I'll be turning a 6x8 foot area in my garage into a grow room. whole garage is heated and insulated so i can grow year round with no issues. im in the process of building walls to section off the 6x8 foot area, ill be insulating those walls to and painting them high gloss white to reflect the light back towards the plants. my biggest questions are what kind of lights should i be using for this? and how many plants can i grow without them getting to crowded, hoping to do between 6 and 10 at least. i dont want to get anything crazy expensive for the lights, just something that will get the job done without me having to worry about it.
6x8 area you will need some lights for that... No way around it. Recommend lights is 50-75watts per sq ft. 6x8 = 48 square feet 48x50= 2400 watts 48x75=3600 watts For that space you would need a minimum of 2 1000s watt lights and thats pushing it. In reality you would need probaly 3-4 1000s watters or. 4-6 600 watters With all that light you will need ventilation and ac. Ventilation is determined by LxHxW
would LED lights work? something like this, just a lot of them? Shop SYLVANIA 250 W Equivalent Dimmable Daylight PAR38 LED Flood Light Bulb at Lowes.com
It sounds to me you have no clue what youre doing and should reasearch before dumping money into this. You need real growing lights. Hps/mh or led. For a space that size youre going to need 2500-3500 watts of light... Actual wattage not equivalent Just so you know that 250 watt light is actual 25watts You would need 100 of those lights
If u want to go the LED route I'd get at least five 600w panels....and if ur only growing 8-10 plants u could cut the size of ur space back and save on lights as well...a 3x5 area would be big enough for ur 8-10 plants...then 3 of the 600w LED panels would work for u
id like to grow as much as i can in the space, so if ill have room for more than 10 plants ill grow more. there will be about a 2wx4L foot space in the middle so i can walk into the room and get to all the plants. my trouble is i dont know what brands are the best, and what ones are junk
I'd got with 4-5 1000w MH/HPS conversion bulbs to take advatange of the WHOLE space. You can always start with 1 light and 2-3 plants and each cycle/harvest upgrade a bit at a time. Key is to get the best equipment you can each time so you're not buying things twice. You can dial back to 600w HPS for the first grow, still have a decent harvest, and put some funds in your pocket. Anything over 5 plants takes time and dedication to maintain so if you're only growing for personal use 5-6 ozs every 4 mos cycle should be sufficient right?
With that space u can grow 15-20 plants....I've read good things on these forums about the MarsHydro LED's but I've never used them myself....I use Ledgle LED's and I've had no issues....if u really want to be sure of the quality ur getting then go with a platinum LED, but for that space it will cost u upwards of 4,000 just for lighting...it's all about how much u have to work with and how serious u wanna be...either way, I would just research and make an informed decision before diving in...good luck
growing for more than just personal use. ive done small grows before in a little growing tent but never anything this complicated or large scale. i think ill go with these MH/HPS lights, they seem to be the best value ive seen. iPower Grow Light 1000W HPS/MH Dimmable Basic Wing Reflector Set | 50% Off Discount Hydroponic Supplies
For sure.. if size isn't a limiting factor HID lighting is a good choice. Indoor soil is also a good start because the price of entry is reasonable. You can reuse everything if you amend the soil right in the first place.. look into "no-till" on these forums and there's another forum that goes pretty in depth on another method that's similar I forgot the name though. Don't go with anything prepackaged make your own. Soil also takes out a lot of the sciency guess work that comes with hydro although hydro is a superior method once you iron out all the other little stuff. If had the money to burn and was starting over I'd go with aquaponics it's the shit. Great threads here about it.