The Starting Line, let the fun begin!

Starting a simple small personal grow. Indoor, unknown strain. Box, lights, still to come.. thinking cheap lol. Low cost LED lights. I am thinking scrog but haven't decided.

Background, Monstercropped mother donated these cuts, there already branching odd and never stopped growing since cut lol. Each cut had two or three leaves when cut.
My process, cheap and lazy lol, cut, put in water, cut 45* under water, into Walmart rooting powder, then in jiffy pellets, cut larger leaves, .50 cent plastic plant trays, household heating mat I had, and lamp with two 23wcfls.

Today is day 10, two sprouted nice looking roots! Others not far behind. I see them just pushing through the pellet.






Now time to get things set up for these babies..

You can build a setup like this for 50-60$ if you have some basic wiring mise en place

What lights are those? I'm looking at lights now. But looking a complete led units, haven't got too much into COB kits at all

Where did you pick up the round light socket base. That's nice

BudgetGrows said:

Where did you pick up the round light socket base. That's nice

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Everything to build that light can be bought at home depot. The sockets and junction boxes are with all of the outdoor electrical components. Flood lights ect. Sockets, 2.39 each, boxes, 4.99 ea, 4' 3/4" channel aluminum 8.99, cree led 60 watt bulbs 4 pack 3.99 or 4.99 depending on spectrum. I think the 5000°k are the more expensive but i forget. I run 10 bulbs, pulls about 100 watts in a 2x3 and get great growth. I used to run 4 2' t5s and 4 of these bulbs. I cut 40 watts and saw an increase in vigor. Also, im running 6 5,000°k and 4 2700°k. Ive set 2 other people up with similar lights. One of which even flowered with it and did pretty decent from what i here but i see it as a veg light

Best bang for the buck imo for led flowering light is the rapid led 3 cob vero 29 with a 2100ma driver. $220, draws 260 at the wall and covers a 2.5x2.5x5 tent quite well. I got 2 of the same tents running these. Used the growmau5 coupon code, $418 to my door. You could build a more efficient light with better distribution of intensity, for the money though? Cant touch it imo.

I should also say, though i said its not really a flowering light, if it came down to it, i would rather run a setup like that in place of a cheap "blurple" led setup. Watt for watt (actual watts, at the wall, not what the mft says) these will outperform those all day long. Maybe add another box with 4 more bulbs on a switch or another cord if need be. White light=full spectrum. Drives me nuts when a light that only has red and blue diodes is marketed as full spectrum.

Yeah, I got a low end vipar300w led. I don't like the spectrum. Too blue for flower. Could be all right for veg. I'll throw my clones in solo cups and put under this for now. Maybe I can veg all the way through with it and build a good flowering light. I'll start at maybe 24" I think and work down from there. Took a peak this morning before I left for work. A few more roots poking through. I'll post pics tonight...

Cletus clem said:

Best bang for the buck imo for led flowering light is the rapid led 3 cob vero 29 with a 2100ma driver. $220, draws 260 at the wall and covers a 2.5x2.5x5 tent quite well. View attachment 3981770View attachment 3981771 View attachment 3981772View attachment 3981773 I got 2 of the same tents running these. Used the growmau5 coupon code, $418 to my door. You could build a more efficient light with better distribution of intensity, for the money though? Cant touch it imo.

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That's a nice light!

Are you saying these can grow plants?

Yes, but there are more cost effective options. You could even add a couple to your viparspectra for supplemental. You can get 4 packs of these for 5$. These are exactly what im running. They are priced higher online but from what ive seen discounted in stores. Compare actual watts consumed to lumens. The domes on them are just plastic. You can run them as is but lose alot of photons. I cut them at their apex and line the inside with foil tape to make it a reflector. Its not ideal but much better than running them as is.

That's great info just because I was wondering what switch people are doing from CFLs. My state no longer is carrying CFLs and all being replaced with LED bulbs. I wasn't sure on growing with these. I've made a few CFLs light set ups, and might run one for veg with the LED to see how they compare. Still thinking COB kit for flowering though..

The photon output and spectrum of these are far superior. You do need to take into account the wattage difference. If you swap from cfl to led you should be fine to go actual watt for watt but will most likely need more bulbs. Also, these will burn your plants. I was slowly dropping them to see how close i could get. Thought 12" was close enough, 2 weeks later, all of my girls were showing signs of light stress/burn. Each strain reacted differently, that was interesting. But i was slow cooking them. They were all seedlings and young clones though. Ive found older plants tolerate it much better. Also keep in mind, if you cut the bulb like i did, its a panel of exposed leds. Could get a little fucky should a plant grow up into them. Burnt plant, fried bulb, fire...keep a close eye. They have pros and cons as with anything.

So many options these days, I was going to ask the wattage comparison to CFLs and your light height. My last CFL light I made was 20-23w bulbs I think at inches away. If I had the same thought with those my babies would have been fried! I got home late tonight so haven't the time to transplant since families over.
I'm pretty surprised at these clones though being as I did them half ass. Can't believe the growth on the during rooting. Day 11 they all popped strong looking roots!
this back one has tons of new growth. I did a light light feeding and will put in cups in the morning. If I throw them under the vipar for now, think I'll start with 24" away first.

Ok they were sprouting roots like crazy and through them in cups right away. Out of happyfrog and used ocean Forrest. Hope they don't burn. Dipped the pellet in light light superthrive water solution. Hopefully help with any transplant issues. Soil lightly damp. But mainly just moistened the pellets in solution. Trying to encourage the root growth right now. Hopefully in a week or so I can start some training. I have no clue on light yet. Veg I'm not worried about so got time. Buddy can lend me a Johnson cxr1 light. A single cob unit, only 150w not sure how well that would do or how good of light it is.

There not looking too bad,been a couple days since transplant. I'm trying to hrden them off to the LED but I think I burned them. LED is 30"! Put them back under the CFLs and will switch back a little longer each time, hope it helps :/... I'm not really good at judging if the plants stretching for lights or not. I know it's still early though.

Looking better, Monstercropped trait kept. There branching at the nodes. I even had one sprout a new shoot from the pellet

Still cooking away. Almost time for pots already!!/

Looking all right, have some odd yellowing, almost bubbling, like a skin blister would be ?? Never seen it. Maybe LED burn?
Just picked up some cheap LED bulbs to add a little more lighting. Still just a Temp. Mock set up before I build a perm. Box. Want to use it awhile so taking my time. I think these lights will get me into a couple weeks longer in veg. They just TOOK OFF a day or two ago. Definitely not going to need much training on these. Haven't even topped at all yet. I was short a couple pots so transplant will be tomorrow.