First Grow, CFL Veg, LED Flower? What's an appropriate light for my tiny space?

Hey guys, first timer here, I have a few questions about lighting for my tiny grow closet.

Here are the specs on the enclosure.

19.5" (inch) wide and long, 5' (feet) tall, with 3 solid walls, one accessible for maintenance and all that jazz.

I'm still undecided between soil and DWC, but leaning towards DWC, since I have such small space and want to maximize yield.

Since I will be growing from clones (Vanilla Kush), I was thinking putting two plants in opposing ends of the floor, using LST, and SCROG to maximize output also.

I want to veg the plants using CFL for between 30-60 days, whenever I reach 50% full before I switch to LED flowering. How many CFL's (@ 6500k) should I put in the room for maximum vegging? I was thinking 4-6 23W bulbs?

When my friend and I grew HPS, the plant grew an extra 50% in flowering, this is why I want to stop vegging at 50% capacity. Will LED's, slow the vegging down since I am providing it with 85% Red (660nm)? Or will growth still occur at a similar rate?

Now, for LED lamps, I see I have a HUGE range of options, and clearly some are less than optimal for budding.

Since I have a (very) small room, I was thinking throwing in a few of these bulbs here:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Red-Blue-LED-Hydroponic-Grow-Light-Bulb-110-V-16-Watt-/130444472318?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e5f18affe
(16 Watt flowering bulb).

Or, from what I can see on the LED section, and from what I can find for bang for the buck (I want to do this for as cheap as possible but not compromise on plant quality too much..) it seems that the Blackstar 240W LED system is the winner.

Should I add CFL's (2700k) for flowering on top of the LED's?

Now, here comes the big questions, if I were to use DWC, can I put two clones in such a small base? (room 19.5"x19.5"x5')
What about with dirt?

What is the difference in the quality of the final product? Are the buds as tight with LED's than with HPS?

Thank's for stopping by and and for all your insight.

Cheers!
PD

Welcome to rollitup!

So you have an area about 1.5'x1.5'x5' where you want to grow and you're considering using either either HPS, CFL, or LED along with soil or hydro, right? I'll give you my 2 cents and you can take it or leave it.

Get a 250 watt digital ballast. I'm sure you can find one for under $100. Veg very quickly under a metal halide bulb which you can get a generic one for under $20. By quickly I mean this: get your clones, transplant them into something a little bigger, let them recover from any shock, flip them - - - if you go 30-60 days you will grow out of your space. You are going to want small plants because you have a small space and will be using small lights (no matter which way you go) with very little "throw." "Throw" is how deep a light penetrates. When you flip them, you'll replace the metal halide with the same wattage high pressure sodium. Get the best HPS you can afford.

I would start with soil as opposed to deep water. Deep water is awesome and you can get explosive growth with it. However, soil is awesome too and it's really really really easy. I would do one plant. That's one as in 1. You are in a tight space with a plant that normally grows on mountains in Pakistan. True a Kush won't get enormous, but it will get bigger than you think. And, again, don't veg long - - - trust me!

The buds on LED will not be as tight, from my experience. Nothing does it like HPS, man. Nothing. (However, in my dream garden I would have supplementary Stealth LED because they sure do help frost!)

Use RIU to make your garden better. There are some real growers on here!

LaudanumRx said:

Welcome to rollitup!

So you have an area about 1.5'x1.5'x5' where you want to grow and you're considering using either either HPS, CFL, or LED along with soil or hydro, right? I'll give you my 2 cents and you can take it or leave it.

Get a 250 watt digital ballast. I'm sure you can find one for under $100. Veg very quickly under a metal halide bulb which you can get a generic one for under $20. By quickly I mean this: get your clones, transplant them into something a little bigger, let them recover from any shock, flip them - - - if you go 30-60 days you will grow out of your space. You are going to want small plants because you have a small space and will be using small lights (no matter which way you go) with very little "throw." "Throw" is how deep a light penetrates. When you flip them, you'll replace the metal halide with the same wattage high pressure sodium. Get the best HPS you can afford.

I would start with soil as opposed to deep water. Deep water is awesome and you can get explosive growth with it. However, soil is awesome too and it's really really really easy. I would do one plant. That's one as in 1. You are in a tight space with a plant that normally grows on mountains in Pakistan. True a Kush won't get enormous, but it will get bigger than you think. And, again, don't veg long - - - trust me!

The buds on LED will not be as tight, from my experience. Nothing does it like HPS, man. Nothing. (However, in my dream garden I would have supplementary Stealth LED because they sure do help frost!)

Use RIU to make your garden better. There are some real growers on here!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply!

My main problem is that I live in Canada, so HPS ballasts are actually fairly expensive, for some reason I can get a 400W ballast W HPS & MH bulb, in a 6" glass tube for just under 200$ at my door, but if I want to go for 250W like you suggested, I would end up paying 250$ and would need to buy the bulbs separately. This is ordering parts from online or Ebay, my local store I'm looking at 400+$ for a setup..

Also, my biggest problem, and why I was shying away from HPS was the heat. This is taking a small closet, and exhaust would be very difficulty for this much heat.

This is why I was leaning for LED also.

What if I were to put the 240W Blackstar, and some high powered CFL? Would the buds be a bit tighter? I know HPS would be better, and I have had seen great results with HPS, but the heat is the killer factor, and I would rather have slightly less tight nugs than crispy ladies.. haha

PD

PhatDaddy said:

Thanks for the quick reply!

My main problem is that I live in Canada, so HPS ballasts are actually fairly expensive, for some reason I can get a 400W ballast W HPS & MH bulb, in a 6" glass tube for just under 200$ at my door, but if I want to go for 250W like you suggested, I would end up paying 250$ and would need to buy the bulbs separately. This is ordering parts from online or Ebay, my local store I'm looking at 400+$ for a setup..

Also, my biggest problem, and why I was shying away from HPS was the heat. This is taking a small closet, and exhaust would be very difficulty for this much heat.

This is why I was leaning for LED also.

What if I were to put the 240W Blackstar, and some high powered CFL? Would the buds be a bit tighter? I know HPS would be better, and I have had seen great results with HPS, but the heat is the killer factor, and I would rather have slightly less tight nugs than crispy ladies.. haha

PD

Click to expand...

I hear you. A couple years ago I was leaning for LED too because it sounded awesome and I wanted it to work so bad! I ordered 2 Blackstars to test. The first one we took out of the box was defective, wouldn't even turn on. The second turned on but next to the Stealth we had that was drawing less actual watts, it was just plain weak. Be forewarned that you truly get what you pay for in the LED world.

Here is the other thing, in that tight space the LED, CFL, HPS, or whatever light you use, is going to build up heat no matter what. There is no light that will defy the laws of thermodynamics. You'll have to have some sort of good inline fan exhausting air or it is going to get hot in there, your plants will stretch, your buds will be wispy.

If your light isn't putting out any heat, it isn't powerful enough or it is existing in an alternate universe with different laws of thermodynamics. Even that Blackstar will get your space hot and will require ventilation.

Go with what excites you though and gets you pumped to garden, whether it's the LED, CFL, HPS, MH, or whatever!