Advice on LED lights

[NAKEDGARDENER]

I was that friend that Crow mentions and my white widows are so satisfied, as you have seen, but for sure one good deed deserves another and karma goes around well among brethren. Those Sativa love to stretch but I have found the way to keep em shorter. Smaller pots. Never go above. 2 or 3 gallon.

[Retodd]

Smokesteve It’s white widow. Got the seeds from nirvana.com

[Smokesteve]

What strain is that? Looks like a sativa dominant auto. Man this could be some amazing stuff!

[Retodd]

I’m dealing w the height issue myself. I have a 2X4X5’ tent and I’m running out of room. Getting ready to do some serious bending today. I’m a outdoor grower and wanted to try autofems indoors. Fuck all....they weren’t supposed to be this tall! The girls are 1-1/2 months old and 3+’ tall. I just left a update on my journal asking for advise. I just don’t have enough room in my house for a bigger tent. I’m in a wheelchair. Good luck bud

[DrPhoton]

Haha yes, thanks

[furrysparkle]

Omg you changed your name! Though very appropriate change

[Crow]

On the other hand - I started out with HPS/MH light and tossed it (to a friend) as soon as I installed a pair of ViparSpectra LEDs. Greatly mitigated the heat problems and no longer needing to deal with super fragile bulbs and the extra required ballast. Admittedly the VS LED's may not be the best but of the options, affordable in my price range, they were well rated, with a decent warranty, good customer service and to my mind, only negligibly more expensive than the HPS/MH kit, especially when you factor in the operating costs. In the long term - likely less expensive. These light are noticeably better built too.

Most importantly - the plants are thriving.

I don't know enough to offer advice - just sharing with you my experience for consideration. Good luck.

Crow

[Smokesteve]

I am new to indoor growing. I have selected a 2' x 4' x 6'7" tent. I contacted the LED light company and they suggested I use two 300 watt lamps opposed to one 600 watt lamp. I think two lamps will give more ample coverage. I would appreciate any input and or advice on using two 300 watt lamps vs one 600 watt lamp. Thank you.

I've gone through all this my friend and I ended up going n with HPS. After many trials with LEDS

[Buzzer777]

Thanks. A lot of good information, some of which I am not familiar with. What is a Burble? Also, you don't like the idea of a six-foot-tall tent vs a five-foot-tall tent? I thought the extra foot would be good for taller plants, however, do most growers use a five-foot-tall tent? This is not a "Mars" brand tent. Five-foot tents do cost less. The tent I found is a "Topolite" brand.

As said above I don't EVER consider a five ft high tent for anything but veg and clones..Too short..
Sorry....Burple is slang for Imports where everything looks Purple under the lights (old tech now).
I kept one Burple..It is a Unit Farms UFO80 with Cree and Oshram Diodes (good German stuff..not from Chinese cheapos)..It is a tank and adds to my other white lights to try and spread out the spectrum..
Meizhis were my 1st lights (the Reflector series..NOT the regular ones that seem too heavy in red.

Check closer on that Topo..I think they have plastic corners..another cost cutting step that is not good..
Let's look at what is needed height wise approx)

1ft foot the pot
1ft for light hangers (they can be modified)
1ft or MORE distance between lights and plant tops..

Man..that' just peeled 3 ft from the height you thought you had..

Assuming you flower a 12" plant..that stretches 2x or MORE.....hmmmm..not to good eh?
Also there are methods to keeping them short (indicas are shorter by nature)....Google Super Cropping..it does a multitude of things.

[Crow]

To reinforce NAKEDGARDENER's point - my room is 8' tall - minus - 2" of insulation - 30" of plants - 28" of light distance and 5" of light fixture. My plants can ONLY grow 31" to 35" taller without getting into a too close to the LEDs situation. In other words - even 8' is too short for a 6' tall plant.

I'm setting mine free to flower this weekend and I'm not sure how the height restriction will impact my grow. I've actually considered cutting out holes in the floor to lower my 7 gal pots another 8" or so Always a work in progress, this, my 2nd grow.

Crow

[DrPhoton]

Two fixtures is almost always going to be better, as long as certain factors such as too much light or heat do not prevent it.

The main reason is light uniformity. With a larger surface area of light sources, the better light is distributed over a surface area.

Buzzers advice about true watts is correct. Because of the similarity in photon efficiency between economical LED fixtures and traditional HID light technology, means we can roughly asses an LED fixtures efficacy based on its total power consumption.

When looking at LEDs, 90% of your decision making will go towards a lights photon flux or total light energy. Rather than spectrums. 5% of that decision making will go on spectrum with respect to photosynthetic efficiency and the other 5% on plant morphology to that spectrum. But knowing that this extra 10% makes such a small difference and requires some complex understanding in photobiology to make the right decisions. It can be neglected.

Choosing how much light is important. Too little light and plants will favor a type of morphology that is not ideal for indoor environments, such as stem elongation. But too much light will lower the efficiency of light utilization by plants. So you have to find the right balance.

For optimal light efficiency, one would strive for an average of 500umols of photon flux density (not single center measurements). Which is around 30 watts per sqaure foot. For tight nugs and optimal growth but slightly less efficiency, you will aim for around 700umols averaged, which is around 35 watts per sqaure foot. The absolute maximum plants can tolerate before serious photodamage occurs is around 1000umols average. You can obtain the maximum return in this way, but at the lowest efficiency. Which is around 50 watts per sqaure meter.

Feel free to ask any further Qs and check out my articles if you havnt

[NAKEDGARDENER]

I would never buy a five foot tent unless I was just using it for veggin the plants before moving them into a flowering room, if you plan on growing throughout the grow in one tent then get tallest you can manage, and just saying, even in a seven foot tent, be careful of your pot sizes, a 7gallon pot can easily produce a plant of 6 feet tall or more when in flower.

[els011]

Thanks. A lot of good information, some of which I am not familiar with. What is a Burble? Also, you don't like the idea of a six-foot-tall tent vs a five-foot-tall tent? I thought the extra foot would be good for taller plants, however, do most growers use a five-foot-tall tent? This is not a "Mars" brand tent. Five-foot tents do cost less. The tent I found is a "Topolite" brand.

[Buzzer777]

IMO..I would go with 2 smaller instead of 1 larger..Reasons: If a light fails..you have a spare and It is easier to move 2 lights to cover different plants.ie: one plant stretches taller than the others.
With that said..MOST of the burple imported ratings are WAY exaggerated..

You want a TRUE watt from the wall rating..Not a marketing rating..With Burples..I think 45-50 TRUE watts per sq ft is perfect..White lights are more efficient and 40watts are fine..Flowering needs way more light then veg..
Edit: judging from the height of your 2x4..sounds like Mars equipment (the biggest phony of them all)..I suggest you look elsewhere..
hope this helps

[els011]

I am new to indoor growing. I have selected a 2' x 4' x 6'7" tent. I contacted the LED light company and they suggested I use two 300 watt lamps opposed to one 600 watt lamp. I think two lamps will give more ample coverage. I would appreciate any input and or advice on using two 300 watt lamps vs one 600 watt lamp. Thank you.