I lived in Neb as a youth!
Still have a couple friends in Lincoln
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Rode Island! I bet everyone knows when you light up! lol
Ive been up and down the east coast. but never made it to RI
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If your friends are as nice as you Iād love to meet them 
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Welcome to the forum @MidwestGanjaGrow
@dbrn32 has good infi on light so ill let him guide you on that situation
I will say go with full spectrum leds they will work. Best imo
You can do 3 plants comfortably in a 4x4 tent
4 will fit bit be a little crowed a 5x5 would be better if you can fit it agian just my opion either will work
I know im always wanting just a little more room no matter how much space i take over its not enough hahaha
I have three tents myself
Anyway any questions feel free to tag me or a few other members
We have tbe best membership here all are willing to help and share their knowledge 
Happy growing 
CB
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This post by you should be part of a āhow to pick lighting for your new grew areaā tutorial @dbrn32! What a great post.
@MidwestGanjaGrow I grew up in MN and moved to MA from WI (12 years there) just two years ago. I may live in New England but I am definitely a Midwesterner.
Anyway - I grow in a space similar to what you are contemplating. Per @dbrn32ās feed back on my first grow, I ended up adding a second light to my grow. I committed one of the newbie mistakes a lot of us make: I bought a ābigā Chinese LED (1500w King Pro) thinking that would cover my 4x4 tent no problem. Well, it was fine for veg, but when I went into flower on my last (and first) grow, I had problems and had to buy a second light.
In retrospect, I wish I had 4 600w lights instead of 2 1500w lights. My lights draw an actual wattage of 260w, so I currently have 540w of true power consumption in my 4x4 tent. I just hit flower, so this will be my first grow with that much wattage throughout its entirety.
If I were starting over, I would probably have started with a pair of HLG-300s or something equivalent and expanded to 4 at some point. The money up front for lights is worth it. If I have a good year at work and get a nice bonus or two I am definitely building a couple lights like the HLG-300 to put into my current tent for flower, and taking my two cheap lights out and using them in a new tent for veg.
All that being said, the half pound goal for a 4x4 tent should be doable - I havenāt done it yet personally, but Iām hoping this grow I will come close. I am only growing two photo plants. I let them veg for 70 days (from sprout, so that includes seedling time) in an attempt to maximize yield for the space and not considering ātimeā as part of the equation.
By way of example in my first grow I got 4.76oz of bud, 1.6oz of bubble hash, and 7oz of decarbed trim and larf. That was off of six ILGM Crystal plants in space described above.
Once you figure out how you will light your space, you need to figure out how you want to tackle the grow itself in terms of number of plants, how you will train them, etc. Again, looking back on my first grow, if I were to do it all over again, I would just germinate two seeds and grow one or two, depending on whether or not they both popped. Then I would let them grow until they were filling about 2/3rds of the tent, flip the lights, and let them do their thing. This way, I could
- reduce the number of seeds I end up wasting,
- determine if my lighting is optimal for my space,
- reduce complexity and variables by having too many plants,
- make it easier to work on my plants by having more space to move around,
- Get a basic understanding of how I personally will manage my grow
Youād be surprised how you can back yourself into a corner with the commitment you will want to give to your grow, so IMHO itās best to start simple.
For example, I am building an under current RWDC system with 8 gallon buckets. I havenāt ever grown in those buckets, so my next grow, I am going to do a simple DWC grow in those buckets to see how the plants grow in them. I want to see how big the roots get, where they go in relation to the air stone, etc. I want to make sure they will grow okay in those buckets before I go drill holes in them and set up a complex RWDC system. Iād hate to build out a system, start growing in it, and find out itās not right.
Take the long view!
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Funny you say that, when I said half a light, the hlg-300 is exactly what I had in mind. There are other good options though. I pretty much agree with everything you are posting. I try to find the right balance of communicating how much lighting can make or break your room without being a snob about it.
Itās like everything else, you can get by bare minimum. But itās not always the easiest or most productive. I feel like the average newbie watches a couple of YouTube videos and spends a week trolling the web. Then feels they can grow a couple of pounds. Sure, thatās realistic. But you had better have a lot of space and deep pockets lol.
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Itād be interesting (and this might be something you have done) to see a spreadsheet that takes the different kind of common lights and breaks it down by cost per actual watt. I bet a lot of people would be surprised by the cost comparison between a good light and a bunch of bad lights that equal the same amount of electricity usage.
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Growmau5 had a spreadsheet on one of their round table videos. It did even better than that. They had them listed by umol per dollar. So it actually took the efficiency of the leds used, amount of light in usable spectrum, and then how much you were paying for said performance.
Now I donāt remember seeing any of the typical amazon lights on the list. So Iām not sure if they werenāt tested, or were just that low. But there were some awfully big names that were very low on the list. Winner was pacific light concepts pic-6, hlg-550 was top few as well. Probably not a coincidence that both are out of stock regularly.
I would love to be able to do that for everyone here. Unfortunately the testing required would be out of my budget. Even sourcing the lights is unrealistic for me. Those guys have done the work and the manufacturers will send them the products to get the air time. I like helping out and sharing ideas, but I donāt really have the desire to make lighting my business.
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Maybe they arenāt worth testing. 
