Help with LED lights

First time grow. Purchased 1000 watt full spectrum lights. Plants are auto flower Cheese. Plants are approx. 3 weeks old.
My question is: How close to the plants should I place the light?
Thanks for any guidance.

Start with 24” and move up or down according to the plant growth. Stretching, move down a bit and wait a few more days,

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You have to tell more about the lights. Wall wattage? Etc

Yeah it deppends mostly of what kind of light do u use. You can buy 90W lamp with 90 1W diods and you can do the same with 30 3W diods, the first one can be up to 20cm close to your plant the other has to be about 40-50cm from leaves. from my experience I know it is better to start further and then getting closer every day and see changes in plant growth.

it’s 100 watt lights x 100. I’m reading correctly, wall wattage is 185. Does this change anything?

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Sorry. That;s 100 10 watt lights.

So there is one of the first lies you will see when shopping for LED’s: quoting the output based on the peak wattage the LED’s can take but what they neglect to tell you is they only run them at (in this case) 18.5% of their rated peak. So actually you have to look at the draw from the wall: 185 watts. This would in theory be enough to use in a 2 X 2 tent.

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So frustrated! Newbie at this and need to grow for medicinal reasons. Bought 5 Cheese seeds and followed directions. All sprouted fine, then 2 just died. Remaining 3 were growing nicely. then they just stopped and leaves have yellow spots and are dying. Cheese was supposed to be easy to grow.
Not giving up, just need someone who has done this to shoot me straight on what to do. So much confusing info online. Looks like I wasted $100 on crappy lights.
Can somebody help me?

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@raustin, @Countryboyjvd1971 @MattyBear @dbrn32, I’ll weigh in and see if you can add to this:

Okay; the light you have is fine for the first part of the grow. When you are ready to start again you need to have the following:

Distilled water
Starter media like straight peat or coco
3% hydrogen peroxide
a small cup (I use a custard cup)
12 oz Solo cups
Empty clear water bottles

Place seeds in 1/4 cup of distilled water with 5 drops of peroxide added. Put in a dim, warm space (I use my cable box) and keep immersed until tails form. This can be as much as 7 days!!!

In the meantime, poke a bunch of holes in enough Solo cups to house each seedling. I use a nail and a torch and melt small holes all over the bottom and up the sides 1/3 of the way. Fill with starter media and dampen only . Place a seed in each cup about 1/2" deep and gently cover. Cut down a water bottle and lay it over the top as a dome. You will water twice per day by spraying distilled water on the inside of the dome only and then cover again. Lights should be 24" to 30" away set to 24/0. Temps to be 75 plus or minus.

Your plants have enough onboard nutrients for them to establish themselves in your starter medium and use NO OTHER NUTRIENTS until the very first leaves (cotyledons) yellow. At which point you can transplant into whatever medium you desire. If using soil, stay away from Miracle Grow or anything that says on the bag: “Moisture Control” or “Needs no Feeding for X months”. Organic materials like seaweed and bat guano are generally a better idea from a flavor standpoint.

Once transplanted, water sparingly to avoid damping off the roots and to promote the roots to hunt for liquid. If you are growing autos you may want to go directly into a 3 or 5 gallon cloth pot. If you are using soil you need no nutes until flower in all likelihood and adding anything too early will actually slow things down or harm the plant.

If you don’t have a decent PH meter I strongly advise purchasing one. Not one of the cheapy 3 in 1 devices either: they are worthless, as are drops and strips. Using distilled water early on obviates the necessity for PH’ing your water as it will adopt the soil’s PH.

Hope that helps get you started. Tag anyone using the @ sign like you saw above.

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I use rapid start peat pods to get the seeds going good along with all the things @Myfriendis410 is suggesting.


these things work wonders to get a seedling growing good. They’re around $17 on Amazon. Even the crappy lights will grow decent weed. Just not very much of it. That’s why I built my own.

Don’t give up but know this. It’s not easy to get going, but it does get a lot easier when you learn what you need to do to grow right. 3 things are the most important. Keep the pH of the water in the correct range for what medium you’re growing in. DON’T over-water your plants. They can take under-watering better than overwatering. Lastly these plants like bright lights, so keep them well lit even If that means you have to get rid of a plant to get good light coverage. You’ll get hooked on growing once you get a couple of badass plants under your belt @dwreyno. I did. I do it for medical also. Agonizing lower back pain. Chronic Widow helps me out a lot.

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All sounds good to me!

