Spectrum King LED + KIND LED 2nd try

Jar Jar is back on it with a couple of new grows already! After not being too impressed with the KIND LED (K3 L600), this time he's trying out the Spectrum King. This is the only LED on the market that is said to mimic sunlight, hence the white colour of the light when compared to the purple hue of the KIND LED, for example.

The Spectrum King is hung as high as it can be in Jar Jar's grow, which is 2 feet away from the canopy. This is the same room that was used previously so it should be a pretty fair comparison, although the wall has been extended out to give a more square space - it's now at 1.5m².

The four largest plants here are Reserva Privada Kandy Kush by DNA Genetics, and then there are two Stardawg clones down the side too. These photos were taken at the start of week 3 flower.

They've all been netted from day one because the Kandy Kush were pretty stretchy, and Jar Jar thinks he may have to put a second net in. This is a drip system with 9.5 litre root pruner pots and two adjustable stake drippers in each pot. Then there's DNA Mills Ultimate Coco with Cork and Mills nutrients to match. They've been given Green Planet Massive from day 1 of flip, and that should help with bud size and density.

The filter is an 8-inch Mountain Air with a 6-inch Hyper Fan on the lowest setting. There's a 6-inch clip fan in place and temperatures are constantly around 27~29°C in the day, and with a 2 ft tube radiator at night they are around 21~23°C.

Below are a few more pictures of these young ladies, and it'll be truly interesting to see how Jar Jar rates the Spectrum King against the KIND.

Speaking of the KIND, Jar Jar hasn't given up on it just yet. He's helping out a friend of his - who we'll call Lazy Farmer - and he's lent him the LED, so we have some more photos with that familiar purple hue. Here we have Critical Jack from Dinafem (x1), Ultra Lemon Haze from Auto Seeds (x2), Lowryder #1 (x1) and Lowryder #2 (x1), both from Lowryder Seeds. All autos.

These plants are hand watered and in assorted sizes of dirt pots with DNA Ultimate Coco. They're using Dutch Pro Auto nutrients (but not following the Dutch Pro schedule), Green Planet Terpinator and Moonshine. The tent is a CR145 igloo tent from Secret Jardin.

They said they're aiming for long days of light for as long as possible so they're on 20/4 at the moment, but they'll turn down to 16/8 soon. As you can see in the photos below, the canopy isn't too dense so the plants are getting plenty of light. When these photos were taken they'd been flowering for about 4 weeks.

Jar Jar reckons if these kinds of LEDs do have a place in the market at all, it's either purely for veg, or in small grows like this, especially with autos. We shall see...

Lemon Venom conclusion / honeycomb

So the Lemon Venom plants we were following have been harvested and I think it's fair to say Jar Jar had mixed feelings about the grow as a whole.

Here's a recap of the medium and nutrients:

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

Gold Label nutrients always get the thumbs up from Jar Jar. He says "The pH fluctuated a bit but was pretty stable. The medium and nutrients are designed to work together perfectly and the plants turn out lush and green. Saying that, I'm not utterly convinced with the BatBoost. I couldn't say either way whether it benefited the grow as there was no massive improvement. I'll have to test again with it."

Jar Jar liked using Air-Pots: "They do dry out quickly but you can work with that and oscillate between wet and dry. It is easy to make mistakes with them though so they're perhaps not ideal for beginners."

Now to the light, which was a Kind LED K3 L600. Despite early promise Jar Jar wasn't satisfied with its performance. On the plus side it kept temperatures down and in terms of electricity used it was probably around a third of the cost. On top of that there were no ballasts or ducts, which is great in a more confined space. And early on in the grow the buds were looking nice and dense (as you could see in our previous post), but at the point of drying the buds lost a LOT of weight and in the end there was no bag appeal or scent to speak of. Jar Jar was so disappointed, in fact, that he didn't feel like taking any photos of the final product! When it came to the smoke he said it didn't taste great with tobacco, but that there was a citrussy hint when vapourised...

Jar Jar says this LED can't touch a HPS because it doesn't have the light penetration. He's had plenty of setups in the same space but this one was a complete let down in flower. In fact, the bud wasn't even usable as flower which led him to process it into a concentrate...

He used a BHO blast tube with an ice jacket and 15 kilos of dry ice and was happy but for the condensation dripping off the ice jacket. He acknowledges that if he'd have used a collection tank this wouldn't have been a problem though. The resulting concentrate was apparently quite clear and came out smelling lemony. It was then baked into honeycomb. So the above photo was just from the Lemon Venom flowers, and the below photo was honeycomb from the leaf and trim of the Blues that Jar Jar grew at the same time.

So that concludes the Lemon Venom grow, but you can look forward to Jar Jar's report on his next grow using the Spectrum King LED - that'll be coming soon. He doesn't hang about!