You know in movies when someone steps on a landmine and hears that *click*?
Lights are a hugely debated topic, there's so much data and so many options, but here's an abridged version since you're specific that you want a light to start seedlings;
-Lights and bulbs that you typically can buy at Wal-Mart or a similar store are pretty bad for all kinds of growing. Standard bulbs or fluorescent "grow" lights are weak and a waste of money. You technically can start seedlings with them, but you'll soon be chucking them in search for better.
-This leaves us with 2 main options (for seedlings/veg state); LED, or MH (metal halide). The prices are close enough to not make much difference, but LEDs are cheaper to run, and generate less heat. MH lights need a ballast and use much more electricity, and you may have to manage your heat.
If you just want to get seedlings started indoors, as a beginner your best bet is probably going to be an LED hanging light. They're easy to set up, fairly cheap to run, and will get your seedlings growing just fine without having to deal with a bigger electric bill or setting up a heat vent system.
It looks like a blurple, and it seems to be fairly high above the canopy. I've used this light, which you'd think is 600W, but actually draws 260W at the wall. I found it was barely adequate for a 3 x 3 tent, but I noticed a 3 fold increase in bud size when I upgraded to a more efficient light. The efficiency of blurples is about 1.05 umol/w, whereas something like a Mars Hydro is 1.8 umol/w. If you multiply your actual draw wattage by the efficency, and divide by your square footage, you want to be somewhere around 65 umol/sqft (700 umol/m^2).
I would also get a 600 w led. This one on amazon is a really good deal. If you’re really hurting for cash get the 300 w version for about $80 I think.
Also, you could start in cheep 5 gallon buckets. Get good garden planter soil from Lowe’s or Home Depot. Put drain holes in buckets. You can also just use miracle grow as nutrient.
Read i love growing marijuana website too. You could get closer to 600 grams as a rookie with that light, and good soil.
VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 600W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum for Indoor Plants Veg and Flower https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019ETLC7M?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf
He's referring to something like this.
Pay attention to the amount of power it draws from the wall, not the "600w" figure they posted which is going to be quite wrong. I did the math on the ones available on Amazon, and the Viparspectras seem to give you the best W/$ ratio.
That's the nice one. If I had to guess there is probably like $300 (new) in grow equipment here. The other is 1000w, but about half the size of the Viparspectra, and I'm not sure the brand.
I have a 36x36x72 grow tent, and this is the light I use.
It has a setting for veg/flower, but I just keep them both on to maximize the amount of light they're getting.
It's this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019ETLC7M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The manual said 30"-34" for seedlings. I initially had it there, its now about 24". I literally planted the seeds last night so I don't know if the light is super important or not. Right now its main function is being a heater. It's got my 32" x 32" x 64" tent at a rock solid 74 degrees.
A couple sprays of water on the sides of the tent seems to keep the humidity around 70% as well.
If I pop a HPS or CMH bulb in my grow room (not common but it can happen), not only have I ruined my whole grow, but I have also contaminated my whole house with mercury vapor.
LED feels safer. And easier.
Amazon has several highly rated LEDs that aren't much more expensive than quality HPS or CMH setups.
I used to run HPS and expanded my setup by buying one of the cheap HPS kits on Amazon. It worked great. For a month. Then the ballast died and I had to drop even more money on a Lumatek to replace it.
Actual power consumption: 5W,
Long story short these are pretty bad LEDs. get one of these if anything. https://www.amazon.com/VIPARSPECTRA-Reflector-V600-Spectrum-Indoor/dp/B019ETLC7M/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1535691653&sr=8-6&keywords=viparspectra
I use these 600w for my 4x4 tents, you could also put smaller light strips on the side if your worried about light coverage but this good beginner grow light in my opinion
Thanks for your feedback, and these are questions I should consider as I’m starting my grow.
