Hello im new to growing and i am in the middle of constructing a stealth hydro closet. and i am in need of assistant on lighting what are the best lights to get for growing that are cheap on the electricity bill but work really well for growing? i have a 100cm hight by 80cm length and 45cm deep closet that i am converting into a grow room and i was wondering if i should buy? one of these three type of lighting systems. four 27 watt = 100 watt C.F.L bulbs with yellow spectrum and white with two 18 watt florescent tubes down the back two corners for my lighting but i don't know if that would work any good any advice on C.F.L growing. One 400W HPS/MH Light Lamp with Dimmable Digital Ballast Cooltube that can be changed from 200 watts to 440 watts at the top of my grow would that be any good or will it be too much for the size of the cupboard i haven't heard much about theses lights but i know there one of the main grow lights what is the energy usage on them and if any one has used them before could you hit me up with the ups and downs from there grow with the lights One Reflector LED Grow light 96x3w = Draw Power:170~200W i have not heard anything about theses lights and personally they look like they wont work as good as the 400 watt hps ones and i dont know anything about LED grows so can someone please help me. they are the 3 lights i am thinking of getting but i dont know anything about them and cant seem to find any good reviews if anyone has experimented with any of theses or is growing with these please let me know your opinions on them please and how well they work and how much they cost in the long run on electricity MUCH THANKS - Magic Lamb
I would say LED, its a small space and they dont generate much heat. Then again I run all LED so im partial.
What type of leds do you use and how do your grows go i have only tried outside and i got amazing results so a ballets light wouldn't be worth it for a meter high grow box? thank you for your reply
Currently using the Mars II Leds, they are the 5 waters that blackdog sells but direct from the manufacture so a ton less. Im happy with them. For a box as small as yours I would prob stick to a 3 watt setup though.
3 watt or 300 watt is that encase of the box or plant start to burn and have you heard any one using them 400 watt lights on cupboards? i have seen the ones you have and was thinking of getting them but can only find them at $299-$400 how fast is the growth with them would i be waiting an extra amount of time for harvest or is it generally the same. thanks for your time
For a height as low as yours you want a unit that uses 3 watt leds, not 5 watt like mine. With a 5 watt LED you need to hang it about 12-18 inches away so the colors blend and you dont bleach. The 3 watt can be much closer. In terms of growth speed, yield, quality its all nearly equal from LED to HPS/MH. I actually feel the quality is a bit better from the larger spectrum but it could be placebo too. Here is a 300w for $133 http://www.topledgrowlight.com/weddings-events/old-model-led-grow-light.html?___SID=U Your outdoor plant looks nice and healthy BTW
would them lights be cheap on the electricity bill like would it jump up $20+ a month or less because i need to try make it stealthy and yeah that's where i was looking at the lights but i was looking at the expensive ones and thank you i didn't know the colas could bleach from the light so that like burns the tricombs right that's something i will be looking out for when putting them inside when the box is done thank you btw you wouldn't believe it but my profile picture was that plant at 4 weeks old till i super cropped topped and fimed it. The plant turned hermie 2 week ago due to me over stressing it i hate having to pull off the little banana flowers in the morning since i got 2 more around the corner that are straight female i need to get them out of there before they herm as well but for my first ever grow its going pre good check out my gallery if you would like to see more pictures of it
Unless your 18 watt floros are going to be with in an inch or two of the plants don't waste your time with them. Heres some basic lighting info. CFL`s, LED`s and T5 HO grow lights all have one thing in common and that is they lack light penetration so their good for short plants. CFL`s put out a decent amount of heat, T5 HO grow lights put out more lumens then CFL`s but less heat and LED`s put out the least amount of heat and a decent amount of lumens. A good LED grow light will use 3-5 watt LED diodes in it anything less is probably a waste of money. HID lights put out the most lumens and heat. I`ve grown with CFL`s, T5`s and HID lights and the HID lighting I always got bigger denser buds then compared to the other grow lights. Never tried LED`s. We start out all our seeds, clones and small plants under T5 grow lights and finish them out under a 1K HID MH/HPS grow light. What breeders strain hermied on you?
