long thread, so i will read through after this post, i have to say sorry if anything i am about to say was covered already, i have grown before, this time i could not afford excess heat as i live on the edge of the desert now and summers get pretty hot, i have had to go LED, i have read heaps on them but could not make up my mind, i am on a pension so can not afford thousands on setting up, i bought the cheap LED panels to start with, did not expect them to work but needed to try, they did work, but not well, i had 4 of them 14w each all sorts of colors, they got the seeds to seedlings ok, but after a month they were all only maybe 6" tall and no way near budding, so i tried 20w spotlights, i used 1 per 2 plants, after 3 weeks the plants got to over 2foot tall, too short but they were chomping at the bit to go into flower, so i did, 12/12 2 months later, 4-5 foot tall, not bad, but not good, thin light airy buds, good smoke, got me smashed, but not what i wanted, i took 7 clones from the 2 best of that lot, 6 survived, they started with the 20w and the panels, grew ok but i knew i would need more light to be happy so i got 4 50w spotlights, they now are in 2 rooms, 1 room for breeding, it is my veg room but i want seeds, do not want to buy again, using colloidal silver to turn a branch each on the 2 plants breeding to male, it has 2 20w spots and 2 of the panels to grow them, i do not need them big or well budded, just need seeds, and in my bud room the other 4 are, 1 panel per 2 plants mounted so they shine from the side and a 50w spot above each plant, they have been budding for a week now, already over 4 foot tall and already many more buds than the parents, i still think i will need another 50w per plant, but in the mean time i will get a decent smoke