My name is Larry, I am a 73 year old struggling with learning to grow marijuana. The first grow lights I purchased were the 600w Galaxy Hydro LEDs and have worked very well for me. I just purchased a BESTVA DC Series 2000W LED Grow Light, with dual chips. Just hung it this morning and realized I am not as well read as I thought I was. The light has two switches, one for vegetative stage and one for flowering stage. My plants are just entering flowering stage, do I turn off the vegetative switch and turn on the flowering switch or do I leave both switches on? Of course the manual gives very little information on the subject. Thanks for any help you can give. The Bestva DC 2000w at 24" in a 5 X 8 foot grow room I use for flowering. I also have a 5 X 5 grow room I use for vegetative stage that has 2 of the 600w Galaxy Hydros (also have an additional 2 Galaxy Hydros I am not currently using, if I need more light) Larry
You need ALOT more light. First, the LEDs you are using are not going to save you any power. A 5x8 room is going to require 2000 watts but those Bestva blurples are only putting out 390 actual watts. So you would need at least 5 of them to flower in a 5x8. Use the search function and look up HLG LEDs. A lot of DIY options that won’t break the bank. Vividgro is another solid light made in the USA with Samsung diodes Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
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I appreciate the information. I have done some research (from the information you provided) and see what you mean. I am a disabled Vietnam vet and of course on a budget. I don't grow a lot, so will have to work with what I have for now. I did a two plant grow with some unknown seeds for a test run. Didn't go to bad with the three Galaxy Hydro 600w (which I have no idea what the true wattage is). Right now I have four plants under the Bestva light, so about a 4 X 4 area. Thanks for the help.
Thank you, I only have four plants, taking up a 4 X 4 area, but will have to add a couple of the Galaxy 600 w Hydro. Need to use what I have for now, Vietnam disabled vet, fixed income. Thanks, Larry PS, still wondering if both switches are on during flowering, or just the flowering switch
Always both switches for flower. My original lights warned you not to run just the bloom switch on by itself. Basically an optimal veg spectrum is more blue leaning and veg also takes less power so the veg switch usually is only about half the full wattage of the fixture. In order to get full power out of it you engage the bloom switch as well. Typically this turns on a mix of more red leaning diodes to shift the light's spectrum more to red leaning for larger flowers. You could also start turning the bloom switch on in late veg once your plants are ready for more intense light past seedling stage. Having just the veg switch on is very low on power often. My platinum p450 was 137 watts in veg mode and 255 in flower with both on, large difference in growth rate comparing double the wattage and more reds which is the spectrum with the most influence on plant growth.
You should let me help you with your next setup. You should get away from the burple style leds and save your eyes.
Thanks for the information. Being new to this I did a google switch for best lights. The galaxy hydro was rated very well and inexpensive (fit my budget) The last search I did Production Grower rated the Bestva at the top of the list. I used this information when purchasing my lights, probably still didn't make the best of choices. I will have to live with my choices for awhile. Thanks, Larry
I don't necessarily think that google is your friend when it comes to searching for the best led grow lights. Way too many sponsored articles out there. It's hard to find unbiased info. I paid $1,500+ for my first real LED grow setup. When I had some problems with the cooling fans and took it apart you can see the cheap parts they're actually built with. No name diodes and drivers from China. Most burple panel and even some higher end led light manufacturers won't even tell you what led's they're using. If they won't then that's a sign that it's not a good selling point so they don't want to talk about it. Another sign you might not want to buy a particular light is if they hide the actual watt draw in the fine print but brag about the rated replacement wattage and rank it more then double the actual watt total. That's just BS most of the time. Only the best leds on the market are capable of replacing HPS with about 60% as much power in the same space. The Bestva and other cheaper panels really aren't. Spend some time looking around at some of the best indoor plants you'll find on the forums and see what lights those growers are using. I think you'll find almost none of them are using the older cheaper burple panels. The people with impressive indoor grown plants are using 30mm COBs from cree, citizen, bridgelux, and samsung powered board lighting. It's been a bit of a revolution indoors from the burple panels to almost all DIY setups with white based light. It started in about 2015 and it gets more and more popular all the time. You might think that the DIY setups I talk about are out of your price range but that's probably not the case. When you look at how much power you get in actual watts of wall draw per dollar invested the DIY samsung board lights are a very good deal. The best bang for buck setup is the 4 packs of qb132 boards. It's $135 for a 4 pack and with an $82 driver you'll have a setup that's capable of over 300 watts at peak output. Able to bloom a 3x3 well. Even buying viparspectra and other panels like that you will probably spend a similar amount for 300+ watts worth of light. The diodes on the HLG boards are much more efficient in how much light they put out per watt also. QB132 V2 Quantum Boards Driver for 4 boards in series. https://www.onlinecomponents.com/mean-well/hlg320hc2100a-49115504.html
