Hi so, may be dumb question but

Kkesu

Kkesu

Active Member
How do I know when to turn up my light for the plants? I'm new to growing in general and always hear how LEDs often kill the plant by being too intense, I'm using a GalaxyHydro 300w(actual draw 140) and have been keeping it down to about 25%. I'm about 3 weeks into veg growing a T4 clone I got from a dispensary, They were pretty much left overs after they sold all the other clones cause the ones they had left when I get there were few and damaged, So it took about 2 weeks just to get it back to seeing good growth I plan on vegging longer than 4 weeks because of plant limits in Oregon so I can get a bigger canopy. So when do I know to turn up the light, are there signs the plant shows?
 
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It's not so much of turning the light up. A better explanation is light distance. I run 4 COBs at 100%. The distance to the pots starts off at 35-38". I sprout seeds and they go directly to the pots.

The light stays stationary and the plants grow up into it. Flower flip is when they reach 12". The distance to the light is about 25" at that time. As they stretch in flower. The light is raised to maintain the 25". Once the stretch has stopped. The light then can lowered to a distance of around 15".

With the light your using. Crank it to 100% and use half of the distances I use for about 600watts in COBs.
 
SouthCross said:
It's not so much of turning the light up. A better explanation is light distance. I run 4 COBs at 100%. The distance to the pots starts off at 35-38". I sprout seeds and they go directly to the pots.

The light stays stationary and the plants grow up into it. Flower flip is when they reach 12". The distance to the light is about 25" at that time. As they stretch in flower. The light is raised to maintain the 25". Once the stretch has stopped. The light then can lowered to a distance of around 15".

With the light your using. Crank it to 100% and use half of the distances I use for about 600watts in COBs.
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Hmmmm, I may have to ziptie the light higher then, I"m just using the thing it came with to hang but it's like a 2 foot hang.
 
Kkesu said:
Hmmmm, I may have to ziptie the light higher then, I"m just using the thing it came with to hang but it's like a 2 foot hang.
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Loop the cables. Unhook the cable end loop from the clip on the back of the light. Loop the the cable through the clip and stick the loop with the other loop on the main clip. It'll shorten the hang by half.

I have two of those galaxy hydro lights.
 
A Galaxy Hydro is not a very powerful light, if it is over a foot away from your plant you are probably safe. I will tell you that if you want to grow big plants you need a lot more light. You should also be SCROGing your plants to utilize all the light. There are a few people that grow trees here if you look through their posts pinner420 comes to mind and if you want to see some wild indoor grow Google Heath Robinson he averages over a pound a plant in some of his grows (pinner is working on it) . A few weeks ago I was turned onto a Lux Meter phone app 30,000 to 50,000 is what you are looking for if it is lower you will have small buds and a leggy plant with far apart node spacing. I personally have upgraded to Quantum boards (from HLG or Cobkits.com) I love them but a cheaper alternative if you are a DIY (they are real easy to build) is the CLU0048 COB lights, there are some threads on lighting and I have never seen a person go from a Galaxy to a COB and say they regret it.

Remember the guy that answered you before is running 4x the amount of light that you are and I can guarantee that his yields would be well over 4x yours with that light. I would look into Cobs, Scrog, Vertical growing and use that Galaxy as a supplemental light.
 
SouthCross said:
Loop the cables. Unhook the cable end loop from the clip on the back of the light. Loop the the cable through the clip and stick the loop with the other loop on the main clip. It'll shorten the hang by half.

