I'm spending a fortune trying to save money growing weed

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
Nice setup. Just more proof you don’t need your lights 10” from your canopy. Can I ask what distance you usually stick with? Light to plant canopy?
For the 1000W HPS's the lights stay in 1 position. They never lower. They never get raised. They are mounted at the maximum height my ceilings allow. When the plants are first placed under the HID they experience shock for the first 2-3 days while they adjust to the light intensity. Allowing them to be further away during this transition decreases the amount of shock they experience. Then as they go through the stretch the canopy winds up about 18-24" from the glass. However, when I grew Hash Plant which is a 100% pure indica the plants did not stretch at all and failed to stretch into the sweet spot I'm accustomed to. As a result I had to place 5 gallon buckets underneath of all of the plants to raise them to a more appropriate height. If I had lowered the lights my footprint would have decreased leading to severe light drop off at the edges of my canopy. That's really the main reason I added the LED lights. To address the light drop off at the edges of my canopy. I want the buds on the exterior to be just as dense and amazing as the buds directly under the 1000W hoods. The LED's are so intense you simply could not run them at 10"-18" over the canopy. You'd fry the foliage plain and simple. I never would have believed it until I saw it for myself. These things are like running an open faced tanning bed on your plants.
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
My qb and led strips outperform my old hps in every way watt for watt since buying led I'll never go back to hps. Initial cost for proper led 's put peoold off but I believe it's well worth it in the long run
That's my feeling at this point. I'm not going to toss my HID equipment, but I cannot see myself ever buying another HID unit. This is a good thing. 10 years ago LED technology was a complete joke. Now with advancements in technology it's becoming the standard. There are a lot of companies lining up to line their pockets in the confusion also. We won't discuss that though. It's a sensitive issue. The technology is wonderful, and I can only imagine where we will be in 10 years from now. Light speed ahead fellas!
 

strictlyflavours

Well-Known Member
That's my feeling at this point. I'm not going to toss my HID equipment, but I cannot see myself ever buying another HID unit. This is a good thing. 10 years ago LED technology was a complete joke. Now with advancements in technology it's becoming the standard. There are a lot of companies lining up to line their pockets in the confusion also. We won't discuss that though. It's a sensitive issue. The technology is wonderful, and I can only imagine where we will be in 10 years from now. Light speed ahead fellas!
Yeah I agree i wouldn't just toss everything to replace with led but if you ever find yourself in a position where your in the market for lighting id make the jump and go led. Like you said it's constantly still changing and advancing, I remember I bought my first qb stoked as it has the most efficient diodes on the market then bam a month later new models come out using newer diodes that are 5% more efficient. So ya still rapidly improving and it's already doing amazing
 

TropiKanna

Well-Known Member
I get it homie, but the most difficult part of growing for me is keeping the wifey happy!
A-fucking-men to that shit! When I order new seeds I always order in small quantities and ALWAYS wait til they show up and let her find the mail... then I go... "Sweet so and so sent me some free beans!" Hahahaha.

Side Note: she never complains when she's smoking for free tho :wall:
 

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
I'm in about the exact same setup. Basement/temps/etc.
Still didn't save me from dropping over $3k.
View attachment 4646138
The only saving grace is one of those plants produced enough to pay for it all :)
And let's not forget there's nothing quite like getting up naked as a Jay bird @ 2 a.m., walking to the stash cabinet and grabbing another "handful" to fill the bong.
Screw those "I gotta make a call" days. bongsmilie
WOW nice clean and ZEN !
i would be sitting like ghandi there in middle smoking and smirking.
 

sarahJane211

Well-Known Member
Damn if anyone tells you growing weed is easy, bullshit! But man, between the time it takes and the money it's almost worth buying a goddam $18 joint at the dispensary.... (*almost*)... but yeah, two 800W lights running 12 hours, inline fans, oscillating fan, 50p dehumidifier, a 14k BTU air conditioner running 24/7, and then there's the drying room with fans and dehumidifier... I'm gonna go broke! Jeesh maybe i should just give up weed lol
You only need a 240w light to grow all the weed you can ever smoke.
A few PC case fans at $1 each and a $2 power supply for them.
Electricity $10/month, seeds nothing after the first purchase just clone.
Fertiliser $5/kg, lasts around a year (4 grows of 4 plants)
Air-con not required, mine grow just fine @36c, humidity I never worried, 75% in monsoon, plants don't care.
Drying room, a cardboard box and another PC case fan (or 2).
So that's under $200 to set the grow up and around $10/month while growing.

That gets me 10oz+, every 3-4 months, I can smoke 1oz every 3 months if I really try.
Gonna have to stop growing in a couple of weeks, don't know what to do with all the harvest.
What's the dispensary charge $200/oz?
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
I'm in the market for some new 1000 watt DE bulbs, are the cheap vivosun bulbs as good as the name brands?
I have a vivo sun air pump with 6 port manifold and on / off valves for each port. I got it for $40 on amazon and the thing works great. It's been running 24/7 for nearly a year now. I only buy hortilux for my flower lamps. The vivo sun lamps could be great quality, but I have no experience with them. I am a deal hunter on many items I use in the garden, but when it comes to my lamps I want a quality product. In 10+ years of growing I have never had a hortilux lamp fail prior to being removed from service at it's scheduled replacement time. When I looked at vivo sun 1000w lamps a ways back I remember seeing a lot of bad reviews due to the lamp prematurely burning out. That didn't inspire confidence.
 
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