I’ll just add that it’s usually a lot more difficult than it seems. Some people pick right up or have someone to get them setup good from the beginning, they’re the majority. Stick with it @drewyno,

You’re in the right spot though, plenty of awesome members here to help guide you along. As far as the light goes, ya it’s far from a kick ass light. But it’s probably enough for a beginner to do a reasonable grow. If it were me, I’d stick with what you have there and make sure you have the rest of the basics covered. Once you seem to have everything you need together, hit me up and I’ll be happy to help you find something in line with whatever your goals are.

Anything else I can help with, let me know.

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I know it’s frustrating, but don’t give up. You all ready got some great advice, so try again. Im not going to confuse you with giving my own way of germinating, except that I also use Rapid Rooters and I highly recommend them especially for beginners. I’ve taken many newbs who couldn’t grow anything and got them to harvest, so when you’re ready just tag me and I’ll walk you through everything for a successful grow. I have lots of patience. :slightly_smiling_face:

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If I could, this was my first grow. This is just before harvest on one of them. They were 6 months old when I chopped them, because I had no clue about light schedules. I had every issue in the books (a gnat infestation was what ‘found’ this site for me). I ended up with a quarter-bag (7g) off of one plant, and an eighth (3.5g) off of the other - but it was primo LOL


So do some reading on here before making your next purchase if you can. I have some old gear I can sell you because it wasn’t that great but I bought it not knowing.:roll_eyes:

Your primary thing to set up before dropping a seed is the environment, (light, air movement, temperature and humidity controls as needed) then your grow medium. Lots of options to grow a plant - but none of them include Miracle-Gro LOL. You’ll also need a good tester for your water. Don’t waste money on Amazon exclusive Chinese crap. There are relatively inexpensive models that are more accurate and easy to use. We’re here to help, or point you to those that can.

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Those rapid rooters are amazing. Not one dead plant since I read something you posted last spring about them. Cheap too. 50 of them for $17. That’s a year’s worth of plants for me.

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I’ll add to that and say that because of the rapid-rooter (I got ‘root riot’) success, I now put the rooter right in the starter medium in the solo cup. The first rooter I used it grew so fast that the taproot made it out the bottom before I saw it.

Also, a clear solo cup allows you to see root development - placed inside a regular solo cup to keep the light out. You don’t even need a bottom on the colored cup.

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Yeah, Rapid Rooters are almost idiot proof, I always recommended them to beginners.

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I have grown since 1975 in soil with good results. I bought a DWC 8 pot system ( not recirculating) for my first Hydro grow. I thought I was a pro and soon found out that I had a lot to relearn. Widow was my choice and I got 8 up and running. I did not fill H2O past the bottom of the nets (mistake #1) I also did not use Hydroguard at first (mistake 2) mistake three was overestimating the amount of nutes. I also was used to growing in neutral soil but the hydro seems to like it around 6 instead of 7. My past experience allowed me to recognize my mistakes and I lost 1 plant to root rot and another pigmy’d on me but I am ending up with 6 lovely ladies. Strange though that 3 grew like they were in soil (Compact with nice thick buds) the other three look like Sativa’s elongated but large nugs and a massive center cola. I planted on June 15th and it looks like harvest will be around Sept 22. They are weeds and it takes a lot to kill them - just learn what they are telling you and you will do fine. I will post pictures but am waiting for a cable to pass the pictures from the Camera to the comp. My next grow is going to be Banana Kush…

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Sorry - I veged for 5 weeks at 18/6 (because of room heat) and went to 12/12. Also my CFL’s give about 2200 lumens per square foot - grow area between 20-24 feet. The 6 plants did fill the area.

@Myfriendis410 has given good advice As have the othe members

@Hadarock so true
@dwreyno we can and will get you on track
Pictures help us see whats going on so i will suggest you pist a few when you start again
Also can you give me a run down on your set up and do you have all the needed meters ect

As far as the light goes starting high and lowering is best when working with a new light
That your not familiar with lower it a little until tou find sweet spot
Sprouts will streach towards the lights if its to far away

When you get going again tag me and ill guide you as needed
Im sure the others feel the same way

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Man, you guys are AWESOME!! Didn’t expect that much help! Thanks sooo much. Not giving up, especially now that I know ya’ll are there. This is great!

A question. Do I need a grow tent? May sound stupid, but I tried these in a bathroom where I can control the light and smell is no issue. I have a fan circulating air.

Gonna post some pics of the 3 sick ones left to see if possible to save.

Thanks again for all the info!

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