Lights, power/watts, heat and ventilation, HID and LED

[budbd]

Well, the two for $137, they are purported to have the proper amount of light spectrum, and have proper number of IR leds, and interestingly, seem to have more red than the single $200 IPower 600 watt led I have, of which, the more expensive 600 watter makes me really really wonder if it is good only for vegging only. I don’t have a lot of experience like others, but if leds can, for personal use, produce a deecent amount of bud during flowering, but maybe less than with hps, then so what. I mean, if I was someone else, I would just get the 300 watt lights for personal grow, even if that meant having four of them in one tent, 300 watt equivalent x 4= 1200 watts equivalent. I don’t like the look or specifications for those ufo round lights you talk of, they always seem to have a lower wattage rating.

I experimented with cfl light bulbs, the curly tube style, for additional lighting in a cramped space, under the plant canopies for additional light with aluminum relectors, the type of cheap clip on light fixtures from Walmart for bout ten dollars, using cool white and warm white producing I think 1600 lumens each, I think those did some good, and they did good two more outside my cramped tent I was using point at the parts of plants not getting led light. So, those can be useful for additional lighting as well.

Anyway, I would know more, but I have been experience a surge in bad heatlh, to the point I haven’t felt like using cannabis, not when I am popping my pain pills. I have a full range of books on the subject, but have not read them much.

HEAT, IS THE NUMBER ONE problem for us personal use growers, I am sure of it, AND LACK OF ALOT OF ELCTRICITY is the other one for most personal use growers, I am pretty much sure on that. If I was a commercial grower for dispensaries, medical patients, or other, I mean, then the problem is solved, ya know, ya throw loads of cash on the problem, have a pro setup, and whammo, no problems, …not with air condititioners, improved electrical grid, etc etc. But that is my laymans opinion.

[iceberg]

Yeah I’ve been using led for veg on my test plants they grew to 47" got,lucky and got 1 female out some bagseeds I haven’t flowered with the led yet been bringing it outside for light period and then shed

[garrigan62]

Ya, been watching the news. I have a friend out n Seattle and he was telling me how bad it is out there.

Trust me, you are a " LAYMAN "
On the lights I get mine at / 1000 Bulbs.com. or
Bulbs.com

If u look at the lumens. Say for 600 watt hops from two different companies both bulbs can b very different in lumens and in color red and blue for vegging. Or flower.
I"ll do more on this later this texting I really have trouble today.

Will

[budbd]

So the irony of ironies, I have two 4x8 foot tents in my 10x16 foot shed, and finally all my plants out in the shed tents, with each tent having an intake and exhaust six inch fan, and it gets real hot in the day and real cold at night, still doing a 24 hour photo period cause my five and a half moth old largest plants got damaged, well, four out of seven need more vegging growth to be better, due to close quarters before I moved them out there once set up So, I need to really have everything turn off for six hours during the day, but maybe have fans going during these hot days, and at nigh maybe have the intake of outside cold air turn off with a timer. I’m just using leds in the large plant tent, and t5’s in the younger plant tent, I mean, I am gonna have to figure something out, especially since winters this definitely can’t go on, super cold air blown across the plants. Ha, I almost want to set up my hps lights in the one tent, that would keep things warm and toasty, but eh, one step at a time. I get a chronic fatigue alot lately for some reason, really slowed me down, bad bad.
But, its like I am a beginner just starting out, I should have had bud months ago. Oh well, a snails pace for me due to various issues, I should change my screen name to molasses,…slow as molasses that is. Since I am in a cooler area, but gets real hot during the day, I won’t need air conditioning for my grow rooms/shed, I’ll eventually in the next couple days have it set up to be 18/6, with the six like 12-6 pm, maybe with all four fans running, then maybe stop both intake fans at 9pm by both being on a timer, or some similar arrangement, I mean, I have two four inch vortex fans, could bring in some air into the shed environment when cold outside and have small bits of six inch tube sticking out of each tent to bring in cold air drawn in from the exhaust fans, and then it all depend on it I don’t use hps in the one tent for flowering. The summer heat gets the shed very hot for several hours per day, peack temps inside the tents with all lights on have reached 82 degrees, 62-71 degrees fahrenheit at night …not especially good either way, I should have the lights off during those peak hot times, but lately I have been “ill” somewhat. Eventually I can tailor that shed for any time of the year, and I will keep on improving my shed, FOR ELECTRICITY, I USE two ten gauge extenstion cords with triple outlets on the ends, one for each tent. The fifty foot ten gauge cord is plugged into the outside 20 amp outdoor outlet, the other is a twenty five foot ten gauge extension cord with triple female end coming from a 15 amp breakered under the home outlets, I suppose it was for pipe heating tape, don’t need it where I am at. .

I am probably lucky to have the amount of space to grow like I do, alot of people are most likely not as fortunate,

[garrigan62]

I have the same problem " HEAT " an it was mainly from two sources.
From day time heat and most of all my two 1000watt. Hps
I fixed the heat from the lights by switching to two 400 watts hps for flower and I use two 300watt cfl’s for vegging and t5s for seedling and clones. I have an AC air conditioner witch is on 24/7
I put the girls to sleep at 7 am. EST and wake them at 7 pm EST
The vegging girls go to sleep at 12 noon till 6 pm
This all brought my heat down from 90 - 100 plus to 78 -87 degrees.
I vent heat up into the attic where my house AC came in.
I am posting a pic later tonight the results have been amazing.
I have also switched my nutrients from Roberts to PH Perfect nutrients.
I saw change within 3 days. Awesome stuff and for the fraction of the price.

