Majikoopa
Well-Known Member
Greetings fellow growers!
I've been out of the swing of things for several years and BOY has the technology improved. My last serious grow was probably in 2010 and, from what I recall, LEDs were still a novelty back then and cost mega bucks to purchase. Although I still have my nice fluorescent grow lights I used to use, the grow space I have available to me now is TINY... which is cool because I've always enjoyed the challenge of producing in a small space.
I was pretty happy to see that the Mars 300 Watt LED was so affordable, so I went ahead and purchased onefor roughly $70 after reading some pretty positive reviews everywhere I looked. Purchased a second when I heard they only have a 1.5X1.5 foot coverage area. Here's how my setup is going to look, please tell me what you think because I'm new to LEDS:
-I've got a small grow space, roughly 2' deep by 3' long. The height is limited to about 5 ft.
- Since the space is small, I'm using two 300 watt LEDs by Mars, considering they are supposed to have a 1.5' X 1.5' coverage during flowering, 2' X 2' during veg. In my box, that means I'll have 3' X 1.5' of space fully covered by direct light during flower, 4' X 2' covered during veg.
- Since it's a small space and due to coverage/height concerns, I'm going to plan on using autoflowering plants. Specifically, I'm trying out some autoflowering Carmelicious and autoflowering Northern Lights. The seeds are feminized.
- I'll coat the walls in panda plastic, grow my plants out of 2 gallon pots, and mount the lights evenly spaced in the grow room to ensure maximum coverage. The lights will be hooked up to a timer on a 20-4 cycle during the grow from start to finish... I know there's a lot of debate over what kind of light/timing produces the most quantity vs. quality for autoflowers, so I understand this may be a point of contention. I will also run the light on "veg" mode for the first half of the grow, then switch it to the "flowering" mode as the buds start to go into production.
- I'm thinking I can really only get away with two plants in this space.... since they're autos maybe 3? Probably not though. I figure each plant can have its own light and I'll get two healthy, productive plants out of the deal
- I like to keep things simple in terms of growing medium so I'm doing two 2 gallon pots filled with Happy Frog organic soil, bat guano, earthworm castings, mycorhiza, perlite, and some happy frog fertilizer-- veg at first, "fruit & flower" later on. Will water with 6.8 ph water. The water quality is excellent where I live, so have never bothered buying bottled water/RO/distilled etc. Will sprout in a lightly moist paper towel sprinkled with mykos.
-For air circulation, I've got a small air filter that I'll run in the box to provide a bit of breeze for the girls and keep the smell down. I'm planning on putting this on the same cycle as my lights to give them a little break at "night".
- I have a shelf above where the plants will go that I'm planning on fermenting some sugar water in 2 liter jugs with yeast and aquarium lines running down to the plants. The biproduct of early fermentation is CO2, so I'm hoping this gives the plants a little edge by "enriching" the small box a bit.
- I expect the grow to go anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks long.
So yeah, that's the plan. HPS or majorly large size grow box/ducting/etc. isn't really in the cards right now, so LEDs paired with autoflowering, femenized seeds seemed like a nice solution to growing in the tiny space I have available.
Thoughts anyone? Just seeing if I'm on the right track with this or not.
I've been out of the swing of things for several years and BOY has the technology improved. My last serious grow was probably in 2010 and, from what I recall, LEDs were still a novelty back then and cost mega bucks to purchase. Although I still have my nice fluorescent grow lights I used to use, the grow space I have available to me now is TINY... which is cool because I've always enjoyed the challenge of producing in a small space.
I was pretty happy to see that the Mars 300 Watt LED was so affordable, so I went ahead and purchased onefor roughly $70 after reading some pretty positive reviews everywhere I looked. Purchased a second when I heard they only have a 1.5X1.5 foot coverage area. Here's how my setup is going to look, please tell me what you think because I'm new to LEDS:
-I've got a small grow space, roughly 2' deep by 3' long. The height is limited to about 5 ft.
- Since the space is small, I'm using two 300 watt LEDs by Mars, considering they are supposed to have a 1.5' X 1.5' coverage during flowering, 2' X 2' during veg. In my box, that means I'll have 3' X 1.5' of space fully covered by direct light during flower, 4' X 2' covered during veg.
- Since it's a small space and due to coverage/height concerns, I'm going to plan on using autoflowering plants. Specifically, I'm trying out some autoflowering Carmelicious and autoflowering Northern Lights. The seeds are feminized.
- I'll coat the walls in panda plastic, grow my plants out of 2 gallon pots, and mount the lights evenly spaced in the grow room to ensure maximum coverage. The lights will be hooked up to a timer on a 20-4 cycle during the grow from start to finish... I know there's a lot of debate over what kind of light/timing produces the most quantity vs. quality for autoflowers, so I understand this may be a point of contention. I will also run the light on "veg" mode for the first half of the grow, then switch it to the "flowering" mode as the buds start to go into production.
- I'm thinking I can really only get away with two plants in this space.... since they're autos maybe 3? Probably not though. I figure each plant can have its own light and I'll get two healthy, productive plants out of the deal
- I like to keep things simple in terms of growing medium so I'm doing two 2 gallon pots filled with Happy Frog organic soil, bat guano, earthworm castings, mycorhiza, perlite, and some happy frog fertilizer-- veg at first, "fruit & flower" later on. Will water with 6.8 ph water. The water quality is excellent where I live, so have never bothered buying bottled water/RO/distilled etc. Will sprout in a lightly moist paper towel sprinkled with mykos.
-For air circulation, I've got a small air filter that I'll run in the box to provide a bit of breeze for the girls and keep the smell down. I'm planning on putting this on the same cycle as my lights to give them a little break at "night".
- I have a shelf above where the plants will go that I'm planning on fermenting some sugar water in 2 liter jugs with yeast and aquarium lines running down to the plants. The biproduct of early fermentation is CO2, so I'm hoping this gives the plants a little edge by "enriching" the small box a bit.
- I expect the grow to go anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks long.
So yeah, that's the plan. HPS or majorly large size grow box/ducting/etc. isn't really in the cards right now, so LEDs paired with autoflowering, femenized seeds seemed like a nice solution to growing in the tiny space I have available.
Thoughts anyone? Just seeing if I'm on the right track with this or not.