yeah im thinking of the 400watt HID HPS or the 300watt LEDs, i found a good full set of HID but the one thing it doesn't come with is the fans at $170 free shipping would that burn my closet if i don't put the cooling fans on ? i was thinking about doing clfs but there very week and im not that comfortable using globes with mercury in them and my local grow shop wont sell me the 200 watt cfls they say theirs no such thing even though its on there site all my grows so far have been unknown seeds all i know is that my hermie is a hybrid indica holds no smell whilst growing and had its fan leaves the size of my head till i chopped it all down so the heads could hit the sunlight that made it think it was dying and turned hermi my other plant is a full female that smells exactly like sweet fruits and had that smell from the second week from seed
Another thing to consider is where your growing, you said in your closet. Closets can be a pain in the butt to keep cool so I would look into T5 or LED lighting. Unless you have a portable AC unit you could stick in there I would want to go with the coolest running light you can find which would most likely be a LED light.
alight thank you so much for helping out i will most likely turn to LED because of the space and heat but i was thinking of getting aluminium sheets of mettle to cover the wood on the inside and then put some heat proof reflective Mylar on it or some Sun Reflectors made for cars on the in side to reflect and keep the heat down and i was gonna attach 2 mini fans at the end of the cool tube but if your guys think it would be better to use the LED then i shall listen because im still new and can learn from under lighting rather than over lighting and heating risking my stealth cabinet burning when the custom cabinet has arrived to me i will upload some photos of what it will look like so you guys can have a better understanding of the space i have two plants that i wan to put in it that's why im looking for something at 300-400watts and something with a built in red spectrum and white spectrum light. Sorry for the grammar im not to good at wording out my sentences.
For HID lighting in a closet I probably wouldn't go above 250 watts at most. We have a medium size walk in storage closet that I use to start seedlings and clones in and with a 450 watt 8 bulb T5 HO grow light it can get up to 85-90 degrees in there with the house AC set at 75 degrees. So I only run either half the lights or just use a smaller 4 bulb 2 foot T5 grow light that is only 100 watts and right now its staying a nice 77 degrees in there. Once they start getting to big for the T5 grow light they will go into a grow room we built that has a 1k MH/HPS grow light that has a exhaust fan bigger then we need and it also has a window AC. Even if you had good airflow in your closet you also need to take into consideration the ambient air temp of the cooler air your bringing in, will it be enough to off set the hot air inside the closet down to a good growing temp. Good air flow, air exchange and exhausting the hot air out up high either into the attic or into another room is just one of the few things to take into consideration. A lot of people forget to factor in the ambient temp of the cooler air their bringing in to the grow set up. I know a few breeders who when they want to grow a male for breeding purposes intentionaly run their grow room hotter to increase their chances of getting a male from regular seeds. For the interior either just paint it flat white or get panda film and line it. By the way for plants you want red and blue light spectrum.
Hey dude, personally I think LED will be the best solution for you in this case and here is why: 1. Its going to be the cheap on the electric bill. It draws about 150-170w vs a 400w hps and is nearly the same draw that you listed for the CFL setup. 2. Runs cool so you may not need to get an inline fan, less money on extra stuff and less electric 3. Long lifetime, you wont need to replace the bulbs like with hps and to a lesser extent cfl 4. Good penetration unlike cfl 5. Mixed spectrum light for (in my opinion) a better quality smoke
yeah that's what i wasn't considering, now i know i will stick to the LED grow lights and yeah i meant blue not white thanks for correcting me, do most LED have a grow setting that you can change from 2700kr to 4000+kr if so then i will just go with LEDs for veg and flower i finally got more photos of my plants will be uploading into my gallery my second 80% sativa is finally into is flowering stage and need to move it away from my hermie and my hermie is finally forming its mini buds all over now it use to be just 4 heads now its 12
hello thank you for the response i realised it would be cheaper and so far everyone has been leaning towards LEDs so i think thats the way im going to go and there about $50 cheaper than the hps ones now i just need to look at a couple different ones but the one that got posted in the first comments looks pretty good to me and can LED have a grow setting that you can change from 2700kr to 4000+kr?
ohh okay so i could have a plant thats vegging and another one that is flowering and it should work right?
these are my two plants i am putting into the cabinet it is going to be a very tight fit View attachment 136412 View attachment 136413 first two pictures is my hermie if you want to see the full size of the hermie look at my gallery that's half of it and the main steam is being bent and the last two are my %80 sativa unknown strain View attachment 136406 View attachment 136401
That hermie looks like its producing far more pollen sacs then buds. If that's the case then it may not be worth trying to finish out in my opinion. In the 2 pics it looks like its spending more energy on producing pollen sacs then buds, a few hairs in one pic but mostly pollen sacs. The question is do you want to take the chance on it pollinating your other plants. Pollen can be transmitted from one plant to another in many different ways, bugs, wind, people, pets. With the exception of what looks like a few hiars in one pic it almost looks like a straight up male.