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Possibly, itās hard to say. I would comfortably say the the typical amazon light isnāt competitive with the likes of the lights I remember seeing. I will also say the typical amazon is roughly a tenth of the price of the lights that were listed. So I could see it either way.
I think the amazon lights have their place. And that is for someone new to give it a try, or for someone who is and will limited to something small in size growing for personal use. What you donāt want to do is shift from that to being a serious grower, and try to build your bigger space or higher yielding grow around those lights. You end up spending just as much or more for less performance.
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Sorry guys I guess I hit my max number of replies yesterday lol.
Thanks for the welcomes @AnneBonny @Countryboyjvd1971 ! @Bogleg Cheese Head for life over hereā¦
@dbrn32 Thanks for the further input and explaining everything! I realized very quickly after your first couple post that what I have been looking at prior are sub par for optimal coverage and spectrum in the area I plan to use. Unfortunately I am trying to stay below $1500 for total initial cost and it seems having a quality cob fixture isnāt in my budget at this time. I have found a couple ābudgetā Led lights that are better than the first one I linked. By what I can gather I would be getting around 1,100 true watts from the wall and par levels would be around 5-600 at the lowest at the corners of a 5x5 room at 18āā from two of them, total cost being $600. While I couldnāt find a full spectrum light that did have the higher red spectrum as the white cobs, the lights I am looking at have a flower and veg switch and I am thinking if I put one light with veg and flower light on and the other with just flower it would boost the red spectrum but lower my wattage by a descent amount. Would that be a viable option or not worth it to lower the wattage? Thanks again for all the info will definitely be using it in my final decision on a light.
@Countryboyjvd1971 I was thinking now a 5x5 would be best because I like the thought of buying big first and not having to constantly up it if I want to change. I have a spare room not in use so Iāve got plenty room to use but I wanna start moderate size with room to grow. I eventually would like to get at least two tents going to have a good frequent rotation going.
@Bogleg Thanks for the insight on your first grow! I would like the cob setups but itād be a good time before I could get those lights and everything else to actually start growing. The half pound number is just a first bar I set to get to ya know. I am probably going to have 3 or 4 plants and veg for a good amount of time, top and train to fill as big a canopy as my tent and lights will allow, and then scrog them out in flower. I have a lot of time now a days so I can baby them lol. Iāve only been learning on soil growing so idk about DWC, but good luck on your next grow! You gave me a good insight for what to look for on my grow. For your first grow you got about .5gpw right? thatās pretty good for a first grow no?
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Which light? If you can find it on amazon or dealzer you are welcome to link it here. If not just take a screenshot or type out the make and model and Iāll go find it.
i think the bay has them for 278.oo$ @MidwestGanjaGrow
i,ve grown some great meds with that model!!!
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Thatās not a bad light at all. You remember what the par map on it looks like? Compare it to this one.
The dead center for the meizhi is at about 1500 and sides at 2x2ā are around 600 avg I guess. This is at 18āā away and the side numbers are for a 4x4 area. the one you posted I for 24āā away so I assume it would be more at 18ā'?
I was also thinking maybe if I put in just one light but put it on a light glider system (forgot the proper name) it would be good enough as the par would be constantly moving between the canopy?
Also with the Meizhi light it has two light switches, one for veg and one for flower. If I ran two lights and in flower had one with only the flower lights on, would that boost the red spectrum or no?
Thanks for the replys everyone. This forum is definitely the best I have found.
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How often do they restock?
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Youāre absolutely correct, itās because in a 2x2 square in that direction the floor at that point is still under the light, but itās less than half in the opposite direction. It is a problem easily tackled by implementing a second light.
The intensity of any light will increase when distance is decreased, just as light intensity will decrease as distance is increased. You can look up the law of inverse square for more clarification if youād like. But the potential issue I was attempting to point out was the excessive hot spot in the middle. At that height you would likely experience light damage in the middle to maintain target par levels at the edges. You would combat that by raising light, and trading off coverage area.
Itās not a bad light, and two of them would suffice in your area. I donāt like the light spectrum very much for a flowering light, but very few of them are balanced. But for $620? Iām gonna link the quantum board assembly video for you to take a look at. For about the same amount of money, you can get into 4 of them. And if you build them on individual or double heatsinks, you could play with the light spacing. Take a look at assembly and let me know what you think.
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as for the hot spots, that is why I mentoned the light rail, and why I asked if a single one of the lights I linked would be sufficient, without having to raise or losing coverage?
I like the video you posted. A little more complicated than Iām used to. ( I have extensive experience in car electronics. Specifically audio equip.) 4 of them provided a good equivelant no? and with heatsinks I was kind of lost as to how it was dispersersed? It was a very nice tutorial but idk when they said double heatsinks I was lost as in car audio its very different.
Also If anyone could help with nutes!! I have been looking at the General hydro line as well as the Fox Farmā¦ I know I want to use a less āāHotāā soil so any input would be appreciated! I would like a well rounded line to use for this growā¦ later on I want to test different lines on the ame strain/cutting as is my nature lol.
@dbrn32 @Countryboyjvd1971 @AnneBonny @AnneBonny @Bogleg @SmoknGranny @bob31
And anyone elses input! I would like to sponge up anything riht now! LOL
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