Smallest light?

[Ak96]

Looking to grow my first two plants indoors in 5 litre pots.
What is the least amount of watts you need in your lights? Do you need a light for each plant or could they share the one light?
Is a growing rent necessary?
Also, do LED lights make a huge dent in your electricity bill?

Sorry for all the questions lol

 

[fessie99]

1000 watts is roughly 50 bucks a month unless it's running 24/7 and pick your lights based on room size/ footprint and ambient temperature that will narrow it down in my opinion cmhs are the best all around to start with they have good lifespan and it's straight forward tech unlike LEDs

 

[lokie]

Looking to grow my first two plants indoors in 5 litre pots.
What is the least amount of watts you need in your lights? Do you need a light for each plant or could they share the one light?
Is a growing rent necessary?
Also, do LED lights make a huge dent in your electricity bill?

Sorry for all the questions lol

A good light may be 400 to 600 watt for the footprint of the growing space needed for 2 - 4 plants.

Always buy the best light you can afford. You will reap more rewards with more light than less.

 

[TreeFarmerCharlie]

One of the most common mistakes beginners make is thinking about the number of plants they want to grow and then fail to realize that the choice of light is what everything else should be based on when there is a tight budget. If you can’t afford a high electric bill every month then keep the total wattage to below 500W. Now decide how much you want to spend on lights. If your answer is “under $200” then you will need to go with something like HPS and size your grow area accordingly (50W per square foot). If you have a larger budget, like $350 - $400, then you’d be better off building your own LED light with Quantum Boards (30-35W per square foot). If you have closer to a grand to spend, then buy a quality prebuilt Quantum Board light. And, yess, a tent makes a big difference.

 

[fessie99]

Rspecs are a 100 a board plus roughly 100 for correct ballast depending on how many boards but they don't pound like the cmh I do love them if LED that's my pick he has a just released for 150 for board and sink looks awesome

 

[BluntMoniker]

You can grow with just about any light really... theres no hard and fast rule on what has to be used.

Common lighting types, are HID (High Intensity Discharge, such as HPS and CMH lights), Fluorescent, and LED. HIDs and LEDs are usually used to cover your entire grow, where Fluoros are usually used as supplemental lighting or for young plants that cant handle the light intensity of other options.

As far as wattage, that's not exactly the best measure of light. Really, you want something that will have a light coverage area that fits your grow space and can provide enough umol to your plants in the proper spectrum. Figuring out umol of a light thatisnt specifically noted is a pain in the ass though.. much easier to measure LUX using a cheap lux meter or phone app.

LUX is a measure of light intensity at an exact point. As the plant matures, it can handle an increasing amount of light intensity. Seedlings prefer less light, in the 5-8k LUX range. A vegging plant prefers 15-50k LUX, and a flowering plant can handle up to 75k LUX. As an example, a t5 fluorescent light puts off 8-10k lux at a distance of 6in.

And as far as your electric bill... that's simple math. Just check your electric bill for the price your electric company charges per kilowatt hour.

The US average kwh costs 13.31 cents. So put into practical use, let's say you have a 1000w HPS lamp running by itself with nothing else. Well assume you have it on an 18/6 schedule for 30 days, then a 12/12 schedule for an additional 75 days.

1000w = 1 kwh = 13.31 cents

1kwh x 18hours x 30 days = $71.874

1kwh x 12hours x 75 days = $119.79

So across an entire grow, 1000 watts being used would cost on average 192$.. about 55$ per month. You can do that math using the wattage of your specific setup, to find out your running costs.. but on average, it's really not very much if you do a per plant breakdown of the cost of electric

 

[lokie]

Rspecs are a 100 a board plus roughly 100 for correct ballast depending on how many boards but they don't pound like the cmh I do love them if LED that's my pick he has a just released for 150 for board and sink looks awesome

I use the 315 CMH.

Amazon.com : 315w CMH Grow Light Kit- LEC Ceramic Metal Halide High Performance Package - 120 and 240 Volt Power Cables, 315 Watt Ballast 120/240v Volt, Philips 3100K Lamp/Bulb, Mogul Socket Adapter : Garden & Outdoor

Amazon.com : 315w CMH Grow Light Kit- LEC Ceramic Metal Halide High Performance Package - 120 and 240 Volt Power Cables, 315 Watt Ballast 120/240v Volt, Philips 3100K Lamp/Bulb, Mogul Socket Adapter : Garden & Outdoor

www.amazon.com

1 would be adequate for what you require 2 would be a noticable increase in harvest.

I use 2 in a 4 x 4 tent and the plants love it. This combo nets Aboutapound +, literally, each harvest of 4 plants.
And the plants love it.

 

[fessie99]

That's what I run too 2 for 8×3 and run 3 rspecs at 300 watts that way cmhs don't run during morning and evening 2 hrs off a side

 

[Oldchick]

I’m new to growing as well like my second yr and I’m on a tight wad budget from hell and my plants did decent for led full spectrum lights I picked up at my local Walmart and Lowe’s. plan to upgrade before this new batch gets any bigger but I think they did rather well for the amount of money I spent which was maybe under 50 bucks lol . Like I said I’m new and experimenting.

