New old Grower setting up

[Bandit]

Hi I am Bandit thanks for having me.

So far I have bought a grow tent 2.4 m x 1.2 x 2 m and need advice. I am prepared to spend to make my grow successful and would like to know what is the best light I can get? I am leaning towards LED also wondering what size and wattage

And what sort of grow mediums would you recommend that's idiot proof?? Going to spend the next few months collecting all the bits and pieces 😎 will be relying on google and grow forums to see this through.

Peace!

[BR2K]

WELCOME! Have you referred to the Grow Weed Easy website yet? There's TONs of great information there. I'm a newbie but very happy with my 315W LEC grow light YMMV. I'd recommend checking out GWE for the lowdown on all types of lights. Good luck!

[Farmall]

There are many opinions and forums ...it is the internet but this website and forum has members who have survived growing strategies and mis-informed grow techniques from many corners of the internet only to be distilled down to well executed routines for repeatable and predictable successful outcomes.

Well, that metric stuff gets me so I googled the number 2.4m seems like 8'x4’ which is a very nice sized tent. Lighting requirements will be important . As BR2K suggested, read ALL of the tutorials on growing on the GWE web site. As for LED... this appears to be the future of lighting IN MY OPINION...which everything here is...additionally you get what you pay for and it IS one of the more important purchases you’ll make in growing. As for grow medium, I started like many with FoxFarm soil and their trio of nutrients as well as DWC hydro and it’s trio of General Hydroponics nutrients. All were very successful. Then a person, now a good friend, convinced me to try using “living soil”. I might almost think it is idiot proof as you mentioned but there are so many variables in developing good strong plants and anything can go off schedule... I cannot ever see going back to mixing and measuring chemical nutrients. With this medium, you simply water your plants as needed. It is a process but the GWE site has an entire section devoted to ‘living soil “ or “super soil”. As you read through and have questions, anyone on the forum will gladly chime in to help. Good luck Bandit.

[Bandit]

Thankyou for taking the time to reply much appreciated BR2K and Farmall

[Gingerbeard]

Hey Bandit If you're willing to spend, you can spend thousands of dollars on a single light. I've seen a company selling a light that has a water(?) cooling system. Those are for serious green house type lights. There are several types of LED's available. You can get a couple real nice beaut's if you want to spend a couple grand. Then there's adequate. What you can pay for vs what you need.
Check these folks out. They can help you on both those counts.

https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/

[ellz]

Hey Bandit and welcome. It sounds like your grow tent has a volume of 5.76 cubic meters. That translates to 203.41 cubic feet which is about what size my grow room is and I am using a 600W MH/HPS light. Honestly, I probably should use a 1000W light but I don't own one and I do own a 600W light so I'm going with 600. LOL. Anyway, more light means more bud. In my opinion, a space as big as you have, you want at least 600W or higher (or the equivalent in LED but I don't know what that would be). If you don't mind the extra power consumption, go with the MH/HPS type light. If power consumption is a factor, you may want to research what LED equivalents there are. I don't think the other options would be that beneficial for your setup. You could consider the LEC option but I am not up to date on that tech so you'd be better off discussing that with someone like BR2K.

As for grow mediums, I've grown outdoor in soil and indoor with a custom-built hydroponic system. Hydro grows faster but requires a lot more effort than soil in my experience. You have to ensure the reservoir temps remain low to avoid root rot or other issues. You have to change out the water weekly which can be labor intensive. You need additional nutrients like Hydroguard to ensure you run into issues. But again, it is fast. Soil outdoors is the default and the slowest method I've ever used. Indoor with soil should be faster since you can control more parameters like temperature and light schedules but I don't think it would be as fast as a hydro system. I can't verify that however. If you want to build a hydro system, I can help you with that part. I've built a couple of different designs. My most recent one takes into account all the issues I had with my last one. Just let me know and I can go into detail.

The best advice I can give is to simply do as much research as you can BEFORE you place a seed in the ground and you will be rewarded. Happy growing!

[Gluteous]

You want to have at least 30 watts per square foot, 50 is better. Your dimensions are about 25 sq ft so a 600watt HPS would only be 24 so if you can swing it, you'll be happier with 1000 watts. Can't vouch for LED as I'm HPS all the way. A 1000 watt HPS or MH runs pretty hot so that's a major factor for you and LED will run cooler, but doesn't have the penetration of HPS. Lots of good info on this sight for light choices, it's probably the most important aspect so spend as much as you can afford. This is not the area to save money on.