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Best Led Lighting For All Three Stages….


JOE35

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Every one I know who has bought them so far are only using them for seeds or clones, Ive not heard much good about veg or bud! Id stick with t-5's if your looking for cheap, you can get pretty good deals on 600 watt hoods and ballast, that is the best way to go, use the mh for veg and the hps for budd, if you have plenty of time, I actualy know people who use nothing but t-5's and they get a good product from it, not as big of a crop as hps but the bulbs cost at least 80 bucks for a 600 hps. If you dont have a large grow you dont need 1000 watter's.

 

best of luck to you!

 

Peace

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welcome !

 many types of lighting will "grow" a marijuana plant, but few will allow it to fully express. If only vegetation is expected an LED light will do the trick well, and so will cfl bulbs, shop lights, and t5's. But when it comes to producing flowers a more intense par is suggested. In my experience with all those lighting options mentioned the results will be subpar, under weight, and chemically just not quite ever finished. I did side by sides and with a refractometer could accurately measure health and photosynthesis efficiency with each. I found that all but the HID(high intensity discharge) like metal halides and high pressure sodium lights did not fully burn their available carbs, during flowering stage. This leaves behind sugars, magnesium(used to produce sugars) and nitrogen, unburned.

 

I'm guessing heat and electricity are your concerns. A T5 lamp is a decent choice, but wont save you a lick of power usage, but will score well in the temperature dept.

I'd wait till the ridiculous prices, short life span, and par efficiency improves with LED lights before I pulled the trigger. They are very expensive. You could try an entry level UFO for 300 bucks, but promise it will end up in the veg room after flowering with it, especially if you know your buds.

A 400 watt metal halide, or even a combo bulb, or a HPS of the same wattage will produce stellar magazine cover buds on 4 or so 24 inch plants, or more in a trained sog style.

 

good luck!

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If your garden is small (and as a new grower it should be), I'd highly recommend a ceramic metal halide bulb, or CMH.  Even though it's a type of metal halide, it runs on a high pressure sodium (HPS) ballast.  There are several advantages over regular MH and HPS bulbs:

  • longer life (MH = 6 months, HPS = 12 months, CMH = 24 months)
  • maintains much higher % of output as the bulb ages
  • very even light spectrum, much more like the sun (MH has little yellow/red, HPS has little blue, CMH has everything)

A CMH is ideal if you want to keep life simple and use one bulb all the way from veg through flower.  The only downsides are that you must use regular magnetic ballasts (not digital) and the max size is 400 watts.  If they made these in 600 or 1000 watts you'd hear a lot more about them.

Edited by MrShpongle
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I have flowered plants under 400 watt CMH bulbs. The buds are comparable to those grown under 600 watt HPS.

Imagine if they had a 1000 watt CMH how big those buds would be but back to the original post I have only seen 1 incredible LED grow and the guy was a scientific genius who built his own units by piecing together the individual led lights.
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While I don't know anything about growing myself, I am acquainted with Cheapo Charlie who is prone to science project experimentation in his continuing efforts to be a low-cost producer of mmj.

 

Cheapo got a deal on some fairly modern LED fixtures at a county sheriff's auction last year.

 

He used them as supplemental lighting in both his veg and flowering areas.

 

He has also used T5's and HPS lights.

 

His observation was T5's work fine but are less cost-effective than HPS. Cheapo also noted T5's may run cooler than HPS lights but that advantage is not valid if the HPS lights are properly cooled.

 

LED's are not cost effective in flowering in his experience. He removed the 600w of LEDs and replaced them with a 600w HPS. He has also removed half of the T5's from the flowering room and only uses the remaining ones for side lighting.

 

What he has reported is using LED's may have some benefits in controlling powdery mildew, especially in the flowering room where Cheapo limits chemical treatment as much as possible. He claims limiting treatment results in a better product although he is such a tightwad I suspect he is also trying to save money. He is, after all, quite happy to sell others his used dirt (I am not making that up) claiming it is pre-treated (whatever that means).

 

A few years ago induction lighting was the newest thing. Now it is not promoted as it once was. HPS has proven to be a workhorse for most growers with good reason. Science projects are fine for scientists but most folks are better off staying with the tried and true formulas that so many find successful.

 

Life is good.

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yea back in the day I used to get my bulbs from a friend who worked in a union electrical ware house!!

 

So we were able to get bulbs that others had to get thru high times or other unsafe places to order from, after all It was all ilegal at the time!, Now you can get bulbs and ballast down at your local candy store lol! beware what you buy, you realy need to judge the bulb not the cover, ive noticed at times the bulb is not what is in the box! if your using digital ballast and 600 watt hps make sure they work well with your ballast or you may be going thru a few a yr!

 

I know growers that use 600 hps in veg and budd! and they come out realy nice, I use mh for veg and I beleive I get bushier plants than the hps growers in veg! any opinions on that?

 

Peace

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  • 3 weeks later...

    Bottom line is MH-for veg and HPS-for flowering these are still the best way for high yields and a great product. Keep in mind that most LED distributors are just trying to get a piece of the pie like everyone else. Cg's are always trying to lower the cost of growing so they usually know what works the best.

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