Thanks for the info I'll do some research. Can someone give me a link to the lighting forums lol still new, not navigating very well
The cheapest and best veg lights on the market are the new QB120 veg boards from Horticultural Lighting Group. It's $29 for a board that can run up to 60 watts. Each board is 120 samsung 561c s6 bin diodes. They're some of the highest output and efficiency leds on the market, not knockoff Chinese crap. The light these things are capable of for the money will blow you away. The 60 watt boards put out about as much grow power as a 150watt hps. They're roughly $1 a watt. I paid $18.50 for my 60 watt meanwell drivers but in my lighting section thread on these boards I also have a 50 watt dimmable driver linked for $11. $29 for a board $11 for a driver and I bet you it would be near the performance of a mars300 for much less wattage and similar cost. They are higher quality more reliable parts. QB120 Quantum Board There's 14 boards left. After I received my first two and saw what they can do I ordered another two last night. This is the driver I used. Just need an old 120v cord to splice onto the power input. The board comes with a connector for the 24v side. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0180SRK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 If you dig you can actually find drivers for $6-7 on the internet. The only requirements are 24volts dc output of 60 watts max. 50 watts maybe better for a cheaper driver so it doesn't accidentally overamp the boards. The drivers used for kitchen led strip lighting work as long as they are correct voltage and output.
So, since my lights are definitely not the best. I decided to leave them on all night and not let the plants "sleep". The yellowing turned to normal color and it even grew a bit more. Should I just do a 24/7 light "cycle" until I get my new light?
24 hrs can work great for the first 3-4 weeks to help boost initial growth. I find the plant gets tired after that so I go to a 20/4 cycle.
Alright, no sleep for them then!! Question, I've heard some people cut off the "shell leaves" after the plant gets its first prominant leaves/branches? Does this actually do anything, good or bad?
In the early veg stages I only remove leaves that have almost all the green gone or are about to fall off. Let it do it's thing for a while. Plenty of time to trim things up later. She needs all of her solar cells.
Ok, I didn't think you should trim a seedling lol. But in some videos I've watched, they stated that by trimming the shell leaves it would focus the energy on new nodes/branches. But I'll let them be. They're healthy so why fix what's not broken right?
Can't disagree that it sounds like it would work.. in theory.. but I'm assuming you're talking about the cotyledon. Either way they're not using much energy and don't develop much, so cutting them off to have the energy they were using diverted elsewhere in the plant would have minimal if any noticeable effect at all.
So you need to buy drivers or the $29 QB120 work as is straight out the box? I'm interested but I'm not interested in shopping for drivers or assembling though.
Wow that's a very thin panel. Seems like it will burn out quick... good luck tho, seems pretty bright.
It's 16 gauge metal approx. All it has to support is the weight of itself. It should be fine. If I mounted it with screws to something it would be the same load on the board.
Update on growth, with a 24/7 light cycle using two 25w Red/blue spectrum grow leds and one 25w white led around 1500lumens going on week 4 I believe.