LiGhts And SOil

DOT5262

DOT5262

New Member
Ok Well im looking for lights for a small stealth grow only abuot 3 ft high so i was thinking florescent bulbs so i was wondering would these work.... and how many bulbs woild i need for veg n flower stage's 2 for each would work ? for about 2-4 plants... and umm is there a premade soil that i could use? im not to good at mixing and complicated shit:mrgreen: so is there anything i can use right outa the bag ? ...... and for a plant thats gonna be like 2 ft high tops in a scrog grow how big a pot would i need... could i get away with a smaller 6-8 inch pot ? how often would i need to water plants.. and how much water and is there anything else i would need like nutes or ph shit ? of should it grow fine without that stuff

EDIT : so ive herd sunshine mix #4 and Fox farm ocean forest are 2 great soils to use...
light wise im still alittle stumped ive herd people saying u need 7500+ lumens a plant .. then ive herd people who
use less then half of that..... i think i might go with 1 105-125 watt cfl for veg ( whichever spectrum that is i forget)
which is about 6200-6900 lumens.. then when the plants go into flowering i plan to add another of the flowering
spectrum so it would be about 200-250 watt 12,000-14,000 lumens for 2-4 plants in a very enclosed space
3'h x 2 x 2 about 18 square feet? if it matters
 
DOT5262

DOT5262

New Member
ok well ive done alittle looking into lights.... ive herd u need about 2500 lumens per plant.... so i would need to find something about 100 watts? for 2-4 plants 1 bulb at 2700 k and one at like ? 6500k ?
for flowering and veg.... i know nothing about soil... ive herd mirical grow can burn the plants cuz of to much nute's ... i herd something about fox something something but i cant remember
 
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drock101

Well-Known Member
DOT5262 said:
ok well ive done alittle looking into lights.... ive herd u need about 2500 lumens per plant.... so i would need to find something about 100 watts? for 2-4 plants 1 bulb at 2700 k and one at like ? 6500k ?
for flowering and veg.... i know nothing about soil... ive herd mirical grow can burn the plants cuz of to much nute's ... i herd something about fox something something but i cant remember
Click to expand...
2500 lumens per plant is near the bare minimum a plant needs to survive. For "magazine cover" buds you need around 10,000 per plant. Somewhere around 7000-7500 per plant will give you something great to smoke. I use the straight out of the bag miracle grow indoor potting soil. Cant say its the best but it worked fine on my first grow, and now 1/2 way through my second. I usually leach the plants 1 week before transplanting them to their final pots for flowering. As far as vegging and flowering you want more of the cool white bulbs for vegging and the warm white bulbs for flowering.
 
DOT5262

DOT5262

New Member
7500...thats more then twice as much as ive herd for excellent growing light got alink to this info ? cuz 7500 for one plant thats 2 ft high seems alittle overboard....
 
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drock101

Well-Known Member
buy Jorge Cervantes book at barnes and noble, read any and all FAQ's about lighting either here or on hightimes.com.... you'll find your own answers like i did
 
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drock101

Well-Known Member
another idea might be to just look at some light manufacturers specs on their growlights...... a 400w HPS light puts out something like 60,000+ lumens and is recommended to illuminate a space approximately 2x3'...... 60,000 lumens divided by 6sq/ft = 10,000 per sq/ft..... and so on for larger lights.
These numbers are also related to Flowering..... much less light is needed for seedlings, mothers, and vegging...... plus alot more plants can share the light at the lower stages of growth
 
DOT5262

DOT5262

New Member
well i did find my own answers.... thats what fucks me up..... cuz i have about 10 compleatly diffrent answers for the same question .... the problem is i cant just go ask all those source's if there correct.. so i post my thoughts and see if someone who knows what there talking about says " one of those things is right"

EDit: hps in small spacE? = burn down the house? i thought those lights where hot + big which is the opposite of what i need
 
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csharper

Well-Known Member
soil: Ocean Forest - I have 5 2 foot indicas in 30 days, no nutes, under:
light: 400watt hortilux blue, hidhut digital ballast, $200 + reflector

forget about lumens, forget about cfls, if you want proper growth without having to be a master horticulturist, it is all about spectrum and intensity (which you only get from 100watt+ cfl (not a 27watt=100watt bulb)). By the time you get 2 or 3 100watt cfls plus reflectors, you could have just bought a much higher intensity/efficiency mh light. With the hortilux bulb, you get proper spectrum

The results speak for themselves, 2 foot indicas from bagseed
How? ocean forest 1 gallon pots, 2 weeks under 100 watt flourex security light (home depot) + 1 daylight 27 watt @ 6" light distance. Transplanted to 5 gallon ocean forest, 2 weeks under 400 watt hortliux blue @ 1foot. 2 feet, 7-8 nodes each. Easier than I thought. One thing, I wish I didn't waste so much money on cfls up front, would have done just as good or better with the mh @ 2-3 feet light distance.
 
