Older cupboard grower returning to the fray - Hi!

[clusterz]

Hi all! I'm a beginner to intermediate, very small scale grower. I'm interested in growing anew after a long hiatus.

I belong to the 0.3 to 0.4 gram per watt, 400W HPS cupboard club. I've been (indirectly) informed about this forum because I've read that the Mars Hydro company was one of the sponsors. The place where i read about it, they stated that as a critic : i thought it interesting. I am interested in switching to LED growing, and i'm sure that i will at some point. I'm just not sure it's the right time yet.

I've read some LED journals here (those in the 300/400W area that interests me) and so far i'm not very impressed, yield-wise. The 400W HPS club will probably still be my people (let me play the song of...)

But i'm very aware of the interesting and new aspects of LED growing : smaller heat signature and thus a more silent operation, which matters in small home spaces. I'm highly interested and curious about what LED lights can bring to the table. I'm ready to learn a lot and I'm decided to not be a stick in the mud about it.

I probably don't have a lot to say, so i will probably not comment much, but i'm eager to launch a new culture, with better equipment than i did the first time around.

Maybe we will cross path with some of the people that recognize themselves here. I'm sure i will learn a lot, and i hope to be able to participate in a somewhat informed and useful manner, sometime. One can hope!

Thanks, and may you all have great plant girls.

 

[arteekay]

Hey clusterz, to

I hope you find what you are looking for here, and journal what you grow. I look forward to running into you around this wonderful forum.

 

[clusterz]

Thank you. It looks like reading the links in your signature will be a great start for me here.

 

[arteekay]

Very glad to hear it, I've been adding links to things I repeatedly refer to.

We skipped HID in favor of LED, not because we were fully informed and made the most logical decision but because I'm a geek that needs the new 'cool' thing. We're running a Twilight Spider X4 in the first part of our first grow journal, before we needed a carbon filter and a new tent, which then inspired a bulk purchase of two Mars II 900's along with the new tent for separate flowering space.

I think we're doing ok, despite problems in our first grow unrelated to light source. That said I can't compare against what we might have done with a 600w or 1000w HID MH/HPS setup in our flower tent, and a ~400w in our flower tent.

Got into a debate just last night about it. Old friend was very anti-led as well, but his knowledge and experience was half a decade old. There's been some big improvements in LED lighting over that period of time, IMHO.

 

[clusterz]

In that regard i'm kind of the opposite : as amateur as i am, i like to overload myself with information and stick to tried-and-true systems. That makes for bottomless arguments with some friends who are on the early adopter side of things!

I really am interested in switching to LED as soon as i am convinced i can get about the same yield with about 3/4 of the wattage and for a starting price under $500. I've not seen that yet so i'm on the fence. But again, it would be foolish to not see that it's the future, of that i am well aware.

 

[Rifleman]

Welcome to I hope you get caught up on the new technology.

 

[clusterz]

Thanks!

 

[arteekay]

That makes for bottomless arguments with some friends who are on the early adopter side of things!

Any chance you were in my living room last night?

Let us know if there's anything we can help with.

 

[OlderGrower]

Welcome to the 420 community Clusterz

I am a bit curious about something, perhaps I am miss-reading this. You are a 0.3 to 0.4 gram per watt, 400W HPS cupboard club. Yet before you would be persuaded to use LED to replace your 400Watt HPS it would have to the same yield with 3/4 of the wattage.

The reason I am asking is because I grow with LED's and my last grow was in the 0.3 to 0.4 grams per watt but I would consider replacing my LEDs if I could find a HID that gives me the same yield with 3/4 of the wattage. Any suggestions? I Have searched the internet and looked at a few journals but so far I am not very impressed.

Hope you have better luck then me finding a replacement that gives same yield for 3/4 of present wattage

 

[clusterz]

I am a bit curious about something, perhaps I am miss-reading this.

Or perhaps i didn't express myself very well, English is not my primary language. I don't think i would be well placed to give you advice, i'm not a very good grower. About ok, at best. Since yesterday, actually, I've seen a grow journal here with about 350W of LED and some CFLs that really impressed me : someone here in his first attempt, and goddamn he's organized, dedicated and talented. So i'm really on the fence in regard to what lighting i'll be using.

About my yields, it was many years ago and i didn't keep a journal. I think it was probably in the 130/150g per harvest (Nirvana White Rhino) with no training and no scrog. It was all very basic, a cupboard with a PC fan for extraction - which of course, was far from enough airflow. From what i gather, a well trained scrog under 400W of mixed LED and CFL lights can do just as well.

I guess that, before all, we both have, to step up our game, regardless of the type of our lighting in my case, the 400W HPS was really too hot, and that's why i'm looking at LEDS. In your case, maybe it's less of a concern.

And thanks for the welcome!

