Question about LED lights for my first grow box

[fannatic]

Hi growers,

I decided to build my first small grow cabinet and I am looking for LED lights.

The cabinet size will be something like 180 x 75 x 40 cm outside dimensions, maybe a few cm less inside. I decided to go with 300w lights or equivalent LED alternative.

I've been reading about lights and it seems like LED is the way to go these days. My question is: do I need expensive lights for my first attempt to build a grow box?

On one hand I found KIND LED K3 XL300, which seems to be the king of all grow lights and everybody says they are good.

On the other hand, there are things like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0743CL2GQ/

Which looks like a no-name product but costs 10% of the KIND LED and says "full spectrum".

Is there a big difference between the 2 options? Any other suggestions for a first time growbox experiment?

BTW I am in Europe, so any references to EU shops would also be welcome.

big thanks

[oldjarhead100]

is that 180 the height how high is that in inches cause you need to hang leds anywhere from 18 inches to 40 inches depending on what the manufacturer says If thats high enough to hang the leds then the next thing to think about is yield. I used 300w no name leds in my autos room and could not get a yield over 2 ounces per plant ,I now have a cob led light 800wats and a 315 lec to go in the auto room, you will be much happier going with as high a wattage as you can ,maybe not this grow but in a few yield will become very important and getting the most out of equipment per cost , personally I think you would be better starting with a couple of 315 lec/cmh the only thing you would have to do is exhaust to keep temp down

[Weed Pharma]

I started with MarsHydro and still like the Reflector Series for vegging and old 300w for back up/overflow.

I use/recommend you take a look one ChilledLogic puck v2- with a dimmer to cover all phases of growing and add more fixtures- as you learn growing.
It's only 100w draw and the yields are around 3 ounces for autoflowers with AMAZING bud quality.

Alternate suggestion- Migro which is in Ireland, I believe.

[Toker1]

Forget these cheap LED’s. They are not efficient. Look into quantum boards if you want the best for your money.

[ocgreen]

+1 quantum boards

Either buy individual components from places like Alibaba and assemble yourself or spend more and go brand name and/or pre-assembled.

[happyday]

the non brand cost $30 actual draws under 50W, i bet! the light is weak. a $300+ KIND LED grow light is 600W, not sure its actual power it won't less than 300W.

[fannatic]

Thanks for your suggestions.

Maybe a stupid question, but.... why would I want to grow autoflowers in a growbox, if I can make any plant flower whenever I want by adjusting lights?

[oldjarhead100]

autos are done in 90 days from seed to jar photos take 8 to 12 weeks in bloom .even if you veg photos for a month they will take longer to finish than autos

[Toker1]

oldjarhead100 I have had plenty of photos that flower in 6 weeks. Critical sensei star and Hippy headband just to name a few. So 4 weeks of veg time is 70 days to harvest.

[oldjarhead100]

I stand corrected ,I should of said in my experience ,I veg photos longer than 4 weeks

[fannatic]

Another question: KIND LED seems to have infrared and ultraviolet diodes, while the quantum board doesn't. Not sure how important this is for growing weed?

[Toker1]

The red and blue spectrum used by Kind LED includes IR and UV diodes because the red/blue diodes are not full spectrum. They add UV/IR it to make it a full spectrum light.
The “white light” emitted from QB technology is full spectrum, including IR and UV.
I have seen QB adding extra IR, but I don’t see the point of this. Especially because the Emerson effect is only experienced at above frequencies 670 nm. Most IR diodes are rated at 660 nm. Not to mention that the Emerson effect is only present when IR at 670nm is isolated and remains on an hour or two after lights out. These lights don’t work this way. Maybe I am missing something about adding additional IR, but it is not the correct way to utilize the Emerson effect.

[fannatic]

thank you.