New newie got 1800W COB LED’s needs advice

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member
Well that's a rather broad statement and I'd have to differ in that, yes all lights will grow pot, but not all lights grow GOOD pot. Perhaps better to say that all decent grow lights have the potential to grow good pot, not to pick too fine a nit, lol.
How about all lights can grow good pot and grower talent grows great pot?

Ive seen some ripper CFL grows, some poor CFL grows. Some ripper HID grows and some poor, some ripper LED grows and some poor. Some ripper outdoor grows and some poor.

Ive grown some poor grows in CFL and outdoor and ive grown some ripper HID and outdoor.
 

Neto

Active Member
First off Neto, how many plants are you planning on putting in the tent? I don't know how many seeds you bought, but if this is your first time, then please read a lot on how to germinate seeds, as that is where so many newbies make mistakes and just kill a bunch of expensive seeds, happens to almost everyone starting out.

That's one reason I encourage beginners to start with an inexpensive and easy strain so you won't feel too bad if you don't have success right away. Also it's a good idea to start just half your seeds, see if your technique works then either make adjustments or just repeat for success (iow, don't put all your eggs in one basket). I have a fairly foolproof method, but it's detailed so just pm me if you want and I'll shoot you a link.

Once you figure how many plants you want, or end up with (best laid plans of mice and men etc, etc ;?) you can figure out how you want to arrange the lights. As I understand it, they gave you one more of the 320W led panels and 2 CFL's (what wattage?). Also the number of plants versus the size of your tent is to some extent going to dictate how long you're going to veg your plants - for example fewer plants = more space = longer veg time, and vice versa. A lot also depends on the strain - largely indica usually means shorter and bushier, more sativa means taller, lankier and more stretch when you flip to flower.

Plus don't know what system are you going with? Straight soil, some form of hydroponics? Imo, the easiest for beginners is actually a form of hydro called Hempy Buckets - it's a DTW or Drain To Waste, which means you don't need any fancy reservoir with pumps, no chillers, no worries about keeping pH balanced in the res, and if something goes wrong in your res then all the plants can be affected even killed.

You basically start with a bucket that has a hole drilled about an inch or two from the bottom, then fill it with a medium that consists of coco coir and perlite in a 60/40 mix although that can vary 10% either way. You could add a small percent of organic soil but it's not needed and imo it's better to start simple with a well-proven method that is really hard to screw up, lol. Then you just mix up your nutes and then water your hempy buckets until about 5%-10% of the solution runs out the hole. Just have to figure out how often your particular plant/bucket needs to be watered and it's just that easy.

Straight soil is good if you know what you're doing, having some previous gardening experience helps, but if you make a mistake like feeding too high a nute concentration or too often, these conditions can be much harder to correct. There's also some other issues you can read about, but these are just suggestions in case you haven't already decided which way to go.

Btw. sorry for such a long response, bad habit, lol, but as you can see there's lots of information that's needed in order to make decisions and to give good, accurate advice. That's why, if you have the time, I encourage you to start a grow log in that section of RIU. That way you can put all this information out there and others can give you advice (some good, some bad, you'll have to figure that out on your own) and it'll help you get through the rough parts and you can also check fellow RIU'ers grow logs as well. In fact you can get a lot of ideas from reading about the experiences others are having, some you'll be able to relate too and help keep you from making the same mistakes, and also lots of good ideas you can borrow. If you haven't fallen asleep reading this, lol, good luck and good growing ;?)
Thanks a lot for your advice, I’d love to know your method. I got fast growing fem seeds from Seedsman mostly indica strains, i did choose strains that said were easy growing got a few free seeds chucked in too with bitcoin package. iv started with 10 seeds into jiffy pellets 2 days ago & then plan into jiffy pots with organic soil once sprouted. Then transplant to 3 gallon pots once established. 2 have sprouted, iv got them in a warm dark place & will put them under the CFL? lights once all through. The CFL’s are 130w each. I’m thinking I’ll get a mars pro 2 LED just deciding wether to get the 400w equivalent or 800w. If I got one more panel would that be sufficient for the size tent & amount of plants? Iv been reading a few grow journals & plan to log my grow as I go. The amount of info out there is huge! Thanks again for your input & help, it is much appreciated.
 

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member
Yes, you're making sure of that.
Certainly am.
I'm to old and pretty to go to gaol. Not to mention if I did go away id lose my business's and therefore my great lifestyle.

If the Poo Poo come calling I'm happy to take a 3 to 6 month good behaviour bond and keep myself in those limits as best I can. Well worth the 12-15k tax free extra income per year. Plus I just love growing, been doing it on and off for over 30 years. Its a good hobby.
Gaol? No thanks.

A good mate has approx 300 in this season... yes the pay off will be another house for him of it all goes 100%. But the risk is huge.
 
