First Time Grower - Seeking Guidance On Lighting Setup

[Dead Cthulhu]

Hello everyone!

I'm tired of spending a large portion of my hard earned money for the generally meh bud I can get. My solution is to try and grow my own. This would be my first ever and I've spent a considerable amount of hours researching, planning, and getting the vast majority of my plan down. My last really big thing i need to pin down is the lighting, Im going to buy

This 4x2x5 grow tent.

I've come to a crossroads between Mars Hydro and PlatinumLED. Particularly between 1 or 2 300w Mars Hydros or a P150, I'd go P300 but I'm getting a $300 credit card to buy lights so i kind of just cant go past $300

I was told a single old model 300w mars hydro would do very well in a 4'x2' space, but on their website it says the coverage is 3'x2.5'. IMO it seems like if i were to go the mars hydro route it would just be better to spend the extra cash and get 2. Would i be able to run just one of those lights in there and have it work out?

Would a single P150 sufficiently light a 4x2' area?

Also I'm not sure if it makes any difference but I plan to grow autoflowers at least on my first run not photos

Thanks for any advice!

 

[LEDBud]

I am in a 4x2 space and 1 light will not cut it , since your on a limited budget of $300 you should get two of the mars old model 100x3w panels.

Its a solid light that will not disappoint you when it arrives unlike the similarly priced panels you can find online.

I am using the old style , they are well made have heat sinks and come with a 3 year guarantee against defects.

Amazing really for the price.

I am not affiliated with Mars , but one might think so as I tend to promote the quality and price of them... I am really just that impressed by my own Mars panels.

And I am one fussy mf , when I first received them I immediate put them on my kill a watt meter (watt meter) and they consumed just what I was told they would , 180w each.

190w for the first few minutes until warmed up then a solid 180w for the duration of the light cycle

 

[Dead Cthulhu]

Technically I'm on a budget of $600. I have 2 seperate $300 0% interest credit cards in the mail. I originally only was getting one but after looking for lighting i realized I'd probably need two. I'm young and these are my first credit cards so I'm not entirely sure how they work but if I could pay 300 on one card and the rest on the other i could pay the $350 for the P300, If I could afford to get the P300 would it be worth going for instead? What about a different style of Mars Hydro?

Off topic, how many plants can you fit into your tent? I'm wanting to grow Fast and Vast seeds in either 2 or 3 gallon buckets(or smart pots, cant decide if they're worth the money vs free 2 gallon buckets from work) but I cant really find any plants per sqft or anything to know about what i can fit

Thank you for your help

 

[Dead Cthulhu]

Also the guy who told me one mars would work said i would probably need to supplement some CFL's in for heat (maybe light too if it wouldnt actually be enough) would that still be the case with 2 mars lights?

 

[LEDBud]

I think two panels will work fine but three would be exceptional coverage , the lights are 8" wide by 17" long so you could put two sideways with 8 inches in between them which would leave you 4" on either end and 8 inches on either side of the two panel. A pretty nice fit really that will provide enough coverage for a healthy grow.

Or if you want to go flat out you could use three panel sideways in the space , which would leave you 3.5 inch's on the each end of the 3 panels and 6 inches in between them on all sides.


I bought 3 of them for my 2x4 area but will not use all three until the plants are well into flowering ,as two of them sideways fill the area well. I bought 3 so i could go flat out for the last month or use it to start a few more plants..

 

[Dead Cthulhu]

Just how much would that 3rd panel boost my yield and/or quality vs if i just had the two

 

[LEDBud]

I was going to stuff 5 plants in there this time but gave a few away and am going to do 2 instead.

Its a 2x4x6 high cabinet

Next grow I am going to do high pressure aeroponics with 3 plants.

 

[LEDBud]

Personally i think a 3rd panel would give you about a 25% increase in yield but technically it could be as high as a 33% increase.

You should ultimately look at all panels and make a decision based on how well the size suits you and the *actual* watt draw by price IMO


I like the Mars2 panels but I also like the length of the reflector series and then I really liked the price of the old style , being pretty broke I choose the old style.

I can only suggest mars as they have such a good bang for the buck , to me its the wattage x price x quality that matters.

 

[Dead Cthulhu]

Hell, even 25% is pretty nice, assuming I don't just botch the whole deal and accidentally stunt or kill the plants lol.

What size fan/carbon scrubber do you use in that box? I'm having trouble figuring out the ventilation details of the whole thing

 

[LEDBud]

I have a unusually fan and carbon system that I devised , I have two 6 inch 250cfm fans on speed control mounted in their own holes in the roof of the plywood cabinet , with 20lbs of coal based carbon pellets mounted flat in a 2x2 ft area under the cabinet roof that both fans draw air threw and expel into the room where I have a dehumidifier on the ready when humidity gets to high. since its winter I choose to vent the warm air into the room and use the light system as a plant light and heater.

Doing it this way my electric bill will be no higher then if i was only heating the room with its baseboard heater. I beat the system ! lol

 

[LEDBud]

Double posts oops I must of hit the wrong button ..

Oh well I will use the space for more info , I used two small fans on speed control so It would be quieter then 1 larger fan or even 1 smaller fan at max speed.

 

[Dead Cthulhu]

Lol ingenuity at its finest right there! Will i need 2 250CFM fans to effectively cool and eliminate all the stank from that area?

 

[LEDBud]

I went my own special way lol , you should be alright with a 4" 400cfm fan (plus a speed controller) and a 6" carbon filter.

these little grow areas get hotter then bigger rooms and need a surprising amount of ventilation if you want to keep it in the low 70's

 

[Dead Cthulhu]

Fuck me, are you serious? I'll have to pay more in ventilation than for one single light, thats $100 just for the fan and controller, let alone a carbon scrubber.. well that blows.

