Help me pick a light for my small closet setup

Hey - growing for personal use at home, decided to go with what I assume is a one plant tent since it's my first time ever:

http://www.amazon.com/Growlab-GL40-Portable-Growing-Room/dp/B003ATDZAU

If I'm growing one plant, can I sneak by with a single UFO light? Totally open to suggestions here.

Was considering this: http://www.amazon.com/Light-Lighthouse-Hydro-BlackStar-Flowering/dp/B00725XHP6

From what I understand you need XX lumens per square foot during each stage (500 seedling,2500 veg,10k flower) just don't know if this light will put that out, or am I off base and that's an outdated way to measure things when talking about LEDs?

Thanks ahead of time guys!!

Not to be a Richard but there is literally a thread like this every day or two. Just sift through, or use the search, and you will find 100 threads asking the same thing. Good luck!

Lumens don't matter, mostly. Look at PAR, photosynthetically active radiation, for a good light for growing plants. Lumens are a subjective measurement based on human vision, pretty much only useful for picking out a good flashlight or floodlight. Any light worth its salt will have some web content about PAR.

That being said, look around this forum for some helpful information. I use black dog and love them, I've seen some good grows under rhinogrow lights, area 51, advanced... check out their website for specs that suit your needs.

And good luck

blowincherrypie said:

Not to be a Richard but there is literally a thread like this every day or two. Just sift through, or use the search, and you will find 100 threads asking the same thing. Good luck!

Click to expand...

I literally spent 8 hours researching yesterday and viewing various grows but couldn't find something that was 1.5' x 1.5' where people were using a single LED lamp for a single plant. Guy at hydro shop today told me it wouldn't work without a $1,000 LED lamp but I disagree from some of the results I've seen on here.

mamakush said:

Lumens don't matter, mostly. Look at PAR, photosynthetically active radiation, for a good light for growing plants. Lumens are a subjective measurement based on human vision, pretty much only useful for picking out a good flashlight or floodlight. Any light worth its salt will have some web content about PAR.

That being said, look around this forum for some helpful information. I use black dog and love them, I've seen some good grows under rhinogrow lights, area 51, advanced... check out their website for specs that suit your needs.

And good luck

Click to expand...

Awesome appreciate the brand names (guess I should have been more specific that I was looking for specific examples of lights)

So wattage probably doesn't matter either then? Just PAR? I'm going to search for some graphs on here then about that and maybe see if someone has a good tutorial on that and what ranges I want to be in. I decided I'm doing deep water culture bought two buckets and top fittings today, gonna get some medium and seeds ordered as well as the tent and light (as soon as I figure it out)

That UFO is too expensive for what you get, but yeah, it'll grow. Since it's got Blue LED's in it, and since your tent is so short vertically, I wouldn't recommend it unless you were sort of hell bent on training your plant to keep it under or around 2 feet tall, and/or were very careful with veg times and stretch in flower.

Calculating wattage requirements:
Length x Width = Area
1.3' x 1.3' = 1.7 square feet
40Watts per square foot is usually recommended. You can go less, and you can go more, and this is of course assuming you have the correct spectral balance for growing.
1.7ft^2 x 40W/ft^2 = 68 Watts

That 135W UFO is probably around 80-90Watts at the plug (deceptive labeling/advertising) so it would actually work out pretty darn well for you assuming those Blues were Cool White's instead. Cool Whites would give you a little more grow space just because they'd be less likely to stress your plant out by overdosing it on Blue light with the panel too close to the canopy.

Now, with all that out of the way, good luck finding an LED panel you'll enjoy using, and happy growing!

Well the plant is probably only going to get to 2-3 feet tall because it's only a 4 foot tall grow box. I'll probably lst it a bit as it grows to help it fill out better.

Very very helpful post though Bumping, thanks so much, appreciate it a ton. So if I were to buy one LED lamp, should I buy one that is better for flowering and perhaps add some bright white 6500k for the veg stage? More blue during veg more red during flower... hard to do with a single ufo tho I guess.

BLAH i hate searching this out, I want the light to at least be useful in the future too.

Any rules of thumb on controlling stretch?

what's your budget for the light?

Not really sure on how to keep stretch down apart from having more Blue in your total spectrum. If you want my opinion I'll suggest having just a single light fixture that will make your plant happy full cycle. I was thinking your tent was 3.5' tall, so you're right, you do have a bit more room than I probably let on in my last post.

You can scrog, you can sog, you can LST, you can FIM, maybe even mainline. There are ways to keep a shorter plant with more main colas in order to increase yields which play especially well with LED's, however, most of these techniques will increase your veg time rather significantly.

Let's see how you respond to puffenuff and what he subsequently has to say, but I agree with mamakush, those are some nice name drops. Let's see if you're scared away by the price tags, though. :/

you could get away with vegging with CFLs then get a specific red LED for flowering. I read somewhere that a key to flowering with LEDs is with the addition of the red spectrum. I look at it this way if you got a "200"w full cycle LED with half red half blue it is essentially getting two "100"w of red/blue. Most of the "bloom" LEDs still have some blue/white whatever and the flowering cycle seems to be the part you would logically want to spend the big bucks on. I don't claim to know the everything so if I'm way off please let me know.

http://growblu.com/150w-ufo-led-grow-light
And they are in Washington.

150 watter on amazon.com

puffenuff said:

what's your budget for the light?

Click to expand...

No budget really. My fiance is making me install a $300 security system since I'm "growing plants now" lol sillyness.

