lighting question

[MApigmyfarmer]

Good Morning everyone

I just harvest my first crop and as a newbie I see I made several big mistakes, from too much fertilizer to too much water etc. my plants were actually intersexed OR hermaphrodites, so I cut them and am starting over...

SOOO I have a question on two lights that are in my budget.

the first is the VitaLume 125w Grow Compact Fluorescent Bulb.. it's self ballasted and is reported to be great for green growth and This bulb is 6400K to promote green growth and puts out 10,500 lumen of light. I know i'd need a hood for this one.

The second is an led, the GlowPannel45 Grow Pannel light. I like that it's thermal output is next to nothing (law inforcement issue) it uses less electricity and it has a 5 year warranty. MY CONCERN is that it won't grow jack.

Can you good people please tell me your experiences with these lights, I'm looking to make a purchase soon as I've started seedlings and want them to grow up to be big luscious ladies.

 

[bigbudmike]

Good Morning everyone

I just harvest my first crop and as a newbie I see I made several big mistakes, from too much fertilizer to too much water etc. my plants were actually intersexed OR hermaphrodites, so I cut them and am starting over...

SOOO I have a question on two lights that are in my budget.

the first is the VitaLume 125w Grow Compact Fluorescent Bulb.. it's self ballasted and is reported to be great for green growth and This bulb is 6400K to promote green growth and puts out 10,500 lumen of light. I know i'd need a hood for this one.

The second is an led, the GlowPannel45 Grow Pannel light. I like that it's thermal output is next to nothing (law inforcement issue) it uses less electricity and it has a 5 year warranty. MY CONCERN is that it won't grow jack.

Can you good people please tell me your experiences with these lights, I'm looking to make a purchase soon as I've started seedlings and want them to grow up to be big luscious ladies.

I have heard mixed reviews on the LED lights. Some say they work great because they are built with the perfect light spectrum for growing and others say they are crap because of the low light penetration. I know for a fact that some good ol cfl's work just fine and no you dont have to have a hood/reflector. If you are using mylar then by hanging the bulb/s vertically your whole room becomes the reflector. I would go with the cfl route do to price difference but thats just me Im a cheapskate. hope this helps.

 

[MApigmyfarmer]

I have heard mixed reviews on the LED lights. Some say they work great because they are built with the perfect light spectrum for growing and others say they are crap because of the low light penetration. I know for a fact that some good ol cfl's work just fine and no you dont have to have a hood/reflector. If you are using mylar then by hanging the bulb/s vertically your whole room becomes the reflector. I would go with the cfl route do to price difference but thats just me Im a cheapskate. hope this helps.

Thanks so much for your help Mike! I think I will go with the non LED. It's cheaper and I've seen it work in many situations (via internet/friends). Do you know if I'll have to get a different bulb for the flowering stage though?

 

[SiL3NT B0B]

u have to go lower in the Kelvin.. if u use a 2700k cfls u should be in the right ballpark..

 

[SiL3NT B0B]

For flowering that is..

 

[BudBoxBoy]

In my opinion STAY AWAY FROM LED's.......NASA did a test with them to see if you can grow veggies in space and they abandoned the project cos they found out that they are TOTALLY USELESS!!!!!!!....
They also give off quite alot of heat, its just that they have inbuilt fans and a heat sync in the units base....... Have you also seen the price tag on them, (I could buy 1500Watts of HID lighting for the price of a 125Watt LED system), It just does'nt warrant the price.... I went to a grow shop and the guy there was saying.."this 90Watt LED performs as good as a 400Watt HPS....all i can say to that is BOLLOCKS....

Who knows, In 5-10 years it could be different but there just isnt the technology to make cheap and efficient LED systems YET....
If its a power or heat issue then stick to high output CFL's.. I use 250W CFL's and i find that they are adequit for growing personal stash, But you cant beat HID for nice big compact buds

Happy Harvesting

 

[redivider]

use CFL's... stay away from that huge 125W fixture, it's unlikely it shines with 10k lumens, and it's ballast will heat up as much as a 150 watt HPS....

the most efficient CFL's are the smaller ones, 26 watt are the optimal, i think they get 65 lumens per watt, which is pretty good, without giving you the problem of heat...

and don't worry about law enforcement, unless you have 1 or 2 1000watt HID fixtures burning a foot away from the wall, without a reflector and zero insulation, you're good.... you're more likely to get caught because a 'friend' snitches on you, or 'flipping' as the DEA calls it.... and look up videos on not talking to police and the ACLU's video on dealing with police, and enforcing you're rights.... there's a good DO NOT TALK TO POLICE, that's a sticky in one of the forums in Roll it up....

and for vegging or flowering get mixed spectrum lighting, a mixture of daylight (6500k) and Soft White (2700K).... get it to be 75% Daylight and 25% softwhite for vegg, and 75% SoftWhite and 25% Daylight for flower.... all it takes is switching around a couple of bulbs.....

 

[bigbudmike]

Thanks so much for your help Mike! I think I will go with the non LED. It's cheaper and I've seen it work in many situations (via internet/friends). Do you know if I'll have to get a different bulb for the flowering stage though?

You should be using the 2700k/soft white as the other guys said. I use the 23w 2700k and get a four pack from Home Depot for $8. You get 92w of cfl's for $8 thats alot cheaper than $400 for a LED light. Also I like to use multiple bulbs vs one big bulb. The reason is if you blow a bulb while your not home you wont lose all your light. Good Luck