Don't Skimp On Ya Lights

[Phytoplankton]

Should of tried to find grow lights in the early 70’s, most were nothing but incandescent bulbs with a blue coating on the outside, grew great stems!
I do agree, get the best lights you can afford, start growing and if you like it you can upgrade. As has been said, do your homework, check your spectrums, light intensity, and actual power draw. You don’t have to break the bank to get good serviceable lights. Many lights are brutally overpriced for a negligible improvement.

 

[bluter]

i had a raft of t5's before i got my first hps and thought i was the hot shit lol
that was after the street light. street light did great but we kept blowing up the fuse box so built a big t5 rig.

 

[Clinto]

Think we all on same page. I know not everyone can get a $1000 light but just trying to say get the best you possibly can. Will pay for itself pretty swiftly. Fatter harder more nuggs. Shit I started fluorescent lights in cupboards. Yes street lights been involved. Then. MH. withHPS following quickly for years did that. Got excited then quickly disappointed with early led. Then 2 years ago thought they must be better now. Searched around bout 6 mths. Got some. Same yields at least and half the power. Happy as pig in mud. Be good everyone. Take care. Grow some dankness

 

[HayStack]

In my opinion, most lights are pretty good. Even the cheap Chinese lights. The only real problem with the cheap Chinese lights is the footprint. I used them when I first started growing indoors and I ended up with 4 lamps in my 4x4 just to get full coverage. But with that many lights in a 4x4 tent, I have gotten some pretty good indoor grows.

I didn't start growing indoors until 2017, but lights have come a long way in the last few years. You can now get a decent light with a 4x4 footprint. They are a lot more expensive, but when you add up the price of four cheap Chinese lights, it's only a couple hundred more for a light with a big footprint.

 

[HayStack]

Mars is the best for the bucks you can’t get better using them !! I have the fc3000 fc6500 sp150 ts3000 all killer lights !!!! Hands down !!!

I've seen yours and @Moony light too. I think I'll have to get one for the 3x3 the 4x4 and the 5x5. But that will be a lot of money. So I'll start with the 3x3 to see how I like it. It I'm pretty sure it will be nice to have a single light that covers the whole tent.

 

[Moony]

I've seen yours and @Moony light too. I think I'll have to get one for the 3x3 the 4x4 and the 5x5. But that will be a lot of money. So I'll start with the 3x3 to see how I like it. It I'm pretty sure it will be nice to have a single light that covers the whole tent.

Yeah man. Any of the mars bar lights are a good option

 

[Mike Wright]

LED's are technology and tech changes rapidly. I bought two Mars lights back when they were TopLed. I still have one and it still works. I sold the other when I stopped growing to live abroad for a while. When I came back I bought a Vipar, the leds were 5 watts versus 3 on the Tops. When Cob's hit the right price-point I "stepped up" to one of those. Then QB-style lights, same thing for my current setup.

So instead of buying all those $250 lights, what if I had taken $1500 and bought the best thing available in 2014, like a BudMaster II? I'd have a 7 year old early-gen LED a lot bulkier, hotter, and less efficient than my newest lights. And I've still got a bunch of decent lights for backups and veg.

Spend what you're comfortable with and keep in mind that you can always upgrade later.

 

[SmokingWings]

Should of tried to find grow lights in the early 70’s, most were nothing but incandescent bulbs with a blue coating on the outside, grew great stems!

I wasn't growing any weed indoors and did not even think about doing it. Every time the conversation got around to the topic we ended up talking about the lousy 'grow lights' which were just like you mentioned.

Or, we were the electricity hogs like the MH or HPS commercial green house lights. Not only the electric bill but then we would have had to deal with the heat. Then work, life and the lack of weed that wasn't bland, over-dried, expensivce and poor quality was enough to get me to move on to other things. But, even back then we knew about those new-fangled LED lights and figured that they would eventually become a major player.

 

[bluter]

LED's are technology and tech changes rapidly. I bought two Mars lights back when they were TopLed. I still have one and it still works. I sold the other when I stopped growing to live abroad for a while. When I came back I bought a Vipar, the leds were 5 watts versus 3 on the Tops. When Cob's hit the right price-point I "stepped up" to one of those. Then QB-style lights, same thing for my current setup.

So instead of buying all those $250 lights, what if I had taken $1500 and bought the best thing available in 2014, like a BudMaster II? I'd have a 7 year old early-gen LED a lot bulkier, hotter, and less efficient than my newest lights. And I've still got a bunch of decent lights for backups and veg.

