Hi everyone, I have been growing autoflowers for quite a bit. Kind of getting my hands dirty with breeding, harvesting, nutrients. All of it. Ive dont alot of reading, around the site and in books. Ive mostly worked outside and in greenhouses. Now im inside and its a whole other bag of chips. I know feelings are mixed about LEDs but ive been working with some really great Blackstar LEDs. They've worked well but it seems like i might be missing out on something because my harvests dont seem to be that good compared to some of yours. Recently i took down two Alquimista's and got 40g dry. This was after a month veg and a little more then 2months in flowering. The flowering started under 180W LED and finished along with 6 other plants under a 400W Digital HPS. I know Yield is all about the Variables. Sorry about the length of this post but im trying to be thorough. So heres all what i got. Let me know you guys would recommend. 2 90W LED 180W LED 2 400W Digital HPS (Ones ballast blew out) T5 Fixture with 4 54W 3000k Bulbs All of these items arent in operation at the moment but they are available. To Keep my electricity down i would like to use as little as possible the HPS IF i can avoid it. Im not so ignorant if you guys say that i need it to fill in the lumens needed, i wont understand. I would just rather work with LED since ive grown with them, they use less heat, and most importantly less electricity. The breeds im working with are Alquimista, Purple Haze, Kandy Kush, Jamaican Dream, and then a couple of mixes. Sour Diesel-Chronic, and Sour Diesel-White Widow. I LST and use the full Foxfarm line, Superthrive, and Cali-Mag when needed. Im Open to using the HPS i got or Buying another LED or Ballast. Im working with a 2.5ft by 10ft area. If you need any other details let me know.
Hey what's up I haven't used LEDs but have heard good thing about the new ones on the market kinda on the expensive side but here is my last grow with 4 cfls no side lights just on top.Two are high watt spirals 300 watt actual wattage 65 3400 lumens 3000 kelvin from sunlite and the other two are from TCP. 300 watt 68 actual wattage 4200 lumens 2700 kelvin these are spiral also. Paid about 25 dollars each
So you could go with cfls and save some money and still add the hps I just got the digilux 600 watt hps 3 weeks into flower with just the 600 watt. So far not as happy as I was with the cfls but I am also growing a different strain last grow was ice this grow is blueberry and pineapple Kush and last grow was just the one plant this time there is two.
Thanks for the reply JMAC. Actually my Veg area is inside a dresser and i have CFL's going in there. Every time i open that thing its like opening the ark of the covenant. Its amazing what you can get at the hardware store. Ive had a hard time finding higher watt then 23 Actual. But right now in my little veg area for clones i have 2 23W 6500k Spirals at 1500 lumens each. Im going to take a look for the brand you described. Thanks friend!
Ya I used the other sunlite cfls for my vegg the only difference was the kelvin the vegg ones where 6500 kelvin where is where I got them http://www.hidhut.com/sunlite-65w-cfl-bulb-6500k-vegetative-standard-base-p-1802.html and they have the flowering ones also I think they are 30 bucks now and the TCP's I got at Home Depot I love the hardware store too