I try my best to mimic the earth with my living soil so, I need about a 300watt lights for a 4x2. Mars hydro is great but do anyone know some just as good but not as expensive. I want Samsung diodes of course. No bulshit lights either!
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A HLG 260xl will give you all you’ll ever need in that space. Going cheaper than mars will result in bullshit lights. My HLGs have been running for several years non stop and not a single issue.
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How much?
How many plant to grow recommendation?
In a 2x4 space I wouldn’t do more than 2 plants.
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Im sorry @BobbyDigital but cheaper lights are really good for there price i have a cheap Chinese light that i use and I’m getting ten ounces from one auto so you cant put all cheap lights in the same category because tell you the truth some of these cheaper lights work much better then some of the expensive lights and some work the exact same as the expensive ones the light i have has Samsung diodes it has a meanwell driver and it cost me $250 for a 280watt quantum board LED grow light .i know theres some cheaper lights out there that are complete crap that where you do ur research and find one that has Samsung diodes and a meanwell driver not everyone is rich to buy these expensive lights HLG lights and many others like that .this is my point of view of things im not having a dig at you or anything ok .but i have great results with cheaper lights
Heres my girls that i doing now under a ppap led quantum board grow light and heres a pic of some other plants ive done with a cheaper light
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People have had good success with knock off HLG boards. @Nicky is one of them. The problem is if there’s an issue you’re SOL. I had 1 red diode go out on a HLG rspec board and had a new board 2 days later. They didn’t even request the other board back.
There is also a difference in the Samsung LEDs they use. HLG gets top bin diodes(highest lumens/watt). Others use lower bin diodes. So where with HLG boards I could be running 100w with a PPFD of 700, it would take the knockoff 130w to achieve a PPFD of 700
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I understand where you’re coming from bro ive had my far share of cheap nasty lights i was lucky to get a good light made with good quality parts for the price i did .in saying this though i do want to upgrade to a spider farmer se3000 for my 3×3 tent .To buy a the cheapest HGL light in Australia its around $1000 dollars or more we get ripped off big time here with grow lights
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Y’all get ripped off with everything it seems. ILGM used to be able to ship seeds there without issue. Now they can’t make it through customs so they had to discontinue orders from down unda.
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I’m running a couple $40-$50 china lights myself as we discussed in another post that work well in my small grow area. One pulls over 120w @100% from the wall (Linqool) is dimmable and works for 2’x2’ . The other is about 95w from wall, (Vander Life) stays really cool via noisy internal fan and works for 18”x24”, pics speak for themselves 
Having very high quality lighting truly does have its advantages, however if you spend enough time scouring and searching and comparing the right information and specs you can find some quality lights for reasonable prices. Small company’s will often purchase huge quantities of surplus led technology that’s just been “updated” for a low cost, assemble lights from them and sell essentially the same product as Name Brand “previous year model” at a lower price than Big Names
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Listen what ever light you’re thinking of buying HLG has the same light refurbished. I bought my scorpion Rspec from them a few weeks ago. I’m paid 1100 for my light. But they have the same exact light but refurbished for 799. If I new that before hand I would have went with the refurbished one. I’m not bougie. If I can save 500 I’m will. Refurbished means to make anew. It’s new. Just like the one they’re selling you for 1100. I was the sucker who they got. So if I can help someone else not make the same mistake I did I’m happy.
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Green beams uses remote mounted meanwell drivers, hood heat sinks and top bin Samsung diodes. I have a thread about it. They also use 288 quantum boards (same boards as hlgs previous year model) and they’re about $180 for 240w fully assembled. HLG products are great, but they’re also way out of some of our price ranges. There are lower cost fixtures that still perform well.
Supplemental co2 is required to utilize the benefits of the ultra high ppfd lights. I’m some cases it is like driving a Lamborghini to church, can you? Sure! But why?!?
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A QB288 LM301B board Attached to any fixture is still a QB288 LM301B board my friend.
Samsung LM301H and LM301B are both “top bin” diodes, the H is horticulture specification, same LED Diode, just slightly stricter sorting and refined spectrum and different coating Resulting in 5% increased efficiency… the sorting difference is between these is minuscule.
We’re talking about testing each diode made in the same factory post production and sorting their variation by output…… they’re all still VERY good diodes!
SK bin 37lm@65ma 2.91umol/j
SL bin 39lm@65ma 3.10umol/j
The lower cost fixtures use older technology and not necessarily lower quality. Don’t get me wrong, there are lights out there that are terrible but not all of them fall into that category.
However, as technology advances even these really great diodes are getting pushed down the efficiency rating ladder to make way for the LM301B EVO
Here’s the spec sheets via Samsung
LM301B
LM301H
LM301B EVO
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Right, but there are reject bins that don’t meet the sk/l bin standards and Chinese companies buy them up. That’s why there is a huge discrepancy in price. They can still claim 301h and 301b because they are.
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If Samsung distributes them that means the product met minimum requirement standards to get their seal of approval. Otherwise they would not put their name on it. And I agree totally that they do produce a lower end product line. SL-SK bin diodes are superior. My point was, a LM301 diode is specification bound and must meet minimum quality requirements to earn that name,
HLG is a superior product and offers the highest quality possible. Which you pay for, and get every dollar worth. Which could not be further from answering the question that was asked.
Don’t forget Samsung is a South Korean company…. And actually started as a small grocery store in the late 1930s. Samsung didn’t start in the electronics industry until almost 1970.
Assembled in the USA means outsourced Chinese and Korean parts put together in the USA.
There definitely are lights on the market that are more reasonably priced AND cover the needs of smaller grows. You just need to find the right ones. Samsung diodes are top notch, even the slightly older versions that are lower cost than the brand new versions.
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That’s not always the case. If someone is offering money for your trash you don’t say no. Guarantee Samsung doesn’t just burn the diodes that don’t make spec. All smart companies make money from their scraps.
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Sorry @BobbyDigital your right you can only grow great weed with an HLG lamp. Anything other than the super diodes HLG buys from Samsung is trash. Not even the same exact diodes Samsung sells to everyone else…… SMH the man asked about lower cost lights.
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I run a refurbished 350R in my 2x4 and love it. Catch them on sale and they’re half the price of a new one. I’ve seen some very knowledgeable growers recommend green beams lights. Check out their website if you want to find a quality light at a lower price point. Stay away from the cheaper lights on Amazon for sure. You might even search on Alibaba and find a gem. Just do your research before buying any light or you’ll just end up buying another one to replace it.
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