Blessing everyone, I trust you're all well? Anyway, I was hoping someone could me in the right direction regarding LED lighting for a small closet grow. My closet allows me 5 square feet of working space, and its about 6ft high. No shelves or anything like that. I'm drowning in a sea of information here, from lumens, to wavelengths, wattage per diode, full spectrum vs blue and red etc. I was wondering what spec's I should be looking for? I'm planning on growing only two plants, maybe a maximum of 3, but no more. This is what I was thinking of getting: This is the space I'm worming with: Also, this LED light, the Red Dawn II caught my attention: I am a complete and utter noob when it comes to growing, I have posted in the beginner section, but to no real avail. Any and all validated input would be appreciated. Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
Best if you provide links to the products you are looking at buying, but neither seems like something I would buy. You will need a minimum of 100 actual watts of LED in there. Probably only suitable for a single plant depending on grow style (at that wattage). 200 actual would likely be tonnes! Temperature control and odour control solutions will be your next battles. I recommend panda poly or flat white mold resistant non toxic paint for the interior. one option, one I am currently playing with for vertical lighting...at roughly $7 each per 18 watts it's $0.39 per watt and you can put them in both vertical and horizontal positions. 2 Pack 18W T8 2Ft LED Integrated Tube Lights Double Row 2ft LED Lights 96 led Light Lamp Bulb 2feet 60cm AC85 265V Led Lighting-in LED Bulbs & Tubes from Lights & Lighting on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group I am not necessarily recommending those, but something like that may suit your needs while remaining most cost effective. They do not have proper plugs with them, so a little bit of wiring is required, I am using 3 pin PC fan type connectors and making my own extensions. They can be butted end to end, and daisy chained so its a pretty flexible solution, if you can indeed flower under them which I do not know for sure, but the warm whites should be fine imo. I guess what I would do in your case is run 4 x bright whites (4000-6000 Kelvin range roughly). That's 72 watts of bright white for veg in each corner vertically starting at the bottom, then put 4 more warm whites (2000-3000 Kelvin range roughly) which would take the vertical lighting up to 4 feet and doubling your wattage going into flower to 144 watts and maybe 3-4 more on the ceiling for a total of 198-216 watts to finish. This is all total theory though. I have not tried this.
I would suggest 6500K CFL bulbs, 4 for $10 at Home Depot, get 8 bulbs, this will buy you some time and be good for veg for 2 months at least, will get you growing until you learn/decide what fixture you need for flowering, and at that point I'd suggest 150W HPS. You will need to construct a fixture for 8 bulbs though, it can get spendy if you have no tools/experience. Personally I wouldn't buy any LED's until you know what you are doing. LED's can't be allowed to get too close to the plants as they bleach them. You don't have much space and will need short plants and if you use CFLs you can position them right up to the plants. I think LED's are best for people with a high ceiling and can afford to get high quality lights. Even then, many experienced growers insist that HPS is way better than LEDs. You can scrounge light sockets and hang CFL's over seedlings, 2 per plant, will get you going and you can veg for a month like this until you get more materials together. It's simple, but it does seem like a lot of details at first. You can grow in plastic cups for a month like this and gather needed materials in the meantime.
Thanks you both for your replies! Its truly appreciated. The reason being why I was/am hesitant on going the HPS route was because I was told that going that route would require a ballast and hood reflector, which here in South Africa, is pretty costly. I thought that I could get away with going the LED route. But after reading the responses here and further research, I think that it would be best not to cut corners, and do things right, first time around. I've got a mate that will be around soon to help me out with the fixtures, and constructing a charcoal activated Filters for the odor later on. Temperature control and ventilation will be a battle! But I'm looking forward to the challenges ahead, especially with this forum to fall back on. Another quick question, I referred to it above, if I go the HPS route for flowering, would I need the ballast and hood reflector? Yet again, thank you guys! You've helped me immensely. Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
You will need extensive cooling for HPS and you can get LEDs at basically the same cost as the screw in CFL's Go COB, Quantum board (large SMD array) or SMDs tracks as I mentioned. Timber Grow Lights ALL QB304 Quantum Board There is also a site called Cobkits, but it seems down at the moment. alibaba or aliexpress of course as well but be really careful, lots of garbage to sift through. In general stay away from the cheap 3 watt epistar blue/red type lights. You are basically buying obsolete inventory. As for bleaching, you would have to get the plant within under 10" for that to happen, lets see you try to get an HPS anywhere that close, lol. LED is made for up close and personal and the main reason is that they are thermally superior, wasting far less electricity as heat. HPS is the least efficient option you could choose and a fire hazard in a small grow like that. Do yourself a fav and do a lot more reading, there is a lot of BS and misdirection involved in this topic (horticultural lighting) check out rollitup 's lighting forum as it is superior to the advice you will get here. note: cobkits and rollitup are down right now, but trust me you wont regret waiting.
Well if temp is a concern and you can afford them, then LED it is. You'll need a few circulation fans in the box, I use 5V desktop fans from ebay, plus a USB adapter, these fans plug into a USB port. They are very cheap and very quiet. You'll need to cut holes in the closet door for intake and exhaust. You'll need a multi-outlet power strip to plug lights and 2-3 fans into. If you have spare outlets, then you will be able to run more lights if you need to. I have a few plants in veg right now and have no smell at all, maybe I can notice just a little bit in the morning that smells good, not unlike a tomato plant. What I'm getting at is scrounge up some fluorescent lights and get growing ASAP while you wait for the LED lights to arrive. The inside of the closet needs to be painted white, that and some fluorescents are about the only thing you need to get started, plus some good (not shit) soil or soiless medium. You need a few plastic cups that will take you through a month for pots. Do you know if you are doing soil or hydro yet? Do you have your seeds?
Follow those links from @canadian1969. Suck up as much info as possible. The latest most efficient tech is there.
90W LED Board Kit Id just drop one of these in there small kit ready to go. Ive only heard good things about these quantum boards. Or you can go 4 of these Citizen CLU048 1212 Gen 6 with holder And http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mean-Well/HLG-240H-C1050A/?qs=EaAZLd8vSkhOrK/ZPq7NXA== to drive all 4 just make a square frame to match your size.
You've got 8 weeks of veg with no smell before you have to worry about it. You won't smell hardly a thing until they flower.
I would just grab a few packs of screw-in LEDs , maybe 10-12 total. Should be good for a small space like that. Pop the globes off, get a few light socket adapters, some droplights or cheap clamp lights for the sockets. Good to go.
Maybe the workers from NDR Electric can help you with suggestion and clear information for exactly what you need, what you find on the internet are more general suppositions and not on specific cases
Just get these bulbs...they are 40 watts 6500k led corn bulbs with a max of 4000 lumens And you ONLY NEED one bulb period !! Absolutely bright as fuck, like staring at the sun !! You can get them from Amazon. They work great !!! Best 30 bucks I've ever spent