Please help us pick a light

[Miamihustlers]

thank you for answering so quickly, is ONE of these lights good enough for the grow tent size? some people on reddit were saying one light is too small for 36x36x72, what do you think?

I have a 600 watt viparspectra in a 2x4 tent and it yeilds wonderfully..I got it off amazon for $160..good luck...

 

[Slowpuffer]

I have a 600 watt viparspectra in a 2x4 tent and it yeilds wonderfully..I got it off amazon for $160..good luck...

Do you have numbers for your yield ? Wonderfully means nothing .

 

[BTzGrow]

Do you have numbers for your yield ? Wonderfully means nothing.

Yes, Please! I provided some yield numbers with my post and those are based on watts drawn from the wall. AC watts. My typical harvest for Fem'd Regular Seeds and Clones works out to about .75-.8grams per AC watt.

So my UK Cheese harvest was a little over 2oz for a 100watts AC for a HLG board. That works out to be a little lite at just over .5grams per watt. Considering that it's was an Auto and having no control over the veg cycle accounts for that.

 

[Cotarakos]

Like @Dwight Monk said, a lot of the lower cost offerings from HLG are kits with some assembly required. They are nice lights if you are capable. A similar yet plug and play option would be a Mars Hydro TSW 2000. They are cost effective too. Yield can vary widely with autos based on many factors (experience, seed genetics, lighting, nutrients, etc.). My first grow 4 years with 5 autos I was probably lucky to get 5oz. My last grow with 3 autos I got 29.5oz. I will say that lighting is the #1 thing that has increased my yields. If there is one area to spend a little more, it's lights.

So true on the light spend a little more now for a better quality plant.

 

[missty80]

Order your first 300g bag direct from Greenleaf. They will give you a "free sample". Look for the free sample promo code on their website. You pay shipping. Will probably be around $5 for the shipping. If you are growing just 2 plants, the 300g bag might get you through your entire first grow.

eh, i tried...out of stock =( i guess i'll have to try again later. thank you for the tip though, that's gonna save me some $ later =)

<3 misty

 

[missty80]

sorry to here about what you are going through , You are in the right place for help . For that size tent I would recommend spectrum king closet case 140W . I just produced over 1g per watt off of one plant in a space almost half that size and they are rated for 3x3 flowering space . They run cool and have a great warranty and a great product . Its all I use . By all means stay away from amazon blurple lamps I have 1k worth collecting dust in my attic .

that light looks amazing! but at $375 i can't afford it right now. thanks for the tip though, i'll add it to my list, hopefully i can try that out at a later time

<3 misty

 

[missty80]

ok so i was away over the weekend, i finally got some much needed rest...took my tent out and went camping by myself with some shrooms and orange herijuana and just chilled...god i needed it...

ok so back to business, thanks for all the recent input but i thought my setup was fine? the pots, the coco loco, the CMH light i posted, isn't that all good for doing a decent 3x3 grow? =/ i'm starting to get kinda confused again X.x

one person says a 600w "blurple" light does .75g per watt, another person says blurples are terrible, another person says coco loco is hard to use, another says it's easy, omg i feel like i'm starting all over from the beginning again and i thought we'd gotten all this figured out

i just don't know anymore...

 

[Barney86]

The short answer is yes. That will certainly do you for your first grow

 

[missty80]

The short answer is yes. That will certainly do you for your first grow

@Barney86 thank you for that, but am i gonna have to upgrade and spend even more $$ in like 6 months?

i don't expect growing a gram per watt, but .75 would be nice so this isn't a huge waste of $$ and effort, my mom is depending on me to do this properly...i'd love to spend a lot of $$ on powerful lights but i just don't have it right now X.x

thank you

<3 misty

 

[Barney86]

@Barney86 thank you for that, but am i gonna have to upgrade and spend even more $$ in like 6 months?

i don't expect growing a gram per watt, but .75 would be nice so this isn't a huge waste of $$ and effort, my mom is depending on me to do this properly...i'd love to spend a lot of $$ on powerful lights but i just don't have it right now X.x

thank you

<3 misty

Right , the gram per watt thing.
This is just a general, basic rule we follow for blurple led, HPS and CMH lights only.
The lights are all capable of producing well over that but for a decent run, asuming you've filled the useful footprint of the light with a fairly even, fairly tightly packed canopy then you should hit around gram per watt.
Roughly.
It's a bit easier in Coco/hydro compared to soil aswell so you've got that on your side too.

If your CMH is a 400 then it's about perfect for a 3x3 and you won't much be able to improve on the potential yield of the space without high end LEDs.

Just cos lights are cheap though doesn't mean they're useless. My profile pic was grown under a shitty 130w CFL for 2 weeks. Then under a 240w cheapo blurple that was made sometime around the year 2000. Can't even buy them anymore they're that out of date.
About a month in I added another one. So had 480w of literally the oldest, cheapest, shittiest LEDs the world has ever seen and I still got over 600g from a single auto.

