Thank you, @OlyBoy , big kudos she’s one of us ladies, too @SweetNatsu … following!!
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Totally get where ur coming from but to spend close to a grand in lighting just isn’t practical for a home grower most of the time, I’ve had great luck running a mix of those, sure it’s not high end but they create light and have watched plants thrive under it. Sure there’s ALOT of better options but as starter setups they aren’t that terrible, and some are better than others, I’d never buy philzon again as those really showed their cheapness but have really had good results with the vipar vb1000 and all my bloomspect lights. I’d agree making your own truly is the way to go but not everyone is able and a lot just rather buy something turn key hang and go, I’ve grown 5 ft plants in a lil less than 3 months under a bunch of em so they do in fact get the job done. I’ve got power in mind too, if I’m gonna build an led unit pulling 10 amps then I may as well just fire up one of my mh or HPS, makes more sense to scatter a bunch of Lower power units for my setup. Could be worse, could be trying to grow under one of those 60 watt led trees, had to steer a new grower out here away from one of those today shaking my head hahha
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As long as ur running a 24 hrs light cycle ur fine, if your running anything different with a night cycle then complete darkness is a must and a tent helps with that, can find a good starter one for about 50 on Amazon
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Heres some of the plants I’ve had grow under em, like I said, may not be high end but got the job done
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Hey if it works it works!
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Well it’s a weed and most situations it will grow haha I just think the cheaper led lights get a worse rap than they deserve, worst ones I ever got was on wish spent 100 bucks on a bunch of false advertised crap and ended up with lil 45 watt license plates and some equally cheap plastic ones with tiny red and blue leds , barely put out any light, tried to dispute with wish and there was no support from them or trying to hold their sellers to their policies not falsely or deceptively offering something. Took the 100 dollar hit and will never buy anything off that site again but those lights were truly junk
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My only point now is that we as growers have to recreate the SUN indoors. No easy feat be any means. But dont cheap out on your SUN. Because you will end up buying more lights in the end.
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Well it got me thinking and doing a lil more research on what your running and some of my better ones, what I’ve found is not a whole lot of differences with my better units. The quantum board essentially just seems like 4 of my viparspectra vb1000 put together with the same 5k chips but viparspectra also has 3k chips too and seems very comparable (should also note even though I got mine for around 50 each this specific retails for 90-180 depending on seller)
Someone in another post also mentioned getting a good deal spending 450 on a sf4000 by spider farmer, well again looking at specs I don’t see anything more than 4 of these put together…
Which also made me wonder, why not one of these as a direct apples to apples to the spider farmer sf4000
So I guess it leads me to my final question, with so many lights and options on the market, what actually makes one light more superior to another?
What would a beginner getting into this look at to decide if the light they are looking at is gonna be a good fit for em or high performer
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Thank you! These are really great points and I’m loving all the info on lights.
I did run out and grab a soil pH tester. All of my soil is testing between 6.5 to 7. I believe that’s a good range but I do have some pH down if needed.
If you all don’t mind, I’d also like to hear some thoughts on water. I see a lot of growers using RO water. I grew up in TN but I was so young I don’t remember water quality other than the beautiful springs. I’m from Florida and now own property in New Mexico, both of which have hard to very hard water. My grandpa and my mom were also gardeners and we didn’t have a water softener or RO system. I’ve never used a specific water to water my plants. I know carbonate is not good for plants. But RO removes all minerals. So, what’s so special about it?
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Well 6.2-6.5 is the sweet spot for soil pH, just make sure ur following the directions with the tester and some cases u have to leave in soil for 10 min for an accurate reading, hard to come by a good probe style one though in my opinion. As far as water is concerned there’s a lot of factors, city water is typically treated with chlorine and would need to be set out for 24 hrs before use to let it evaporate as it can kill soil cultures especially brewing compost teas. Spring water usually has a lot of good natural minerals, rain water usually is best and most pure naturally. Then some of us are on well water(my scenario) which can vary from area to area, here our water is incredibly hard which can lead to a build up of calcium and salts, surprisingly hasn’t had any noticeable affect for me in my grows. Taking water and r/o it is just like taking a giant eraser to the water, your wiping everything clean out of it to create a blank empty canvas to have 100% control of your inputs, for example since my water naturally has a lot of calcium, I prob don’t need to supplement any, but if using r/o then the only way my plants would get calcium is eggshells or crushed oyster shell since my water has been scrubbed clean. Here’s a chart that will give u an idea of how pH directly relates to nutrient availability to a plant in the soil, this way u can visibly see why 6.2-6.5 is the sweet spot
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Always exciting! I love babies.
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Yay babies!
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I keep hearing about molasses being added to help uptake nutrients. How much would I use, say in 5 gal? A spoon or two? I’m thinking of using it for my adult plants outside.
As for my baby inside. I feel like it’s doing well. I always question myself though. I’m at that stage of “Do I start adding nutrients yet or not?”. I’m leaning toward yes. So that’s the question. Planted my seed on 8/22 so it’s 10 days now.
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see those little tiny round leaves on the bottom of your plants? those are feeder leaves. i dont feed until they fall off. some people do before that but its up to you
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Whoever told u that doesn’t actually know the true purpose behind it. Molasses doesn’t feed your plants, the microbes that feed your plants feast on it then feed your plants, if u try to throw it directly in your soil your gonna be attracting all your local ants directly into the soil. Molasses is used when brewing AACT(Actively aerated compost tea). The inputs your putting in the teabag are loaded with dormant microbes and your waking them up and getting em to multiply by giving them a bunch of oxygen and the sugars from the molasses to feast on to create a good colony to make the nutrients provided soluable to the plant.
This is my organic method and how my plants get fed so if your interested in doing an organic tea method ask away! Currently brewing a batch of flowering tea to get my girl’s budding up nicely
- I will note with caution though the amount in the recipe I use is 1/2 - 3/4 tablespoon per gallon but is also bubbled with amendments for 24-36 hours to be fed on
**Can also pm you tea recipes
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that too! 
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Honestly it’s more of a misunderstanding on my end. I’m pretty scatterbrained at times. Maybe a misrepresentation of a short conversation I had awhile back. Just wanted to clarify on a reputable source. All I really remembered was “use molasses when watering” and my brain telling me that’s not right. Now that you mention the compost tea it jogs my memory some. Thanks!
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Made me giggle a bit. You musta looked at that and said “mmmm uh uh”. You might be too young to remember the lancome lady from mad tv.
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Oh I remember I’m 32 haha not completely under a rock haha
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