I am preparing a room in my apartment to start growing just a few plants. The only problem is that I have limited space and am on a budget. LED seems like the best way for me to go; low heat and energy efficient. I want to buy an LED for about 5 to 6 plants. I want the LED for their entire vegetative and flowering stages. What kind of light (wattage, size etc) would you recommend for this kind of project? Also, what is the easiest way to get my plants started and ready to get under the LED? It is summer time here in Kentucky. We have a terribly humid climate compared to more northern states such as Ohio. The sun comes up around 6 and is brightly shining at around 7am and dusk sets around 7pm to 8pm. Would it be bad to try and start the seeds outside? Or could there be a possibility of strain on the plant moving it from outside to inside? The light system is really tripping me up. I'm so used to growing outdoors and Kentucky is a great place for some strains. With the limited space, I hope this will yield decent bud. Help is greatly appreciated
125 watt cfl produces about 8000 lumens... wayy more than led lights leds arent really recomended for flowering but cfls are almost as cost efficient, they are easier to find, and produce more light and not too much heat at all. compare lumens to wattage.. you will need about 1 to 3 thousand lumens per sq foot depending on grow method.
they dont produce enough light(lumens) resulting in very low yields and causes plants to stretch(trying to get closer to the light)
I thought it would be handy because you can get the full light spectrum for vegetative and flowering stages. So that you only have to change the light cycle time. Thanks for the help and any extra info you give regarding this
it isnt a bad idea to have both parts of the spectrum but you can get more out of cfls for the money and just get 1 of the red spectrum and 1 in the blue and you will have the same thing except brighter... and it will be cheaper probably i only use 1 or the other depending on grow stage though. I havent seen a positive or negative side affect of using both red and blue at the same time.
I just setup the entire grow to accomodate LED's http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-room-design-setup/844963-my-outside-box-grow-design-40-pics.html
compare watts to lumens and the price of the bulb...lumens are the most important thing to pay attention to when it comes to which lights to use. it all depends on budget room size and number of plants and style of grow.. i for example use LST, top regularly, and use the scrog method. so using 1 cfl wont penetrate the canopy so i use multiple or a mixture of a hid light and cfls on the sides. leds are ok for small seedlings and clones but as they get bigger the light wont penetrate far down into the plants lower growth cfls have a higher intensity than leds they are cheap and will do the job if you have multiple lights hids are expensive and consume ass loads of energy but they have very strong light(measured in lumens) and give off a wide range of bright light. where as cfls have to be about 4-8 inches away and leds even closer i could imagine.
I think I may play it safe and try the CFL method since budget is an issue and CFL have worked for lots of people. I just hate that it will look a bit messier than a single light, but I'm just an extremely finicky person.
they make pretty powerful cfls such as the 125s the 250s and 300s to where you could use just 1 or 2 with reflectors for just a couple plants =] some people grow with just a single 125 also.. but for watt for watt a 300w mh/hps lamp is way more light than a 300w cfl