The stronger the lights , the better the quality of your harvest and the bigger your buds. Light, Temp, air, soil or water quality, and Co2, than the cure, they all have major parts in good quality medicine .
ok if 50watts/sqft is an ideal then what would be the upper limit?
That’s a good one. I have vipers 450 , 3 of them over back row. ( thats 600 actual watts with those ) I am very happy with those lights . In the middle I have Bestva 1000w and one cob led 1500 w on right side. When these lights burn out I’m definitely going with a Quantum boards but they are expensive. Starting out you might want to go with cheaper versions that still give you a good product before you move on to advanced/costly lighting once you get the hang of it. Got three plants in this five by five tent Gorilla Glue in the front, it actually has a Viper Spectra 450 over the left side of it and the 1500 watt cob light over the right side of it. Suggest you large picture look at flowers and you decide yourself what looks like the best light. Flowers that are thick and dense usually have good lighting.
Another guy on this form has the quantum lights. They come in kits. HLG’s backordered, but they are worth the wait. I guess you could get Wi-Fi with those but they have dimmable ballast and they aren’t real real expensive. But as far as Lightning goes if you want to just cut the chase and go right to the better lights then I would go with Quantum boards. Probably in all honesty if I was just starting out and knew what I knew now I would not have bought those blurples , at the time l dove in cheaply because of budget.
Hey @zparkie2!
Thanx for the reply!
Really like ur pic!!
Yeah see wat u mean about the 2 different lights on the same plant
Jus proves better light better bud!
I am using quantum boards in one tent & blurples in one tent. Those are the only 2 kinds of lights I personally have any experience with.
Honestly, if you have to go with inexpensive blurples, galaxyhydro/roleadro are inexpensive but for the price & when compared to other similarly priced blurples, they’re not bad. The 300 watt draws 130w & the 600 watt draws 260. They will raise your grow room temps by 15-20 degrees, have noisy fans, and will give you blurple blindness, but that’s all fairly standard for value blurples.
However, if you can swing a few hundred bucks, you could probably do a quantum board or one of those strip lights I see people posting about. They raise heat at about half the rate as qbs, no noisy cooling fans on the unit, most of them are dimmable, and you get to see your plants under sunlight type conditions. Not to mention the amazing ppfd/par footprint.
Growing side-by-side with both types of light has been very…enlightening.
Hello again!
yeah it does usually come down to budget especially when jus starting out
with having so much to buy on top of the light u hav to make sacrifices but u can always upgrade down the line!
This is my first grow to go all the way (second grow overall / first grow of 2 plants both died 3 weeks into flowering) so im not an experienced grower by any stretch of the imagination but im happy with my viparspector and the results ive got out of this grow (as long as it doesnt die in the next 2 weeks!!)
Its the 900w with 418 true watts and gives me about 60 watts per square foot (only got room for a very small tent!) so more than enough power for a plant or 2!
Probably stick with this light until i can get a bigger tent / set up / win the lottery!
Hey @blackthumbbetty!
Thanx for the reply!
I did look at the more expensive lights when i was first starting but couldnt justify the expense!
I only hav room for a small tent so was only ever going to do 1 or 2 plants max so didnt think that warranted going too over board with the set up
Got the 900w Viparspector (418 true watts) which gives me 60 watts per square foot
Also has the veg and bloom switch plus although ive not had any other light to compare it to id say that the fans are that noisy at all
Actually tested my set up with a sound meter and with everything running (fans and light) i was only getting about 50 dbs stood about a meter away from the tent!
Jus realsied that this isnt my grow journal so the replies werent to me!!
thanks anyways!!