I have two of those galaxy hydro lights.
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Nice thanks for the advice.
sallygram said:
A Galaxy Hydro is not a very powerful light, if it is over a foot away from your plant you are probably safe. I will tell you that if you want to grow big plants you need a lot more light. You should also be SCROGing your plants to utilize all the light. There are a few people that grow trees here if you look through their posts pinner420 comes to mind and if you want to see some wild indoor grow Google Heath Robinson he averages over a pound a plant in some of his grows (pinner is working on it) . A few weeks ago I was turned onto a Lux Meter phone app 30,000 to 50,000 is what you are looking for if it is lower you will have small buds and a leggy plant with far apart node spacing. I personally have upgraded to Quantum boards (from HLG or Cobkitscom) I love them but a cheaper alternative if you are a DIY (they are real easy to build) is the CLU0048 COB lights, there are some threads on lighting and I have never seen a person go from a Galaxy to a COB and say they regret it.

Remember the guy that answered you before is running 4x the amount of light that you are and I can guarantee that his yields would be well over 4x yours with that light. I would look into Cobs, Scrog, Vertical growing and use that Galaxy as a supplemental light.
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I'm pretty poor so I am trying to keep costs down and trying to scale my grow with it, I am training it to SCROG at the moment but that'll still be a whiles away. In my state there is a limit that you can grow and an amount you can keep So I'm trying not to go TOO far over it. I am also looking more into the COBs and the DYI kits so I can get something that fits my area and needs.
 
Kkesu said:
Nice thanks for the advice.

I'm pretty poor so I am trying to keep costs down and trying to scale my grow with it, I am training it to SCROG at the moment but that'll still be a whiles away. In my state there is a limit that you can grow and an amount you can keep So I'm trying not to go TOO far over it. I am also looking more into the COBs and the DYI kits so I can get something that fits my area and needs.
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Keep the light close. It'll grow plants but it's gotta be damn near next to the plant. If not and the bud will be fluffy. Zero weight. There's folks here doing/did journals with that level of LED. They don't have much of a problem. It's the weakness factor that'll make you want to upgrade.

In the mean time. Piece together some COBs. It'll cost about $350 for the set up. Including the hanger and wire. That'll get you close to 600watts comparable in COB light. The light will run for decades with the same chips.
 
Kkesu said:
Nice thanks for the advice.

I'm pretty poor so I am trying to keep costs down and trying to scale my grow with it, I am training it to SCROG at the moment but that'll still be a whiles away. In my state there is a limit that you can grow and an amount you can keep So I'm trying not to go TOO far over it. I am also looking more into the COBs and the DYI kits so I can get something that fits my area and needs.
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I have seen some people use a bunch of Walmart LED floodlights to supplement their plants lighting along with compact CFLs and they got okay results. I started with DIY to build for the same reasons I even built CMH lights, when I became confident of my builds I gutted my 4 Galaxy lights for the parts and never looked back.

Remember a good grower gets 1 gram per watt, Led and Vert growers get about 1.40 gpw with a few that get close to 2 GPW so with the GH light you would get about 3 oz. CFL growers seem to get about .6 per watt so if you add a few to up your yield you won't be as efficient but they are real inexpensive and you can get them in 3000k to help with the budding.
 
I will try to send you pics later (my lights are off) of my redneck under $100 4 COB CLU048 build it was basically:
4 CLU048 @ $9 each Cobkits.com
1 HLG-185H-C1400A @$49 Arrow.com
1 Cheap Heatsink @$8 Ebay
1 Tube thermal paste @3 Ebay
misc wire and solder on hand

it runs at 185 watts and is blinding
 
sallygram said:
I will try to send you pics later (my lights are off) of my redneck under $100 4 COB CLU048 build it was basically:
4 CLU048 @ $9 each Cobkitscom
1 HLG-185H-C1400A @$49 Arrowcom
1 Cheap Heatsink @$8 Ebay
1 Tube thermal paste @3 Ebay
misc wire and solder on hand

it runs at 185 watts and is blinding
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I'm still very new to the cob stuff but I'll look into these.
 
The guy from Cobkits.com is real cool and I am sure he would give you some sound advice (and a discount code) if you talk with him
 
Just put the lights at the proper distance from the plants to avoid burning them up and crank it up to full power. The more light the better.
 
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