New Girl Here! Been Reading The Forums For Awhile & Still Going To Have Some Questions. --HELP-- I think I may have messed up before my 1st upcoming grow begins

I’ll be using DWC/Bubbleponics with rockwool & clay pebbles.The strains are autoflower; GG#4, White Widow…each will be grown in one gallon buckets (the Bumble Bee brand which was a High Times winner in 2012).Tent size 36x36x72. I have both a digital PH & TDS pen, my PH juices, Nutes & even eye wear lol.
What I’m mainly concerned about is the LED Light… it’s 12"x12", 225 watts of red, purple & white…is very bright but is that going to be enough to grow the auto’s with and have decent yield? I really need these girls to grow to capacity as I need them to make RSO for my Chronic Pain.
Thanks so much for all assistance.

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The thing I noticed when I ran autos in dwc is they never got real big before they went into flower, but it could of been something I was doing as well. I haven’t ran one in hydro because I didn’t like how they turned out so I went to using soilless(promix). I always thought this was because in hydro they develop a mature root system quicker than they do in soil. With 1 gallon buckets the ph could swing high to low or vica versa because of the small size of the bucket. The light I’m not so sure about so I would let someone that knows about light better than myself help.

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But of course your experience may be different. I meant in no way to say you shouldn’t run them in hydro. Just sharing my experience

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Wellcome to the forms! :smiley:

DWC tends to grow fairly slow. This is not necessarily a good way to grow auto flower plants.

Is the LED using 225W of power? If you got a second one, that would be perfect. You want lights that draw about 450W of total power from the wall.

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It will grow slowly for the first week or so because it’s developing the root system and by the time the plant begins to start to grow then the root system is mature enough and it begins to flower. Dwc is one of the quickest ways to grow.

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Hello, and welcome to the group! Can you post model of your light? Or if it’s available on amazon provide a link?

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Thanks Diesel, well it’s go to be a whole new learning curve for me lol :crazy_face: I am concerned about the small size of buckets but will stay on top of all levels and I chose to use LED to cut electric costs…my landlord includes it in the rent. I’m ready to roll soon as my gear arrives… waiting on seeds and waiting to actually order tent…don’t want both arriving together. Thanks so much for your help.

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Oh not a problem. I use led’s for less heat and because they are cheaper to run. If you run into problems just holler and we’ll get you the help you need

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Thanks for Welcome and info. I had a feeling a 2nd light was entering the arena lol. They say DWC isn’t for beginners but I’m stepping up for the challenge. I have no choice as I need the mdicine. Oh my!! :dizzy:

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Hi dbrn32, I bought a cheapie light I know but it’s what I could afford…this hydro gear gets expensive…here’s the link: hope i did that correctly. [225 watt led]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N48PJIF?tag=greenrel-20

EDIT If you post an amazon link as a link on it’s own line we can see the letter box. @bob31

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I understand completely!

The listing on that isn’t very clear. It says 225 .2 watt diodes, so around 50 wall watts. Which is inline with a lot of the reviews on Amazon are reporting.

You’re probably going to struggle to get the results you’re looking for with it. Adding another one won’t necessarily help as much as it seems. If it were me, I would save up a little money and put that towards something a little bigger. The light you have would be good for starting seeds or to supplement a larger light in my opinion.

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Yep that light is inadequate. @dbrn is the guru but I’d suggest even a UFO led light would be better even for that low price. I’d be saving up for a viperspectre 300 or 450. It might be a little more upfront but I guarantee you that when you get halfway thru your first grow you’ll be wishing you had more intense light and the light will pay for itself 10X over with every single grow you run thru it. The one you ordered will be fine to sprout seedlings but without more light, your going to run into stretch issues at the very very least. Just my opinion.

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That 225W light only uses 45W. You need something that pulls about 400W! You could get away with a single 450W Meizhi in veg, but would need a second one when you flip to 12/12. They’re $105 each and will pay for themselves in the first grow by increasing your yield exponentially.

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For 9 square feet, you need 450 real watts to flower. And that has to be real watts drawn from the wall, not marketing hype they claim in their ads. If you look carefully at amazon listings they usually say how many watts it draws.

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Thanks BigFella… I fell for the marketing hype for sure!! (kicks self in rear)…it was my 1st piece of gear purchased but has been haunting me …I’m so glad I asked the question,

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Thank you again for taking time to help me out,looks like I’m back to shopping for lights again… I’m determined to be posting pretty pics of my babies when they’re born :wink:

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No problem! I know how much money it costs to get started, so don’t get too hung up on having to make it perfect right away if it will stress your budget. What you don’t want to do is piece together a bunch of stuff that you’ll end up replacing two or three times over. You end up having so much money wrapped up in it that you could’ve bought the latest and greatest light two times over.

That light you have will grow a single plant. It just won’t be the hearty plant that produces several large dense nugs. It just seemed like you had quite a bit larger goals than that is all.

If and when you’re ready to purchase a new light, I’d be happy to help you find something.

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Welcome to ILGM.

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@Familyman420 Thanks bunches for the Welcome. I love this site… the info is priceless… the people here have been awesome.

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You’re in good hands here. Excellent peeps with a lot of knowledge!

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