Last edited:

emepher

Well-Known Member
Certainly am.
I'm to old and pretty to go to gaol. Not to mention if I did go away id lose my business's and therefore my great lifestyle.

If the Poo Poo come calling I'm happy to take a 3 to 6 month good behaviour bond and keep myself in those limits as best I can. Well worth the 12-15k tax free extra income per year. Plus I just love growing, been doing it on and off for over 30 years. Its a good hobby.
Gaol? No thanks.

A good mate has approx 300 in this season... yes the pay off will be another house for him of it all goes 100%. But the risk is huge.
Mm, okay. Thread closed, you've successfully crapped every possible topic into it now. Good night.
 

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member
Your the one who keeps saying silly stuff and I'm always up for a convo, even with people like you who don't really understand what their talking about.
Sweet dreams.
 

fearnoevil

Well-Known Member
Thanks a lot for your advice, I’d love to know your method. I got fast growing fem seeds from Seedsman mostly indica strains, i did choose strains that said were easy growing got a few free seeds chucked in too with bitcoin package. iv started with 10 seeds into jiffy pellets 2 days ago & then plan into jiffy pots with organic soil once sprouted. Then transplant to 3 gallon pots once established. 2 have sprouted, iv got them in a warm dark place & will put them under the CFL? lights once all through. The CFL’s are 130w each. I’m thinking I’ll get a mars pro 2 LED just deciding wether to get the 400w equivalent or 800w. If I got one more panel would that be sufficient for the size tent & amount of plants? Iv been reading a few grow journals & plan to log my grow as I go. The amount of info out there is huge! Thanks again for your input & help, it is much appreciated.
Sorry but I've been really busy, so while you've already got your seeds into jiffy pellets, how's your success rate? Sometimes simple is better, especially when just starting out. But I do prefer to germinate my seeds before planting them, largely because I want to know for sure that the seed is viable before committing any further resources/space to it.

To start, I always soak my seeds in a 50/50 solution of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide and bottled water for 30 minutes as a precautionary measure to kill any possible pathogens that might have hitched a ride (cuz unless you actually know the breeder, you can't know for certain what they may have been exposed to prior to being shipped to you, same reason you can end up with clones carrying diseases or pests like mites). Stir vigorously a few times to make sure they get a good rinsing.

Next I take a paper towel and glass plate or pie pan, fold the paper towel in half, moisten (but not soaked) with more of the same water/H2O2 solution, because I never know what's floating around in my house, lol, and then put the rinsed seeds on the paper towel and fold it over so you have a paper towel and cannabis seed sandwich sort of ;?). Then cover the plate with plastic stretch wrap and place it on top of the fridge or some other warm area.

In my experience, I almost always find seeds pop within 36-48 hrs. and once they germinate with just a bit of the tap root showing, I'll stick them into jiffy pellets or small peat pots with a good seedling mix found at any garden center, the kind that doesn't have plant "food" already in it, just my personal preference.

Btw if you leave the seeds on the paper towels too long their tap roots can get longer than you want and often curly making them a bit more delicate to handle cuz you can break these roots fairly easily, so handle with care (and clean hands) during this step. Then place the pellets or pots in a plastic tray and put that on top of a heating mat and set it at 80-85 degrees F. (I prefer the temperature controlled type as there's sometimes a danger of overheating depending on your ambient temperature).

And btw, I also use the same peroxide/water solution to either expand the Jiffy pellets or water the peat pots a day before, again just to be safe. There can be all kinds of bad stuff including harmful fungal spores in some of these commercial products, and after enough experiences with some mystery thing killing or harming my seedlings, I prefer to err on the side of caution during this first, and often most difficult stage.

For those interested, one thing about peroxide, while it can do damage in too high a concentration, it does break down fairly rapidly with exposure to light, heat and the open air, so if you use it at least 24 hrs before seeds sprout or before planting, much of it has degraded to water and oxygen. The release of that extra oxygen molecule creates an oxidizing action which is what damages the cellular walls of pathogens and why it is an effective pre-treatment.
 
Last edited:

BigWerm

Member
my act as a supplier of well-characterized parts of known spec is together
reputable fixture manufacturers both on and off this site have their act together

unscrupulous companies who will gladly take your money and sell you equipment that will not do what they say, have always, and will always be around. In their minds, people still give them money, so act=together.

as far as HPS on an efficiency and cost of ownership as of today they cant compete with (high quality) LEDs and are losing more ground every year


LEDs with heat are called HPS



yes its always advancing. its already the best value on the market and only getting better and cheaper, and all of the HQ rigs build and sold from 2014-now will still be humming along at close to their original (better than HID) efficiency many years from now
Initial cash outlay with LED is far from “the best”. HPS has and serves its purpose. LED is the future, but the cost disadvantage will take years of grows to recover and by that time, you’ll be needing a new LED anyway. And for the “diy led” argument, it’s irrelevant. Apples to apples
 
Top