 

[LEDBud]

well you can always get a smaller cfm fan and carbon filter and no controller , either way your going to have to pay some $

I suggested what I think is best not necessarily the bare minimum , your going to have to decide what you want and how much your willing to spend.

It all adds up , feminized seeds and containers and soil mix plus nutrients will be over a hundred , budget for it.

your going to need ph up and ph down or equivalent, a ph meter and a ppm meter , budget for it or go without , its up to you.


Once you have it you have it , like they say you have to Pay to Play

You can do it on the cheap if your ingenious enough , buy ph paper instead of the pens etc. etc.


I built everything myself and made my own carbon filter sourced my own cheap fans bought my ph and ppm meter one month the lights another etc. etc.

I payed $50 for five 250cfm fans , see what you can do you may be surprised what deals you find.



I am also making my own hp aeroponics system , by using my brain instead of my wallet , well some money but not what people buy the systems for that's for sure.

Point is be creative.

 

[Dead Cthulhu]

I've got a good chunk of things budgeted out

so far I'm looking at

$60 for my soil and nutes, the soil has dolomite lime and oyster shells, does that remove the need for ph Up and down? Home Grown®: POTting Soil | Doctor Earth This is the soil i will be using as well as nutes from the same brand.
$80 on the tent with free prime shipping
$60 on the seeds w/ shipping
I cant decide if I want to shell out the $ for smart pots or just use the free 2 gallon buckets i can get from work,i could also get free 5 gallon buckets and cut them down to 3 gallon which is the size i think would be optimal for me.
$309 for the lights as i will have to either make two seperate purchases (what I'm doing) or wait an extra week to get started for the 2nd CC to arrive
$10 for a thermo/hygro off amazon

So right now I'm sitting at $80 bucks left. I could up that and buy some nutes later in the plants life and free up $10 or $20.

I'm looking to build a filter, I have an old computer I can scrap for the 3 fans inside that i could use as intake fans. Do the mars Hydro lights come with chain or something to hang them? Other than a fan what else would I need?

 

[LEDBud]

Since your on a budget I suggest making your own pots , using the whole 5 gallon bucket or if your up to the task make your own air pots buy using double layered thick grade landscaping fabric, the black stuff , use rope to tie a frame around it and fill with soil.

Make each pot 5 to 10 gallons. I have my plants in the bottom 1/4 of cut down 60 gal. plastic garbage garbage cans , with holes drilled in the bottom , each one holds 16 gallons of soilless mix. The large container size makes for a big wide plant , which is why i am only growing 2 plants instead of my original 5 in my 2x4x6 cabinet.


I bought the best carbon available , coal based pellets as it last the longest and performs the best for air filtration or so I uncovered after doing lots of research.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can skip the nutrients till later as your plants will be in great soil by the sounds of it.
You can buy PH perfect nutrients later as it self regulates the PH or even cheap garden fertilizer if your budget denotes that.

*buy a Cal Mag supplement as most people need to use it when growing* ( or use Epsom salts )

Also look into using vinegar for ph down and baking soda for ph up ( or some better alternatives to that ) and use the ultra cheap PH paper test kit to check and adjust your tap waters PH.

In flower your plants will definitely need phosphorous even if your soil is good otherwise , buy a bud booster nutrient or bat guano for that.

 

[Dead Cthulhu]

I could get whole 5 gallon buckets and maybe even some 2' diameter trash can and cut it down to do something like that. I'm limited to 1' shorter of a room though, is there some kind of estimate for plant height and bucket size similar to 1gal per month of life? What kind of frame are you talking about with the DIY are you meaning to do something like this

or

Do you think the soil might be hot for an autoflower seedling? While I've seen people giving Fast and Vast full dosages of nutes once it's grown up i've heard you need to be careful until they have 3 leaf nodes. I looked at the PH perfect from AN but shipping nutes is too costly ATM and i kind of like the idea of feeding the soil instead of feeding the plant. At the very least my first grow will be with Dr Earth nutes as well as soil, mostly because i can buy them locally.

Raising or Lowering the pH in the Soil Mix « Kind Green Buds It looks like dolomite lime might actually be a natural "Ph Perfect" and dolomite is in the POTting soil, I also heard blackstrap molasses is a slight source of Cal Mag, Would that be enough or would i actually need to go get some too. Also is using molasses kind of like using carboload, just a bunch of extra sugar for the plant?

 

[LEDBud]

Sounds good I like the method of drilling the pots sides to make the air pots , the sky is the limit when is comes to containers , go with with what pleases you , my suggestions are more or less to point you in the right direction.

I personally would not use air pots but that's me , it causes to much evaporation and kills the roots on the sides , in my opinion they are a Fad but its just my opinion. I would love to see a well implemented comparison test.

I have seen a test before that denoted the air pots were a fail , but the test was not carried out in a solid fashion.

You can cut garbage cans to 1 foot in height and have a lot of soil for root space , mine are 18 inches tall and hold 16 gallons.
I personally like the idea of using that method but other people grow fine in as little as 3 gal. containers. You may want do whats most convenient for you at the moment. Its all good.

i am scrogging my plants , look into it there are lots of Journals on the site with scrogs , it keeps the plants low and bushy.

 

[Dead Cthulhu]

I thought the point of the air pot was to kill/stunt the root tips so that it spread out more evenly in bucket instead of getting root locked and just running in circles.

Are you growing auto's in those big ass pots or regular photo plants?

I'm thinking about scrogging actually. I'm torn though, I've read a lot about just letting your plants do what they do without any form of training and then i've seen a few posts of people who did scrog their autoflowers and got huge results