I guess as I begin, I was hoping to find an ideal route that would allow me to adapt as I go. I have a decent amount of space for growing (an entire 10x10 room) and am willing to budget fairly for what’s needed. I just don’t want to overextend, as I will just grow for personal use (albeit, I do smoke quite a bit). I want to keep the plants “clean” and as healthy as possible, and hope to test out a few different strains. For lights - I’m willing to go as suggested, but initially considered LED (maybe something like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019ETLC7M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_0a0aAbD9B8DYH).
I’d love to connect and chat if you have more insight for a beginner grower. Thanks for your initial feedback!
Gotcha, unfortunately I can't get my grow started for another few months, but I'm thinking I'll go with either 2 mars or 1 of these https://www.amazon.com/VIPARSPECTRA-Reflector-Spectrum-Indoor-Plants/dp/B019ETLC7M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1497694007&sr=1-1&keywords=viparspectra+600w&linkCode=sl1&tag=4200a7-20&linkId=377b25248035ff5...
What heat output??? they run very, very cool. When I went from HPS to led, I went from active cooling to passive cooling. Seriously, they're the best.
4x4 will be a little more pricey, but not by much.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019ETLC7M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_eGNJzbZ1PJ0B6
Something like this, or use 2 units and spread them out (that's what I'd do)
Get two of the 600s instead of a single 1200
VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 600W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum for Indoor Plants Veg and Flower https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019ETLC7M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_twivzbHD8EZ14
That way you can move them and space them out to get a little bit better coverage.
Or you could even get 4 of the 300s for the most even coverage. You would have the fewest shadows and wouldn't have a "hot spot" in the middle with dim areas around the sides. You'll end up spending right around the same but with better results.
I recommend the Viparspectra LED. well priced, quality product that produces. https://www.amazon.com/VIPARSPECTRA-Reflector-Spectrum-Indoor-Plants/dp/B019ETLC7M/ref=sr_1_2?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1491061326&sr=1-2&keywords=viparspectra
This LED is good and has daisy chain capability. It has separate blue (veg) and red (bloom) spectrum lights. Regardless of what the manual says, you DO need the bloom light on after the seedling becomes a plant and throughout veg. You don't want this light too close to seedlings or young plants, manual recommends 24+".
currently my dad has a umm lets just call it a grow set up in our basement with some tomatoes and other plants and uses these lights https://www.amazon.com/VIPARSPECTRA-Reflector-Spectrum-Indoor-Plants/dp/B019ETLC7M/ref=sxr_rr_xsim1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=2286650982&pd_rd_wg=PlYlM&pf_rd_r=QK2GEMK706A18J4JAS4Q&pf_rd_s=desktop-rhs-carousels&pf_rd_t=301&... its a full spectrum grow light and i was thinking of just putting my plants down there for the winter, however there is not a ton of temperature variation from day to night down there, as it is a very controlled environment. I was thinking of getting something like that and just putting them in an old fishtank in their pots as a makeshift terrarium and then just removing them from the windowsill and just using the grow light, as there are massive temperature fluctuations and the window is pretty drafty. Any experience with the 'full spectrum' lights?
Performs great I couldn't be happier with it. They'd been running pretty much constantly for 4 months and not any problems. VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 600W LED https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019ETLC7M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ez90xbWN6GA78 I'm planning on getting another one or there 1200w model eventually.
I generally recommend these guys over marshydro. They actually include their PAR charts and include a 3 year warranty. + Veg Bloom switches =)
So I posted last week, i have a 3.5 x 3.5 x 48 tent and a 600w MH/HPS setup currently and just flipped the lights last night to 12/12. Did my first grow over the summer and had great results and honestly was very happy with yields however the electric bill was simply too much to continue doing.
Well now i'm on my second grow and got $500 to amazon and originally bought two viparspectra 600w reflectors but plan to return them after learning and researching COB setups, they really seem like the ideal setup as it has better PAR, better output and just better technology with fuller color spectrum so given that, i ordered 2 of these Morsen 600w COB LED Full Spectrum and of course now i'm second guessing myself because it seems like two of these won't be enough.....
i just need anyone who can offer any insight into what they think is ideal for my setup, whether it's two smaller COBS, one larger COB setup or whatever, i need to save on electric and i'm buying through Amazon so as long as it fits that criteria I'd be unbelievably appreciative if anyone can offer up their recommendations ....
