First Grow and I’m scared my buds aren’t going to form, am I doing something wrong?

Gentlemencorpse

Well-Known Member
They're just waiting for the last Game of Thrones book to come out to put on some weight....

Seriously though, let's slow down a bit. Gotta answer a few of the questions asked. You could certainly use more/better light but what spectrum and how much matters.

First question, how big is your closet/grow space? Once you know that, you can figure out how much light you need.

What are these home depot lights your buying? There's a decent chance they're adding nothing. Cheap doesn't mean good value.

Your plants look fine by the way. You could finish as you are doing and the buds will fatten up but they will likely be light and fluffy. But no amount of cheap LEDs, CFLs etc will really change that. Eventually you will want a quality light. How's your airflow/ventilation in there?
 

Rudolph1

Member
my grow space is 6' long, 2' wide, and 5' tall. The lights I'm using are as follows: I have two Fiet 2 ft. 32-Watt White LED 3 Adjustable Spectrum Linkable Plant Grow Light Fixture, another Fiet 14 in. 86-Watt Integrated Full Spectrum LED Non-Dimmable Indoor High Bay Plant Grow Light Fixture, and a Mars Hydro LED 300 fixture. The 300 is the small, old 8" x 8" box light. I also have a fan going for 3 hours on and off everyday to get good airflow to my plants. As for the amount of light the plants are getting I'm clueless because im not sure what the light map looks like for each of these. I'm trying to good it rn. I can post pictures of the light to help how the ones I have.
 

HGCC

Well-Known Member
Looks OK to me, seems people have pointed out the necessary stuff to improve on for the next round with lights and having some dry cycles.

Some genetics won't produce dense buds, but you should absolutely get some nice smoking weed in 4-6 weeks, those plants look like one would expect at that point in flower, more or less.
 

Gentlemencorpse

Well-Known Member
my grow space is 6' long, 2' wide, and 5' tall. The lights I'm using are as follows: I have two Fiet 2 ft. 32-Watt White LED 3 Adjustable Spectrum Linkable Plant Grow Light Fixture, another Fiet 14 in. 86-Watt Integrated Full Spectrum LED Non-Dimmable Indoor High Bay Plant Grow Light Fixture, and a Mars Hydro LED 300 fixture. The 300 is the small, old 8" x 8" box light. I also have a fan going for 3 hours on and off everyday to get good airflow to my plants. As for the amount of light the plants are getting I'm clueless because im not sure what the light map looks like for each of these. I'm trying to good it rn. I can post pictures of the light to help how the ones I have.
You don't need a light map or meter or anything. They're helpful but people have been growing indoors for decades without them. Let's keep it simple to start.

You have 12 sq ft of growing space. The rule of thumb with LEDs is min 35w/sq ft. I prefer 40-45 myself but 35 will do the trick. But that's assuming high quality LEDs. With those cheap blurples you really need more like 50w/sq ft. So for your area you'd want about 600w of cheaper lights, but preferably 420w of high quality LEDs. Right now you have a total of 300w of low quality LEDs (that Mars Hydro is actually only rated at 150w at the wall and even that may be a bit of a stretch). So not ideal.

So you have a few choices here to maximize your yield. Best would be go buy 420w of good LEDs like HLG, or at least some spiderfarmer SF2000s. But I'm guessing that $600 investment is out of your budget. You could go to HID, which is way cheaper. A 400w HPS is about $150 usually. A 315CMH would treat you well too and is probably around $200. But since your in a closet you would probably have heat problems.

The cheaper solution is probably to reduce your grow area for now. Put up an inexpensive divider (preferably white or reflective) and only use half the closet. Then save up for better lights. I hate to say it, but you will never have really stellar results with those lights so eventually you will want something better if you intend to keep growing. And believe it or not, you'll get more yield off fewer plants, in a smaller area, with more light, than you will with more plants, in a larger area, with inadequate lighting.
 
Top