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drock101

Well-Known Member
what about the engineering and cost of having the extra heat and height in your grow room for the big boy lights? CFL's will benifet from just opening the doors to your room once or twice a day.
 
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csharper

Well-Known Member
just checked my 4x4x8 enclosed grow room - 78 degrees lights on, with a 250 cfm exhaust, just using a 5200 btu window ac in another room for my 750 sq ft house

that said, an intense CFL is going to get just as hot or hotter than an equivalent wattage hid. without the wattage/intensity your plants suffer.

It is not the same at all to have 4-27 watt cfls vs 1 100 watt cfl - like I said, forget about "lumens".
 
DOT5262

DOT5262

New Member
yea see the problem with that is i have very little space.. i plan on a small grow 3'hx2x2 room just a few plants with scrog 2-4 so i dont wanna light my plants on fire....so hid not really an option...
 
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dog

Well-Known Member
breeze1106 said:
Im new to this indoor growing thing, this is my setup....any advice here r some pics of my plant and what i use. any advice would be helpful:-|
Click to expand...
hi,you need to get that light about 2" away from that plant, and get 2 moor bulbs on it. and why is that plant growing at the side of the pot? and whot is that growing in that pot with yor plant? and try and get them bulbs on ther sides. good luck!!:peace:
 
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csharper

Well-Known Member
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csharper

Well-Known Member
just realize my 100watt flourex security light created 92degree conditions at plant height, with no exhaust but tent open, same ac, +5 degrees outside
 
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csharper

Well-Known Member
led = cooler and you won't need reflectors, just reflective walls. supposedly heat is not an issue at all with led. just match the ratios to the blue vs red article + add 2,27 watt 6500k cfls for full spectrum. then document it in your journal, cause the results will be awesome
 
DOT5262

DOT5262

New Member
well thats intresting but ummm will led light work ? is it ment to be used with other lights... i dont really have room for 10 diffrent bulbs..... and ive just looked into led lights a bit and ive seen that led lights within 6'' of the plant can cause abnormal behavoir
( strage growth/curling of leaf's/ led sHock) and how many lights would i need ? for a grow the lumens of these lights are very low and so is the wattage.... so would i need like 40 of them ? or doesnt it matter with leds.... ive never been introduced to this idea and i will be looking into it .....
 
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csharper

Well-Known Member
OK I am just going to speculate here... this is based on my intuition and knowledge of spectrum and photosynthesis, not my personal experience with LED ... anyway first, my motivation for this is I want to see how well this works from someone with more than half a brain and I just sunk all the money I can for a while on mh.

So first speculation, about LED shock. Checking for that query in google, and you can see how it originated. But also, plants need more than just red and blue. True thats what they mostly want, but see the absorption spectrum at: PHOTOSYNTHESIS

From that I can hypothesize that the original guy who got "led shock" either had the red/blue ratio off or just didn't include any yellow/green spectrum at all.

That's why I suggested adding two-four 27 watt or one-two 42 watt cfls for full spectrum, little heat. Then for example, 3 of the blue 3watt led from hidhut, and two reds. Make your roof as an array of sockets spaced 6 inches apart, which will give you 12-16 sockets. You start out using 6 of them, but will be able to "upgrade" your lights at anytime by buying 1.6:1 blue/red led. If you need more than the roof allows, you can make socket arrays on the walls. My point is, you could never do that with cfls, as once you start running ~400watts of cfls it is going to be just as hot as one ~400w mh. The socket array will be super cheap to build, if you are worried about the wiring, it is really easy, I can teach you in less than a paragraph.

Sorry I can't be more concrete, I just have a really strong feeling that this would work better than perfect for your space. Plus your journal will give me something to show my gf to justify wrapping my walls in LEDs ;) I will email Justin @ hidhut in the morning and make sure he doesn't think I am talking out of my ass about the LEDs
 
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csharper

Well-Known Member
DOT5262 said:
for a grow the lumens of these lights are very low and so is the wattage....
Click to expand...
but none of the watts are put into excessive green/yellow wavelength spikes like a cfl. Thing is, if the LEDs aren't going to work, you will be venting excess heat from green/yellow spectrum production, and will be getting very little intense blue/red wavelengths = slow, lackluster, scorched growth. I tried an array of 8 daylight 27s before anything and was not impressed at all. And that was running 85 deg, in a 3x3 cabinet opened in the same room as the AC unit. Trust me, that is pretty hot considering.
 
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