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HELP! It's been a few years since my last grow and i'm having trouble getting started.

Wannabebotanist23

Wannabebotanist23

New member
Since last time i grew I've gone back to school and no longer working full time so my income isn't great right now. I got a new 4x4x8 Grow tent and i'm having a hard time getting a good light/lights for it. if anyone knows of good LED's to fit that size then link them below. also my budget it $200 for lights.
 
Those lights only add up to 200 watts you need at least 600 watts. Personally I would waste money on cheap LEDS.
 
Seems then like you would need to increase the budget or build some strips yourself... you can get some extremely good quality at 1/3 the cost ....but 1/3 the cost could still be double your current budget
 
Yeah, Might just have to do with those for now, Until i can afford something better. they don't seem bad and quite a few people had some success with them
 
Wannabebotanist23 be sure you manage the grow well enough to allow the light to reach the soil level of your pots ( or water). Keep the core open like a seat in the middle of a football field and the branch’s line up with the top row on the entire perimeter of the stadium
 
If you can keep the temps in check a 600w hps with a good reflector will do it and come in right around your budget. It's not going to be quite as efficient as quantum boards or strips but the cost up front will be about $210 vs $850

I just figured up where my break even would be to buy and run a 480w quantum board (HLG 550 V2 for comparison) vs my 600w hps setup through a typical grow at my current rate.

$10.08 saved on 8 week 18/6 veg cycle
$8.40 saved on 10 week 12/12 flowering cycle

That's $18.48 difference in electricity spread across just over 4 months. Now say I can squeeze 3 grows a year running every single day using basically the 8 week veg & 10 week flower cycles. I'm going to save right around $55 a year. That means it would take me 12 years or 36 full grows to make up the difference in cost. Now I'll go through a bulb every 2-3 grows (we'll call it 2.5) so I'd need 12 extra bulbs for ~$150. I'm still looking at more than 10 years or 30 full grows to break even. That's a long time before it's actually saving me money vs going HID. Now the spectrum isn't quite as good and it's going to produce a bit more heat but it's not like HPS is known for producing low quality bud.

Don't be afraid of the old tried and true, just because technology has gotten better and things are more efficient doesn't mean the old way is suddenly no good anymore.
 
‘The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side”. . . scarecrow - Wizard of Oz

He’s right HPS does produce. A test I did however regarding heat management... a 4x4x7’ with 1 315LEC on 12/12. It had been rather cool and the plants were coming to a harvest soon... I shut down the 6” vented hood fan and thought I’d remember to monitor the inside temps which were running 62F and the exhaust fan was on a very low setting hardly perceptible that it was running...set on number 1 on a Cloudline t-6 .... after forgetting about it, checked after 1 day and temps were 94 inside and humid as heck.
 
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