Lemon Venom + Kind LED K3 L600 light grow

Welcome to Greenage (pronounced green-ij) where I'll be collating the experiences of a close circle of green-fingered friends - expect posts and light-hearted reviews of strains, lights, nutrients, grow mediums and anything else that might be related or of interest. I'll also be linking to the shops and companies we use and trust to get hold of all this stuff.

So for this inaugural post I'm bringing you some lovely snaps from our first grower (we'll call him Jar Jar Danks) and his first try with Lemon Venom by Cream of the Crop.

Jar Jar has been growing for over 20 years and has experience with most hydroponics systems. He has a preference for DNA Genetics, Reserva Privada, Sweet Seeds and Underground Originals. This Lemon Venom is a 100% indica strain with a flowering time of 8~10 weeks. 

Jar Jar is a big fan of citrussy strains and was intrigued by the idea of lemon in a 100% indica plant. He got hold of the seeds through The Choice Seedbank and to start them off he soaked them for 24-36 hours in a glass of dechlorinated water, and then popped them straight into Root Riot Cubes.

These photos he's taken are from 4~5 weeks in and he says: "They've been as expected so far. Smells lemony with a good plant structure and compact buds. I probably would grow it again but we'll see for sure in a few weeks."

These plants have been raised under a Kind LED K3 L600 light - the purple hue on all these snaps is explained by the focus on the red and blue areas of the spectrum. LEDs seem to be still something of a novelty but Jar Jar says: "There is definitely a place in the market for these LEDS - for hobby grows and enclosed spaces they are ideal. The benefits are that they run fairly cool so there's low heat emission and they're low wattage so you have a good light footprint. The buds so far are covered in trichomes and pretty compact. I've probably got a slightly lower yield than the 600W sodium equivalent but the quality appears to be good."

The light is positioned about 2 feet above the canopy, but there was falloff from the light, meaning this LED is probably only suitable for an area of 1 metre squared.

He's also just got his hands on a Spectrum King LED and he's looking forward to getting stuck in with that so there'll be a review to come there. But back to this grow...

Here's a rundown of the medium and nutrients that Jar Jar's been using:

• 22.5 litre Air-Pots
• Gold Label HydroCoco 60/40 Mix
• Gold Label full nutrient range and BatBoost

He's followed Gold Label's feed schedule religiously and made four waterings a day with adjustable stake drippers, maintaining a max EC level of 1.8 and a pH of 5.8.

These plants are looking great so far, and I can't wait to see the final product, but for now here's some more pictures of these super healthy-looking Lemon Venoms (for the eagle-eyed out there, there's also a Steel City Blues plant in these canopy shots). And look out for that in-depth Spectrum King review soon too...