I am looking to get an indoor grow going through the winter. I just bought a 4x4 grow tent. I have a Dutch bucket style system going in it. Likely end up growing 4 plants in it (is an 8 plant system but will be to crowded and past our legal limit). My question is lighting. I read places you need the Mars Hydro lights and then have also been told by someone that works for a micro grow facility that you can just use 1200 watts of almost any light as long as there 3000k, 4000k and 5000k for the different stages. What’s everyone’s experience as it seems to be you can find anything on the internet you try and search for. I don’t want to spend the money on a Mars system. Was looking at these and linking 2 of them in the tent.
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General rule of thumb is 35-60 watt per square foot So to fully fill a 4x4 growing area you would need at least 560 watts of grow lights. I personally use one bulb throughout the entire grow but it is an LEC 4200k Phillips Master bulb. But, i dont think spectrum is as important as intensity. I have done MH/HPS combo but get great results with my 315 LEC in my 3x3 tent.
That said, the lights you linked are only 110-115 watts so you would need 3-5 of those depending on the diodes used. LED's are getting better at efficiency but no way is a 115 watts anywhere close to 1200w like the say in the product name. You have to really be careful and do a ton of research and even some math to figure out actual wattage comparisons. Here is a link that i found that explains LED's pretty well but maybe some experienced LED growers can give you an idea of what will work well in your tent.
http://stonerpros.com/led-grow-light...re%20near%207x.
EDIT: Just my 2 cents but the one thing you dont want to skimp on is the lighting. -
Welcome, Izzie.
A 4x4 has 1.5 sq meters of floor space.
Using power(wattage) as a metric to determine how 'much' light you'll need to do the job depends on how efficient your light source is at converting watts of electricity into photons of useable light.
Older 'blurple' fixtures, as well as smaller hps fixtures, generate about 1/2 the photon output per watt of power used compared to current technology diodes.
Top-tier diodes like lm301h will require about 500 watts to achieve a ppfd of 750 across that space.
Those blurple fixtures you listed will need over 1000 watts power used to achieve the same light level.
I run a simple Alibaba 480-watt QB clone fixture over my 4x4 pheno tent.
I've had that fixture for a couple of years now, works perfectly and was about $350
WHAT???
5x5 grow space
900w of Vero's and F-strips
4-17gal totes self-made UC system.Comment
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I have been using spider farmer and am happy with them. SF 2000 for veg tent, sf 4000 for 5x5 bloom tent. I used the 2000 last year for bloom and found it to be under powered. Got the 4000 this year and so far am pleased with it. I will say that sticking to the 12 - 18 inches above the plant in bloom is over doing it. Plants got stressed with the light that close. Moved the light up and they were happier. Just like anything else there is a learning curve to get through. There probably are some other good lights out there, but this is my experience.Don't worry, be happy, grow sticky buds.Comment
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