Light quality is important. There is a fair difference in the quality of the end product between high end LEDs and cheap LEDs but CMH and HPS aren't all that far off the top end stuff.
if that's all you can afford then that's all you can afford. It's not the end of the world.
You'll still get plenty quality meds at the end of it. I've seen lots of guys outgrow the professional light guys with cheapo Amazon specials. Just uses a bit more electricity to do it.

 

[Barney86]

I know it's all a lot to take in on your first grow but it will all fall into place soon enough. Takes about a month of stressing to get over it all lol X

 

[missty80]

I know it's all a lot to take in on your first grow but it will all fall into place soon enough. Takes about a month of stressing to get over it all lol X

@Barney86 it's this light from amazon: i've posted a complete rundown of my supplies list and it was approved, but i'm a little OCD about this stuff (it isn't for me...if it were for me i wouldn't care that much lol)...

Sun System Grow Lights - Digital 400 Complete System - 400W | 120/240V - Plug and Play Grow Lamp For Hydroponics and Greenhouse Use

would you kindly take one last look and make sure i'm not missing anything??

Grow tent 36x36x72 - check
Grow lighting - check
Carbon filter - check
4" inline fan for carbon filter - check
Inline fan speed controller, this lets you have "dimmable" ability over the inline fan, otherwise it will run at 100% and its kinda loud. - check
4" airline tube, looks like dryer hose - check
Fan for air circulating inside tent - check
Power bar to plug everything in with power surge protection - check
Cannabis seeds - check
Rapid rooters or jiffy pucks 1 per seed - check
2gal Air pots 1 per seed - check
Shallow bin to put air pots inside of to catch the water runoff, 1 per air pot - check
Coco + perlite medium, 70/30 - check
PH pen - check
Megacrop nutrients 300g Minimum - check
Watering container, to mix your water with nutrients and use to water plants - check
EPSOM SALT (Magnesium Sulfate) - check
CalMag+ - check
Water - check
PH up and down, store bought or DIY - check

i'm also following your coco feeding schedule that was linked to me

i'm not sure what to do with the epsom salt though...

and can you advise me how you flush? is it 2-3 weeks before harvest time? you just run clean water through the plants once per day?

i'm doing autos so i'm not 100% sure when they'll be ready to chop...this is my first time growing cannabis...i think they need something like 60 days from seed to flower, then another 45 days or so for flowering?

thanks for all your help ^_^

<3 misty

 

[Mayne]

man, for starters, the TS1000 is perfect, get 2 if you want. $300 for a nice starter, well above par then anything other then HLG on Amazon. It actually crushes the $150 HLG100, 300 watts of Up to date technology,

Without going way of DIY, this is the best deal on the net, I think anyways.

 

[Mayne]

So your not going cocoloco route, Misty?

 

[missty80]

man, for starters, the TS1000 is perfect, get 2 if you want. $300 for a nice starter, well above par then anything other then HLG on Amazon. It actually crushes the $150 HLG100, 300 watts of Up to date technology,

Without going way of DIY, this is the best deal on the net, I think anyways.

@Mayne it looks ok, but reviews say it's flimsy and runs hot, and besides i'd prolly need 2 of them and then we're back to over $300 again =/

yes, fox farms coco + perlite

<3 misty

 

[Mayne]

This was just released an hour ago. This guy is the owner of a light company that uses Luminus, the cobs I use. He does pretty indepth reviews of ALL the lights currently in the LED grow industry, he has a board with the best to worst. This light is no joke. Put a fan on the cover, and your good to go, it doesnt get any hotter then any other light out there.


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[missty80]

@Mayne thanks for sharing that with me!

my only question is: why spend $300 for 2 of those lights when i could spend $150 for the one CMH?

is growing cannabis always this difficult and confusing or am i just dumb x.x

 

[Mayne]

and, with 2 of them, you can dim them, to create even less heat, and use less power.

 

[Mayne]

@Mayne thanks for sharing that with me!

my only question is: why spend $300 for 2 of those lights when i could spend $150 for the one CMH?

is growing cannabis always this difficult and confusing or am i just dumb x.x

You know why? Becasue the CMH is 1 source of light, so to get the spread to the outsides, you have to use more power and raise the light to get the spread, = more heat. WIth 2 of these, you have 2 light sources, double the spread, and use less watts, because you can lower closer to the canopy.

 

[Barney86]

Right. Hmmm.. what did i spot there.. oh aye, no jiffy pucks. They're a bit prone to stunting plants. The root riots are 100% safe.
2L pots aren't big enough unless your plan is to grow loads of them. Want 3-5gal for autos. Personally I don't see any difference between the 2 sizes but need at least 3 gal/ 12-15L. More space for the roots equals more weed
I've never used that megacrop, it's different from the usual nutes most of us use but there is someone who does very well with it.
@farside05 is it you?