Hello everyone! Back at it again

[Dbpooper]

As the title states, I’m Baaaaccckkk baby! This time I’m not having as much luck lol. These autos have proven to be a lil difficult compared to their photo period brethren…

Setup:

3x3x7 vivosun

454 cfm exhaust fan into a 6 inch carbon filter not running due to it being colder

260w xw QB model 288v no rspec, with diodes burning out and going dim.

3- 5 gal. Fabric pots with 1/3rd ocean forest and the rest happy frog soil from fox farms.

I have a 6 inch desk fan running on low at bottom for inlet fresh air with both vents open at bottom of tent.

Watered with straight water at 6.2 p.h. every ~4 days or til soil is dry. No feedings as still in seedling stage.

24 hr lights for now turned down to 130 watts at 28inches from plants

Temps 79-73F humidity 50-60%

Hey guys and gals, it’s been an interesting 2 weeks with getting things setup and trying my hand in the autoflower realm. Things got off to a horrible start as I started 3 sir jack autos from exotic seeds to no avail. I have started seeds in the paper towel method, in a shot glass and directly in soil and have never had a seed that wouldn’t germinate until now… All 3 of the first rounds of seeds didn’t show after 4 days of being in a shot glass and finally they drowned themselves on the 5th night. I grew impatient and decided to try the last 2 and another strain of uk cheese from Phoenix seeds all directly in soil. Within 2 days the cheese had popped but still no signs of the herrer that caused me terror! I
am not giving up though as they have finally made their appearance, granted they are very sickly and just sad looking I REFUSE TO GIVE UP lol…

I will never order from the vendor I purchased my light from, June 2020 my 1yr warranty is up but since they no longer carry individual boards the best they could do was offer me 100.00 rebate towards new boards, from hlg at 65.00 a piece. Not complaining at all, I definitely got shafted a lil though. No worries as 2 new 288 v2 rspec boards are on their way direct from hlg to replace the 2 bad. They were on sale also which is awesome, if anyone’s looking for lights or a upgrade to your existing setup HLG is having a pretty good sale on everything in stock!

I’m still having a great time and loving every minute including the small bumps along the way.

Hope everyone is doing great outside the grow room as well as in and are enjoying the fruits of your labor! Have a great Sunday everyone and I will keep everyone posted every week on my auto journey!

Thanks for taking the time, DB.

[Tinman]

Try dome ing them , less water right now, just spritz the baby a few times a day

[BetrayedSoul]

Looks great !!!

The one might need help removing its lid.
I just use needles to crack it open carefully as to not hit the seedling with needles.
I had one this grow where i didnt help it and it ended up rotting away.

[Dbpooper]

Thanks for the advice @Tinman they do look pretty saturated in the pics for sure I have been feeding a 100ml (1/2 cup) to each plant every 3-5 days but if things take a turn for the worst I’ll dome them for sure. I think they are just super slow or maybe not the best seeds as the cheese isn’t looking great but not horrible either haha. Regardless I’ll keep an eye on them and start prepping a dome(s). And thank you too @BetrayedSoul they have shed their shell since then just not looking too hot, those pics are from first sprout to yesterday 7th day from planting in soil

[dbrn32]

Did you reach out to hlg about diodes going out?

[Dbpooper]

Yeah haven’t heard back from them on the matter, they did help me by letting me know the driver I have will work fine with the new rspec boards I ordered from them. They asked for an order # when I explained that I ordered from a vendor they reccomend nothing else was/has been said.

[Dbpooper]

I was actually about to tag you when I finally got an email back from them as I have come to learn you’re one of the go to guru’s of quantum boards!!

[dbrn32]

I’m pretty sure when you order they come with a secondary email for warranty/support. Is that what you’re using? You could also try growerslights or wherever you ordered from.

[Dbpooper]

Growers lights was who I ordered it from, when I reached out through them they said they no longer carry boards but would gladly refund me 50.00 to put towards a new whole quantum board not a pair of new boards from them… When I explained I had just bought 2 new boards from hlg directly granted they were rspec the 50.00 wouldn’t even have covered the cost of one regular v2 board at 65.00 on sale through Hlg. They later sent another 50.00 rebate to me and no other response even after I questioned the 1yr warranty they gave listed on their website… I definitely understand things happen especially with electronic or electrical components. I will not be ordering from growers lights ever again as I don’t feel they really handled the situation with much care. I’m basically out 80.00 from the new boards after the rebate but it’s the fact of the matter that they did not indeed honor the 1 year warranty, rather than undercut me and throw cash back at me to deal with it…

[dbrn32]

Seems like it would’ve been pretty easy to just toss you some new boards. Any of the 288’s will work on your driver.

[Dbpooper]

My thoughts exactly, I would have even offered to have them charge my card again and have them send me a whole new light and ship the old one back then refund me… I know they are not hurting for business as they are and have been sold out of nearly everything for the last 2 weeks or more. You can’t tell me they didn’t have 2 v2 boards lying around. They did say too in the last email that you can still use the light no problem as it will still have alot of coverage intensity etc… From what I have read an understand with less once a diode goes the whole chain tied in with that will be not long either… Either way I’ll switch them out once the new boards arrive which should be no later than Tuesday. In the future I’ll order a heat sink and driver from hlg and see how long the old boards last for a veg light!

[dbrn32]

That’s not necessarily true. It’s more likely to happen because of additional current being available at remaining leds. But not a given, and they’re still not running at max current anyway. @Myfriendis410 has strips with a handful of leds out, to my knowledge been that way without change for a long time.

Stay on hlg, if you don’t hear anything in couple of weeks lemme know.

[Dbpooper]

Awesome that’s good to hear they are not to much of an issue, I think honestly for the most part as far as getting anything else done about the old boards it’s a shot in the dark. I did reach out to HLG when I ordered the new boards and asked about the driver. We’ll see if anything comes from it. I will definitely keep you updated have pics of those new beauties once installed! Thanks for help and suggestions.

[Myfriendis410]

@dbrn32

has strips with a handful of leds out

3 strips on one fixture. I got replacements but haven’t bothered to scrape em off and replace em yet.

[Dbpooper]

That’s reassuring, did you happen to order through hlg or growerslights?

[Myfriendis410]

@Dbpooper

did you happen to order through hlg or growerslights?

Mine was a diy strip build using gen 1 Samsung EB strips. 3 fixtures, 240 watt peak, 3,000K 80 cri. I normally don’t run em higher than 600 watts all up. No need to. I think I got em from Cutter Electronics.

[Dbpooper]

Nice that’s really coo I plan on doing a build in the future so I’ll hit up cutter and other places I have seen recommended on here. Going to wait another 6 months to a year as it seems like the industry is rapidly growing in horticulture lights, dont wanna jump the gun when something better might be around the corner!

[Myfriendis410]

Any improvements now are pretty small. Slight increases in performance in the latest top bin stuff. The best deals are in last year’s product.

[Dbpooper]

Oh didn’t think of that, you’re like a salesman without trying haha just kidding I just really wanna pull the trigger on another tent for veg to start a perpetual harvest lol you’re helping me with that decision!

[Myfriendis410]

I did an RDWC run last winter completely under those diy lights. I ran veg at 450 watts (3 X 150 watts) and ramped up to 600 in late flower. 16/8 for veg, 12/12 flower. Started 6 January and harvested early May, 3 plants: just a few grams shy of 2 pounds of flower. That worked out to 1.24 grams/watt.

You might say I was pleased…