few year off and then, started grow again for some time. I've got busted from those big room-size grows years ago. So I need to stay low with these plants in my country.

Now cannabis cultivation is just minor thing in my life, I grow lots of different cacti mostly and some weed just for me. I don't take cannabis grow so seriously.. Just keep 'em stealth from now on.

Also if got busted, small box of plants barely results to big sactions with law compared to bigger grow rooms with HPS lights.

My grow box is inside of IKEA-furniture closet, two door closet for cloths. I just don't kno what series exactly but pretty small and easy to use. I have cloths hanging there covering the grow box, in case if someone opens it! lol..

Anyway, LED are effective without reflection but problem is they have very weak angle of light.. I have 80degrees.. CFL:s have basically 360degree angle of light compared to led so better reflection would benefit. Also white surface is best to reflect LED light and ofc light what cfl bulbs "waste" ..I've add CFL later and thinking about replace them with LED. I have only 3-band LED. One blue, Two red. They are still effective as they are compared to CFL:s. CFL and HPS need always reflection in order to get most light used from bulb.

Those 6 LED lights cost me about 350€ but results are better with these compared to cheap china-LED lights, some of them can be very bad lights. .

So I decided to build light battery with sockets. Those LED are designed to use as they are and alone, but I've combined them and seems they're very powerful together.

I can actually add more LED-power to small box by using these.. UFO:s and Panels isn't good because they are actually too big. With stealth grow I have to think that also, I can fit lots of these lights and have more Wattage output compared to LED-panels there are. I can fit there only one panel, or 15-16(or more) those 21Watt lights. One light have 7 LED-diodes and it's diameter is littlebit under 4inch. So I can fit lots of those if I just had money to buy these small LED plant grow lights.

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phychotron said:
You could make your own LED panels and probably do much better on space and efficiency if you really wanted to get into it. Its not that difficult to do, just gotta spend some time learning basic electronics. It wouldn't cost too much in materials to deck out a space like that, anywhere between one fourth to full $ of what you paid for the LEDs you have now.

Imagine being able to take off like 15-20cm of height away from the lights you have now, giving that space to the plants. I imagine a few bars of finned aluminum heat sink along the entire top of the cab, space at the top for air flow from outside the cab along the heat sink and out again, purely for cooling the LED's. This might not be needed. Then mounted to that have a few 10w Cree XML diodes, with a few 3w red/blue scattered about. Secondary optics (lenses) will help give you that beam angle you want, I like 90 but with a small setup you might like 60. Drivers mounted above the heat sink or externally on the back. LED's are sorted and rated in bins, top bin being the brightest at the lowest wattage and running the coolest. They make a million of these diodes, test them all, and sort them by how well they perform. The price between top, middle and lower bins can vary substantially, but they are all the same model/part numbers. Cheaper LED fixture tend to use the lower bins, but may even be advertised as using the name brand diodes. Sure they might work, but they're not running the best they can.

Basically the top bin are worth it for this type of application, they can run 20% more efficient and cooler and brighter, some magical improvement that is well worth getting. It also translates to diode life expectancy too, since its not burning hotter like the lower bins.

Its a commitment building one, but there are a few good examples out there that you can follow.

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I have study electricity and building industy, but never looked much of a led-light blueprint, even tho I know basically how LED works.

Some lights have powerful 3W diodes, but they're run only with 2W to prevent diode dying so fast..

Anyway, I may think about building a LED-panel, in my country I've seen few people build own LED and said they are not so cheaper because those diodes need to buy as big bulk, only few dozen diodes doesn't gonna costs so less..

I don't know why DIY-LED is basically "same price" ..well max 20-50% less cost when you build yourself. I should buy tons of diodes and other electric parts to get price really down.

Thanks for advice, I'll think about do I build my own and see some more tutorial for it. It feels still "easier" to use those light sockets and LED-light for them. Or move my current home-made-panel more different direction and I can fit one small 50W UFO, but I've heard it's not so perfect. But never tested one and there are lost of those around.

Today is nice rainstorm, cool weather and I check box before lights were shut down and there was +26C temperature around plants, +32C above lights.. After I've add CFL bulbs heat have risen +1-3C compared to 126W LED only.. Those spots are kind of a "shady" where I have CFL, because LED angle is just 80 degree.

I had before first post my lights 20cm(8 inch) above plant tips and they were burned some foliage(white areas around foliage at the top etc) it was not heat burn but typical LED-light intensity burn, green foliage turns to white) ...So I have only few inch left to rise my lights, but I can bend those colas attaching them to iron wire, plants just have been stretch pretty much now, first week of 12/12 behind.

Thanks again! I have been interested of LED-building but since I've heard in my country it's basically just for fun(costs are almost same than already built LED) so I've decided to use LED I've bought from store. Those round aluminium cooling are pretty effective anyway.

Well, I think I got this grow with that setup, there is only 12hour time to work, when lights are on and I don't want to risk my plants to go hermies, those plants have stretch very much now at their first pre-flowering week.. Today I luckily doesn't find out about any water coming from leaves, no need to defoliate anymore.

I haven't defoliate my plants before but now in small box things are different, my plan is just grow the bud and keep always leaves attached until they cause harm(leak water out because overlapping etc)

I've think to buy LED-parts abroad if I could get them cheaper. Basically it's not all about money, I live at area I can get any of my stoner friends to invest few hundred € to lights and then I give bud back and claim lights to myself, win-win, except only one friend know this stealth grow, and it's better no one else know it. He was interested of installing more LED to my growbox.. Yes, he have a GF bitching about smoking MJ.

hahaaa.. But I keep on trying to find there instruction how to build own LED, I may re-design my grow box after I've harvested these, but I am going to re-vegetate the plants, it has been shown amazing results at second harvest. Always. I miss those days I could freely grow bud in big room and with multiple HPS-lights. But fucking cops ruin everything... Now this neighborhood is very calm and easy, I barely ever see cops around raiding peoples houses around my current location.

This box is someway "prototype" to box I've think to build again with improvements and so on.. I try to see with this grow how it goes and what I need more and so on.. I have tons of plywood I can use. I have been think about build another box also, so I can keep vegetative cuttings and mother plant in one box and grow several small cuttings to big colas. But now, I go with this...

Two grow boxes are necessary to me, before I had always vegetative and flowering tent/room, it's so easy and when it's going on, I just harvest plants what are ready and add new cuttings etc.. Best times I've harvested bud every 2-3weeks from ounce to few ounces per plant.
After harvest I may have some inspiration. yea..


Thanks for reply and messages, If I'm not modifying this box, I'm gonna think about build DIY-LED to my vegetative grow box.. I think I do similar but only 1x1feet and 3feet tall. Enough for small bonsai mother and cuttings so I can keep on growing, haven't found my favorite species for medicine yet so need to test few before I know what I start to cultivate. I need cannabis to be able to eat(opiate painkillers cause the problem I can't eat properly) and MJ works as painkiller as well.