I just want a light that will work for what I'm using it for. Remember, the box may be 16" by 16", but only as deep as 20" and probably never wider than 36" in this case so that's only the really requirement.

I know some nice LEDs I've researched... and all the China ones Cidly etc but I'm about getting it here so I'm considering just amazon priming something to myself.

Bumping Spheda said:

Not really sure on how to keep stretch down apart from having more Blue in your total spectrum. If you want my opinion I'll suggest having just a single light fixture that will make your plant happy full cycle. I was thinking your tent was 3.5' tall, so you're right, you do have a bit more room than I probably let on in my last post.

You can scrog, you can sog, you can LST, you can FIM, maybe even mainline. There are ways to keep a shorter plant with more main colas in order to increase yields which play especially well with LED's, however, most of these techniques will increase your veg time rather significantly.

Let's see how you respond to puffenuff and what he subsequently has to say, but I agree with mamakush, those are some nice name drops. Let's see if you're scared away by the price tags, though. :/

Click to expand...

I'll probably do some LST stuff but let it get as bushy as I can by teasing the branches outward. In such a small enclosure if I do it right it should fill out pretty nicely. I'm only worried about the enclosure being too small, but meh, we'll see.

blowincherrypie said:

you could get away with vegging with CFLs then get a specific red LED for flowering. I read somewhere that a key to flowering with LEDs is with the addition of the red spectrum. I look at it this way if you got a "200"w full cycle LED with half red half blue it is essentially getting two "100"w of red/blue. Most of the "bloom" LEDs still have some blue/white whatever and the flowering cycle seems to be the part you would logically want to spend the big bucks on. I don't claim to know the everything so if I'm way off please let me know.

Click to expand...

I was thinking about this but I like the idea of an all LED setup. But I am still considering this if I can't decide.

ellydee said:

http://growblu.com/150w-ufo-led-grow-light
And they are in Washington.

Click to expand...

Yeah looks nice and right at the price of the blackstar 135 i was looking at. This vs that, what do you think? The bands they have listed on this one look almost perfect though.

Fwiw, I was looking at alibaba as mentioned in other threads previously and noticed some people have a min order of one and also (a little known secret) if you ask for a sample they'll send you a couple for free.

So - I'm going to see if I can't get a hold of a couple and copy the spectrum patterns of a few mentioned here. Will check back in tomorrow after I hear back from vendors.

@ellydee great find though on the WA based company. I might end up going with them just for the convenience of locality.

Update:

Got a price sheet from a Shenzhen company that builds apollo lights. Also emailed cidly Direct to get their prices. There they are, plus $58 for shipping one unit from China.

Specs on the 4/6/8 are 140/210/280 true wattage instead of 180/270/360. So I bet the 6 or 8 works fine for me in this situation... so $174 + $58 = $232 shipped

They said they can do any custom spectrum and white light from 2700 to 13000k. So, I mean, 3 year warranty, worth it? I'll check cidly and if cidly is around the asme obv go with them but still... that seems like a decent starter light for my tent?

I bought a tent by the way, here it is, the exact one: http://www.amazon.com/Aviditi-PTU-68-Reflective-Hydroponic-36-Inch/dp/B004U6WCMY/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1362739640&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=avitidi+ptu+68



So if I jump for one of these lights just need an exhaust fan, a medium, and I already ordered seeds from Attitude seedbank (Snow White Fem/Bubblicious reg) starting with the bubbles to learn how to sex plants.

EXCITED! GETTING THERE ALMOST READY FOR FIRST GROW and I'm ready for everyone to follow along, all led, lets do this boom!

Also bought some DWC buckets and net lids for them.

I have a small tent 2x3x5 and I'm using the blackstar UFO's. started with one as I have just hit the dirt with three afghan kush. I will add another UFO for the three plants. LST, top then FIM them and you should be good. UFO can safely handle 1-2 plants.

Good luck

Rippey

36OhBuds said:

No budget really. My fiance is making me install a $300 security system since I'm "growing plants now" lol sillyness.

I just want a light that will work for what I'm using it for. Remember, the box may be 16" by 16", but only as deep as 20" and probably never wider than 36" in this case so that's only the really requirement.

Click to expand...

For a box that size i'd seriously consider rhinogrow.

Now you are asking about a 36"x20"? That changes everything. J/K.
If you go Apollo, get the 8, or wait for the new Area 51 coming out this month.
And while your waiting, read this;http://www.feroledeurope.com/newsite/whats-the-best-led-spectrum-for-cannabis-plant-growth-and-flower/

Wow great share actually. Was looking for a good wavelength chart and there it is on top of some good extra info.... found some China manufacturers that will do two custom LED 135w ufo lights with any spectrum/LEDs for $119 shipped (for two units so $60 a piece)

Not bad imo if they're even halfway decent lights... I just have a serious problem spending $200 on a light that my business experience and know how tells me is the same as these two I'm looking at ordering direct (even though budget isnt an issue)

Ya there's name good quality named brand, good quality generic, low quality name brand, and low quality generic. It all comes down to how it was put together. I personally wouldn't spend a dollar on a light if I couldn't find a grow journal showing some dank nuggets ya dig?

I used to use a couple of those 90 watt ufo's in a closet

I found that they still produced heat and I had to deal with the odor issues
so I ended using a vented hood and fan/filter combo
Never regretted the switch

Good to know didn't hear much about heat issues with the UFOs...

Were you growing insidea tent too? I'm using a tent with a carbon filter/exhuast fan