Cheers! We grow with Living Organic Soil as well. I don't understand the No-Till monacher - conventional (big ag) farmers 'no-till' millions of acres to feed the world, seeding monocultures with state of the art air drills. They 'low-till' even more! How pot farming with organic nutrients became 'no-till' is beyond me!
Apologies, I think we are on the same page, but I had to get that out. The irony is boggling!
I have a few tips;
1. Use a big pot. Using a small pot will not just limit yields but it will increase the likelihood of plants showing nutrient deficiencies. We use 20gal/plant.
2. Don't get too carried away with lights.
Flavour has a lot to do with genetics, drying and curing. Save some capital for a proper drying area. Ideally a dark room/closet/tent at 50% RH and good circulation. Be patient during the cure.
I don't have any experience with the Fluence products. If you take UV A out of the equation it's going to be pretty close. Spydrx will likely provide the most even coverage.
One point of confusion - i have been referencing the chilled YIELD spectrum. I just noticed the growmau5 version may not have any UV...?
Easy to supplement with a flourescent UV bulb though.
Yes I look forward to going organic and have done a fair share of research! I thought about using 4x 20gal but opted for 4x 15gal instead to leave a bit of room around the plants. Eventually I will go for one giant bed for my 4 plants. I do realize flavor is genetics/dry/cure I just wasn't sure if maybe a new spectrum was making it possible bring out more terpenes etc. I do plan to dry/cure very slowly and carefully to preserve terpes. I didn't realize that chilled and gromau5 had separate "brands" or products so to speak. I thought the one 4x4 puck fixture was by both of them. For the gromau5 puck one they do sell a supplemental board that has uv/ir and actually is designed to fit perfectly into the existing substrate. I have no problem supplementing and/or using different lights for veg/flower, I really just want a lighting setup that will allow me to get top notch quality product(assuming everything else is dialed in)even if I'm sacrificing yields. I even debated on using CMH for the full grow.
If I could make a good decision I would buy a light right this second, the reason I'm so indecisive is because for upwards of $1500CAD, I want the product to perform as best as possible and be relevant instead of spending 1500 and have it be for lack of a better word "replaced" by better or more advanced spectrum technology. Really appreciate you guys taking the time to reply and help me with my decision haha.
Personally I would still lean toward the chilled V2's simply because they include some UV and far red. We saw a big improvement in trichome production when we added 380 and 740nm,
Led4x4, I like the connoisseur crowd, weed is so much more than getting stoned.
ATP, what made you choose 380 nm versus other UV wavelengths? What wattage/sqft do you run them at? I see on mouser from 278 (will avoid that one) to 400 available.
To me, the industry is advancing quite rapidly. That makes it difficult to throw down for a 'premium' product because in 12mo from now the state of the are will have advanced.
If I were in your shoes - wanting a prebuilt quality light, I'd hop on an HLG qb550. They are clearing out the V1's right now at a good discount.
This will get you into the game, getting your environment dialed through a cycle and building your soil. Keep in mind it takes a couple of cycles for LOS to really hit its stride.
At that point (6mo?) you will have a pretty good baseline and some experience from which to base a longer term decision upon.
The thing is some styles of lighting suit some styles of growing better than others. Once you find how you like to grow (scrog? Lst? Mainline? LITFA?) You will have a better idea of what you are looking for in lighting.
I looked at CMH pretty hard - I have some friends who use those horticultural bulbs by Phillips - AMAZING. I would need higher ceilings to really get the most out of them though. Also the cost and waste of replacement bulbs adds up over time. LEDs just seem a little friendlier to me, in a few different ways.
Last edited by ATPinMotion on Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:52 pm, edited 3 times in total.
ATP, what made you choose 380 nm versus other UV wavelengths? What wattage/sqft do you run them at? I see on mouser from 278 (will avoid that one) to 400 available.
Any advice on the 840? Worthwhile?
We have some COBS that look like this;
Intuitively it seemed like a good spectrum to try. The results have been really good when combined with white LED's.
Sorry I can't give you discrete values for UV and IR. This cycle we are trying the COBS on a 10hr photoperiod at 17w/sf, and VESTA's on a 12h photoperiod at ~10w/sf. But it's not equally distributed either. We kind of have a COB representing the sun in the middle surrounded by Vesta strips perimeter at the moment.
Strangely, pistils are starting to brown under the Vestas but not yet in the center of the tent where the COB is most concentrated. Buds are frosty all around, but sugar leaves are extra sugary under the COB. Those are my observations, unfortunately they only raise more questions!