THANK YOU!!!
>yeah my plants looked like yours - pale green not lush green - i switched to VIPARSPECTRA UL Certified 600W LED Grow Light,with Daisy Chain,Veg and Bloom and King Plus 1200w LED Grow Light Full Spectrum for Greenhouse Indoor Plant Veg and Flower(Dual-chip 10w LEDs)
I've been growing one at a time in a 2x2 tent and using this Viraspectra, true draw 260W. Had it for 18 months and I'm happy. Haven't had any issues. From my amazon search it looks like they have bigger that would still fall in your price range.
Recent bud pics:
It costs $130 dollars on Amazon... That's a rip off for a low quality 105 watt light dude. Im not even an elitist, that lights just a rip off.
Even this light which has more than double the wattage costs like 20 dollars more and will grow more than double the bud. Its a 260 watt light vs your 105. If you want to use 105 watts for a 4x4 be sure to post pics of your long ass unhealthy stems you are gonna be growing. Go ahead and waste the money you dont have then and fuck off.
Heres a light for 130 that is 6 times the power of the one you posted and runs the same in terms of efficiency
I want to fill that space with 6-10 plants doing 12-12. For simplicity I was thinking two of these https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019ETLC7M/?tag=420homepage-20
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019ETLC7M/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
That is the one I have.
I just bought VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 600W which supposedly compares to a 600 watt HPS/MH
Thanks! I am using 2 different LED lights in my tent (Apollo 4'x4'). I started out with just this light for the first 3 weeks because I was short on cash and thought I'd try my luck at skimping on coverage with a cheap, Chinese light from Amazon. By week 3 or so, I had serious doubt about its ability to cover 4'x4' in flower. I bought this light to run in addition.
I was thinking of buying this VIPARSPECTRA LED light to use for the whole process. should I buy 2 for my 4x4 tent?
I went with these VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 600W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum for Indoor Plants Veg and Flower https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019ETLC7M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_u4T3eWMbK8AEr
The light I do have right now is the led 600w
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019ETLC7M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
how do you find that price history on items? this is what i'm looking for: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019ETLC7M/ref=crt_ewc_title_srh_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1BSXM5KIS5MZE
So I went by the guide (for the most part) and stayed under my budget. Decided to stay in soil, just for the time being. Went with an LED, but I'll probably have to upgrade at some point. This was everything I got, and stayed a hair under that $400
I got this LED light
This Tent
I need something for clones as well
Then I got a Surge protector with a timer, a nice pruner, clonex solution, the adjustable light rope hanger. My plants still small, but I should be prepared for the future and I know I'm definitely gonna need an exhaust fan in the near future.
So, did I totally screw the pooch?
Hmm ok. it's a little pricier but would the 600w Vipar be worth the money as compared to two Mars 300 LEDs :
i doubt youll find much for high quality leds on amazon. 1000w hps/mh light would be the cheapest upfront cost but cost a lot with electricity. you can get those on amazon.
Good leds arent cheap but give better yields and lower energy costs. blurple leds(cheap purple led off amazon) work but arent any better than hps/mh.
a cheap 1000w HPS light will run about $200-$300.
if you wanna do 1000w of cheap leds its gonna be about $680 for 4x https://www.amazon.com/VIPARSPECTRA-Reflector-Spectrum-Indoor-Plants/dp/B019ETLC7M/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1526005356&sr=1-1&keywords=600w+viparspectra
High quality leds would be like $800+ such as 2x https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/kits/products/320w-xl-qb324-led-kit?variant=8092027715676
The red spectrum LEDs can do a lot of damage to seedlings and young plants in veg if they are too close, I found that out the hard way and now have an LED that allows blue, red or blue and red together for flowering mode. The young plants seemed healthier and seemed to grow much better in both height and density with the blue at 24".
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B019ETLC7M/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1