So my buddy was talking to me about something called a UFO LED. I guess they have all the spectrums of light, or at least options to change them (he wasn't too clear). Or maybe some have changing and some just have them all combined. I don't know. I went and looked them up and couldn't find the answer. Now I know with CFL's, you shouldn't look at equiv. wattage, but I don't know about these UFO LED's. So my question is thus; with a UFO LED, if it says "it uses 90 watts but is equiv to a 400 watt HPS bulb," should I look at the 90 watts of LED light or the equiv. 400 watt of HPS light? Might be a stupid question, or it might be a question already answered in another posting. I have read probably half the posts in this section, and maybe I didn't know about it while looking, maybe I overlooked it, or maybe someone never touched on it!! If someone would be so kind as to answer my question, or point me in the direction of where to find the answer. My only reason for not knowing is because these are specifically for plant growing, and my buddy said these types of lights were used by NASA for growing plants in space. So I figured since it's a light specific for growth, would they really put the equiv. HPS wattage when that doesn't matter? I dunno, like I said it might be stupid, or it might be a really good option for me since I'm going to grow 2 low ryder easy ryder plants. If I can compact the lighting into 1 or 2 high powered bulbs and still get massive light output, whoopie!! My city is the land of technology in the country of LED's, so I figured they would be cheap here. I ramble. An answer to my question/s or any other info, like "STAY AWAY, THESE SUCK" would be awesome. Otherwise I'll probably have to go with like 6 35w CFL's for my 2 ryders. Please and thanks!
Hi Snackfood, First of all, if anything in the activity of growing cannabis seems too goof to be true, it is. Watts are watts are watts. No 90w light can do the work of a 400w light. It sounds like you have good instincts. Follow that. While the UFO will grow plants just fine, You'll need about 4 of them to cover the same area as a 400w HID (MH/HPS). That said, I'd probably go with one UFO per lowryder, or one larger LED light. I use two Blackstar 240w LEDs (check eBay, buy from Gotham Hydro). I've done one grow with them, and they worked great. These cover four plant sites. One of these should do the trick for two lowryders. Cost aside, what I think it comes down to is heat. LEDs put off a lot less heat than HID lights, that's why I chose them. It's more about personal choice, budget, heat constraints, and enclosure size/shape. I know this seems like a bit of gray area, but you're growing weed in your closet, not corn on Mars. I say start with CFLs, you can get them at your local hardware store, along with all the appropriate hardware. As the plants grow, you can add more light as needed. Lots of people have had success with CFLs, I think it's a great way to get started. After one grow, experiment with something else. For autoflowers, you can grow them under 100% 2,700k CFLs, so you don't have to sstart with the 3,500k bulbs like indica/sativas. Good luck homie, let us know what you do!
Unfortunately I'm not even on the same continent, or side of the world, for that matter, as the rest of you. So things out here aren't as familiar to me. I have found a bunch of 35w CFL's, but my buddy was saying he was gonna try the UFO LEDs and suggested them to me. Still don't know if they are high powered T5's (although I think they might be?) because I don't know the language that well. I tried cross-referencing the brand names online, but couldn't find the items. I just wanted to get the community's opinions on them to see if they were garbage or if they were some really good bulbs that were just expensive (maybe that's why people didn't use them). I find it's best to get a lot of different opinions and as many facts as possible. Granted this will be my first grow, but I want to do it as well as possible. I will definitely keep a journal on here about my grow. I hope to get even half the results I was seeing on the same strain. Just hoping that without enough information, research on products in my area, and (hopefully!) some help from the more seasoned growers, I'll have myself a successful and VERY rewarding harvest. Again, thanks for your input!