 

[cannilingus]

hi. dont feel too bad. i have been having yield issues, thruout my eight year grow career. all my strains, and changes i have done, have done little to get me above say 2.0 oz per plant. i went from 2 to 3 to 4 gallon pots. no change. from 600, to 1000 watt hps. no change. from not ph ing my water, to phing it. no change. to changing nutes several times, no change. but, i will say this, as far as the nutes go. out of all i have tried, foxfarm seems to have given me the best yields. ounce, i had a five plant god bud, give me 3.5 oz ea. and, i HAVE NEVER duplicated that. i am now starting to do more pinching to get more bud sites. i have hopes this will help. quality is good. just not yield. i realize, that hydro, dwc, etc, gives way better, but, im just talking about soil, soiless, in 4 gallon pots. i did see a small jump in yield, when i went to five gallon smart pots. also, i never seem to get lots of visable crystals, on any of them. at least to the naked eye. but, when i added a product, called humbolts snow storm ultra, all my streains gave me lots of orange/reddish hairs! this, people seem to love. perhaps, im just not vegging long enough? I usually put em in, when anohter crop is done, and the flower room is open. maybe i should let em get like two feet tall, before i toss em in?

 

[clusterz]

Thanks, it's good to be reminded to not put too much pressure on ourselves. It's thrilling to try to be as good a grower as possible, but before all we have to appreciate what we do, even if we're not the greenest thumbs of the bunch.

 

[buddha buds]

HI mate welcome to the forums.

Ive perseonally just switched to using 700w LED (real power) compared to 400w hps /metal halide before. So far the results are great !! Just finished 2nd week of flower. I cant wait to see how they preform.

However, you said about the leds being quieter. This is not true for many LED light as they have many strong computer fans to keep them cooler that produce quite abit of unexpected noise. Also i was abit suprsised on how much heat they actually give of too. Now obviosly comparing watt to watt with hps, the hps still gives of much more heat. But in a space of 160x80x200cm: 700 watts of led light with a 5" turbo extractor fan it still raises my grow cabnet by 6/7'C from outside room air temps....just a heads up because i was unpleasantly surprised with those factors. Not massive issue though.

What im vouching for though is that if each light gives of a certain amount of energy as % of as heat , if the led gives of less then shurely more of that energy is comverted to lumens and light energy .. im not a expert though haha. Also they are amazing so far ... Im able to have complete unifrom light coverge with the leds distributed all over the top of my growing space instead of one light in the middle.

Anyway brother hope your upcoming grows are very fortunate for you. peace

 

[clusterz]

Hi! when you say "real power" do you mean actual electrical pull at the wall? in which case you nearly doubled your electrical bill, and that matters.

I might have other questions regarding your post, but if you could clarify that, it would be easier i think. Thanks!

 

[buddha buds]

Not too sure what you mean mate sorry. What im saying is that many companys like mars hydro say a certain wattage but actually use a smaller watttage from the wall. The brand im usng (PRAKASA) use 300w of power for their 300w light. ect

Yes ive nerly doubled my wattage intentionally because ive built a bigger cabinet and doing more plants.(was in a 1x1x2m tent before) Was half minded between 2 400w hps or led , but then thought that 800 watt hps in that space would be too much heat to deal with, so i went with LEDs , so far so great

 

[clusterz]

OK I won't bother you with that, don't worry. In regard to switching to LED lamps, be sure that I'm seriously considering it! thanks for the input

edit: oh and you're the guy with the stealthy grow room, really well done mate, i'm impressed!

 

[buddha buds]

Cheers man! put alot of thought work and effort into that cab ! Its in my bedroom , because i rent a room of a friend now , so had to make sure that its not only stealthy but pleasent enought to be in my room... Built something similar around my last tent i had and got away with lanlord inspections on 2 ocasions , in my old place. The nerves where crazy though haha! had to show my lanllord my room knowing i had 6 big budding plants in there. Played it cool though , switchhed everything off the second i heard the door go, and prayed my ass off haha! All went well in the end but woudnt recomend it.

And keep posted on my grow man , ill let u know how it turns out, hopefullly it will give u better indication weather to switch to LED or not. I was hitting .7 gram per what with hps so ill let u know what the turnout with LED is about 7 weeks left.

 

[clusterz]

yeah i have the landlord anguish too, and that's probably the reason i stopped growing a few years ago (though i did go well, the neighbors are nice). Now I'm aiming for a nice tent that i could disassemble and clean in a few hours, but your setup is inspiring i must say.

 

[buddha buds]

Well all the best for you and your new setup! Maybe 'disguising' it as something else may benefit you too ? if you into the old DIY mate haha! Let you imagination go wild on it ! Remember lanlords are not allowd in you wardrobes and whats suspiciouse about that right ? Relying on the need of having to take it down with a short notcie could be so anoying if u close to end of flower after all that hardwork!! Unless thats what ur comfortable with doing and you have somewhere to keep your plants during those times... Whatever floats your boat man .
peace

 

[clusterz]

Despite your lack of punctuation and uppercase, you're on point. I'm not a DIY guy at all. Except for plants, maybe. But what you did with your "cupboard", i probably would have to ask some help from close friends. I don't have that talent. Yet I look at what you've done, and i think "gosh, that IS nice."

Now, if i can't do that sort of clever DIY disguising, i would't be that bothered to loose a harvest every some years. My landlords aren't the hand-on type, and the neighbors are friendly. So for me it's up in the air. Either go with a simple grow tent, and maybe loose some plants sometime, or make the MC Gyveresque effort to build something vaguely resembling what you did.

In any case, well done, really. I'm taking notes.