To me, the industry is advancing quite rapidly. That makes it difficult to throw down for a 'premium' product because in 12mo from now the state of the are will have advanced.
If I were in your shoes - wanting a prebuilt quality light, I'd hop on an HLG qb550. They are clearing out the V1's right now at a good discount.
This will get you into the game, getting your environment dialed through a cycle and building your soil. Keep in mind it takes a couple of cycles for LOS to really hit its stride.
At that point (6mo?) you will have a pretty good baseline and some experience from which to base a longer term decision upon.
The thing is some styles of lighting suit some styles of growing better than others. Once you find how you like to grow (scrog? Lst? Mainline? LITFA?) You will have a better idea of what you are looking for in lighting.
I looked at CMH pretty hard - I have some friends who use those horticultural bulbs by Phillips - AMAZING. I would need higher ceilings to really get the most out of them though. Also the cost and waste of replacement bulbs adds up over time. LEDs just seem a little friendlier to me, in a few different ways.
I can't even find a hlg 550 v1 from any Canadian sellers, they all have v2. I just noticed that the v2 pulls same watt as the equinox but actually puts out more lol although it is more $, I was planning to scrog it and i just figured uniform light would be all around the best way to go with led, that way everything develops fully. That's why the equinox caught my eye (2'x2' even square)and it pulling 480w (since I'm not adding co2)plus the warranty. The chilled/gromau5 4x4 puck kit looked good because of the added 660 spectrum and it consists of some 4000k mixed in, I also read a couple times that a 4000k spectrum actually puts out the best quality flower but without anything proven it's all hear say. I have actually heard quite a bit of good things said about the spydrx grow lights but they are hard to get in Canada and I by the looks of them they have 3000k/4000k and some sort of red diode added to give them their "physiospec". I'm not trying to replace a 1000w hps by any means either because from my understanding a 1000w hps requires co2 supplementation. I'm just going to have a 6" inline fan extracting and passive intake. I would like the light to be reliable/relevant for a few years at least while being more beneficial in terms of quality than a regular 600w hps would. I guess a really good question would be what is the grow quality difference between the puck kit and the equinox strip build/hlg QB? That grisby guy was laughing at the comparison of a strip build vs the puck kit and his exact words were "the chilledgrowlight pcb are meant to do everything and to get the highest quality product" That is what got me thinking.
The two spikes reminds me of off the shelf spectrums but the two bumps at the low and high end are intriguing. I found 7W for 720nm a 3x3 on chillled website so almost 1W per sqft, the best info I could find. I try that metric first. When I get setup for cannabis I am going to do 365nm thru to 420nm as well as a touch of 475 to raise the trough on the Vesta and add 720-750 and 840. Figure if I add one type I may has well do them all to balance the whole spectrum. The blues for the afternoon and the red's all day at least for flower.
1. Use a big pot. Using a small pot will not just limit yields but it will increase the likelihood of plants showing nutrient deficiencies. We use 20gal/plant.
!! I've always love the fish tank analogy.. "the bigger the tank, the easier it is to balance" and it fits for living soil... I see so many IG posts of people having lock outs in under 10 gallons.. double or triple that "tank" size
p.s. I use 30 gal ( 36" x 16" x 14" ) geopots.. one fits nice in a 2x4 or two in a 4x4..
I've never even considered true living soil in less than a 4x4 bed. Of course you can inoculate and have a good microbiome going in pots, but I wouldn't call that living soil. In order to get 5 runs per year (which maximizes annual yield) and take advantage of the efficiency of full, even canopies, I use maximum 3 gallon pots.
We put soil in pots, what about building contained boxes beneath the lights? One continuous raised bed with a drain to sewer?? Just thinking outside the box.
Well I saw a video of Growmou5 talking about the chilled LED fixtures, and since I've been blasting on how generic white led is I felt I have to take that back on the part of chilled LED... their approach is about as non-generic as you could go with the elements at hand.
A lot of over kill with triple cooling and extra frequencies one might not use, but definitely they have passion and I was wrong to generalize about them.
I still would not recommend them to anyone who is financially concerned, but it seems neither would growmou5,
The blues for the afternoon and the red's all day at least for flower.
!! I've always love the fish tank analogy.. "the bigger the tank, the easier it is to balance" and it fits for living soil... I see so many IG posts of people having lock outs in under 10 gallons.. double or triple that "tank" size 
