Starting a New Grow - cannot decide | Options Included!

Have you done any reading yet on the quantum boards?


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@NotoriousHippie for sure check out the quantum boards if anything just to get an idea.

Horticulture Lighting Group Quantum Board LED Grow Light Kits

Also as a reference go look at what @Tbone Shuffle is doing with them and hell maybe he'll even swing by and drop some knowledge.

https://forum.grasscity.com/members/tbone-shuffle.954499/

Id say having the quantum board in your portfolio of possible decisions is a must. That's how well they perform.

Good luck on the road ahead and don't forget to make a journal when your journey starts.

 

Best way for a great cheap grow IMO. Get two 3x3 tents. If you grow start to finish you'll have to wait like 3-4 months for a harvest. It sucks. Use two rooms. Veg and bloom. The veg area only needs about half the power of the bloom area or less.

Bloom light for a 3x3. About 270 watts at the wall.
Horticulture Lighting Group 260 Watt Quantum Board LED Kit V2

Veg light for a 3x3. 100 watts at the wall.
Horticulture Lighting Group 100 Watt Quantum Board LED Lamp

It's simple, efficient, not that expensive to purchase. The bloom light uses the most efficient medium power range led currently sold on the market. The Samsung 301b. Those new boards are actually built by samsung under contract from HLG. You literally cannot get more light per watt and you can't cover a grow area with less power with any different brand.

If you don't like the price of the bloom light there are ways to get something similar and save a little money with older boards. Those are the newest out.

Aside from that your bloom area will need a 6" carbon filter and exhaust fan directed to outside. I use an apollo 440 with variable speed controller. It's perfect for a 4x4 and my veg area but a little noisy. If you're obsessive about sound the more expensive fans might be better for you.

 

A 3x3 grow area with some skill and a good light is easily 1 pound a harvest capable. You don't really need a larger bloom area for personal.

 

The first few grows are always a learning process. I'm sure it would take you a few to reach a pound unless you're a growing genius. My first crop was about 8-10oz's between 4 plants in a 4x4 and I though it was the shit. After a few years of learning I'm close to 25-32oz's from the same size area per crop.

My bloom area is 4x4 and I use two of those qb260's I linked you. Mine are a little older and have slightly less efficient boards then they're selling now.

 

2700k is good strait up but the lower K range is more red leaning light is more stretch so it's your decision. I run 3k and 3500k in flower to help limit stretch and I still run out of headroom. My favorite way to grow is 4 plants in a 4x4. That's how I get my highest yields.


The rated flower area for a qb260 is either 2x4 or 3x3. Roughly 8 or 9 square feet. Obviously with it's slightly rectangular shape it does fit a 2x4 area better. That's why running 2 in a 4x4 is perfect. It fits the bottom of the tent right with the light pattern. The qb260 is fully capable of filling a 3x3 by itself and it will grow close to a pound in good hands.

For veg you only need less then half the power. My 4x4 veg area is using 125 watts right now because I have one good size plant in there and a clone machine. I have the capacity to go up to about 250 watts if I want to plug my other two HLG65's or qb120 boards in. I run 4 60 watt HLG65's to veg my 4x4 but I often only run 3 or 2 because really it fills the space just fine. You don't really need 250 watts of qb's to veg even a 4x4. It's almost overkill. Veg takes very little power that's why rookies are always starting their grows with CFL's and then wondering why the buds suck. Budding takes light intensity. You can save lots of money using less light power in veg. Plus if you run two areas you have 8-12 weeks before your bud tent is empty. That is a long veg period. If you use too powerful of a veg setup you'll overgrow the area in 8-10 weeks.

 

It's also very cheap on temps and electric bill. Not to mention no more buying new bulbs, completely silent, ect. ect. The plants like the light spectrum better.

 

26 days since flip on my current crop of 4 plants. I threw a pic in with the lights that's a little older. They have a long way to go. It's going to be a nice yield. I don't remember one looking this good this early for me. My new nutrients are the shit.

 

Last crop I did a single plant experiment. I never budded just one plant. Did veg it extra long. About 4 1/2 months.
I got 20oz's. The same setup. 4x4x80" tent with 2 qb260's. This one was bucket DWC. Mostly GH nutrients. The lights are legit.

 

I'll throw this one in so you can say, "WTF?!!"

 

You can do 4 plants in a 3x3. They just have to be vegged and trained the correct size to fit a 3x3. It does't hurt to cut them back to fit if they veg too large. I've had to do that to squeeze 4 plant in for flower. It gets you larger yield because you have the root/stem structure of a larger plant if you chop the top down before flower. It responds in stretch with crazy growth.

3k is a good choice for a flower light. I would probably veg with 4k but 3k is good too for veg.

You can most certainly "get away" with a single qb260 in a 3x3. In fact if you have the budget they have a few special versions that might be a better fit if you wanted to go with a single light in a 3x3. Step up the power a little or a better shape.
This is the best light for a 3x3. I didn't link you earlier because the other standard qb260 does cover a 3x3 and it's cheaper. This is a better option and has a larger heatsink so it will run slightly cooler. The boards are turned short ways so it's more of a square footprint. It's called the XW for extra wide. They sell an XP also that's extra long for 5' wide grow area.
Horticulture Lighting Group 260 Watt XW Quantum Board LED Kit V2

 

Quality doesn't suffer at all in a smaller space as long as the equipment is sized properly. This light will fully cover a 3x3 wall to wall with no difficulty especially in a tent with mylar on 6 sides. It's almost like opening the door on a sunny day at a white sand beach when you open the tent. I'm not kidding. These lights are absolutely blinding. You'll post about it if and when you see one come on. They are unbelievable for the wattage. My friend that I converted from HPS swears that a qb260 is as bright as his 600 watt hps lights and covers about the same area.

 

My first recommendation stands for a veg light. Get an HLG 100 and use a 3x3 veg space if you use a 3x3 flower space. It makes it easy to train the plants to the same size space at flip. You need a little extra space in the veg area for clones too so it doesn't pay to make it smaller then the flower area. I think including clone space the veg area should be almost as large as the flower area in a small personal grow space when you have two rooms and grow photo plants.

That makes for an very efficient grow. You're under 400 watts for light total but you're growing out of 18 total square feet. That's pretty amazing really for good well lite plant growing areas. I assure you they will be. That HLG100 is no bitch light it's like the HLG65's angry big brother. It has 192 diodes. You can get it in 5k if you want to limit stretch the most you can. It might be best in a two room setup with an 8-10 week flipover time. That will assure they don't over grow your headroom.