Hey everyone! I'm new to the forum and in need of some advice for my grow room. It is going to be approximately 13'x5'6" cut in half one side for veg and one side for flowering. For flowering i think I'm going to go with bubble buckets and veg i will probably have a setup like what mr.green uses in the video. I'm trying to decide on my lights, i can't make up my mind as to what i should do with the flowering side. how many watts should i use? Should i use two 400s one 600 two 600s or one 1000? I don't want to spend the money and realize i should have gotten something else. So where is a good inexpensive place to buy grow lights? Anyone have any luck with the commercial 400watt mh lights used in parking lots, i see them on clist all the time fairly cheap. Anyone have any suggestions as to a different hydroponic setup in either room? I'm choosing bubble buckets because i heard they grow the fastest in them, but im open to other options. Well thanks in advance for any help.
well if you're completely new to growing id suggest keeping it simple. dwc/bubble buckets can be a lot of work to maintain and costs quite a bit more to get going. as for the lights if thats going to be a total of 6.5' x 3' for flower then id say a single 600 or 1000 would be ideal. id say go with a 600 and if you need more light to cover 6.5' wide then go with 2 600s. you could also go with 1000w dimmable ballasts so you can select the wattage they run at 400/600/1000
I'm not completely new to growing i have had a couple successful outdoor grows and i have 4 plants vegging now that have been growing for about 4 months, and some 2 week old clones. So, I'm kinda new, but nave been around enough to know that you can do all the research possible and still have problems that come up. The veg room will be 6.5 x 5.5, I'm imagining 8 plants at most. So with that amount of room should i use a single 1000 or two 600's. My concerns are that with two lights some of the light will overlap in the middle and create a really hot spot on the plants located in that region. So compared to hydroponic, how fast do the plants grow in soil? Is there really that much difference? Thanks for the help so far, I'm eager to hear some more.
yes hydro can be much faster and easier to get large crops once you get it down. the same can be achieved in soil but i have yet to experience it myself so i stick with hydro. it makes it worth the extra effort. a 1000w light is rated for about 5x5 but some use more area than that and some use less. i use a 600w for a 4x4 area and works well. the over lapping light shouldn't be a problem at all, your plants will love it, as long as you keep the heat down with good ventilation. air cooled hoods are your best friend. as for the number of plants it varies quite a bit, i grow 12 in a 4x4 area sometimes and also run 4 plants only at a time if i let them veg longer. both will yield about the same but running 12 plants has a faster turn around since there is less veg time.
Thanks for the responses Panda. So what other cost effective options are there for hydro growing? A large plastic bed costs like $100 at the local hydro shop and the clay pebbles are not cheap either. I don't see the buckets costing much more than that, but then again I am the one asking questions. Can you point me in some direction for schooling on hydroponic setups that are cheaper, better, or simpler than bubble buckets. Thanks again man.