New veg room

[StillHigh1982]

I am setting up a permanent veg room in my smallest spare bedroom, the room is roughly 10x10. I plan to veg and house mothers and clones in here. I have pretty much nothing as far as lighting goes so am in the market for some veg lights. I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for best veg lights, efficency being a priority just under performance. Also if anyone has a good setup going already I would love to see it and copy.

[FunkyButtLovin]

What's the budget like and how much of this room are you wanting to light up? Are you wanting to really power some growth or just keep them alive?

[StillHigh1982]

I'm wanting to go full tilt. The budget is 1k for the lights. Already have the rest of the stuff, ventilation etc. I'm trying to produce the best I can with what I have to work with and I am days from receiving licence for 72 plants(roots). I'm not trying to max out my plant count yet but I am trying to always have 12 in flower. So I figure 15 clones 15 veggie and 12 flower.

[StillHigh1982]

Plus a few mothers, I have just sprouted some fem photos from canuck seeds, canuck cookies, zskittles glue, and blueberry, I plan on keeping the strongest plants for mothers.

[SoOrbudgal]

How exciting and wonderful StillHigh1982. I am going to get a t-5 4tube but that's me. I only have CFL and 1 t-5 tube light but my wish is a 4tube.

[Obi-Wan]

3 of these @4000k are within your budget and would suit all of your needs. They are dimmable from 285 watts down to 135 watts. You can run your mothers and clones around 135 watts, teens around 200 watts, and your mature plants at 285 watts just before flower.

https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/products/260w-qb-v2-led-kit

If I was in your position I’d also invest in 3 flood and drain trays. For your space I’d get 3x3’s and put a tray in 3 corners of the room with a light over each tray. The stands are easy enough to build so you could save a little money if you built your own. The trays would eliminate the need to use saucers with risers and having the plants elevated is a huge benefit when your working with multiple plants. 1 tray for mother’s and clones, 1 tray for teens and 1 tray for mature plants.

[StillHigh1982]

Thanks Obi Wan. Can you post a pic of your light in use? I want to see how its hanging. Also I have a 4x4 scissor lift table in my garage I was going to use for veggie plants and I was just gonna put the mothers on saucers in a corner and clone on a steel shelf. I have a feeling after seeing your setup I may change my plans.

[Obi-Wan]

I don’t use that specific light but I use an HLG equivalent DIY fixture. HLG’s spec’s say that the light I linked above will Veg a 4x4 area but based on the numbers they provide I think it’s better for a 3x3 space. The difference between the 260W QB V2 and the light I built basically comes down to the boards. They use the 2 QB 288’s which are slightly smaller boards packed with more lights whereas I used 4 of their QB 132’s which are larger boards with fewer lights. My fixture spreads the light a little better and doesn’t require the heat sink. Since your planning to use them for Veg only, I suggest the 4000k. If you wanted to DIY your own fixture you could build your own Veg fixture using 4 of the QB 120 boards in a square frame using an HLG-240H-2100a driver. It would be dimmable from 240 watts down to about 120 watts using the the built in current dimmer on the driver. If you look at the linked spec’s from HLG, the QB 120 boards are very efficient at 47 watts per board and below, anything above 47 watts starts to lose energy to heat. The QB 132 could be used the same way with the HLG-240H-1750a for a Veg fixture. My fixture is linear with 4 boards in a line because I’m using it in a 2x4 space, but I could use the same boards in a square fixture to cover a larger square footprint for Veg. Pushing 2.7 micromoles/joule, that’s about as efficient as you’ll find on the market today.

https://horticulturelightinggroup.co...32-board-guide

https://horticulturelightinggroup.co...-board-guide-1

[StillHigh1982]

Now I know why your name is Obi-Wan. I'm still noobish but I'm a quick learner. I'm also pretty handy and have a half ass workshop. How difficult is making my own light, and is it worth the trouble of sourcing and assembling the parts, I'm not too worried about saving a few bucks unless it's a significantly smaller cost. Mainly I am wondering how much better your built light is than what I am going to buy. I understand the advantages you mentioned above, I guess I'm asking how much the spacing of lights and not having to heat sink helps the grow, does it make the plants better or is it just an economical thing.

[Obi-Wan]

It’ll cost you about the same either way if we’re talking about the 260W QB V2 vs. a DIY fixture. To be honest, it’s not really going to matter in Veg. The cost savings really come into play when your building fixtures to flower. HLG’s fixtures for flowering a 4x4 space run $800 and up and I can build one for about $600. When you look at the average LED fixture, they have peak intensity in the middle and then taper off as the light moves away from the center. By building a fixture with more boards you can evenly spread that intensity around the area. I used to run the cheap blurple style LED’s and my current fixture uses the same wattage as 2-300watt Viparspectra, but it covers an area that would require 4 of the Viparspectra and does it with better penetration. Viparspectra makes bigger lights that would cover my space but it would mean increasing my wattage consumption.

[starramus]

I am setting up a permanent veg room in my smallest spare bedroom, the room is roughly 10x10. I plan to veg and house mothers and clones in here. I have pretty much nothing as far as lighting goes so am in the market for some veg lights. I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for best veg lights, efficency being a priority just under performance. Also if anyone has a good setup going already I would love to see it and copy.

T5s are economical, and great for vegging. This 2016 grow was done with a 4 foot 8 tube fixture.

I have lights come out of my wahoo, but I still like the T5s for veg.

[StillHigh1982]

I have had a lot of people say T5, I currently have two little ones that I sprout under, and the guy at my hydro store swears by them too. I have literally spent my entire work day today listening to reviews and podcasts where experienced growers argue which is best T5 or led models like Mars hydro ts1000. I have turned my brain to mush listening to podcasts explaining terminology, just so I could further confuse myself by half ass knowing what the light masters were talking about. I feel like I'm leaning towards building my own though, seems like a great excuse to spend a few hours in the garage.

[StillHigh1982]

Obi-Wan I am currently using 6 120 diode bestva dc series in my flower tent. They are the blurples, I think they draw roughly 240 watts each from the wall. I will check for sure later. They are working well for flower, big frosty buds. As I expand my grows I will need more flower lights, from what you are telling me, I need to learn now to build my own fixtures. Are there any tutorial videos that you reccomend?

[Obi-Wan]

These are good videos to start with, Growmau5 is probably the best at breaking down the principals of DIY grow lights. He’s even got video where he shows you how to hack your current LED’s with a few higher end components to make them more efficient.

https://youtu.be/-wYZHvIxCTc

https://youtu.be/UlM5uvO7sao