First time grow… any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!
Im using all Advanced Nutrients line nutrients, in Mother Nature Coco. Planning to grow at least 4-6 plants, up to 8 maybe.
Is this amount of light over kill? Or will it make up for the yield of HPS?
Also, has anyone used this Mother Nature COCO? Do you use it plain or mix it with another soil or perlite?
My seedlings are about 1 inch tall showing first 2 small bud leaves and seconds are coming out of the center, in 1 gallon smart pot. watering regularly but not too regularly with Advanced Nutrients MICRO & GROW also use Primordial Solutions ROOTAMENTARY. very little amounts of each. my Advanced Nutrients water is 5.3-5.5 ph, my Rootamentary water is at 5.5-5.7. I was told pH between 5.5-6.0 is best for this medium.
@stomper is dead on here. If your LEDs say they are 300w lights, they’re actually only using about 120-150w. So your 3 lights combined may only really be about 450w.
Also, with the nutrients I would be really careful on feeding them already. Most growers will wait a few weeks until giving nutrients. The seedling has its own nutrients stored in those first leaves you see (cotyledon leaves, baby leaves, water leave). When those leaves yellow, this means your plant needs you to feed her from then on. Just be careful and watch closely for any problems.
I’m using 1 Sunnine 600w w/ cree LED chips, and 2 VIPARspectra 450w led’s total actual power draw is about 800 watts from all 3 lights combined but the foot print of all the lights combined is like 7x7 at 24"…
Here is a picture of the one seedling I have going the rest are being germinated now because my tent, lights, fan, etc are all on their way via postage. This seedling is under 3 individual LED bulbs with a total of like 80 watts, and 2,000 lumen… spectrum of the lights are 3000k, 3500k, and a 5000k… all at about 14"
Thanks for the helpful tips, I’m new on here, I replied to the comment below yours with some pictures if you want to check them out. The leaves look super bright colored because of the lights I have them under right now when you move the plant to normal non LED light it looks the usual heavier green color.
I have heard good things about Vipar. Not sure about the other brand. Looks like a good start. Avoid getting them too wet. I would only wet them with a spray bottle and just keep the soil barely damp. Once they start growing nodes and multi fingered leaves water as normal.
Let me know what you think, I added it up based on what the manufacturer said the input wattage is. Between the 3 lights it’s 610w, so that’s like a 600w hps/cmh?
It’s definitely on par with the HPS and MH, but I’m not positive on the penetration of LEDs compared to HID lighting. Maybe @iva can chime in? Regardless, you got a nice setup dude!
With LEDs you have to look at the effective footprint. The better lights put out the right pars at a greater distance so they have a wider footprint than the knockoffs. Vipar is one that has a greater distance, meaning you have to keep them farther away to avoid burning the plants. They are also a bit bigger in general so it could be pretty close. I would set them wide and put the third in the center in my minds view of the setup. Worse case add a t-5 where needed.