 

[fessie99]

I’m new to growing as well like my second yr and I’m on a tight wad budget from hell and my plants did decent for led full spectrum lights I picked up at my local Walmart and Lowe’s. plan to upgrade before this new batch gets any bigger but I think they did rather well for the amount of money I spent which was maybe under 50 bucks lol . Like I said I’m new and experimenting.View attachment 4530420

little bulb like this seems to work good

 

[Oldchick]

little bulb like this seems to work good

I think ppl really down play cheaper lights. I know I would get way bigger yields and plants in general with more wattage or better lights in general but this makes two yrs that I’ve used Walmart full spec led strips (3 tied together 12 bucks each super cheap) and I also use two 65w full spec bulbs. if I went by wattage on each package it comes to almost 300watts. do I believe that’s the actual wattage um nope they lie lol like a lot butttt I generally just watch my babies daily and go off their progress. If they don’t seem to be growing to good I throw in more lights ‍ Idk 2nd yr of it working great for me. these are the new ones about 4 weeks old in this pic. always put two per pot even tho I’m told not to lol. I’m honestly just having fun learning from trial and error.

 

[TreeFarmerCharlie]

I think ppl really down play cheaper lights. I know I would get way bigger yields and plants in general with more wattage or better lights in general but this makes two yrs that I’ve used Walmart full spec led strips (3 tied together 12 bucks each super cheap) and I also use two 65w full spec bulbs. if I went by wattage on each package it comes to almost 300watts. do I believe that’s the actual wattage um nope they lie lol like a lot butttt I generally just watch my babies daily and go off their progress. If they don’t seem to be growing to good I throw in more lights ‍ Idk 2nd yr of it working great for me. these are the new ones about 4 weeks old in this pic. always put two per pot even tho I’m told not to lol. I’m honestly just having fun learning from trial and error. View attachment 4530453

Cheap lights aren’t downplayed. They can be used but you won’t get big dense flowers, or rapid growth, like you will with insufficient lighting. When you use cheap lights, you need more, and you are just throwing money into an electrical bill that could go into higher quality and more efficient lighting. There’s nothing wrong with using shit lights, though, if it’s all someone can afford. But telling people they are great to use (not saying you are saying this) would be unhelpful.

 

[Renfro]

Rspecs are a 100 a board plus roughly 100 for correct ballast depending on how many boards but they don't pound like the cmh I do love them if LED that's my pick he has a just released for 150 for board and sink looks awesome

They have the new Diablo boards now.

 

[Renfro]

Looking to grow my first two plants indoors in 5 litre pots.
What is the least amount of watts you need in your lights? Do you need a light for each plant or could they share the one light?
Is a growing rent necessary?
Also, do LED lights make a huge dent in your electricity bill?

Sorry for all the questions lol

Figure out how large your grow space will be. Then pick lighting based on covering that square footage. Then you can put plants under the lights and grow whatever number you choose to fit under the light.

 

[Oldchick]

Cheap lights aren’t downplayed. They can be used but you won’t get big dense flowers, or rapid growth, like you will with insufficient lighting. When you use cheap lights, you need more, and you are just throwing money into an electrical bill that could go into higher quality and more efficient lighting. There’s nothing wrong with using shit lights, though, if it’s all someone can afford. But telling people they are great to use (not saying you are saying this) would be unhelpful.

Exactly because this is what works for me so please no one take what I’m saying as advise lol this is just what has personally worked for me. My light bill hasn’t seen a big increase at all actually not even a noticeable increase and I’m thankful. Just showing ppl that there isn’t just one way to grow. I’ve been playing a lot these past two yrs and learning a lot but still have a very long way to go. I honestly crack my self up at what I’ve pulled off with these lil suckers I swear. But soon I’ll be upgrading a Bigga time

 

[Renfro]

With LED lighting, the phrase "You get what you pay for" was never truer.

 

[TreeFarmerCharlie]

Exactly because this is what works for me so please no one take what I’m saying as advise lol this is just what has personally worked for me. My light bill hasn’t seen a big increase at all actually not even a noticeable increase and I’m thankful. Just showing ppl that there isn’t just one way to grow. I’ve been playing a lot these past two yrs and learning a lot but still have a very long way to go. I honestly crack my self up at what I’ve pulled off with these lil suckers I swear. But soon I’ll be upgrading a Bigga time

One thing a lot of people don’t realize is they can get cheap lights that work decent and will hold them over until they can afford better lights. I started my first grow in a 32”x32” tent with a $99 COB LED and have been growing, since then, with two of those lights in a 4x4.

 

[THC-CK]

2 plants would be fine in a 3x3 space, and for that I would steer you towards a 315w CMH.

 

[ISK]

a bit small but should be good for about a pound

 

[fessie99]

They have the new Diablo boards now.

I seen that they look sweet debating on one for veg or CMH I like the fact you can turn them down