B Safe
Will

[budbd]

I’ve got to actually put my oldest plants in five or seven gallon pots, veg them for a little longer, or at least half of the oldest plants. I have two ducted style hps assemblies with ipower ballasts, at $600 watts each, but I don’t really want to use them, cause 600 watts x2 is 1200 watts, I mean, even 600 watts seems like a lot of juice for just 6-7 plants flowering. I have no experience with hps, how much heat they make, maybe it would be a good thing, like flowering from 9pm to 9pm, when the air is cold outside.

Its too bad I have to go buy some larger pots, 5 or 7 gallon, cause the oldest plants, most of them, need more time to veg and repair from the former cramped area, plus I have switched to different fertilizers, the organic stuff, like also need to start using the microbial root enhancers, get them all built up extra, then use the organic flowering fertilizers, and maybe even work out some sort of co2 thing, as a rookie I wasn’t gonna do it, but maybe yeast fermenting could do it. Technically, I need to take a bunch of clones off some of them, since they are mother plants. I mean, this problem will likely never happen again, …needing to use five gallon or larger pots, maybe. Large plants, seven of them, take up pretty much most of the spare in a 4x8 foot grown tent, in case anyone wants to know. I may have to crop the tops on all of them, then of course they will need some sort of scrog setup before I flower.

[herbman]

Hello.
I’m starting to grow with 20W CFL 1305 lumen light bulb. Its temperature is arround 6500K.
The plant hasn’t showed up yet, I planted germinated seed yesterday(soil), gave it some nutrients (NPK is 15:15:15).
It is in a box (2x2 feet), that’s inside well-covered with aluminium foil.
Is the light strong enoug for one plant, and does the plant have good growing conditions?

[garrigan62]

First…never give newly germination seeds or seedlings nutrients.
You should wait till the seedling has at least 5 or more true sets of leaves.

B Safe
Will

[yoshi]

If you growing in soil straight out the bag , make sure you run ph water through until it’s ph between 5.8 -6.2 . Fresh bag soil of any kind can be to hot for germinated seedlings . I tested all brands of soil and each one first water run off was 7.1 which can cause early nitrogen burn or the seedling not grow at all . The best method I learn is to start seedlings in coco coir and perlite , keep lightly moist until first 3 nodes of fan leaves grow and transplant , and just ph water until the 5 node than top , after its topped , than start half of 2.5 ml nutrients of any brand until stalk gets girth or thickness , once second two nodes start growing after topped , it should be safe to start 5 ml of nutrients to plant with 5 ml of molasses or cal-mag …Happy Growing !!!

[darryl54]

question for my fellow growers my ballast has a 100, 75, and 50 percent rating on it by turning it down to 50 percent is this like running a 500 to 600 watt HID at 100 percent my light is1000w

[MacGyverStoner]

Yes, 50% of 1000 watts would be 500 watts. I doubt it would be equivalent to a 600, as 6 one thousand watt lights would not be equal to the amount of light 10 six hundred watt HPS lights would put out. The average 600 watt HPS light has a special place among HID lights, being that it is about the most efficient when comparing light intensity output or PAR as compared to the amount of watts it needs or uses to provide said light.

But yes, that is what those percentages will do, you can fine tune the amount and intensity of light for your plants’ needs and their size of development.

hope this helps,

MacG

[TxGrowman]

I’m jumping in a little late! I have a 300 watt LED, 300 actual watts drawn, that is rated at 432 watts. It works well in my 2x4x5 foot tent. I used it to grow some awesome buds on my last grow. It did heat up the tent a little but was always around 79-82 degrees. Overall, I have not used any other light in growing but limited CFL and then only LED lights for last two grows.

I also have a set of LED lights that I lower around the bottom of the plants to make sure the penetration is good. I am reasonably sure the 300 watt penetrates to the bottom but I may have increased the buds on the lower branches by using CFL and LED drop down lights in addition to the big light. I am pretty happy with the LED and will stay with them.

[Eddiemo]

Can one add cfl lightscan u use LEd lights and ÇFL together during flowering?

[yoshi]

Yes you can use them both together .

[cityofbaltimo]

Hey tx, I have a room ,15 ft tall,length,andwide, how many leds ,should I use ,or should I break room in different spaces,for different things

[TxGrowman]

Personally, I would divide the room into several smaller rooms. It depends on your experience in growing and the desired amount of product you want each grow. I would divide into three rooms: one for vegetation, one for flowering and a small one (with no lights, just ventilation) for just for drying and curing. Did you go through the information that MacGuyverStoner posted in the beginning of this post? I would look at those posts and I believe your questions will be answered there. He is one of the best experts on growing on this site. Latewood is also in the same category and many of us have good input just from growing and getting information from them.

Take home answer is HID lights require 50watts per square foot and LED 30-35 watts/square foot. The entries in this blog also discuss the value of being able to move the lights closer and get more kick out of smaller lights. Another very valuable source of information is the free e-book that Robert has on the site for Growing MJ. It has a lot of information in it. Review the entries posted above and I believe you will get your answers on lighting. As far as dividing the room, it is personal choice and level of experience that will tell you what to do. Your level of experience will come to play in this also, it is a lot of work keeping up with that much space and your lighting and cooling bills may be prohibitive. Good luck on your grow. Jerry