Spend what you're comfortable with and keep in mind that you can always upgrade later.

at the top end they've improved by miles.

there are a ton of low end and middle players building less efficient lighting. there are emitters and architecture still being built and sold as new that is at least 5 yrs out of date now. in order to know what a decent light is you really have to know the components that went in to the rig and how it was built.

i built cob rigs before they were commercially available. at one point most guys running led were doing it as a diy project. i came from a lighting background in production, so it wasn't a huge leap.

my rigs were expensive, well over a grand cdn, but every single one is still running. i recently replaced a driver on a 7 yr old unit and the rig fired right back up with higher efficiency than original. my rigs are built with dimmers and under powered cobs adding years to the lifespan. it'll run a good decade or so.

if you get a decent led built proper, there is little need if any to constantly upgrade, until such a time you feel the new tech is worth it.

 

[Auggie]

I've told this story here before, so if you've heard it just move along.

I was 16. Had run away from home. Rented a walk up studio with a buddy of mine in San Francisco. WHAT a beautiful city it was then. sigh. Clean and fun and lots of hippy chicks ... what a great place and time to grow up. The worst disease you could catch could be cured with one shot of penicillin. Coke was really coke, not cut with poison, 95% and cheap.

Anyway. Our studio was over a pizza shop in the Tenderloin.
The guy that owned it was a middle-eastern gent. We decided that we were going to grow some pot. Scored a seed or two from a dime bag of mexican and planted it.
Bought a street light at a flea market and set the thing up.

Yea, it blew a couple of fuses, but we jury rigged more power from his kitchen which was right below us. I believe it was 480 volts. Prolly 10 amps.

All went well for a few weeks. Then it began to smell. I mean it smelled like a skunk crawled up Bob Marley's ass and died. The pizza guy was all, "what the hell is going on?"
We reassured him that he was gonna get some smoke too.

Then, one day it was SO bad. She was smelling very fertile. He bangs on the door, all freaked out. "Customer asking questions. Stinks. Plant must go. Or you must go. Maybe BOTH need to go ...."
"Ok, ok Mohammod. We can fix this."

So, I score some flexible ducting, and a small in line fan and we take up the toilet and feed the duct into the sewer.. Good idea, right?
LoL

It did smell a lot less. For a while.
But, in about three days THE ENTIRE LOIN SMELLED LIKE POT. I mean for blocks in every direction. It was coming up in houses and apartments and businesses in a nine block area.

The cops are going door-to-door knocking and sniffing. It was just a matter of time.
Mohammad was beside himself. LoL.

And we had to harvest fast and early.
He kicked us out.
I still gave him an oz of flower.

Herb Caen was a famous writer for the SF Examiner and he actually wrote an OP-ed about us. Well, not about US, because we were never caught, but he wrote about the 'ambiance of the Tenderloin' and wondered at its source.
Everybody did except me, my roomie and the pizza guy.

If we'd of gotten caught it was worth a Nickle in Quentin back then. Only good thing is that I'd of done the first two in Juvie.
Or, as they called it back then, "Gladiator School."

How DID I ever live to be as old as I am now?

I've had many adventures thru my life ... I am convinced that my final words on this planet will be "Here, hold my beer."


.



.

 

[HayStack]

I've told this story here before, so if you've heard it just move along.

I was 16. Had run away from home. Rented a walk up studio with a buddy of mine in San Francisco. WHAT a beautiful city it was then. sigh. Clean and fun and lots of hippy chicks ... what a great place and time to grow up. The worst disease you could catch could be cured with one shot of penicillin. Coke was really coke, not cut with poison, 95% and cheap.

Anyway. Our studio was over a pizza shop in the Tenderloin.
The guy that owned it was a middle-eastern gent. We decided that we were going to grow some pot. Scored a seed or two from a dime bag of mexican and planted it.
Bought a street light at a flea market and set the thing up.

Yea, it blew a couple of fuses, but we jury rigged more power from his kitchen which was right below us. I believe it was 480 volts. Prolly 10 amps.

All went well for a few weeks. Then it began to smell. I mean it smelled like a skunk crawled up Bob Marley's ass and died. The pizza guy was all, "what the hell is going on?"
We reassured him that he was gonna get some smoke too.

Then, one day it was SO bad. She was smelling very fertile. He bangs on the door, all freaked out. "Customer asking questions. Stinks. Plant must go. Or you must go. Maybe BOTH need to go ...."
"Ok, ok Mohammod. We can fix this."

So, I score some flexible ducting, and a small in line fan and we take up the toilet and feed the duct into the sewer.. Good idea, right?
LoL

It did smell a lot less. For a while.
But, in about three days THE ENTIRE LOIN SMELLED LIKE POT. I mean for blocks in every direction. It was coming up in houses and apartments and businesses in a nine block area.

The cops are going door-to-door knocking and sniffing. It was just a matter of time.
Mohammad was beside himself. LoL.

