LED Cab Test

I currently run a CFL system. Tired of the poor penetration and ongoing challenge of keeping the tops as close to the light as possible, I knew I needed to upgrade. But HID stuff scares me. Maybe irrational, but on the other side of my grow room is my son's bedroom with his bed right against the wall and the thought of fire just makes it not an option emotionally. To be clear, they are two different rooms, I'm not growing in my kid's bedroom!

Before investing full fledged in a LED system, I bought two cheap 14W red flat panels hoping they could help with side lighting on my CFL grow. That doesn't seem to be working. But I also bought a cheapo 50w dual spectrum flat panel and decided to test out a 12-12 cab grow from bagseed. My cab is made out of a $10 2' wire kitchen rack with reflectix.

My expectations were minimal and it was half for the hell of it. And a way to test 12-12 from seed and LED. I didn't top or lst her at all. Somewhere along the line, the panel stopped working right and most of the bulbs weren't going. I am not sure how long it took before I noticed. Once I did, I threw some CFLs in while it got replaced (btw, GrowAces.com were great about replacing it).

She got too tall so I had to supercrop the fuck out of her. As it is, the main cola is hitting the light but seems none the worse. I used to laugh at her for obvious reasons (see pic below) but now she has won my heart. The main bud is as long as a bic lighter and a little wider - and dense as shit. I can't wait to try another and give her proper attention. It also made be a believer in What LED can do if done right and I am pondering what to get to replace my CFLs.

My questions:
1) Trichs are not changing color. My other plants are 5 weeks into flower, showing some amber, and this one was already budding when I flipped her. She started swelling up about two weeks ago but still no amber. I haven't read anyone saying that is an LED thing. I know it could be the strain but it still seems odd. Any ideas?
2) guesses on yield? It's not relevant as I am swimming in ganja . Just curious...
3) My CFL hood works great for veg as best I can tell. I am curious on thoughts about getting a flower only LED vs one that has the switch for flower and veg.

tbose are nice man

not too shabby.... but those budz have a while before they will be ready
trust me it's worth the wait
1. trichs will turn amber if they are damaged not always and indication of ripeness. My last few grow have been with leds. the thing i noticed is the leds lights are cooler my basement is cool (about 63) just seems to take a little longer but the budz were nice and dense
2.eh hard to tell
3. are you going to have a separate flower area? from your veg area? if so i'd buy one for each. you can veg under those lights too use the cfl to light the corners

1) i'm also wondering about this.. im waiting and waiting for my trichs to turn amber, but still none really... 91 days of 12/12 and 35 days veg and the buds look done.. It is a swaggy strain, but maybe this is a led thing..
2)16 grams.. very rough estimate

edit:
3) I use the hans panel flower version for everything, you should be fine getting flower panel imo

Thanks all!

No, I only have one tent. I have two small cabs as well that I can use for a mother, cloning, early veg, etc.

16 g? May not be a bad guess. Just since yesterday the gap on the top two bud sections on the main kola filled in about 80% of the way. I am thinking it's at least 10g dry.

I think may start a thread on the trich color.

check here https://www.rollitup.org/harvesting-curing/516184-trichomes-harvesting.html