hey y'all, new to the forum and new to the growing scene. been doing a lot of research and thinking. once i think i have one part planned out, i see or read something and then the game plan changes.... but from what i have been reading and trying to plan out, things are getting clearer. but there are still gaps and questions that books are not filling... so this is where i am at currently..... planed on wanting one plant at a time, but want to be able to grow up to 4 at a time, this changed when i saw that it could be done in a 4X4 foot print. i have changed the idea of a grow room to a grow tent. (hence the up to 4 pants in a 4x4x7) haven't decided on lights, too many fake or false info. leaning toward LED after seeing some threads on here about them and how to source them cheaper. figured that i would plant in 5gal buckets. haven't really gotten to what type of soil to use. just dont know much about it and need to do more research. there are a list of things also that i have thought about and need to hammer these out. but long first posts are a drag so ill leave that for now. thanks for the read! Z
Keep reading there's plenty of info available. Best advice is get decent lights and I'm on my 2nd grown in my 2x4 and I'm running 4 in 4 gal hempy buckets. I went with QB lights which are not as expensive as they seem. My QB96 is $99 each. Good luck and remember Patience is key. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Before I started, I didn't know about autoflowers. Now that's all I grow. Hydroponics will get more growth, as will some hydro-like setups such as hempy buckets and autopots.
It depends on strain and canopy area. A single topped/trained auto, with a breeder listed outdoor height 100 cm+, in a 3 x 3 can yield a pound dry in hydro. The height allows for yield-increasing training that could be more difficult with shorter strains. Shorter autos, with breeder listed heights under 50 cm, might only yield an oz or so. With a full canopy autos will yield the same as regular strains, because it's all cannabis. My last grow (17 square feet total floor area, 600 true watts) yielded 24 oz dry, with 6 plants. Yields per plant varied from 1/3 oz (a late planted seed that didn't get enough room) to 8.5 oz from a 6 ft topped/trained plant that took over the tent. Check out the autoflowernetwork message boards.
So since you have brought up led’s, I have noticed on this forum that y’all really don’t use “box store” led panels. Where do y’all source them and are you needing different panels for different stages? The thread I was reading was about just the veg stage or do the panels do both?
also food for thought, i do not understand these LED lights and what to look for by any means. so i may need it broken down for me barney style. i get the different color spectrums for different phases. like the 3000k for flower and 4000k for veg. but outside of getting one and plugging it in i am lost. and i am defiantly lost on how may watts or lights needed for 4 plants in a 4X4 grow tent.
3500k panels with some far red diodes added would be your best option for a single light configuration. Plenty of blue and red for both stages of growth with far red to promote resin production. Passed that, refer to Dr. Led. @Tbone Shuffle
HAHAHA! DR LED, i was hoping @Tbone Shuffle would maybe chime in to help the green horn here..... like i literally looked at some boards he suggested in another thread and when it said add heat sink, i knew i was F'ed in the A.....
@HardDrive is another blade that has good connects on alibaba for the leds. Some, I believe, even come with heatsinks and are prebuilt.
yaaaa pre made is more my route..... but even when it comes to electronic work at work, i kick that shit down the road to someone with darn near an electrical engineering degree lol. me and volts dont get along.
If you use Quantum Boards you will need approximately 480 watts for your 4 x 4 tent. If you use Chinese blurples you will need approximately 800 watts - that's actual power draw from the wall. Expect to pay around $1 per watt for quality led lighting.
could you point me in a direction of the quantum boards that would be needed? dont know whats good or bad or how them even work.... now them blurples off of amazon i understand to an extent..... the quantum deal with the K spectrums i have no idea what to look for or at and if they have veg and bloom all on one....
so from what i have been gathering about Quantum boards is that there are two main ones 3000k and 4000k then 3500k for a mix thats not as common. 4000k for veg only, and 3000k for seed to harvest....... now. is there a benefit from getting a 3500k? like you get more veg growth but lose out on bloom or what? and where is the cost effective place to get these boards? i liked @Tbone Shuffle's idea of having smaller boards and more options to move them as needed.
Horticulture Lighting Group Quantum Board LED Grow Light Kits It is easier for me to make money than make lights. I paid these guys $25 to do it right without me learning anything, much to the chagrin of DIY. The 4000k is a wonderful luxury for veg. One single small 4000k can veg one plant while the others are all under 3000k.
3000 K, 3500 K, 4000 K will all produce good harvests, so all of them are excellent. Either 3000 K or 3500 K is what most people use from seed to harvest, but 4000 K would be fine. Having separate veg and bloom lights is over-kill for us small home growers. Pick out a light, and don't worry. I've been following a new US LED company NiemiLED, which seems to have some excellent, good priced lights. If I were buying today, I'd strongly consider two of these: 260w RSPEC DEEP-RED Niemi LED Grow Light Powered With Samsung LM301B & OSRAM 660NM Diodes - Niemi LED But I'm not a lighting expert. Alibaba has cheaper lights, but shipping costs from china make them only a little cheaper than Niemi.
Oh yeah those look nice. 3500k is about perfect for germ to harvest. Curious if they are mixed or is one board 4000k and the other 3000k? I think those qb96 are also 3500k. The 96 elite are set up for one light per plant.
holy smokes, lights are expensive lol been surfing all morning between cars. so are the newer versions of quantum boards running extra red spectrum a newer deal?
idk, 3000k is red enough for me, but rspec is new. These are not lifetime purchases. They all need to be replaced someday soon. Has it been 50,000 hours? Seemed like just yesterday we were arguing blurple.
The higher the K range the more blue. The lower the K range the more red the light is. Blue grows a more compact plant with tighter node spacing but less overall growth rate. Red has a higher growth rate but more stretch. Depending on what plant you're growing it could respond best to a more blue or a more red leaning light. For start to finish I think 3500k is the best white leds to get. I would even go with 3500k for my bloom lights since all the new boards are mixing deep red and other red leds with the whites now. To counteract that additional red it helps to go with a more blue leaning white like the 3500k. If you look at the new HLG rspec 288 boards it does not have a K range option. They only sell the one board. If you look at the light spectrum curve on the rspec and compare it to the 288v2 in 3k you can notice that the rpec boards has a taller blue spike. This means they are using a white led that's more blue then 3k. I suspect they are using a 3500k white on the rpec boards. 4K is blue enough that most people only use it for veg but I've also seen small scale growers bloom crops with the 4k white boards. They did very well. Almost 2g/watt. Unless you're buying all white boards I think the 3k whites along with the supplemental reds on the new boards make too much of a red leaning light even for flower. You want some blue to balance out all that red. rspec board. 3k 288v2 4k 120v2 qb96v2 Probably the best board on the market now because of the included far reds and the blend of two whites. Invisible sun ISH272R. Look at how fat that light spectrum is.