And we had to harvest fast and early.
He kicked us out.
I still gave him an oz of flower.

Herb Caen was a famous writer for the SF Examiner and he actually wrote an OP-ed about us. Well, not about US, because we were never caught, but he wrote about the 'ambiance of the Tenderloin' and wondered at its source.
Everybody did except me, my roomie and the pizza guy.

If we'd of gotten caught it was worth a Nickle in Quentin back then. Only good thing is that I'd of done the first two in Juvie.
Or, as they called it back then, "Gladiator School."

How DID I ever live to be as old as I am now?

I've had many adventures thru my life ... I am convinced that my final words on this planet will be "Here, hold my beer."


.



.

That was a great story. I never lived in SF, but I grew up in the East Bay, But I worked in SF from my early teens to my late teens and I know the area you used to live in. I took the Powel Mason line from BART to Mason and Union where I worked. It was always crazy in the Tenderloin, but in a fun way. I used to call the adult places, porn palaces. But I was too young to go in and check them out. Now unfortunately the Tenderloin is kind of a big mess.

 

[Nunyabiz]

2 plants
19 oz dried and cured
Under 2 cheap blurple LEDs

You work with what you got.

 

[CO Finest]

Your all scrubs because you don't have this light!!!!

If ya not using a FC8000 then you might as well just quit growing, throw your plants out and become a nomad roaming the lands trying to find meaning in a crazy world.

DANG.... I am a scrub I have every light but that one dang...

 

[Auggie]

That was a great story. I never lived in SF, but I grew up in the East Bay, But I worked in SF from my early teens to my late teens and I know the area you used to live in. I took the Powel Mason line from BART to Mason and Union where I worked. It was always crazy in the Tenderloin, but in a fun way. I used to call the adult places, porn palaces. But I was too young to go in and check them out. Now unfortunately the Tenderloin is kind of a big mess.

Yea, SF is a mess. It's awful.
It breaks my heart. I have been all around the world and I couldn't think of a more beautiful city.
The Demo/Socialists have ruined it. They've soiled their own nest to the point where it's not livable. You have to step over drug addicts sleeping in your doorway to get home, hose the feces and urine off the sidewalk in front of home. Keep the kids inside, can't play outdoors. Can't park your car unattended.
Just sad.

.

 

[bluter]

yea that's what did it. simple answers for simple folk.
so you are you suggesting we go back to prohibition and get driven underground again ?

 

[Skunksta]

Cant really blame people for the amount of opioids In most places anymore.
Some real FAT CATS making one hell of a lot of money .
I see more opioid problems now than anything else.
governments , drug companies , and big money is the real issues.

 

[bluter]

Cant really blame people for the amount of opioids In most places anymore.
Some real FAT CATS making one hell of a lot of money .
I see more opioid problems now than anything else.
governments , drug companies , and big money is the real issues.

there's a very strong political component to it. a very bad foreign gov't works with organized crime extensively to ensure a heavy supply of opioids to disrupt and subdue open countries.

though it's been known to be occurring for quite some time, it's only now we are beginning to openly acknowledge it.

 

[Auggie]

Cant really blame people for the amount of opioids In most places anymore.

Then who (or what) do we blame?

It's like a newscaster breathlessly exclaiming that "the SUV plunged thru the crowd", well, arrest it then. It's not the driver's fault, its the SUV.
Don't punish for breaking laws, write another law outlawing guns. It's the gun's fault.

 

[Skunksta]

If opioids were not pushed by every doctor for years in the USA.
You think your problem would be so big?
Or bad people or governments would flood the USA with prescription drugs.
No market for it no point in making/ripping of the product.
Theres no point looking up now seeing the results of years of abuse and crying.
Something should of been done in the 80s/90s.
Coke and dope for the younger gen are old people drugs.
We live in the pill age started by who?
The person you step over in your door way?
We could go back and fourth.
But i agree with you who wants there kids around that.
BUT the people who benefit from it all new this would happen at some point.
Did not care and took the money.

Wow it started of a light thread ended up world politics
Also its the same story here in the uk.
Homeless every where begging nice places turning no goes at night.

Hope no offence was taken as its not meant.

 

[Nunyabiz]

The opioid problem was caused by corporate greed and that corporate greed which has caused massive income inequality thus overwhelming poverty, anxiety, depression.
And the fact that same corporate greed made cannabis not just illegal but demonized it.
If doctors could have had cannabis all these years, or really fuck doctors, cannabis should have sold at grocery stores in the vegetable section for people to buy or plant as much as they damn well please to make their own medication.
There never would have been an opioid crisis if cannabis were never illegalized.
The root cause (poverty) wouldn't be a problem if we all rose up and put a stop to the corporate take over of the government and country in 1980.

Not sure what any of this has to do with lights though