Unfortunately, my existing light is not dimmable. But it is daisy-chainable. The question is, would it be too strong with both at the same time in my 3x2 tent for veg and flower?
The option of doing one photo at a time with the existing light is also good - especially forcing into an early flower. If I did double the existing light, would I be able to veg and flower two photos in the usual way in my tent without fear of burning them? Would I have to increase the height in my tent so that they could both be higher and presumably safer?
Related questions:
Should we line the inside of our tent with Mylar to improve reflection, especially on the lower branches?
If we wanted to grow photos outside soon, is there any way to block out the occasional porch or security light that comes on? I know, they’re called tents. But does anyone have experience with a cheap and easy way of covering up your plants when night comes?
@dbrn32 has a much better light to cover that area. And yes, another would definitely help. But you have to ask your self. Is this the only grow you plan to do? If not. It would be wise to put off getting another light till you can get a better one. just my 02. I did a big bud auto. I had to run a vipar 600, 450 and 300 to cover it. A total of 600 plus watts. With a QB and a scrog. I can get by with just 130w. Plus add all the heat those light put off and you now have another issue to deal with. Even a cheap qb would get you by. I will stay out of the light game though. It took about a year for @dbrn32 to finally pound it into my head to sell the vipars and get QBs. It is one of the best things I have done grow wise. I wasted a lot of money getting cheap lights. I got maybe half of what I paid for the vipars back. @Big123@Cannabian@Hellraiser may be of some help for the porch light issue.
Hope you don’t mind me chiming in. I had a 32” x 32” x 63” tent. We bought some blackout curtains from Walmart. My wife was able to sew them up with a zipper that slipped right over my tent. No problem with light leaks.
If you have access to a seamstress that can sew four of them together, you’ll have a cover. You can get the zipper off of Amazon.
As you have already tagged them, do a search for posts from dbrn32 (probably have already). They seem to be the lighting guru. I’ve read so many posts from him and truth be told, way out of my learning curve so far. One day i hope to be growing at a level where those numbers, figures, and details really matter. For now, about 200w at the wall for a 2x2 grow space with one plant. At week 13+ with 10 weeks flowering. Nearing the end. I am hoping for double my first grow which was three plants with about 90w light! Talk about light and airy buds!
Personally, I would rather see you buy a quality light than double down on inexpensive light. Throwing a bunch of power at your plants will work, but you will probably end up buying a third fixture to get really good results if you stay with what you have. Altogether you will end up spending a few hundred bucks anyway and it will probably cost twice as much to run. Then there is potential you will run into heat problems like Not2SureYet pointed out.
I’m not sure about the outdoor light issue. A greens that you could pull a shade tarp on at night maybe?
The first two are around $300, and the HLG is $400, which is about $100 over my budget, but I’m willing to hear anyone make a case for it. I like the fact that they’re all dimmable if they run a little too hot for my small-ish tent.
Thought on the list? Is there anything else I should be looking at?
I’m running two Spider Farmer sf1000 for my two plants, and they seem to be responding well to them. I only recently got the second sf1000 though. When I had the one sf1000 running it was in a 2’x2’x4’ tent and the temps stayed around 75 degrees. Then I upgraded to a 4’x2’x5’ tent and I’m still able to maintain around 75 degrees. I’m glad I went with them. You can daisy chain multiple spider farmer lights together too if you decide to go bigger, although the others might do that as well.
I know I have responded to at least a couple of problems with dimmer on mars light, and personally I don’t really like their business practices.
I really don’t have any beef worth noting with spider farmer, I would just prefer they put up lab test reports like the companies they are copying lights from. That being said, most of the members here seem pretty content with products they have received from spiders farmer. I have seen some say that their hlg lights are superior, and others feel like sf is competitive.
From my personal experience and that of helping others on the forum, you probably won’t get better customer service than hlg offers. They are US based company and stock all components. I can’t say we see a lot of issues with them, but the ones that come up are handled pretty swiftly. For instance, faulty driver they just ship a new one and request you return the bad part in same packaging, usually done in couple of days. As to where others want you to send them the part for diagnosis, and you may be without light for weeks. Or, you have to wait for replacement to ship from China. Also worth noting that hlg product linked is a more powerful light. If you needed to be frugal, the qb 260 r-spec kit can be purchased and assemble yourself at some savings.
Also worth noting that you can probably find a discount code for horticulture lighting group using Google search. If you order direct should apply to hlg-300 or qb 260 kit.
I’ve pretty much made up my mind to go for the HLG kit. Should be a fun project. Thank you so much for the suggestion, @dbrn32. I believe it is the perfect light for me right now.
And thank you to everyone who weighed in along the way!
Rightbud normally has a few lights on sale and carry most brands too. @Myfriendis410 or @dbrn32@Covertgrower in case I am not supposed to give this info out. I know amazon is good but get fuzzy for mentioning sites. They don’t sell seeds
