I am a beginner grower who has done research on lighting but I’m looking for some knowledge on whats the best grow lights to start off with? I’m thinking of buying an 8x8 grow tent. Working in the industry now as well so I live and breathe this stuff and want to make a serious impact in cultivation and medicine!
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A diy led is prob ur best bang for ur buck. @imSICKkid is they guy to guide u there;) if thats too pricy growers house sells great 315 lec lights by prism science lighting for a great price imo.u cant go wrong with either.
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The easiest way to calculate what you need in terms of lighting is figuring out your footprint. So if you went the 8x8 route you would do some math
8x8=64sq ft
So with LED your shooting for a minimum of 30 watts per sq ft. but ideally 40 watts per sq ft is your best bet.
8x8 is 64…so 64x30=1920watts of LED
64 × 40= 2560watts this is really where you want to be.
Is there any LED’s that you like alot…in terms of quantum boards or strip builds. I have both strip, and boards and both work extremely efficient and awesome.
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Welcome @dwood34. I’m fairly new as well. Like you I’ve helped people through grows but never grew myself. Now I’m about to do my first harvest. I was skeptical about LED and so I believe you get what you pay for in them. The better light you can afford the better it will preform. My budget was limited so I got some cheap led and was very disappointed. I felt as the out put wasn’t there. So in fear of getting a small yield (knowing if I got a small yield I may just have quit) sooo I hopped on my local Craigslist and found an 600w hood and ballast and then went to my local hydroponic shop and got a new HPS bulb. For my veg area I hopped on Craigslist and put some stuff I had laying around on to the barter section and said what I wanted to trade for. I ended up trading a Turbo for a 4’ hybrid light. So hit up let go or Craigslist, or offer up and ask if people want to trade. All they can say is no. The barter system is real man and it works well on a budget.
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I personally have always liked the traditional ways and stuck with metal halide and HPS. Can’t go wrong with them if you don’t mind paying a scoach more for electric. My dad has the same 4x4 size tent I do and he has had to run 800w of LED and Cobb vs my 600w HPS flower tent and 300w veg closet and he has only gotten maybe 1/4 of the harvest I am. That pay off has been good enough of a justification for me to pay a little extra.
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What LED lights does he run specifically?
Lots of variables decide the yield in a grow besides the light. 800w in a 4x4 should be killing it!! There is no way your running circles around him unless we start talking about environment/conditions. The only way I can see this happening is if he has 800watts of blurples and Amazon lights, which in that case, I can understand why.
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Exactly I doubt its pulling 800w from the wall
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Ppl are still having issues discerning the difference between “equivalence” and actual power draw
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Coming from someone who just recently switched from mh/hps over to cmh/led power bill is half and the plants are doing better lower temps and with the test auto run I had a higher quality yield but about the same yield as the same wattage of hps the electricity drop and quality increase more than justified my switch THIS IS JUST MY OPINION ITS WHAT WORKS BEST FIR ME AND MY STYLE AND ENVIRONMENT but the proofs in the puddin’ as they say look through my journal what do you guys think
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Some of my nicest plants in my 8x8 are under an old blurple i had laying around. expected the opposite but it is what it is.
Im goona assume its getting all the photons it needs from the blurple and the spectrum is on point from the side lighting of other lights in the area
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I dropped LEDs and went full CMH/LEC. Wasn’t happy with led production. Especially since I started with the sun. Then moved indoor with HPS/HID
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Bluples are kinda a joke in the LED community. Go for a white light stress whether LED or LEC. Having a natural view of your plants really helps you to see problems before they get too bad
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I’m Just saying they work, The way people talk about blurples would make you think they kill your plants. They are subpar but can get the job done if you have them laying around
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Yeah of course so will a 23w screw in light.bulb. however just because it works. Doesn’t mean its giving the plant everything it needs
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The blurple company’s is what gives LED’s a bad name. Sure they will grow weed but not like a lm301b will. I dont try to force LED on anyone nor have I used the old style grow lights so you wont see me bad mouthing them. I speak solely on what I have done with LED’S.
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Ya forsure, don’t buy a blurple.
I had one i bought a long time ago kickin around. used it because i didnt have enough lights
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The problem I have is the new crowd paying 50 dollars for a “1000w” equivalent light that’s the size of a show box and then complaining when it doesnt flower a 4x4 tent. If you understand what blurples are all about and use them for what they are then that’s different. But the false advertising, unnamed diodes leaves a bad taste in people’s mouth more so then a good one.
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That’s exactly how I got burned…before finding GN.
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He is running 4 of the optic led and one similar to the bottom one. I don’t exactly remember what it was. I do remember he paid about 150 for it. The biggest difference is he runs mostly autos but this last run we’ve both ran a critical purple and mine is 3x the size of his. I’ve tried explaining vpd to him but I don’t think he cought on. He keeps his environment in the high 70s and we live in a relatively dry area so humidity is fairly low. I’ve kept tabs on your grow @deusoboy420. It’s looking stellar! I under stand the difference of equivalency vs actual. https://agron.io/products/optic-led-optic-1-grow-light?variant=29416297267309&gclid=CjwKCAiA_f3uBRAmEiwAzPuaM8uxJL4UPvG5oUu1Bd6FnU_DP710-IkMXzVmP4mvcTBgVN8O56vnLRoCw3UQAvD_BwE
https://cyboris.store/products/1200w-led-grow-light-cyboris-cob-led-plant-growing-lamp-with-adjustable-veg-and-bloom-switch-full-spectrum-growing-lamps-double-chips-for-professional-greenhouse-hydroponic-indoor-plants?variant=16411299217474¤cy=USD&utm_campaign=gs-2019-11-05&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign
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Are you guys soil growers? LED canopy temps should be in the low 80’s to get your plants into a good transpiration zone.
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